Working On Love (The Griffin Brothers Book 6) (14 page)

“I’ll remember that
for when I
do
ask
you. Today’s not the day—although, I hope you know that I’m
committed to you in every way possible. I’m yours.”

“I’m yours too,
King. I think that’s enough talking for now. Show me your crown.”

He laughs, but things
turn serious rather quickly. We spend the rest of the day, and night,
showing each other our love.

* * *

Miles

Alex and I have been
back together for a month now. Things couldn’t be going any better.
I love waking up to her every morning and falling asleep with her in
my arms at night. Actually, passing out at night is probably a more
accurate way to describe it. We still can’t get enough of each
other. She lets me be in control most nights, but I let her boss me
around from time to time.

The times away from the
bedroom are great, too. We watch movies, go to restaurants and shows,
and have taken a few weekend trips to Disneyland. Disney will always
be rooted in our history, and we both wanted to keep it in our
present as well.

Today, I’m headed to
the foundation for a meeting with my gram. She scheduled it with my
secretary. Yes, I have the same one. She’s grown on me, especially
since she seems to really like Alex. I don’t know what the
meeting’s about, but I’ll get an extra few minutes with my girl,
so it’s all good.

I walk into the
foundation lobby and Alex smiles at me before getting up from her
seat. “Are you ready for the meeting?”

“I guess so. It’s
just with Gram.”

“I’ll be there,
too.”

“You will?”

“Yeah. Let me just
set up my phones, and we’ll head back.”

“Okay. Is this bad?
We’re not in trouble for dating, are we?”

“It’s good. I
promise. She loves that we’re together.”

That’s a relief. I
thought she did, I mean we have dinner with her and Matt once a week,
but I was worried that someone had complained. Alex doesn’t work
for me, or even the company itself, but you never know.

We walk down the hall,
hand in hand. Alex stops at the door to a room I’ve never been in.
She smiles at me as she uses a hand scanner
and
an eye scanner to open the door. I step inside after her and see a
room full of people. Everyone is smiling at me. Alex pulls me to the
two open seats at the bottom of the star shaped table. I sit next to
her and look to my Gram.

“Things aren’t
always as they seem, Miles,” she tells me. For the next ten minutes
I sit in shock as she tells me what the foundation and girls really
do. She explains that I’m only being told because Alex has chosen
for me to know. I squeeze her hand and kiss her temple when I hear
that. After she speaks, they let me ask questions.

“Wow. That’s
just…wow.”

“I wanted you to know
for two reasons, Miles,” Alex tells me. “One, you need to know
that your father can’t hurt me, or you, again.”

“Is he…umm…dead?”

“No. He’s somewhere
remote and can’t leave there.”

“Oh. Umm, cool, I
think. Can I ask you something? I’ve been wondering about this for
a while.”

“Sure. You know I’ll
tell you anything.”

“Who got my baseball
cards?”

“That was Darcy.”

I look over to the
orange haired pin-up girl. “Thanks.”

“No problem. It was
fun.”

“You said there were
two reasons?”

“Yeah. We have a ton
of connections, obviously. I talked to the owner of the Blaze the
other day. We helped him with a little problem he had with one of the
people in his headquarters. He would love to have you back for the
last couple months of the season, Miles.”

The San Francisco Blaze
was the team I’d been signed to before I had to leave and take my
place in the company. I loved the team, especially Matt Scanlon and
J.T. Sawyer. Not only are they awesome catchers, but really great
guys. I’ve kept in touch with the two of them, but I didn’t think
I’d ever be pitching to them again. Well, I’ll pitch to Matt.
J.T. just got a starting spot with the Padres.

“You’re kidding.”

“No, Miles. You
shouldn’t have given up your dream. Now, with your dad out of the
picture, you can have it again.”

“You’ll go on the
road with me?”

“I can’t. I love
this job and what we’re doing too much to just leave it. I’ll
come to your weekend games, though.”

