If he’s still holding me like this, then it can’t be anything too bad.
“I go there every time I come to New York. I found it by accident. I was starving one day, and staying… close by.” He seems hesitant about that last part, but I know why. He always stayed with Rain when he came to New York. He continues, not noting my tension. “I stumbled upon it, and decided it was a better option than waiting forever on a table or eating something from a hotdog stand. Obviously I was shocked at what I found. I would have overlooked it if it hadn’t pretty much landed in my lap. It seemed like a fitting place to take you on our first real date.”
My tension is replaced by excited butterflies. That last piece had meaning behind it. He would have overlooked me, too, if he
hadn’t accidentally hit on me in a bar where he never thought he’d run into me.
“My turn to ask you a question,” he says when I become too stupidly happy to respond. “Why’d you decide to get into cosmetics? It seems a little random, but I’ve seen you be passionate about making this work.”
He looks down as I snuggle in closer to his side. When he tightens his hold, my worry of what’s to come dissipates. He’s not leaving me, or he wouldn’t be acting like he’s scared to let me go.
“I graduated college with no major in anything, no real idea of what to do with my life, and no direction to go. Everyone else seemed to know exactly what they wanted to do. Finally, I started to look into different investments, and stumbled across Leo’s work. He needed an investor, and I needed someone to invest in.
“As we’ve discussed, his name isn’t a big name that people know, so he had no one interested in his work. But I was fascinated for some reason. And when I spoke to him, it was impossible not to find his passion contagious. So I funded the rest of his work, and from there, we’ve been trying to break into the unbreakable.”
Kode grins as though he enjoys hearing that, and he pulls me closer, making walking a little difficult, but I’m not complaining.
We remain in comfortable silence the rest of the way to the hotel, and his body remains glued to mine the whole way back.
New York is definitely the place to be for business, and it’s definitely my favorite place to be with Kode since we don’t have to hide from anyone. But there are still… questions.
“When you were chasing Rain, why didn’t you just move to New York? You have business here, and it would have been easier for you to get her while being so close.”
He tenses beside me, and I hold my breath. I don’t know why I have to ask questions like these, but I do. I need to know that what he felt for her is nothing like what he feels for me.
“Because I didn’t… want to?” he says, though it sounds like a question he’s thinking over. “I don’t know. I guess I never thought of leaving Sterling Shore as an option, and Rain… Well, she wasn’t enough incentive for me to leave my home.”
That has me grinning and relaxing. If he didn’t care enough to move, even though he had other reasons to do so, then he didn’t love her. Couldn’t have.
As we load the elevator, I notice him still being stiff. Asking about Rain was a stupid thing to do. I should be able to just let it go.
“How can you just pick up and go from place to place while having a life with all the things you own and dabble in?”
He grins, his body relaxing, and I mentally pat myself on the back for ridding the atmosphere of the awkward tension. Just as the elevator lands on our floor, he guides me off while answering.
“Because I don’t actually run anything. I’m only in on the business changing conversations. I own a lot, but I have people that run things—good people that enjoy my trust in their abilities. I’m not a workaholic because I want to live life while there’s a life to live. It’s a Sterling thing in case you haven’t noticed. We own a lot, and only work a little.”
That’s not completely true. They all work a good bit, but they live life in equal parts.
He continues as we reach our room. “I make a lot of money by finding the right people who are workaholics to run things—something I learned from my dad. They put their hearts into their work, and I reap the benefits alongside them. It’s a win-win situation. Something I hope you are open to doing as well, because when your business takes off, I don’t want to lose you to your corporate love.”
My heart speeds up as we head inside, and I look at him, trying to decipher what he’s saying. He wants this thing between us to continue, that much is certain.
“Well, I would definitely trust your advice. But I don’t see that being a cause for concern any time soon.”
His lips thin, and he takes a deep breath before looking truly worried about something.
“Tria, I need you to listen to me about something, and I want you to seriously digest the words I’m saying without freaking out.”
I’m already freaking out.
“Kode, you’re starting to—”
“The meeting at nine in the morning isn’t mine; it’s yours.”
I’m torn between being confused and surprised, because that’s not what I was expecting him to say, and it doesn’t make a damn bit of sense.
“What are you talking about?”