Paradise Hops (11 page)

“Garrett, why are you meeting with Fred Sullivan?”

He flinched as his brain shifted gears from jealous indignation to nervous guilt. But he had nothing to be guilty about. He cleared his throat, tried to sound nonchalant. “Because he’s interested in investing, but you would know that, so why ask?” He laced his fingers through hers, brought her hand to his lips.

“He’s a fucking predator. Surely
you
would know
that
?” He sensed her tense against him as she kept talking, words spilling from her as if pent up, held back for a while. “I don’t want him anywhere near my company and neither would Dad. So, why are you, our general manager, having lunch with the guy?”

Garrett tried to keep the defensive tone out of his voice. “Just a simple lunch, Lori, nothing more or less, his idea, not mine. But I have to admit I’m a little worried.”

She pulled her hand out of his and rolled onto her back, pulling the light cover over her nudity. He propped himself up this time, ran a finger down her face.

“No wonder you were so quiet tonight.”

She frowned and he put his finger between her eyes, rubbing away the worry line she’d developed there. She kept her eyes on the ceiling as she spoke. “Worried about what exactly?”

Garrett kissed her shoulder trying to keep his tone light. “You guys brought me in for a lot of reasons — create efficiencies of scale, streamline logistics, analyze sales, manage expansion, all of that. So, in doing all of that, I’ve discovered that the company has been hemorrhaging money for about six years now.” She turned to him, disbelief in her stare. “I mean, it’s manageable, trackable; no one is stealing from you. But your rate of necessary growth—all the new brewing equipment, the fancy filtration, the ingredients, all of it plus the debt service on that huge fucking warehouse—it’s not supported by the necessary increase in profits. Your sales are flat, to be honest, and have been for the last ten years while everyone around you is skyrocketing off the charts. I don’t know why, but I do know that you can’t go on like that and remain viable.” She rolled over and sat up on the side of the bed, rubbing her arms, her shoulders hunched. He touched the small of her back, trying to absorb some of her tension. “I’m merely keeping Brockton’s options open, in case you need a cash influx, which, if you keep tracking for the next year or two the same way, you will need a big one.”

“But I just spent six months in ordering. We can hardly keep up. How does that translate to flat sales?” Garrett got up and pulled on a pair of shorts then came around the bed to sit beside her.

“It’s a bigger problem honey. Your dad jumped into expansion too quickly I think, but it’s okay. I’m gonna fix it.” She jerked away from him so violently, he nearly fell over into the empty space she’d vacated. “What did I say?” he stared at her, honestly confused.

“Damn it, Garrett, you are not going to fix it by giving a chunk of my company away to a fucking macro brewing consortium. I won’t stand for it.” She stomped into the bathroom, then emerged wearing yoga pants and a sports bra. “You can’t go behind our backs like this.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong, Lori. Are you not listening to me? I’m not working with the guy, but he’s one of the smartest men around in this business, and he’s already read the tea leaves. He knows that Brockton is headed for a fall if something isn’t done fairly drastically to either change the sales slump or stop fucking spending money. Jesus!” He stood, let anger at her recalcitrance and his own jealousy speak next. “Besides, you’ve been so busy in the brewery getting backrubs from that prima donna, you’ve lost touch with the real part of this business. You know? The part where we are trying to make money.” She glared at him then walked out of the room. He followed her, stopping at doorway. “He’s leaving anyway, you realize that, right?” The look on her face told him all he needed to know. “Pompous ass can’t stay in one place for too long. It’s not in his nature. You’d best remember that for more reasons than one.”

Lori’s ears buzzed. Her face burned. Stomping into the kitchen she stared around wildly wishing there was something she could do, some small disorganization she could toss into his life that would make a difference. But, no. Garrett Hunter’s world was perfectly ordered. He had all the answers for himself and for everyone around him.

“I’m going for a walk,” she shouted up the steps. “I’ll talk to you later.” Her heart ached, part of her terrified at being alone after all this together time with him. He made her feel safe, loved. And yet utterly frustrated with his officious constant cleaning and organization.

 She sat a minute in the swing under the huge tree that held some of her fondest childhood memories. Her better self started to lecture:
He has never once intimated that you are at fault because you aren’t as organized as he is. He loves you the way you are. Why can’t you just accept him the way he is? You keep this up, keep pushing him away and you are gonna be alone again. Alone with your stupid obsession over that damn Eli.

Of course she realized the company had been hemorrhaging money. She understood a profit and loss statement. She knew the significance of cash flows for a company that had grown fast but also remained fairly small. But she trusted her father implicitly.  And he had sorted it out by hiring a suit-wearing, handsome guy with a shiny MBA.  Which is exactly what was happening. She stood up, stretching her legs. A touch on her shoulder made her yelp in surprise.

The abject regret on Garrett’s face made her knees shake. Did she love him? Was that what this was — this bizarre combination of terrified and exhilarated, needing to see him yet feeling overwhelmed by his presence? He reached in and clutched the back of her neck, pulled her close and kissed her, breaking the contact just as she felt her body give way. His voice was lower than usual. “Come back inside.”

