Beg for It Read online

  “Oh my God.”

  “Do you want that?”

  Shit. There were a lot of things he’d be willing to do for her, but being a pony was absolutely going to stretch his comfort zone. Relieved when she burst into laughter, he took the chance to kiss her again.

  “As much as I’d like to take you for a ride, no. I don’t want you to be a pony. And I don’t think we need a notarized contract. I mean, what are we talking about?” Her laughter eased, and she gave him a serious look. “I told you, if you just want to fuck—”

  “No. That’s not it. I’d like to see you.”

  “You do see me,” she whispered and rocked a little against his cock.

  Reese drew in a breath. “I want to see you, Corinne. Like dating. Like a relationship.”

  “Monogamous?”

  “Yes.” He paused. “Unless you want to see other people.”

  “Like I said, Reese, my kids are my priority. I don’t really have time to go dating all over the place.” Corinne smoothed her hand over his cheek to cup his chin.

  His eyes went instantly heavy lidded at the embrace. “I like kids.”

  Her grip tightened until his eyes opened. “I haven’t brought anyone around to meet my kids.”

  “I’ve met at least one already,” he pointed out.

  “That was different. You were my boss. Not my boyfriend.”

  Heat crept up inside him at the way she said boyfriend. They sat quietly for another few seconds as she let go of his chin to cup his cheek. She kissed him lightly. Tenderly.

  “We can try it,” she said against his mouth. “This. Us.”

  “No contract?”

  “No contract,” she said. “But I think I’ll make you a list.”

  Reese grinned. “That’s okay. I like lists.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  There’d been a few hours of homework, then some TV, and now bedtime was looming. Peyton had already disappeared into her room, presumably to get on her laptop with friends in the last few minutes before she was supposed to go to sleep, but Tyler was procrastinating.

  “C’mon, buddy. You were supposed to be finished with this before TV.” Corinne scrubbed at her eyes, sleepy and more than a little irritated. “How long have you known you had to do this project?”

  Tyler gave her a look that reminded her far too uncomfortably of the one his father used to give her when he was trying to keep the truth from her. “Well, I just remembered about it.”

  “Uh-huh. And you didn’t work on it at all at your dad’s?”

  He gave her another guilty look. “Dad said it was okay, I’d have enough time to do it later. We were going to the movies.”

  Corinne frowned. “You’re supposed to do your homework first, Tyler. Before anything else.”

  “Nobody else had any,” he protested. “They’d have had to wait for me, and Dad said it wasn’t fair that everyone should suffer!”

  Corinne bit her tongue to keep herself from blurting out exactly how unfair it was that now she was going to be suffering because she had to oversee this busywork project that her kid really should’ve finished days ago but didn’t because his father was too selfish to give up an afternoon of fun. She sighed and flipped through the packet of information. At least she didn’t have to help him make a diorama. With a quick glance at the clock, she sighed.

  “Okay, let’s get working on this. I’m tired and want to take a bath.”

  “I can help him with it.” This came from Caitlyn, who stood in the kitchen doorway with a plate of leftover pasta in her hand. “I’m super good at doing last minute projects.”

  Corinne laughed. “Auntie Caitlyn’s the queen of procrastination.”

  Tyler frowned, looking back and forth between them. “Okay…”

  “Relax, kid. We’ll get your project underway. Let’s go.” Caitlyn settled at the table with her dinner.

  The three of them worked for a bit, Tyler typing up notes based on things Caitlyn pulled from the textbook while Corinne checked off the list of items he needed to include. When Corinne’s cell phone rang from where she’d been charging it on the counter, she glanced up but didn’t answer it. She caught Tyler and Caitlyn sharing a glance though.

  “What?” Corinne asked, frowning.

  Tyler shrugged. “You should answer that, it might be your boyfriend.”

  Corinne’s eyebrows rose. “Who says I have a boyfriend?”

  By the way Tyler looked at his aunt, Corinne figured it out easily enough. Her sister shrugged, giving Corinne a look of exaggerated innocence. Corinne sighed.

  “Me and Peyton don’t care, Mom.”

  Corinne carefully kept her voice neutral. “So you’ve talked about it, huh?”

  “Sure. I mean, you and Dad got divorced and he got a new wife. If you have a boyfriend who’s nice to you that’s okay.” Tyler paused. “And to us too.”

  “I wouldn’t be with someone who wasn’t nice to you, kiddo.”

  Tyler gave Caitlyn another look. “Auntie says he’s loaded. Do you think he’ll buy me a new—”

  “He’s not going to buy you anything,” Corinne interrupted sternly. “That’s rude.”

  “Yeah, he’s her boyfriend, not an ATM!” Caitlyn waggled her brows, making Tyler laugh.

  Corinne gave them both a look that did nothing to stop the giggling. “I’m glad you’re both amused.”

  “Sorry.” Caitlyn sobered up, but barely.

  It took another ten minutes or so, but finally the project was finished and Tyler packed off to bed with a reprimand not to let his work wait until the last minute again. Corinne came back to the kitchen to find her sister had cleared the dining room table and was wiping down the counters as the dishwasher hummed. She looked up when Corinne came in.

  “He called again while you were with the kid.”

  Corinne took her phone off the charger. “Should I even bother to yell at you for telling them?”

  “I didn’t, actually.” Her sister turned to lean against the edge of the sink. “They asked me, though, if you were seeing someone after you left me with them that Friday night and didn’t get home until the wee hours of the morning. Peyton’s the one who guessed it was Reese, by the way. I tried to play it off, but they’re not so dumb.”

  Corinne pursed her lips. “No. I guess they’re not. I should have told them, I guess.”

  “Are you going to bring him around? Is he really your boyfriend now? You haven’t told me a damn thing, but you’ve been walking around all week like a cat that got into the artisanal yogurt.”

  “Very funny.” Corinne rolled her eyes and swiped her phone’s screen to see if Reese had left a voicemail. Two missed calls, one voice message. She held her phone to her chest for a moment, helpless against the giddy grin that crept over her face.

  “Look at you.” Caitlyn sounded surprised. “Wow. You’re really into him. Even after all this time?”

  “It’s always like that in the beginning with someone.”

  Caitlyn gave her sister a look. “This isn’t the beginning. You guys have had a thing forever.”

  “You can’t count a thing that ended more than a decade ago as a thing, Caitlyn.”

  “Tell me you feel the same about him as you would any brand-new beau, and I’ll believe you.”

  “I do, it’s just the way you feel when you first start going out with someone. That’s all.”

  “Liar,” her sister said. “You’re such a liar!”

  It had only been three days since she and Reese had eaten Chinese food on the floor of his office. She’d promised him a list in place of a contract but hadn’t yet finished it. They’d both been coasting on the giddy thrill of what had happened between them, she thought. The list, a discussion, putting words to what they’d agreed to be to each other…that was going to make it all too real.

  “We’re seeing each other,” Corinne said.

  “Exclusively?”

  “Yes.”

  Caitlyn lowered her voice, looki