The Cornerstone (34 page)

“You don’t like sea urchin,” Will said, pointing his fork in my direction. He turned to Gerard. “She’s very particular about the fish she eats. Won’t touch most of it. I’m surprised she even ordered salmon, but then again…” He looked around the restaurant. “Apparently this is a seafood place.”

“You don’t like fish?” Gerard asked.

“I’ve mentioned that,” I said.
A few hundred times
.

“Do you remember that shrimp thing we had in D.C.? With the butter and garlic?” Will asked. “That was amazing.” He turned to Gerard. “Best I’ve ever had. With this lady right here.”

“How long have you two known each other?” Gerard asked.

Will jumped in before I could respond. “A few years,” he said, ignoring my eye roll. “My sister married Shannon’s brother, Matt.”

“And you’ve spent most of that time overseas,” I clarified.

“Although I’m with you whenever I’m stateside,” he said with a pointed look. “Always.”

Gerard clasped his hands in his lap. “I should let you two catch up.”

I started to protest but there was no reason. I didn’t want to spend any more time with Gerard, and that mess had to end here. Whether I wanted to spend time with Will was a different story.

“I’ll walk you out,” I said, standing.

“I’ll be right here,” Will called, pointing to the table.

I flipped him off as I stepped away.

“He must have so many rich stories of culture,” Gerard mused as we neared the door. “To embed one’s self in a foreign land and serve the greater good, that must be a defining experience.”

“Yeah, something like that,” I murmured. It wasn’t that I disagreed with Gerard. I just wanted to get a word in edgewise so I could kick him out of the nest and get on with my life. “So listen. You’re a smart, successful guy, and I know you’ve had a rough year with the divorce. You have so many interests and tons of knowledge, and a lot to offer. I want to make sure you find someone who brings similar things to the table. I’m not that person.”

He ran his hands down his lapels before shoving them in his pockets. “I know,” he said. “That’s why I was doing you a favor.”

“You were
what
?” I asked.

“I figured you wanted an arrangement that served your career,” he said. His tone implied that I should have known exactly what he was talking about. “You’re not going to start something traditional at your age, and you require companionship for appearances.”

“That is a truly ingenious spin,” I murmured.

“Of course, public appearance also supports my work, and you’re attractive enough and have great contacts, so it wasn’t completely one-sided.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and brought my fingers to my temples. “I really know how to find the winners,” I said to myself. “It was a time, Gerard. Best of luck to you.”

He nodded and moved toward the door. “Give my regards to the captain.”

“Yeah, of course,” I murmured. I waited while he hailed a cab, returning his wave when he hopped in. “
At my age
. That motherfucker.”

Shifting, I found Will staring at me from across the restaurant. He wasn’t wearing the open, animated smile he used on Gerard. He was calm yet more serious than I’d ever seen him, his intense gaze taking root inside me and curling around my bones and organs. I marched back to him, plotting how I’d torture him for these antics.

“I have many questions,” I said as I settled into my seat, “though the first must be this: how did you know I’d be here?”

Will ran his knuckles over my thumb, and I really wanted to ignore the electricity behind his touch. “An operator never divulges his methods.”

“The universe needs to help a bitch out,” I groaned. “First I get the ‘Listen, lady, you’re old as fuck but not so washed up that I won’t be seen in public with you’ line. And then it’s a stubborn SEAL who’s made a home for himself in my guest room. How is this my life? Which God did I anger?”

“Is that what he said to you?”

I shook off his question. I was done rehashing. “Let’s review the facts, William. You’ve invited yourself to my gym and dinner dates. You’re staying in my apartment. I believe you’ve been doing my laundry, which means you’ve touched my panties, and I don’t recall inviting you to do that. I can only imagine how you’ve defiled them. You’ve offered exactly zero details about your sudden appearance, and now you’re pulling the black ops card. Does that sound right to you?”

He bit into a spear of asparagus and inclined his head toward me. “Yes, ma’am.”

I waved my hand in his direction, expecting more. “This would be the opportunity to expand on that.”

“I believe that all depends on what constitutes
defiled
in your book,” he said.