“And we’ll get your
office stuff covered. The season’s almost over, so you won’t be
gone long. You need to do this little brother.”

“Thanks, Matt. I
still don’t know about leaving. We’re in such a good place,
Xandy. I don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t. Unless
you act like the stupid baseball players who cheat on their
girlfriends. Then you would lose me.”

“I would never do
that to you. To us.”

“I know. I trust you.
Go live your dream. Then come back to me, so I can finish living
mine.”

“Ours, you mean. I
love baseball and can’t wait to get out on the field, but you’re
my dream. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Two months later

Miles

I’m so happy to be
home. I loved playing professional baseball these last two months,
but I love Alex more. Only seeing her a handful of times nearly
killed me. That and the hot sex we had over the weekends when she
came to visit. I’m surprised I could function well enough to walk
onto the field.

I actually did pretty
well in the games I played. I only started a few, but it was nice to
have Alex, my brother, and Gram there. Quinn and Zane even brought
Landon to a game, and he loved it. Especially when he got to meet the
other players. It was great hanging out with Matt, and even Trey
Gentry, too. Matt’s wife is really great and welcomed Alex into
their group right away.

Despite all of that, I
turned down the contract that I was offered. Being away made me
realize how much everything I left behind means to me. I knew it
would be hard to leave Alex, and it was, but I missed so much more. I
missed Landon and the rest of the Little League kids, my Gram, Matt,
and even the foundation girls. Or Society girls, as they refer to
themselves. I also found that I missed my work. I had originally
thought that I’d hate being chained to a desk. It didn’t end up
feeling that way. I’m good at the job and knowing I bring in money
that ends up helping the foundation missions, well, it’s pretty
cool.

I got in an hour ago
and called Ainsley to have her stall Alex at the office so I could
get things ready. Faith made us an awesome dinner while Stella
decorated with candles and flowers. I’ve changed into one of my
actual jerseys, which I left unbuttoned, and my boxer briefs. I’m
milking the sexy jock vibe for all it’s worth. I have no shame. I
want to be attacked.

I hear her key in the
door and get in position. I’m leaning against the dining room door,
looking like it’s just a natural thing for me to welcome her home
every night. It will be from now on, but she’s not expecting it
tonight. She drops her keys and lets her purse slide from her arm as
she takes me in.

“Hi honey, I’m
home.”

“Hell yeah, you are.”

“Did you miss me?”

“Maybe.”

“Just maybe? I can
work with that. Let’s have dinner.”

“What if I want you
for dinner?” she asks as she walks up to me and pushes open the
jersey with one hand while sliding her other one inside my briefs.

“Faith cooked and
Stella decorated. I wouldn’t want them to have wasted their time,”
I tell her as I involuntarily start to thrust into her hand.

She takes her hands off
of me and walks into the dining room. “Okay let’s eat.” Damn.
Maybe she didn’t miss me.

I’m surprised even
more when she takes a seat next to me instead of across the table.
She lifts an asparagus spear off the plate in front of her and takes
a bite. Then she drops it down the front of her dress. “Oops. Can
you get that for me, King?”

Oh yeah. She missed me,
and now we’re going to play. I retrieve it, along with everything
else she accidentally drops down her top, or between her legs. I
finally throw her onto the table, and eat her for dinner. It’s good
to be home.

As always, I need to
thank my girls first. Dominique and Gabi, you are the best daughters
a mother could have, and I love you both more than words.

A big shout out and
thank you to Alison Packard, who let me borrow her fictional baseball
team and players for Miles. If you haven’t read her books, you
should-I LOVE them and her!

Thanks to Tera Lynn
Childs for making me finish book one when I just wanted to stop and
read it. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have sent any of the
books into the world. Your friendship means more to me than anything,
and your dedication inspires me every day.

To all my friends in
the Books…We Love Books book club, I love you all. Thanks for being
such great friends.

