Page 66 of The Boss I Can't Stand
I liked the sound of that.
23
FINN
“They say good things happen in threes,” Sierra said as we made our way to my brother’s place in Studio City. “Movie officially wrapped yesterday. Family dinner. I wonder what number three is?”
“Hopefully you. In my bed. Tonight,” I said. I chose not to mention that I wouldn’t exactly qualify a family dinner hosted by my mother as a good thing. Sierra was happy about it, and that was what mattered. I was willing enough to play along if it meant Sierra would be naked and moaning my name following the disaster this was likely to be.
“I’malwaysin your bed,” she said with a wry grin, which was especially true as of late. The moment we’d started sleeping together, we’d done away with the pretense of the guest room and turned it into a working office of sorts.
“I just like to set the expectation,” I said. “So you know exactly where you’re supposed to be when we get home.”
Her expression was unreadable for a moment, then it passed, and I wondered if I’d imagined it. I tugged on my cuffs.
“Don’t fiddle,” Sierra chastised, reaching across the car to catch my hand. “You look perfect.”
“I look like I took a wrong turn out of nineteen twenty-two,” I said.
“Exactly.” Sierra grinned, adjusting the feathered headband in her hair. My eyes drifted down the sequined fringe of her flapper dress.
She crossed her legs in a way that made the dress ride up her thighs and smirked. “Eyes on the road, Mr. Bigshot.”
I dragged my gaze away. “I’m going to enjoy taking that off you later.”
“Promises, promises.”
“Indeed,” I growled. In the past, I’d have celebrated wrapping a movie out on the town, but as is typical of my mother, she’d planned our monthly family dinner for the night after we wrapped filming and declared that we all needed to show up dressed to the nineteen twenties theme.
I hadn’t been looking forward to that or the itchy suit I’d been stuffed into, but then Sierra had pulled me into the guest room and “helped” me get dressed in a way I really needed to not think about when I was about to walk into a room that held my mother and my eight-year-old niece.
“You okay?” Sierra asked.
I wasn’t sure what expression was on my face, but it was probably glazed and happy, given that I was replaying the moment she sank to her knees in front of me, taking my entire?—
“Yeah,” I said, clearing my throat. “Just eager to get this over with.”We pulled up to the security house of the gated neighborhood my brother lived in.
“Maybe it’ll go better than you think,” Sierra said. I knew she had a soft spot for my mother. They’d become close while working on the film.
“Maybe,” I said noncommittally. My mother had decided to cook dinner herself from a book of nineteen twenties recipes which told me all I needed to know in terms of how edible dinner was likely to be. I pulled my phone out while I waited for security to run my plates, messaging Carlos, my private chef. I’d asked him to show up tonight just after dinner hit the table.
“Why don’t you give your mom a shot?” Sierra said, running her hand down the front of her dress, smoothing the fringe. “She’s obviously trying to do something fun here. Maybe it’ll turn out better than you expect.”
“Fun would have been pizza and charades,” I quipped. “I’m trying to make sure Grace doesn’t end up with food poisoning.”
Sierra gave me a hard look. “Your mother can’t bethatbad of a cook.”
“Look, there’s a reason Connor is such a good cook, and it’s not because he needed a hobby when he was ten.”
“I just think it’s really sweet that she wants to cook for us. And the theme night idea is cute. You know, she’s trying to celebrate your success.”
The gate ahead of us rolled open. I tucked my phone away and smiled at her. Sierra was far too trusting, believing everything would work out and that good intentions would lead to good results. My childhood had taught me differently.
“Wow,” Sierra said, leaning forward to get a better look as we pulled up the winding drive to Liam’s mansion.
“And can you believe with all this space, Liam still can’t find anywhere to have sex with Mia with my mother around?”
Sierra’s lips twitched. I got out of the car, walking around to open her door for her. I took her hand, helping her out of the car, feeling the cold press of the engagement ring against my hand. It was a reminder that Sierra didn’t have to be told to put the ring on anymore. She just wore it. All the time. That struck a weird chord in my chest, but I shoved it down, not knowing why I was so bothered by it.Iwas the one who gave it to her to wear in the first place.