My hands curled to fists and I blew out a snarling breath. “You might be the most repulsive person I’ve ever met.”

“Anything for your praise, peanut.” He set his fork down and glanced at me. “I picked up the tab while you were talking to Lord of the Douches. Let’s get out of here. You can tell me about that conversation on the ride home.”

This asshole.

“You know what’s great about that comment? Its complete refusal to answer my question,” I said.

With my coat slung over my arm and my purse in hand, I stormed out of the restaurant. I didn’t want everything about Will to drive me crazy, but it was like my judgment and self-control flew out the window when we were in the same zip code. I couldn’t be near him without being a little insane, and that scared me because this man could convince me to do almost anything.

I knew he was behind me, and I was certain he was watching—all patient and amused, like I was a puppy lost under a blanket—while I attempted to navigate the North End’s uneven cobblestone streets, wrestle my arms into my coat, and dig through my purse for keys, all at once. The alarm chirped when my fingers landed on the car’s remote start button, and the vehicle roared to life.

Will slipped into the passenger seat without a word, and kept his eyes glued on the windshield even when I slammed my door with enough force to rock the car. I was a slammer and a stomper, and though I knew those reactions had drama queen written all over them, that was how I rolled.

He closed his hand into a fist and then splayed his fingers out, exhaling heavily as he repeated the motion, and asked, “What did you say to the Douchelord back there?”

“I’m not answering your questions until you answer mine,” I said.

“You let him down easy,” Will said. “How’d he take it?”

“Allow me to repeat myself: come clean or choke on my dick.”

“Those are interesting choices,” he murmured.

The short journey back to my apartment building seemed infinite, filled with slow pedestrians and quick-changing stoplights, and I could only assume it was the universe’s way of getting back at me for letting things linger this long with Gerard.

I knew why I ignored his obnoxious tendencies, and why I overlooked our complete lack of chemistry. He was Will’s opposite in so many ways, but most importantly, he never made me feel much of anything. And I wanted it that way. I couldn’t function with all of this emotion rippling right at the surface. I could manage anything when it came to my family and my work, but I couldn’t handle feeling fucking ravenous for one man.

After stomping from the garage to the elevator to my apartment, I glanced at Will while unlocking the door. “I’m finished with these games. No more stalking.”

I headed straight for the dining room, away from the cozy sectional in the den where I wanted to curl up with some wine and
The X-Files
. The den was too centrally located and I’d been avoiding it since Will arrived; it begged for him to come in and join me. I knew the distance between us would evaporate, and I didn’t trust myself to be strong when his open arms beckoned.

My coat was hanging haphazardly from a chair back while I rummaged in my bag. It served as the catchall for my necessities: laptop, small notebook, makeup bag, hairbrush, phone charger, long-forgotten Kind bars, keys to everywhere, and a deck of business cards. I didn’t know what I was looking for but it didn’t matter. I took it all out, slammed it on the gorgeous antique Chippendale table that Patrick salvaged from a property we restored nine years ago. It was before I bought this apartment, and there was no way the twelve-seat set was fitting in my tiny walk-up rental, but I couldn’t bear to see it go. Instead, it moved between our investment properties, serving as an odd—yet completely fitting—mascot for our fledgling business.

“Drop the act, Ally McBeal. Dinner with the Douchelord was about as pleasant as an aesthesia-free wisdom tooth extraction, and you were thrilled that I saved you from hate-glaring at him any longer. He annoyed the ever-loving fuck out of you, and I give you credit for sticking it out this long. You’d be an outstanding hostage.” He laughed. “Now give it up: you told him you craved my cock and couldn’t live without it, right?”

“You are such an obnoxious bastard.” I started shoving things back in my bag, and though I was trying to organize that mess, it was much, much worse than before. “Why are you here? Why are you in
my
apartment when your sister is across town and would happily take you in? What do you want from me, Will?”

He released a humorless laugh. “Me staying with Lo is an invitation to kill your brother in his sleep. If you’re good with that, say the word and I’ll pack up.”

I closed my eyes and drew a deep breath. “Why. Are. You. Here?”

“Pissing you off is amusing as fuck.”

