Building Our Love (Griffin Brothers #2) (14 page)

“Wow. Just wow. Now I
feel like even more of an ass.”

“So, what happened
after dad and I left? Did you guys have a fight?”

“No.” I don’t
want to tell them more, but they all look at me with raised eyebrows.
I man up and continue. “I told her I needed to figure out who to
replace Deanna with on her projects, so I needed to not be disturbed.
Then, I went into my office and didn’t leave it for the rest of the
day.”

“That is a fucking
dick move. What the hell, Ry?” Luke is looking at me like he
doesn’t know who I am.

“There’s more. I
didn’t talk to her at all, and I felt like shit. I finally looked
at the clock and realized that we should be leaving so I opened my
door. She was gone already. I forgot that she brought her own car to
work today.”

“Do you blame her for
leaving? Seriously, bro?” Scott asks as he shakes his head.

“No, not all. She
left me a note, though. You know, one of the love notes that I told
you we write each other?”

“So, let me just make
sure I am clear about what you are telling us,” Scott says to me.
“Your psycho employee hits on you and then proceeds to insult Owe
and Chloe. Chloe gives her a verbal smack down and gets written up
for it. You then basically tell her to fuck off by going into your
office to sulking for the rest of the day, thinking you didn’t act
alpha male enough. After all that shit, Chloe leaves you a love note.
You then come here to dinner and ignore her the entire night.”

“Yep. I told you I’m
an ass.”

“Why, Ry? Why did you
ignore her here instead of talking to her and apologizing to her for
being a jerk?” Owen asks.

“I didn’t know what
to say. Here I was being a bastard, and she still wrote me a note. I
was embarrassed. I am embarrassed.”

“You need to tell her
that, and also tell her why you were a jerk earlier. She looked so
sad at dinner when she would glance at you, and you immediately
looked away. It was hard to see, man. I almost got up and punched
you, even though I thought she must have done something to you. I
know it probably would have hurt me more than you, but I was
tempted,” Luke says.

“You’re right. I
know you are all right. And I deserve to be hit, even if it is by my
baby brother. Shit! What if she doesn’t open the door?”

“You’ll never know
until you walk over there and ring the bell,” Owen tells me. “I’m
pretty sure she’ll answer.”

Ryan

My brothers all wish me
luck as I walk the few steps to the guesthouse. I take a deep breath
and then ring the bell. I hear footsteps approach the door, but it
doesn’t open. It seems like forever, but it’s probably only a
minute until Chloe opens the door. She’s wearing my shirt from our
first night together here, tied at her waist with some boxers on. Her
long hair is in a messy bun like she normally wears it when she’s
at home. As usual, she takes my breath away.

“Did you need
something, Ryan?” She asks.

“Can I come in and
talk to you?”

“I don’t know. Are
you still mad at me?”

“Mad at you? Why
would I be mad at you?”

“For causing the
scene with Deanna which led to her being fired, and you having to
work all afternoon to replace her on jobs. That’s why you wouldn’t
talk to me, wasn’t it? You didn’t know how to break up with me,
right? Please just get it over with.”

Holy hell. Chloe thinks
I’m mad at her for Deanna being fired. And she thinks that I want
to break up with her? I behaved even worse than I thought. I have to
fix this, fast.

“Chlo, I am not mad
at you at all. I never was. I was mad at myself for not stepping in
and protecting you and Owen when Deanna attacked you. You took care
of it. and it was awesome to see, but I felt bad. Especially when you
got in trouble for it. I was so embarrassed that I just stood there
and did nothing. I couldn’t face you. It wasn’t hard to replace
Deanna. I have a good team of designers, and they all were happy to
pick up the extra work.

“I spent most of the
afternoon sitting in my office trying to figure out how I can be a
man who is worthy of you. Then, when I finally manned up enough to
face you, you were not only gone, but you left me a love note. I
don’t want to break up with you. Ever. I’m so sorry that you even
thought that. I’m just embarrassed for being such a jerk.”

