Page 55 of Expecting an Argument
And if that wasn’t bad enough, that damn man had made me need his hands. I couldn’t even look him in the eye when I asked him to massage away the pain in my hips mere days after he had bent me over on my yoga mat. To his credit, Beau quietly met my needs like an obligation even though our massage sessions had coin-flip odds of ending in sex. Of course, he usually dropped a smug line like, “Always a pleasure to sate your voracious appetite, Adams,” before he dropped to his knees, but he wouldn’t be Beau if he wasn’t a little bit of an asshole.
We both silently agreed that we should resist each other, but neither of us could help it. I kept at least one boundary up by refusing to kiss him, making it clear that my roving hands were after carnal gratification and nothing more, but Beau didn’t make it easy.
When that golden tongue of his traced little French words between my legs…mon dieu.
As much effort as I spent enforcing physical boundaries, I spent even more effort dismantling my emotional ones. The strategy might have seemed counterintuitive, but it was ultimately very simple. If pulling away from Beau had only made him suspicious of my deeper feelings, then leading him to safer emotional territory might take him off the hunt for my soft spots.
Talking about college was a good neutral ground for the both of us. I found out he would have been a doctor had he not been the only heir to the family business. To my surprise, he apparently had been a bit of a party boy too.
But when he brought up Katie,repeatedly,I struggled not to squirm.
So, as we were on our way to meet Ashley at Miss Kaye’shouse, I moved on to a slightly riskier topic so I could avoid Katie all together.
“You said at Christmas that one of the only people you trust is your finance guy,” I said from the passenger seat of his truck. “Why?”
He chuckled as he drove. “I met Chuck on a spring break trip in the mountains when I was in college. I had gotten into extreme skiing—the kind where a helicopter takes you to the summit.”
I shivered as I pictured flying that high, but of course Beau would be a thrill seeker. “So, Chuck skis?”
“Not at all,” Beau responded. “He was the helicopter pilot. He flew during his time in the military and decided that shuttling rich kids in the air was a decent hustle. Got to talking to him and found out he was really good with numbers too. Figured that if I could trust him to not crash into the side of a mountain, I could trust him with my money.”
I gave him a skeptical look. Any other rich guy would have gone to one of the big finance firms in the city. Beau still kept mum on what his finances actually were, but they seemed more complicated than what a single helicopter pilot could handle.
Regardless of Chuck’s financial ability, Beau may have just unwittingly revealed another pillar of his core persona. Beneath a cool and snarky exterior was someone who cared deeply about honor, veracity, and—as I had just discovered—trust.
“Where does Chuck live?” I asked.
“In the mountains, but he can be in Elren at the drop of a hat,” Beau answered as he made a turn. “I pay him to fly my helicopter too.”
The truck slowed down to park and I gasped as I looked out the window. Ashley had told me they had finished the exterior paint refresh, but I hadn’t expected Miss Kaye’s house to look so stunning. The once faded green siding was now a brightveridian, the chipped gingerbreading on the wraparound porch was a buttery yellow, and the trim framing the windows and lining the columns of the porch were all painted a bright raspberry red.
She was like a butterfly fresh out of the cocoon.
“Oh!” I cried as I fumbled with the truck door. I didn’t even wait for Beau to lower the truck and extend the step before I jumped onto the curb. I held my belly and quickly waddled up the freshly-laid brick pathway to the house.
“Use the handrail, speedy!” Beau called after me. “Don’t test Ashley’s insurance coverage by falling before you can even get in the door!”
I rolled my eyes, but gripped the railing as I took a step onto the stairs. To my delight, Tyson had replaced the rotting wood with sturdy pine and the red paint on the rail was glossy to the touch. My baby bump heaved as I pulled myself up the four steps to the porch.
Though I nearly started panting as I ascended the steps, Beau effortlessly climbed the stairs and met me on the porch at the same time. He held my green cup in his hand—I guess I had been so excited to see the house that I had forgotten it.
“We have a ramp, silly!” Ashley said as she walked around from the side of the porch. Her blonde ponytail swished as she tossed her head to the right, gesturing to the ramp with sleek steel handrails that wove around the front of the house. “‘Course we’re still waiting for the sign that directs people to it…”
I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and squealed. “Her house looks so good, Ash! Better than the pictures you sent!”
Ashley walked to the deep purple door and wrapped her hand around the shining brass handle. “Just wait until you see the inside.”
I tried to peer through the door’s oval window to get a sneak peek, but I still gasped when Ashley revealed the house in all itssplendor.
Drop cloths still covered the foyer floor, but the oiled dark wood railing on the staircase gleamed brilliantly under the light of a mock-gaslamp chandelier. The marvelous stained glass window had been dusted and cleaned, its colors shining brightly on the half landing where the stairs split off in opposite directions.
I grabbed Beau’s wrist and tugged him into the foyer. “Look! Look at the window! Isn’t it gorgeous?”
Beau looked at me, then up at the window. “Sure?”
Only when I was fully in the foyer did I notice the blush wallpaper covering the whole room. “Ash! You picked the wallpaper I sent!”
Ashley leaned against the doorframe. “Since the other spaces have a neutral palette to accommodate different decorations for events, I wanted the foyer to be more iconic.”
