Wright with Benefits Read online

  “And how do you know about it?”

  “Soccer.”

  “Ah,” Jordan said with a nod. “Yeah, well, it was Julian’s idea. Hollin’s idea really. But Julian kept badgering me to run numbers and look into distribution and check something or another. I gave up fighting him on it. If I’m going to do all the legwork, then I’m going to get a piece of the pie.”

  I laughed. God, that was so Jordan. “So, what you mean is that you can’t say no to your brother?”

  He glowered at me. “Yeah, I guess.”

  “How do you have time for this?”

  He shrugged. Which meant that he didn’t have time for this. And like the workaholic he was, he was just going to push himself to death.

  “Turn left here,” I told him.

  The Spirit Ranch came into view. The trees were strung with fairy lights, and the tent glowed. I could see that they were nearly finished with setup. Inside somewhere, a very anxious Cézanne was pacing, waiting for all the wine to show the fuck up. She’d probably messaged me, but I didn’t have the energy to even check my phone and deal with her stress.

  “Whoa,” Jordan whispered. “It’s actually…beautiful.”

  “I know, right? I love it out here. You should see it in the spring when everything’s in bloom and all the peacocks are out.”

  His eyebrows shot up. “Peacocks?”

  I laughed at his expression. It mirrored mine the first time I’d been here and seen the strutting peacocks all over the property. “Yeah. For some reason, there are peacocks. They’re gorgeous.”

  “Lubbock is weird,” he concluded.

  “You are not wrong.”

  Jordan backed into a spot in the rear of the building, nearest to the kitchen. I hopped down onto the gravel in my too-high heels, already cursing the stupid flood again for putting me in this predicament.

  A bunch of eager med students flooded out of the back of the building when they saw all the wine in his truck. Jordan went into a managerial role and directed everyone as they unloaded.

  “I’m going to look for jumper cables,” I told him and then headed inside without waiting for a response.

  I found Cézanne pacing, just like I’d thought she’d be. Her clipboard was clutched tight in her hand, and she looked ready to bang it against someone if everything didn’t settle itself out. She’d have a real career in event planning if this doctor thing didn’t work out.

  “Annie! Oh, thank God!” she said, pushing her one stray box braid behind her ear. “I’m assuming this means we have wine for the party.”

  “We do. No thanks to Bryan.”

  “He’s been handled,” Cézanne assured me.

  I was sure that he had been. Until the next time he fucked up.

  “It’s being unloaded now. I had to recruit Jordan Wright to deliver, but yeah, it’s here.”

  Cézanne arched her eyebrows. “Jordan Wright, huh?”

  Cézanne had been there that first night I met Jordan. When I’d looked at him across a crowded bar and said if I had a type, it’d be him. I’d been right—and so damn wrong.

  “Yeah. Serendipity,” I muttered. “He was there for a meeting, and we got the wine in his truck. Anyway, my car died, and I don’t have jumper cables. I assume you do.”

  She crossed her arms and smirked. “And you…drove over here in Jordan’s truck?”

  “Did you want your wine or what?”

  “Uh-huh,” she said, grinning at me in a you can’t fool me way.

  “Stop,” I groaned.

  “I’m over here, dealing with your friend Bryan, and you get Jordan Wright.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Again, Bryan is not my friend.”

  “If you say so.” She tucked the clipboard under her arm. “Come on. Of course I have jumper cables. Who do you think I am?”

  “Cézanne, the goddess of organization.”

  “Precisely.”

  Once we acquired the cables from Cézanne’s car, she insisted on carrying them over to Jordan. He’d just finished unloading the truck. He hopped down out of the bed, landing at our feet. He slammed the tailgate closed and smiled that charismatic smile that got him anything he ever wanted. Even me.

  “Hey, Cézanne,” he said amicably. “You’re our savior tonight.”

  She shot me a look. She certainly hadn’t missed the use of the word our. I hadn’t missed it either. Not just my savior…but his, too?