“Original. Really original.” I threw my hands up but didn’t turn to face him. “After all this time, you’re at my door, and you just presume I’m going to rip my clothes off and jump into your arms. Please. I expect more from you than this.”

“Get over here and sit on my face and you’ll get plenty more,” he said.

I dropped my back-up phone charger into my bag and stared at the table’s wood grain, fuming. Then I did the first thing that came to mind. I grabbed a lime from the decorative bowl in the center of the table, pivoted, and winged it at Will’s head. The element of surprise worked in my favor, and it pinged right off his skull.

“Holy mother of fucking Christ, Shannon! What the hell was that?” he cried, his fingers pressed against his forehead.

“Enough,” I yelled, reaching for another lime. It shot out from my hand, and then another, and they landed square on his chest. “I’ve had enough of your quippy comments and your grocery shopping and your entire existence as I know it.”

Will tumbled over the backside of the sofa, ducking when another lime flew in his direction. He popped up, two limes caught in his palm, and he pointed at me. “You’ve got a cannon for an arm, peanut,” he said, laughing. “But don’t think I won’t throw these right back at you.”

The bowl was far from empty. There were probably another twenty limes, and right now, I wasn’t above chucking the Waterford crystal dish at his head either. “You don’t have the balls,” I said. “And I would know because the last time I went looking for them, all I could find was a big, sloppy vagina.”

“You are so asking for it,” he said.

The fruit flew across the room and struck my outer thigh, and fuck me sideways, those things
hurt
. I yelped, and fired another at Will, catching him on the shoulder. He dropped back behind the protective wall of the sofa and mumbled a long, imaginative string of curses. He was only down a moment, and when he reappeared, two more limes pelted my legs.

And then it was all-out war.

Fruit whizzed back and forth between the rooms while we swore and insulted each other like never before. We were sweaty and breathless, and my apartment was thoroughly ransacked. The one upside: everything smelled like fresh citrus.

“You’re getting spanked tonight, peanut,” he called as a lime whizzed toward me and connected with my boob. My freaking boob.

“What kind of pussy aims for my tits?” I screamed, rubbing the offended breast. I pointed to my chest. “These are off-limits to you in every possible way, you dirty hooker.”

“Sorry, I was distracted by that giant dick you like shoving down my throat,” he said, and sent another fruit sailing toward my hip.

“You should be thankful it’s not your ass,” I said, and aimed a lime at his crotch.

It missed, and he pinned me with a fierce gaze, his shoulders squared, and his arm extended in my direction. “Don’t you dare,” he warned. “I will take you
down
, little girl.”

Of course, I fired the last three limes at the same target. He was quick, and rushed toward me as I threw, twisting and shifting his body to avoid the assault. He tackled me to the ground, his weight heavy on my hips as he anchored my hands over my head. I gulped, praying he wouldn’t rock forward and press his cock to my center because a girl—even a bossy, bitchy girl who knew how to bury all her feelings under a mountain of guilt and control it all—could only take so much.

“You’re a vicious little gremlin sometimes, you know that?” he murmured. “And now that you’ve worked that shit out of your system, we’re going to talk.”

A groan rumbled in his throat, a roll of thunder that rattled between us, and I held myself rigid, bracing for the bolt of lightning that was sure to come. His lips landed on my neck, and in quick succession, I flinched and tilted my head to give him better access. I couldn’t be more conflicted; I wanted him but we were wrong for each other in every possible way. It didn’t matter that our anatomy did nice things when it came together.

“If you have to hold me down, it doesn’t exactly qualify as a free-flowing conversation, commando. You’re teetering into the land of interrogation. Coercion, even.”

“Yeah? All this time, I thought you liked it,” he said, his teeth scraping over my skin. There wasn’t much I could refuse when I had two hundred pounds of hard, neck-kissing man on top of me. “You’re probably thinking about me holding
out
.” He rocked his hips against me, and that was the cock I missed having in my life. “That’s it. You hate it when I hold
out
. You still love it when I hold you
down
.”

There was always a tipping point when Will and I were together, a moment that crossed the line from sparring into sex. I was standing on that line now, and though the inertia of this night was pushing us forward, I leaned back. “Please. Just tell me why you came.”