“It’s not a bad idea,” I say. She holds out the other half of the bacon. “Not the bacon.” I laugh. “Your idea.” I look at Jackson and Miles.
“Seriously?” Jackson says. “Take turns running the company?”
“How would that even work?” Miles says.
“I don’t know,” I say, looking to Addison still holding the piece of bacon. “Maybe each of us could be in charge for one year. Then we pass the baton on to the next.”
“It could work,” Miles says thoughtfully.
“After three years we can reconvene,” Jackson says. “Have a sort of state of the union to see how it’s working.”
“Exactly,” I say. “In three years, after each of us has had time at the helm, we’ll decide if it’s working well, or if we need to fully appoint one of us as permanent CEO.”
“Can we do that?” Jackson asks. “Without the egos, I mean?”
“I can,” Miles says. “Don’t know about you, though.”
“I can do it,” Jackson says. “But can Rex?”
“Oh, he’ll do it,” Addison says. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“We should have monthly meetings,” Jackson says.
“Yeah, but not those stupid video conferences,” I say. “If we’re going to do this we should do them in person to keep everyone in the loop.”
“Agreed,” Miles says. “Whoever is in charge, that’s the city we’ll meet in. Sound fair?”
“Sounds good to me,” Jackson says.
“Did we just make a plan?” I ask, looking around the table.
“I think we did,” Jackson says.
“Well then,” I say. “Cheers indeed. Actually I think we need champagne.”
“No more!” Jordyn calls, holding her head.
“It’s the best cure,” Emily says. “Hair of the dog and all that.”
“Hey,” Addison says. “Since we have you all in our city, we need to do something fun while you’re still in town.”
“Definitely,” Emily says.
“We were talking about taking a tour bus of the stars’ homes.”
“We’ll rent the whole bus,” I assure my brothers. “And provide alcohol.”
“And tomorrow we should go to Disneyland!” Emily says.
“Rex can get us into Club 33,” Addison says.
“Ooh, what’s that?” asks Jordyn.
As everyone starts talking about sights to see, we also talk about all of us taking a vacation together.
“We can see each other again, you know,” Miles says. “We don’t have to do everything on this one trip.”
“And I do have to get back to Boston at some point and go do that work thing,” Jackson adds.
I laugh, watching my brothers and realizing that the love was there all along.
Buried, perhaps, but still there.
The whole time.
I lean toward Addison and wrap my arm around her shoulders. She smiles up at me and kisses my lips.
“Look at you,” she says. “Just like that, you’re a family man.”
“And a very lucky one at that.”
Because it’s true. I suddenly have everything I never knew I wanted. And I couldn’t be happier.
THE END
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And now, continue reading for the first eight books in Hannah Ford’s What He Wants series!
Bonus Content: What He Wants by Hannah Ford
WHAT HE WANTS
(What He Wants, Book One)
NOAH
I wanted to fuck her as soon as I saw her. That curvy little body was all tarted up in a tight little black dress, and those nice round tits were practically spilling out the top. Her dark hair fell in loose curls around her shoulders, and she sipped on a drink, her full pink lips pretty and pouty and just made for sucking my dick.
I sat at the bar and watched her for a while, biding my time. She was at some kind of party – bachelorette from what I could tell, and it was almost enough to put me off the whole idea. Women at bachelorette parties were a particular kind of crazy, one I wasn’t sure I wanted to deal with.
A couple of blond women at the other end of the bar were staring at me, and I tried not to encourage them by making eye contact. Not that it was difficult. I couldn’t stop staring at that shapely little vixen on the other side of the room. Her dress hit just below the knee, and when she turned around, giving me a view of that gorgeous round ass, my cock got hard.
I was so transfixed that I didn’t realize one of the blondes had made her way over to me.
“Don’t I know you from somewhere?” she tried. I almost sighed out of boredom, but that was too rude, even for me.
“I doubt it,” I said, although it was entirely possible that she did know me from somewhere. Thankfully, I knew I probably hadn’t slept with her. She wasn’t my type – too blonde, too skinny, too much like a Barbie.
“No, I know I recognize you.” She motioned to her friend, another bottled blonde, to come over. “Alexa, isn’t this Noah Cutler?”
Apparently she didn’t think it would make more sense to just ask me if I was Noah Cutler. I took a sip of my drink and resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
From across the room, I watched as the curvy bombshell made her way to a table all by herself, peeling herself off from the rest of the party.
“Yes!” the blonde’s friend said. “You gave that speech at my graduation last year. I absolutely loved it.”
“I’m glad,” I lied. I didn’t give a shit if she loved my speech or not. College was bullshit, the kind of thing people thought they needed, when really, I hadn’t learned anything in college that I couldn’t have learned on my own.
I drained the rest of my drink and concentrated on the brunette. She turned toward me, pushing her hair back from her face, and I was struck again by her beauty. She happened to look up just at that moment, and our eyes met.
She turned away quickly, embarrassed.
I had to have her.
And then, just like that, I saw my opening.
Some dickhead guy was making his way over to her. Jealousy and possessiveness flooded me. She was mine. And I was going to make sure I had her tonight.
“Excuse me,” I said to the blondes.
And then I went to go claim my prize.
CHARLOTTE
I saw the sexy stranger before he saw me.
He was standing in the corner of the bar, two beautiful blond women draped on his arm. One of the women was bent over, whispering something in his ear, and when she threw her head back and laughed, he glanced up and met my eye.
I quickly looked away, embarrassed that he’d caught me staring. Men like him – tall, dark hair, full lips, sexy stubble on his ruggedly handsome face –weren’t interested in women like me. Besides, I wasn’t here to meet a man. I was here for a bachelorette party.
Not that the party was anything to get too excited about. I hated parties as a rule, and bachelorette parties were a particularly heinous form of torture. Especially one where I didn’t know anyone but the bride, who was a fellow law student at Middleton University.