Lots of people helped
me with all the books. Authors, friends, readers, and co-workers have
supported me through every step of my journey. I’ve thanked you all
in one book or another. I just want you to know that I appreciate
everything you’ve done to support me.

I can never thank Helen
Williams enough for my book covers. We are so in synch (although she
likes pastels, and I like bold colors). I want to write more books
just to have her make me more covers!

Jesse Gordon has
formatted all the books in the series, and I can’t say enough good
things about him. Thank you for everything.

This may be the last
official book in The Griffin Brothers series (or not), but you’ll
see them all in Corrigan & Co. You’ve met some of the girls
already in this book, and I can’t wait for you to see them in
action!

Thanks again to the
readers. I hope you’ll keep reaching out to my on Facebook,
Goodreads, and email. I love to hear from you!

Turn the page for a peek at Fielding Her Secret, the first book in
the Corrigan & Co. series. It will be released on January 12,
2015.

There will be
ten books total in the series which combines Charlie’s Angels with
a secret society of women. Watch for the Griffins to pop up from time
to time!

Publicly, The
Corrigan & Co. Foundation has been supporting women for years.
Secretly, five powerful women led by Jane Corrigan have recruited ten
agents, sending them to rescue women and children in need, and take
down those who exploit the weak. This secret society of women all
have unique skills they’ve brought to the foundation. Additionally,
they’ve all had training in weapons, etiquette, martial arts,
technology and languages. Helping out friends and family of their
five mentors from time to time is something they were told to expect.
What they didn’t plan for is falling in love.

Chapter
1

Ainsley

I just got called into
the conference room. I know what this means—I’m being assigned to
a mission. I’ve done a few over the past four years, but not as
many as the other women. My expertise is computers, so I usually just
support everyone else while working in my office downstairs, and
overseeing my team. I’m not girly or glamorous
at
all,
which limits what I can do on the outside.

As I head upstairs in
the elevator, I think about how I ended up here at Corrigan &
Company. I was a tomboy growing up. I have four older brothers and I
followed them everywhere and wanted to do everything they did. So I
played every sport imaginable, asking for Legos and video games
instead of Barbies and dresses for my birthdays. I took the dance
classes my mom wanted me to, but only because I love her and I know
it was hard for her to see her little girl wanting to be a boy.

When I got to junior
high, I started noticing boys instead of just wanting to beat them on
a sports field. It was too late, though. I was just Ainsley, the
person picked first for sports teams and the last person any of them
would ever think of asking out. I dealt with the disappointment at
never being kissed or asked out by getting lost in my video games,
which lead to me taking a kids programming class at a local center. I
was apparently good at it, because they offered me the chance to take
the college level classes the next session. I fell in love with
programming and coding and that’s all I wanted to do.

My parents supported
me, although I know they were worried about my not having a social
life. I still played sports, but I never hung out with anyone from
the teams—male or female—because when you get to a certain age,
if you’re not trying to be a girl off the field, you just don’t
fit in. At least not in my schools. So I kept to myself, wearing
glasses to hide my pain, and baggy clothes to hide my developing
curves. I got a scholarship to one of the Chicago universities and
was soon tutoring other students. I still kept to myself, but it was
okay then. I was accepted because being smart was cool, especially
when the hottest guy on campus was a computer nerd as well.

Scott Griffin is the
human equivalent of a Greek god. If the god was covered in tattoos
and a couple of piercings. Every girl on campus wanted him.
I
wanted him. His bed was occupied by almost every woman on campus. Not
me, of course. To him, I was just another person who could code. It
was just like when I was younger, only now I was just one of the
computer guys instead of the sports ones. Scott was always nice to
me, and I got the respect that the other girls on campus didn’t get
from him, so I guess that’s something.

It was Scott who
brought me here. He asked me to meet him downtown at the C&C
Chicago headquarters a couple of weeks before graduation. I’d heard
of the company, but I wasn’t sure what I was doing there. They
don’t specialize in computers. I went because, well, he
is
Scott Griffin, and I wasn’t going to say no.