Page 24 of Nothing to You (Nothing to… #7)

“AS YOU CAN see, our facilities are second to none,” their guide said, strolling down a carpeted hallway lined with generic art. “We take our work here seriously. Your family is our family.”

Uh huh.

“Thank you,” Rourke said as they stopped in a bedroom doorway. “Could you give us a minute?”

“Of course,” the woman said and widened her smile before walking away.

His hand curled around her elbow to lead her into the room. “What’s going on?”

“It’s beautiful,” she said, going to the full height windows that looked out over the view of the grounds.

“Yeah, the fingernail crescents in the back of my hand scream ecstatic.” She glanced down when he stopped beside her. “The scratches on my back, I can handle. They come with a happy ending.” She bit the inside corner of her mouth. “What did I tell you about holding back, Radley?”

“I’m not holding back.” Her head shook. “I don’t know it’s…”

“If you don’t like it, we’ll look at other facilities.”

“We have appointments with other places.”

“Okay, so is this one out? That big-eyebrow guy we met at the front desk kept popping up to check out your tits.” His own eyes dropped to them, and he nodded to the side. “Which I guess is fair for a guy not at liberty to play with them.”

“It feels wrong.”

“What feels wrong?”

“Relocating her life to suit mine. She has friends where she is, people who give her routine and stability.”

“Okay, so we relocate them too. We’ll relocate their whole families. No one will object.”

Because he’d pay them not to. She wasn’t mad. In fact, when he was being so generous, it was difficult to remember they didn’t like each other.

She smiled. “What if I want to relocate Mosaic?”

“Then we relocate Mosaic,” he said with a semi-eye roll and zero hesitation. “We’ll make money wherever we go, baby. The location doesn’t matter.”

“Providing it has a bed.”

“Now you’re getting it.”

“I’ll talk to my sister,” she said. “Get her opinion.”

“She live near your mom?”

“She tends to… travel.”

His brows got slightly closer. “Oh-kay.”

“We’re covering the cost, it’s not like she has to pay anything. But I do have to tell her where our mom is.”

“Do we know where she’ll be?”

“Not yet. I prefer to see everything that’s on offer before I make my final decision.”

He moseyed in closer to embrace her, switching her angle to show the bed. “While you ponder, let’s talk about payment.”

“You want to have sex in a hospital?”

“It’s not like a hospital, hospital, people aren’t dying.”

“So long as no one’s dying, it’s not disrespectful?” she said, containing her laugh. “The door is open.”

“Never stopped us before,” he said and crouched to kiss her. “I think you like the exhibitionist thing.”

“I think I do too,” she said, though sex and proclivities with him didn’t always match up to her previous experience. “Helps that you have the money to pay off offended witnesses.”

“That’s what those babies are for,” he said, eyeing her chest again.

Enjoying each other always came with a time limit. Work. Friends. Commitments. They used to hang out for hours just arguing with each other.

“Let’s go somewhere, just for the hell of it.”

“Where?” he asked. “Bali? You’d like Bali.”

“Okay, braggart. You think I’d let you traffic me out of the country? I meant like a hotel. Local.”

“That’s unexciting,” he said and sniffed. “Probably wouldn’t get much for you overseas anyway.”

“It just so happens I have a credit card we can use,” she murmured, stroking a pointed middle finger up his chest.

“Lucky you.”

“Belongs to a guy who just can’t keep it in his pants around me.”

“Bet he’s grateful you give it up so easy.”

“I humor him.” Their eyes met. “There are people at home, and I’ve never had caviar.”

“Oh, it’s going to be one of those weekends?”

“If you play your cards right, maybe. You want to pamper me?”

“I want to fuck you.”

“Then pampering it is.”

“What would you do without me to look after you?” he asked.

Stepping back, she threaded their fingers together to guide him toward the door. “Read more, probably. Maybe broker world peace,” she said, glancing back to show him a smile. “I’ll start looking up hotels, if you do the ‘we’ll let you know’ speech.”

They went out and down the hall to be buzzed through the secure door by reception. “Speech?” he asked, pulling their joined hands across his body. “Check this out.”

Their guide was there, waiting. “Did you—”

“We’ll let you know,” Rourke said without slowing for a beat.

They got outside and back into the car. “That was abrupt.”

“Do you care?”

“No,” she said, retrieving her phone from her purse. “Now about my hotel—”

“I know where we’re going,” he said, revving the engine.

Her phone dropped back into its previous slot. “You do, huh?”

“Yeah, only one place around here worth it if you want five-star.”

“I don’t care if it’s a rent by the hour slut dump,” she said, wriggling deeper into her seat. “I have an itch.”

“Then I guess I have one too. Is it a cream or do I have to take antibiotics?”

That smirk went without an answer, and they drove deeper into the city.

“You never talk about your family.”

“My family?” he asked. “You met my family. Zairn and Rox anyway. You’ll meet the rest of them at the Hope party.

Most of them. K2 won’t crawl out of his cave, even for charity.

Doesn’t matter though, he hates people. More people talk about being connected to him than actually are.

He wouldn’t widen your exposure. You can use his name; he won’t care about that.

” Apparently, he’d missed she didn’t know this K2 person’s full name.

“Truth is, he spends so much time in the damn mountains, he would never know anyway.”

His friends were one thing. Yes, he cared about them. That was obvious. But she wanted to know more.

“What about your parents?”

“Divorced when I was young.”

“Siblings?”

“A brother. Stepbrother. If that counts. What I should say is I have a stepbrother I know about. Haven’t kept up with my dad for years. And you know, he could have twenty kids and his life wouldn’t change at all.”

