“That’d be nice,” I reply, leaning up to kiss him, long, slow, deep. When I pull away and turn back around, even though the water is getting chilly, I settle into his chest again.
“There’s something, uh . . . else I wanted to discuss,” he says.
Now I hear something in his voice, a reservation. A hesitation that has me grabbing his hand and linking our fingers at my waist.
“Shoot,” I say. “What’s up?”
He brushes his free hand over my hair and drops a kiss onto the wet strands.
“I have an offer to make,” he says, watching my face closely. “I have a position for you at Elevation.”
If you could hear a pin drop in bathwater, we would right now. It’s not that I suspect he chased me for my clients, for what I could add to his agency. I’m clear on Jared’s single-minded love for me. It’s my brain working through the offer.
I separate myself from the woman stretched out against the man who owns her heart. That woman’s ass still aches from how hard he fucked her. That woman wears stubble burns on her breasts and the insides of her thighs from his kisses. That woman’s whole world fits inside this bathtub with the golden-haired man behind her. In an apocalypse, this would be all she needed.
But the world is not coming to an end, and I mentally take a few measured steps away from this tub and that girl and her man and examine the offer with objective distance.
“You say you have a position for me at Elevation?”
I turn and slide away until my back hits the other side and we’re facing each other. I hang my arms over the lip of the tub, caught at the elbows.
“Yes.” His lips twist, a smile suppressed because he feels the shift. The water isn’t the only thing cooling. “A very generous offer, I think.”
“You have a position for me at your agency. How would that differ from my current situation?”
“I’d beat whatever Cal pays you.”
“Cal doesn’t pay me.” I relish the surprise in his eyes. “I negotiated a contract to waive my base salary in exchange for keeping even more of my commission.”
I smile innocently and bat my lashes.
“It’s actually quite a lot.”
An amused breath passes his lips, and where I lean back, he leans forward, propping his elbows on the edge of the tub.
“So what would it take for you to come work for me?”
“I won’t come work for you.”
“You won’t?” he asks, his frown quick, heavy.
“I know exactly how many clients Elevation represents, and I can guarantee that all of mine would follow me out the door if I left Bagley. That would double your client list.” Now I lean forward, my naked breasts pushing through the water, and wait for him to raise his eyes from my nipples. “In a day.”
“Double?”
“Double,” I confirm. “I have autonomy at Bagley, by and large, and keep more of my money than I would anywhere else. Eventually, I’ll strike out on my own but haven’t wanted to take that step before. What you’re describing would be a lateral move, at best, and doesn’t interest me.”
I raise one knee and watch his eyes drop between my legs.
“I won’t come work for you,” I reiterate. “But I would come work with you if the offer was right. Equal partner.”
“Equal partner?” His mouth drops open, that strong jaw unhinged. “In the firm I built from nothing? You want to walk in the door and be handed an equal partnership?”
“Handed?” I tilt my head and compress my lips. “I can’t remember the last time I was handed anything. I’ve worked my ass off for the last decade, just like you have. My reputation and results are just as good.”
I give him a meaningful look and don’t say the words aloud, but he hears them.
If not better.
He licks his lips and tucks them in, hiding a smile from me.
“I’d have to talk to August. He’s a silent partner.”
“You do that.” I stand, naked and as confident as if we were wrapping up a negotiation at a boardroom table. I step out, tie a towel at my breasts, and offer my “closer” smile. “And get back to me.”
Epilogue
“It is true what they say-When you know, you know.”
-Cindy Cherie, Poetess
Epilogue - Jared
“There’s nothing to be nervous about,” Banner says, chewing her thumbnail and scrunching her expression into a frown.
Looking nervous.
“Uh . . . okay.” I pull into the parking lot of the villa where Banner’s niece Anna’s quincea?era reception is being held. “I’m not nervous.”
She probably doesn’t believe me, but I’m not. We’ve been together for six months, and I’ve been to the occasional dinner with her closest relatives, but this is the first time I’m attending a function with the entire sprawling family. Apparently, it’s a big deal since she keeps telling me how not nervous I should be. We just left the Mass, which is traditionally held before the party. It was full-on Bible, rosary, priest, pomp and circumstance—the whole shebang. First time I’ve been to a church of any kind since . . . I literally cannot remember. I’m surprised lightning didn’t strike.
“If my Uncle Javier gets drunk,” Banner says. “Don’t talk to him. Ignore him. He says crazy stuff when he’s drunk.”
“Don’t we all?”
I get out and so does she.
“And you already know not to engage with Mama.” She checks the hair bundled at the back of her head in a loose knot. “I really thought she would have come around by now.”
Mama Morales has proved harder to win over than the public, whose perception of Banner as Zo’s faithful Penelope was hard to banish but not as awkward as we anticipated. Banner definitely got props for taking care of Zo the way she did even when they weren’t romantically linked. As much as I want to tattoo my name on her face so everyone knows, I do appreciate that it’s best to take a more measured approach. When Banner left Bagley and came to Elevation, many assumed our relationship naturally developed there.
“Are you thinking about what Mama said last time?” Banner asks. “Is that why you’re so quiet?”
“What’d she say last time?” I ask with a frown.
“Oh.” She bites her lip. “Nothing. Never mind.”