You do love him, Lori. Why won’t you say it? Why do you keep making him say it?
She glared at him a minute, leaned back against the rough tree trunk. In seconds, he had her in his arms, mouth slanted over hers, tongue forced between her lips. She started to pull away, to protest. He fisted one hand in her hair, the other gripped her ass, held her close, forced her to feel his need. As the weak springtime sun set, he stared at her, the deep green of his eyes faded along with the light. “Don’t go,” he whispered.

He bit her ear, kissed his way down her neck making her shiver. Whimpering sounds escaped her throat as a river of need coursed through her entire body. She shifted, felt eager hands on her waist, sensed his urgency and met it with her own. When he plunged a hand down her panties, she spread her legs wanting nothing more than for this, this man, right now. A small voice reminded that they should talk. Should skip the sex for one night and really discuss what was happening between them. But a louder voice interrupted that one, effectively silencing it when he shoved her shirt up and sucked her nipple between his lips.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, between gasping for breath. “Oh, Jesus, Garrett,” She clutched his hair, captured his lips as he stroked her to not one but two blinding back-to-back orgasms. He lifted his face from her breasts. She got a good look at his eyes, now that her vision had adjusted to the gloom. But instead of responding with words, as she knew she should, she reached down to free his cock from the shorts he’d thrown on in his haste to find her. To bring her back from the precipice, back to his arms.

“Lori, you are gonna kill me,” he muttered between kisses as she slowly turned around and lowered the spandex over her hips, exposing herself to him. She bit her lip as he ran hands over her flesh, found a sharp edge of fear at his touch but closed her eyes and forced it away. She had nothing to fear. Not anymore. Not from this man.

“Take me, Garrett.” She found his hand, brought it to her breast. As he curled his taut body around her she braced her hands on the tree, and sighed with pleasure as his long cock slid into her one delicious inch at a time. “Fuck me, baby. Like you want to. I…I want it.” He stopped as if shut off by a switch. She gasped as he pulled out of her, turning her around fast to face him.

“Lori, I don’t need to prove anything and you don’t have to either.” Tears poured down her face. The weaker Lori she thought she’d conquered in the last months, thanks to him, and to Eli still had the ability to ruin everything with the infernal crying. He held her close, his rigid sex pressed between them. She slid her hand down to embrace it, run her thumb over the fluid he leaked.

She looked up at him, as the words tumbled out. “If being in love with somebody makes you want to kiss them, jump their bones, read their thoughts, feed them breakfast with your own hands but also to kill them or at least smack them silly at times, well, I guess…,” she shook her head. “I guess I’m insane. You should get as far from me as you can.”

He covered her mouth with his, the kiss tender at first, then more urgent as she kept up her motion along his cock. He pushed her back against the swing, shoved her yoga pants all the way down so she could step out of them then lifted her up and held on. She lifted one leg, perched on the edge of the swing, and the second he slid back inside her body, her world fell into place.

Garrett tried to emerge from the dream, to force himself awake but the harder he tried, the worse it got. All he saw was Lori, bruised, broken, crying down in the brewery and Eli standing over her. The other man looked straight at him, pointing, his mouth open and accusing. Garrett couldn’t speak, or walk, he just watched as she stood and the tall blonde man gathered her into his arms. He could only stare as they kissed, long, deep, and with a feeling she still had not shown him. He blinked, and the whole thing repeated itself; only this time he heard the other man’s voice.

“You can’t fix her. Leave her alone, suit. You’ve done enough. Let me handle it, Garrett.” He shook his head, his feet stuck, frozen, keeping him a good ten yards from the scene.

“Garrett.”

His lips moved. “No!”

“Garrett!” He sat up, breathing heavy, looking for that smarmy asshole so he could punch his lights out once and for all. The dark room made him blink. The sound of Lori’s voice, the touch of a hand on his leg made him gasp. “Garrett, Jesus, you’re scaring me. Are you okay?” She ran a hand down his face, and he flinched. After climbing out of bed without a word, emptying his bladder and splashing water on his face, he crawled back into the warm nest of blankets and the woman he loved. She held him close, muttering his name, running her hand down his face and he drifted off again.

Chapter Ten

Garrett stared at his computer screen, eyes blurry and head pounding from lack of sleep. He snapped at his assistant, bit off some heads in the warehousing department, and fielded yet another call from Fred Sullivan. He knew the guy was trying to worm his way into a precarious situation, mainly to profit from any potential fallout. Clenching his jaw yet again, Garrett hit send on the latest round of emails to the sales manager. Basically telling the guy that he had six months to turn the shit around, using all the expensive point of sale, swag and new staff Garrett had made available to him. Or he could pound sand.

The weekend he’d spent up North with Lori they’d pretty much stayed in bed the entire time. By Sunday he’d been antsy, needing the comfort of his routine and his house to set him straight. It had been a mind-blowing whirlwind of sex and more sex, but the words he craved from her, that she came so close to saying, never crossed her lips. So he held back too. And by the time he dropped her off at her house, they were both tense from things unspoken.

On the way back from the lake, he’d put a hand on her leg, making her look up from the crossword puzzle she kept working in order to ignore him. “You’re sure about this whole birth control thing, right? I mean I don’t mind going without condoms now that we’ve discussed it but….”

She had frowned. “It’s fine, Garrett. I can’t get pregnant, remember?”