  “Sure am.” She passed him the cables. “I like saving Wrights. Always good to have a favor owed.”

  He shook his head. “I help Annie out and somehow end up owing everyone else favors.”

  “Well, you owe Annie enough to never be out of her debt.”

  My cheeks colored at the comment. Even in the dim light, the blush against my freckled cheeks was obvious. “Thanks, Cézanne. You’re a lifesaver. Now, go kick ass at this party.”

  She squeezed my hand, recognizing the dismissal. I loved her to death. But anything that didn’t come out of her mouth was surely written all over her face. If she liked you, you knew it. If she didn’t, you sure as hell knew that too. If she thought you were an idiot, like poor Bryan, good luck ever feeling like anything else in her presence. And for Jordan Wright, well, if he hadn’t known that he owed me before, he did now.

  He held up the cables, his eyes lighting as they caught mine and held. “Shall we?”

  I swallowed. It was probably safer to wait until after the party and take the cables with Cézanne. To keep Jordan Wright owing me favors forever. To never let him have the chance to clear what was between us. But that car ride had released a valve. What could it hurt, driving back with him?

  Three years ago, I’d said that he was my type, if I’d ever had one. And that hadn’t changed a bit. Because that damn smile still did me in.

  “Let’s do it.”

  5

  Jordan

  “Okay, try it now,” I called to Annie.

  She sat in her car and turned the key, kicking the ignition into place. The car revved to life. A slow rumble and then a roar. I sighed with relief. With the day she’d been having, she needed this small victory. The last thing I’d wanted was for the battery to be dead. I didn’t think my luck would have lasted against her rage.

  Annie’s whoop of delight was loud enough to be heard a few blocks over. She jumped out of the car, leaving the cables and conflict forgotten.

  “It works!” she cried, doing a little dance. “Thank fuck!”

  I laughed at her enthusiasm. At the chance to see this Annie up close and personal. It’d been so long.

  “Come dance with me, Jordan,” she said, still twirling in place.

  I shook my head at her.

  “I know you know how to move.”

  With a laugh, I ducked under the cables and stepped closer to her. I grabbed her hand mid-spin and twirled her in a circle and back to me. She giggled and took my other hand, pushing and pulling us closer together and then apart. She tipped her head back as I twirled her around again in a circle.

  It didn’t matter that we were in the pitch-black in an empty parking lot with no music. Annie was just too happy that something had finally gone right to even consider stopping. And I didn’t want this to end either.

  I spun her out to arm’s length and then rolled her back in, cocooning her in my embrace before dipping her. She looked up at me. All bright green eyes and teasing smile. For a moment, I thought about bridging that distance between us. All I wanted to do was capture those perfect pink lips. And for a split second, something in her eyes flashed a challenge, daring me to do it.

  A beat passed, and neither of us moved. Then she let her head drop down, her hair trailing against the pavement. The moment broken. My chance gone.

  I lifted her back to her feet and released her. Her smile was only slightly reduced.

  “Thanks,” she muttered, brushing back her red hair. “I needed that after the fucking day I’ve had.”

  “No problem. It was fun.”

&
nbsp; “It was, wasn’t it?”

  “Well, you probably have to get back to your party.”

  Annie sighed heavily and leaned her body back against her car. She tilted her head up to the sky, lifting her arms, as if she could reach out and touch it. Head off into the heavens and find real adventure.

  “I never really wanted to go to the party.”

  “Then don’t go,” I said with a shrug.

  She snorted. “It’s not that easy. The professor who is retiring is a big deal. All the other professors will be there. It’s my last semester, and those relationships mean something.”

  “It’s one party. It can’t mean the end of your career as a doctor.”

  “No. Just whether or not this semester is abysmal.”

  “One party shouldn’t decide that.”

  Her eyes finally found mine again. “No, it shouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean anything is as fair as it should be.”