“You were a jerk. But
you’re my jerk and I love you. You have nothing to feel bad about.
I heard you tell Deanna that you weren’t interested in her, which
made me happy. Then she went after me and Owen. Me, I could have
handled. Her insulting Owen, not so much. So I lost it. It’s okay.
I don’t mind the write up. What I do mind is that it’s been hours
since you spoke to me, not to mention had your lips and hands on me.
Work was rough, but dinner was pure torture.”

“It was torture for
me, too. Can I come in and make it up to you?”

“I don’t want sex,
Ry. Well, I mean I do want it, but that’s not what I need tonight.”

“What do you need,
Chlo? I’ll do anything. Just tell me.”

“I need you to hold
me and kiss me. I was about to start watching Sherlock. Everyone says
it’s great, and Sam let me borrow her DVDs. Will you cuddle on the
couch with me?”

“I can definitely do
that. I haven’t seen Sherlock yet, but I’d love to watch with
you. Just don’t swoon over that guy too much in front of me,
please. My ego is pretty fragile right now.”

“That guy? Oh, you
mean Benedict Cumberbatch? He is pretty swoony, but my man is
better.”

“Even when your man
has been a total asshole to you all day?”

“It wasn’t all day.
This morning was pretty awesome, and if you wake me up like that
again tomorrow, all will be forgiven.”

“You like my mouth on
you, sweetheart?”

I move forward into the
house, and she walks backward towards the couch. I reach out to kiss
her before she answers me. She responds and then pulls back a little
to answer me.

“Don’t act
surprised. You know that I love your mouth.”

“Just my mouth?” I
ask as I run my hands lightly over her breasts.

“No. But you need to
stop. I told you I needed to just be held tonight. I shouldn’t have
mentioned anything about this morning, but I wanted to cheer you up.”

“You did. And I’m
sorry for not doing what I agreed to. Put on the DVD and we’ll
cuddle.”

We settle into the
couch with her curled up in my arms. The show is really good and so
is holding Chloe. I kiss her often but don’t go any further,
honoring her wishes. We get through Season 1 in the early hours of
the morning.

I get up and move to
the DVD player to switch out the discs. “Ready for Season 2?”

“No, I’m ready for
bed.”

Chloe is on the stairs
when I turn around.

“Oh, I didn’t think
you were tired yet.”

“I’m not. It’s
tomorrow, Ry.”

“Tomorrow?” I ask,
and then I get it.

She said we couldn’t
make love last night. It’s not last night anymore. I head toward
the stairs as she runs up them. I catch her when she enters her
bedroom, picking her up and tossing her onto the middle of the bed.
We make love until the sun starts to rise, and we fall asleep. I wake
her up a few hours later, just like she asked me to. I’m pretty
sure that I’m forgiven now.

* * *

Chloe

I’m on one of company
jets with Ryan and Owen, heading to Seattle. Ryan surprised me by
asking if I wanted to stay through the weekend so we could do some
sightseeing. I told him I’d love that and packed what he asked me
to. I’m excited to see how the building is coming along as well. I
always wanted to work on a building with Ry, and now it’s
happening. Having Owen do the artwork his way is just an added bonus.

The guys wanted to talk
about some of the other projects that they’re working on, so I’m
taking the time to look up dresses. I need one for Sam and Danny’s
wedding next month. They’re getting married at Epcot Center in Walt
Disney World. I’m going as Ryan’s plus one although Sam invited
me on my own as well. I can’t wait. I really like Sam and Danny, so
I’m excited to go to their wedding. I’ve also never been to
Disney World, so I’m going a few days early to explore with
everyone. Well, everyone except Ryan.

He said he can’t take
off any time that week since we’re going to be back in Seattle the
next week for the opening of the building. He wasn’t kidding when
he said that we have four parties to attend that week. There’s the
employee one, one for media, the one where other architects can come
see the building, and then the public opening. The last one will only
be on the ground floor and will highlight all of the amenities for
the employees that Ryan and I implemented into the design.

I’m still looking at
dresses when Ryan settles into the seat next to me. “Did you find a
dress, sweetheart?”

“I think so. I was
deciding between two, but I think I’ve made my choice.”

“Do I get a vote?”

“You don’t want to
be surprised?”

“Not necessarily, but
whatever you want to do is fine.”

“I think I’ll keep
it a surprise.”

