Give Me More--A Sexy Billionaire Romance A.C. Arthur (the giving tree read aloud .TXT) 📖

“And how’s Hope?” The oldest Hopkins sister had a chilly personality.

Grace’s raised brow and half smile hinted that she knew exactly what he was thinking about her sister. “Just got engaged three weeks ago,” she said with a smirk that surprised him almost as much her announcement.

“Really?”

So Grace was the last single sister. Did that bother her? During the time they were together she’d shared with him the pressure she’d always felt to be just as good as her parents and sisters were in their careers. The weight of that task had sparked her competitive and tenacious nature. He’d been able to relate as the oldest Gold sibling—it was expected that he’d one day helm the company and he’d strived to prove he was up to the task. As he was also the last single sibling in his family, it occurred to him that while successful in business, he and Grace had fallen short in the area of love.

“Yeah, somebody finally cracked that stiff exterior of hers.” She laughed. “And my mom’s ecstatic that the majority of her daughters are about to be married. ’Cause you know, the more who’re married, the greater the possibility of that houseful of grandchildren she wants.”

There was a hint of something in her tone, irritation, sarcasm. The relationship among the Hopkins women had been a close-knit but still strained one, if he recalled correctly. From the sound of Grace’s voice and the look on her face, it still was. What if problems with her family dynamic had influenced her decision to not accept his proposal? Frustration threatened to push to the surface. If anyone knew about juggling different personalities and expectations within a family, it was RJ, and Grace knew that.

“Well, I guess you can’t blame her. My mom hasn’t said anything yet but I know she’s waiting very impatiently for her first grandchild.” RJ obviously wouldn’t be giving her any since that was another idea that had drifted away when Grace left. He hadn’t imagined how much that realization bothered him until this very moment.

Grace wiped her hands against each other, sending remnants of powdered sugar floating in the air. As if she hadn’t thought that would happen, she reached for a napkin.

“At least your mom isn’t sending text messages to you, the only unattached child, saying things like ‘the clock’s ticking.’ I got one just a couple days ago saying ‘maybe you’ll meet a hot guy on the beach. You don’t need a marriage certificate to have a baby.’ Can you believe that? Now she’s even telling me to get pregnant before I get married. What parent does that?”

Obviously, Videtta Hopkins did. And apparently, Grace didn’t like it. RJ didn’t like how this conversation was going. The tendrils of resentment mixed with unsettling desire created an enormous weight in his chest. He took a gulp of his significantly cooled-down coffee and prayed it would relieve some of the pressure. It had been an awfully long time since he’d thought about children, or rather the ones he wouldn’t have because he’d decided not to ever let another woman into his heart again. And unlike Grace’s mother’s stance on reproducing, if the woman wasn’t in his heart, she certainly wasn’t having his baby.

“How’d you respond to her?” Again, this wasn’t the question RJ really wanted to ask.

What he wanted to know was so simple—why the hell had she walked away from him and the love he thought they’d shared? But really, what did it matter now? He knew that some people needed closure for things like this, but not him. Nothing she said was going to change the fact that his heart had been broken and he could never trust giving it to anyone, especially Grace, again. Nobody knew how much strength it had taken for him to move past her leaving before; if it happened again, he wasn’t certain he’d survive.

She shrugged. “I ignored the text. Which I know really pisses her off and maybe borders on disrespect or some other parental rule, but I just can’t think about any of that right now. I’ve got other stuff on my mind.” She put her hands on her keyboard then and tapped a few keys. “Speaking of which, I know you really came here to talk about my meeting with Veronica, so let’s get to it.”

He sat there for a few moments while he presumed she pulled up her notes up. The war going on within him—one side warning he keep a safe distance, the other edging him toward her like a magnet, drawing them together in spite of everything that made sense—continued until he finally sighed wearily. Then he stood and walked over to her. She jumped when he touched a finger to the corner of her lip.

“You missed a spot,” he said softly, and wiped the powdered sugar away.

Well, damn. Moments after that very intimate touch, Grace’s voice was surprisingly steady as she briefed him on her notes. She silently commended herself for not leaping across the table to straddle him. She’d wanted to. Oh man, had she wanted to.

She’d spent the twenty minutes after he’d sent her that text in the bathroom, brushing her teeth and running her fingers through her hair. She’d slept in a tank top and panties and hadn’t yet decided what her outfit for the day was going to be. The shorts and T-shirt were on the top of the pile in the drawer so they were it. And he still hadn’t mentioned yesterday’s kiss.

Neither had she, for that matter. The memory was startlingly clear in her mind and the desire between them was very much still a real thing. Case in point, the way her pussy had throbbed the second his finger touched her lip and the subsequent dampness of her panties thereafter. It was insane, yet undeniable—she still wanted RJ.

At least, she wanted to have sex with him. Anything beyond that was out of the question. That ship had long since sailed