  The words hung between us. She wasn’t talking entirely about medical school or even business. She was talking about us. Nothing had ever been fair when it came to Annie. Not when she’d captured me wholly that one night or the three years of fuckery afterward.

  “No, I suppose it isn’t.”

  “Cézanne is probably waiting for me.”

  “Yeah,” I said, barely holding back my sigh.

  She pushed off from the car and went to turn it off. I removed the cables and passed them to her. She tucked them into her trunk, slamming it shut behind her with such force that I knew she was irritated again.

  “Well…thanks,” she said.

  And she actually stuck her hand out in front of her as if I were some stranger who would shake hands with her.

  “Anytime,” I told her, taking her hand anyway. Because maybe I wasn’t a stranger, but we were strained enough for it not to matter.

  Her fingers were freezing as we shook, and she barely met my gaze.

  I should let her go. Watch her drive off into the night and never look back. But I didn’t let her go, and I didn’t release her hand.

  “I guess I owe you.” She didn’t pull back either.

  “Nah, didn’t you hear Cézanne? I might never be out of your debt.”

  She grinned, a flush coming to her cheeks. “You don’t have to listen to her. She’s ridiculous.”

  “But right.”

  Annie finally must have seen sense because she withdrew her hand and rubbed it down her jacket. Then crossed her arms. I didn’t know what she was thinking. How could I? If I had a way to tap into that beautiful brain, maybe I wouldn’t have wrecked us already. But I did know that she was shutting herself off from me because I was getting too close. Maybe that should have made me want to walk away, to give her all the space she wanted. I just didn’t want that. I didn’t want space. Not when this was as close as we’d been in years.

  “What if I have a better offer?” I blurted out.

  She arched an eyebrow. “A better offer than what?”

  “Than the party.”

  She shot me a skeptical look. “What’s the offer?”

  I tipped my head toward my truck and pulled down the tailgate.

  She peered inside and then immediately started laughing. “Did you steal a case of wine?”

  “Steal? No, of course not,” I said, affronted. “Sophia gave it to me when I was loading them up. She told me to try a few bottles before our next meeting.”

  “Ah,” she said, her voice frosting over.

  “So, do you want to?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Do I want to…what?”

  “Try out a few bottles?”

  “What?”

  “Forget the party, Annie. Forget your obligations for one night. You’ve had a shitty day. You don’t need to spend another night schmoozing at a medical school party when everything else has gone wrong. Do you really think any good is going to come from you going there? After the day you’ve had?”

  She bit her lip. “No. Not really. Bad luck is kind of clinging to me. I’ll probably trip and take the whole tent down. Or hit an outdoor heater and catch the woods on fire.”

  I snorted. “Trip on the way to the drinks and crash down all of the wine we carted over there.”

  She covered her face. “Oh God! Pour wine down a professor’s white dress.”

  “Pour wine down your dress,” I added.

  She broke into a fit of giggles at our worst-case scenario-ing. “I could see it all happening. Today has been a real shitshow.”

  “So, any interest in popping open a lot of expensive wine I got for free and taste-testing the bottles?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I could see her resistance slipping. That she wanted to go with me, but I wouldn’t push her. Not when I’d just started to get back into her good graces.

  Then she glanced up at me. “We couldn’t go to my place. It’s still flooded. I’m planning to crash on the couch until the water damage is fixed.”

  “Or we could go to my place,” I offered, bracing myself for her disdain.

  But it never came.

  “Where do you live again?”

  “Out near Landon.”

  When I’d first moved here, I’d been shocked by how cheap housing was. Coming from Vancouver, where every shack was a million dollars, it felt inconceivable that I could build a mansion for under a half-mil. I’d gone a little crazy at the prospect.

  “We’re just drinking wine,” she said almost to herself.

  “Yeah. My guest room is probably better than the couch.”

  She met my gaze. I could see her walls breaking down at the prospect of a bed. No matter how much she talked up the couch, it wasn’t the same.

  She finally nodded. “All right. That sounds fun.”

