“What about other managers you already know of? Has there ever been anyone you thought you might want to work with?”
“No one comes to mind, and to be honest, I like the idea of branching out. Finding someone who wasn’t on my radar. Someone completely new to me. My career needs freshening up and this could be a great way to start working on that.”
This sounds like a good plan to me. Not that I know a lot about Jack’s industry, but I know a lot about business, and that’s essentially what his career comes down to. “Do you want help?”
“I’d love your help.” He grabs his phone off the kitchen counter and hands it to me. “Her list is in my emails.”
I hold his phone back out to him. “You need to unlock it.”
“The password is your birthday.”
It’s no lie that those five words cause my heart to speed up and my brain to slow down. Actually, no, my brain speeds up too, but at the same time, it feels like slow motion in there.
He bewilders me with those five words. So much so, that I shove his phone at him and throw out, “Jesus, Jack, you need to change that password. Now. Make it something people won’t be able to guess. And while you’re at it, forward me Rose’s list. I’ll read it on my own phone.”
The smile that plasters itself across his face bewilders me just as much as his password. And when he moves into me, puts his arms around me, settles his hands on my ass, and says, “I fucking love you,” I am completely gone.
Besotted.
Infatuated.
Intoxicated all the way down to my toes.
I have no idea why this is all hitting me now, but it’s like my brain has finally caught up with what’s happening between us. The weekend felt surreal. I kind of floated through it, barely catching up between each orgasm. This, today, is real life, and standing here discussing our lives while Jack shows me directly and indirectly how he loves me, suddenly feels like a million emotions consuming me at once.
I wasn’t prepared for this.
Not in any way.
And while I want Jack, I’m unsure how that is going to look and how that is going to work. For both of us. Jack isn’t your everyday guy. I don’t know how we are going to fit into each other’s life.
I blink a couple of times while trying like hell to catch my breath and my thoughts all at the same time. In the end, I put my hands to his chest and say, “This isn’t going to work for me.”
That only encourages him. Amusement flares in his eyes. “Yes, it is.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Okay, baby, tell me what you need to make it work for you.” He knows exactly what I mean. While I’m well put together in all other areas of my life, Jack has a way of flustering me. This isn’t the first time he’s had to calm me.
“For one, I need space. A lot of space. Space that doesn’t involve you making my birthday your password.”
“Your birthday has been my password for six years.”
My eyes almost bulge out of my head. “Right, so your situation is worse than I thought.”
He chuckles. “What situation?”
“Your management situation. When we hire your new assistant, I will give them strict instructions to ensure you change your passwords on a regular schedule because I’m guessing if you haven’t changed your phone’s password in that time, you haven’t changed any of your passwords.”
He grins. “Nope. They’re all your birthday.”
I blink.
All this blinking is a new phenomenon for me. I never blink. No one makes me blink except this man in front of me.
It’s official: I will not survive him.
I thought I already knew this, but now I realise I only half knew it.
“I’m not even responding to that.” I press against his chest in an attempt to move out of his embrace.
He doesn’t let me go. “What else do you need?”
I have no idea what else I need. All I know is that I know nothing, and that’s not a place I’m used to being. “I need you to not give me your phone and tell me to open your emails. That’s your phone. Your private stuff. We’re only new. You don’t hand over your phone to someone you just started seeing, Jack.”
“Sweetheart, we’re not new. And we haven’t just started seeing each other.” He sweeps a strand of hair off my face, his eyes filling with a depth of emotion I feel everywhere. “Your birthday has been my password all this time because you’ve been with me all this time. I might not have had you in my arms, but I’ve had you in my head and in my heart. Six years in the scheme of infinity is nothing, baby. This isn’t new between us. And as far as sharing my private stuff with you, it’s all yours. My emails, my phone, my passwords, my management situation, my life. All yours if you’ll have it.”
I blink a couple more times.
My heart does the same thing, although ‘blink’ might be an understatement for what it’s doing.
Jesus, this man.
“If that’s a marriage proposal, the answer is not a yes. You’re going to need to work on that.”
He goes back to grinning. “I do like a clear directive. And a challenge.”
“Good.” I hold up his phone that he never took from me. “Change your password.”
He finally lets me go, takes his phone, and changes the damn password. Holding it back out to me, he says, “It’s the date we met.”
I accept the phone while muttering, “Those sappy pants of yours need changing.” I then open his emails, shaking my head at the number of unopened emails he has, and find the one from Rose.
I scroll through her list of possible manager candidates before forwarding the email to myself. Handing his phone back, I say, “She’s very thorough. I’ll go through the list today and do some research.”
“I appreciate it. Do you know what else I’d appreciate?”
“If it involves your dick, I’m out.”
He chuckles. “I remember, baby.”
“Remember what?”
“That you like getting filthy, but not once you’re dressed for the day.”
“So it doesn’t involve your dick?”
“No, it involves my bathroom.”
I exhale a long breath. “I’m going to need coffee for this, Jack. From that place in Grafton that you’ve gotten me addicted to. And I’m also going to need a lot of that tongue of yours later. Honestly, it’s just a bathroom and you’re quite capable of choosing tiles yourself now that I’ve given you some ideas.”
He moves into me again, stealing all my space without asking for it. This is so Jack. Pulling me hard against him, he says, “I can choose tiles all fucking day long, but they’ll never be our tiles. I don’t just want my own tiles anymore.”
And just like that, my heart rapid blinks. All over the damn place. And I finally give in to this man and everything he’s bewildering me with. “Oh for goodness sake, you go get me my coffee and I’ll choose our tiles.”
If his smile is anything to go by, I’ve just made him a happy man.
He makes me a happy woman when he smacks my ass, kisses me long and hard, and promises, “My tongue is all yours later,” before exiting the kitchen to go and get my coffee.