Another smirk.

“Your mother remarried?” Slightly obvious question. “Do you get along with him? Your stepbrother? Where is he?”

“In the Pacific.” She switched her frown to him and he laughed. “Yeah, terrifying, isn’t it?”

“Dyce,” she said. “Zane Dyce is your brother?”

“Stepbrother. We don’t advertise it.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t know this,” she said, swatting his arm. “And you tell me I hide things?”

“You didn’t ask.”

“I want to meet him.”

“You said that already. If you want to go to the island, we’ll go to the island.”

“I don’t want to go now. We have this Hope party to plan.”

“I’m not planning your party. Flowers and glitter. That’s woman’s work. Ah, but you need me to direct you. You need a man in charge, don’t you, Babycakes?”

“You want to pull over and I’ll prove who’s in charge of this friendship?”

He flashed her a wink. “Anytime you want to be on top, Babycakes…”

“I can’t believe I didn’t know you’re related to Zane Dyce. Forget the hotel. We’re going home so I can embargo sex.”

“Good luck trying. Do you want me to pull over and prove who’s in charge of this friendship?”

She let that one slide on by. Wouldn’t be right to gouge out his eyes while he was driving and all.

“When’s he coming home?” she asked.

“Dyce? I don’t know.”

“Will he come back for the Hope party?”

“If I ask him to come, he will. Do you want me to ask him? He’ll ask why, and if I tell him it’s for a girl, he might expect a reward.”

“And maybe I’ll give him one. Is he richer than you? Better hung?”

He laughed. “He’s way too easygoing for you. I don’t think the guy knows how to argue.”

“He’s one of the biggest tech geniuses of his generation. He’s CEO of a worldwide—”

“What does he look like?”

“What?”

“Zane Dyce, tell me something about him other than his name.”

“He’s your brother. Not mine. If you want to learn about him, pick up a phone.”

“When you combine money and genius like that, you don’t have to be aggressive or high profile. He gets his way. Every time. You know why?”

“Why?” she asked, slipping off her shoes.

“Because he’s always right.” Glancing at her, he grinned. “Yeah, imagine what it takes for me to say that out loud. Maybe I rubbed off on him.”

“You are not always right,” she said. “In fact, you’re never right.”

“Picked you, didn’t I?”

“They say our bodies crave what we lack. You know, like calcium or iron or whatever. It’s biology. A primitive drive. You probably picked me because what you lack is good sense and smarts.”

“Know where I’m not lacking?”

His swagger encouraged her smile. “We could always build my mom her own custom facility.”

“We can.” And suddenly he was serious. “Put Hope on hold until you have that under control. Family takes precedence over business.”

“Huddle Hope isn’t business.” Relaxing her head on the headrest, she admired his profile. Without looking, he reached over to lay a hand on her knee. “Or I could hand Hope off to Roxie.”

“Hope is your baby, baby. I want both hands on the wheel. Your hands.”

His generosity didn’t surprise her. Neither did his faith in her. Yes, they made their jibes and belittled each other, but that was nothing. When it was real, it was real. What they were was completely genuine and innate.

Their security ran so deep, it didn’t occur to her to question it.

Hence why he’d been hurt when he thought she’d hidden the truth about her mom.

They didn’t hide things from each other.

Embarrassment or shame couldn’t exist between them, not really.

In their friendship, they belonged to and owned each other fully.

Picking up his hand, she kissed his palm and tucked it between her ear and the headrest. That lasted all of three seconds.

“Radley, baby, appreciate it, but this is a manual and we’re in city traffic.”

Allowing his hand its freedom, she just smiled. “I could totally screw it up, you know? Hope. I could take all your money and ruin your reputation along with countless lives.”

“Think it would stop me?”

“No.”

“I screw up, you screw up. You screw up, we screw up. It’s the circle of friendship, Babycakes. We have a contract.”

She slid her hand across his leg to his inner thigh. “If it feels good, it’s allowed…?”

“That,” he said, adjusting his position and her hand, putting it to work, warming him up, not that he ever cooled down.

Sometimes it was like being with a horny teenager.

No judgment, she was no better. “And friendship is real and permanent, whether you like it or not. That’s the beauty of it.

It keeps going long after the love has faded. ”

“You think our love has faded?” she teased.

“Fades every time I shoot my load in you, Babycakes. Then I’ve gotta build it back up for the next time.”

“You’re crude.”

“You love it.” And he was right. As always, they jived with each other’s wavelength and knocked as many out of the park as they did teeing up the punchline for the other.

“I’m your best friend, Radley. No matter what, you’re still going to pick up the phone the next day and talk to me. It’s in the contract.”

“You’re a chauvinistic bigot,” she murmured.

“You’re a dandelion snowflake.” His chin bobbed toward her chest. “Take ‘em out.”

Arching, she eased the fabric from her shoulders to widen her scoop neck. “That’s as much as you get until you pony up. I want caviar.”

“I am caviar. Luxury, rich—”

“And best enjoyed in small doses?”

“You want me to pamper you? Caviar? Champagne? Orgasms?”

“Yes, please,” she said, laying on a little sarcasm of her own. “Do a good job, maybe I’ll let you be my whore full time.”

“Better treat me right. Show a little gratitude. Make me feel appreciated.” She wriggled her top further down. “Just like that.”

He stole her hand to lay it on the stick shift under his.

Nothing wrong with a little time off, was there? They deserved a weekend of debauchery. Who was there to tell them otherwise? The business wouldn’t suffer, and they could multitask. They could depend on each other. Not that she’d ever admit he’d been right.