“Okay. I love this
dress, by the way.” He fingers the hem of the one that I am
wearing. It is black and white with large yin and yang symbols
covering it.

“Thanks, I thought it
seemed fun, and I was drawn to it in the store.”

“It’s not like
anything you wore while we were apart. That was all really
conservative. I’m enjoying your new wardrobe.”

“You saw what I wore
when we weren’t together?”

“Yeah. I umm…I used
to look at your pictures in the papers from the events that you
attended.” He looks a little embarrassed. “And we were at a
couple of the same events.”

“Oh, Ry. Don’t be
embarrassed. Just know that the girl in the pictures was not the real
me. You have the real me. And I know we were at some of the same
events. It killed me to be in the same room but apart from you.”

“You didn’t look
too sad when Adam was shoving his tongue down your throat in front of
me,” he says with some bitterness and a lot of hurt in his voice.

I forgot about that
time when Adam kissed me out of spite. He knew it would hurt both me
and Ryan. Since it was in public, I had to go along with it. When he
tried to grab my ass too, I did step on his foot to stop him.

“I didn’t enjoy
that, Ry.”

“Then why were you
with him? You keep saying that you didn’t want to be with him, but
you stayed for three years. I don’t know what to think, Chlo.”

“I can’t tell you.
I wish I could, but I can’t. Just know that I had my reasons.”

“Will you ever be
able to tell me? I’m working hard to get past this, but it’s not
easy.”

“I don’t know if I
will be able to, but I will if I can. Please, please just know that I
have only ever wanted to be with you.”

“I’ll let it go for
now, Chlo. I really am trying to believe you. I feel like you want me
now, and I guess that’s all that matters.”

“I do. In fact I
would very much like to have you now. Isn’t there a bedroom on this
plane?”

“There are two. You
really want to join the mile high club with Owen here, though?”

“I doubt that Owen
will be scandalized. He’ll probably tease us. I really don’t
care, but if you don’t want to, that’s fine.”

“Oh, I want to,
sweetheart. If you don’t care, then I won’t either.”

He grabs my hand and
pulls me to my feet. We walk towards the larger bedroom. Owen is
looking at us with a smirk on his face. “Have fun you two.”

“We will,” I say as
we walk by.

Ryan closes and locks
the door. I have my dress off before he turns around. He takes in my
lacy bra and thong and tells me. “I have a feeling that this will
be the best plane ride I’ve ever had.”

The flight isn’t long
and the captain comes on the intercom to tell us to fasten our seat
belts before we can go for round 2. Round 1 was pretty epic, so we’re
both satisfied and happy. We quickly dress and return to our seats.
Owen starts the teasing immediately, but I honestly don’t care.
Ryan and I finish the last minutes of the flight snuggled together on
the couch.

* * *

Ryan

Our car is waiting on
the tarmac as we deplane. We get in and head to the hotel. I would
normally stay at the Four Seasons or W, but Chloe wanted to stay
somewhere fun. She found a place called Hotel Five, so that’s where
we’re staying. Owen decided to stay there, too. We pull up to the
hotel, grab our bags and go inside.

The hotel lobby is done
up in mostly black, red, and yellow with some gray mixed in. It’s
modern and had pop art on the walls. I can tell Chloe loves it, and
that makes me incredibly happy. We are booked into one of the Urban
Suites. Owen gets off on the floor below us and waves goodbye. We get
off the elevator, and I open our door. The room has an open floor
plan with a small living room, a bedroom with a king size bed, and a
bathroom in the middle. The bathroom has an open rain shower, and I
can’t wait to get in there with Chloe.

“Do you like it, Ry?
I know it’s not the Four Seasons.”

“Well let’s see.
There’s a big bed, a cool shower, and you. What more could I need?”

“I appreciate you
agreeing to stay here. If we didn’t have to get to our meeting, I
would show you how just how much.”

“You can show me
later if you want.”

“Deal. Now we better
get going.”

We spend the afternoon
with the contractor at his office, going over the timeline.
Everything’s on schedule so far. Tomorrow, we’ll go to the site
and see how our vision is coming together. I’ve done this dozens of
times, but none has been as exciting as this one. Having Chloe here
with me, working with me, is better than anything else I could
experience in regards to work.