  My smile widened at her acceptance. She blushed furiously and brushed past me to her car. As if she couldn’t even look at me or she’d change her mind. I was sure she was already regretting her choice.

  She might have been having a terrible day, but mine had only gotten better the minute I saw her. And I wasn’t ready for her to leave anytime soon.

  6

  Annie

  This was a really bad idea.

  I hit the steering wheel savagely. I should have gone to the stupid party, even if it was the last thing I wanted to do. But Jordan’s invitation sounded really tempting. Who wouldn’t want to try a bunch of expensive wine on someone else’s dime?

  It shouldn’t matter that Jordan was the only bright spot in my otherwise terrible day. But somehow, it did. Once I’d stopped taking out my anger on him, it had actually been…great. The drive there and back, getting the car started, the dance, even the carefully awkward invitation. I wanted to go. That was what it had come down to. He’d been a good guy, helping me out when he certainly didn’t have to. No matter what Cézanne had said about owing me.

  I rolled my eyes at myself. If he ended up being a jerk after I drank all his wine, then fine. Whatever. At least I’d get some expensive wine out of the bargain.

  Anyway, I was already committed. We were driving toward the mansions on the south side of town, toward the country club and golf course that Jordan’s cousin, Landon Wright, had created. It was a swank area, mostly owned by construction executives, oil tycoons, and decorated PGA golfers, like Landon. Regular people need not apply.

  And as the mansions came into view, my trepidation wore off. I hadn’t been out here in a while, but damn! They made the rest of Lubbock look like they were living in squalor.

  Sometimes, I forgot that the Wrights were heads of a Fortune 500 company and billionaires. That thought was front and center as we rolled up to Jordan’s enormous two-story.

  I parked next to him, killed the engine, and stepped out into the cold. My eyes going up, up, up at the beautiful home, all red brick and stone and stained wood columns for the porch and shutters. The grass was trimmed and nearly as spotless as the golf course he lived on with two towering trees that must have taken a lot of care to keep ali
ve way out here in the dusty, arid climate.

  “Wow,” I whispered to Jordan as I came up to stand next to his truck. “Your house is beautiful.”

  “Thanks,” he said with a furrow in his brow. “The garage door opener isn’t working. Battery must be dead.”

  “Of course it isn’t working. I must have killed the battery.”

  He chuckled as he headed toward the bed to collect the wine. “I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.”

  I wasn’t sure.

  I’d been hoping to look into the garage though, if for no other reason than to get a good look at the car I actually associated with him—a silver Tesla Model S. It was a gorgeous electric car that I’d coveted for years. I still couldn’t fathom that someone who had an electric car…had purchased a diesel truck.

  I patted the truck as he slammed shut the tailgate. “And apparently, you’ve gone full Texan.”

  He sighed. “I needed something for when I went to sites. I’d been putting it off.”

  “Do I need to get you some boots? A belt buckle?” He narrowed his eyes at me, but I couldn’t stop myself. “A cowboy hat?”

  “Now you’ve gone too far.”

  “You need something to go with that truck. It’s heavy duty. You’ll definitely need a hat and boots for the construction sites.”

  He shook his head and headed toward the front door. “I don’t think I’ll ever be that Texas.”

  “Oh, come on.”

  “No chance in hell.” Then he tossed me the keys. “It’s the silver one.”

  I found the key to the front door and turned the lock, pushing my way inside. He carried the case of wine, and I let the door close behind us. My hand went for the light switch as he hauled the case of wine to the kitchen island. But nothing happened. I narrowed my eyes and tried again but still nothing.

  I fished out my phone and turned the flashlight on. “Uh, I think we have a problem.”

  “What’s that?” he asked, going to flick on the kitchen light. Nothing turned on. “Well, fuck.”

  And somehow, that was the moment that I broke.

  Not when I’d stood alone in my flooding house as I watched everything fall apart. Or the moment of sheer terror as I’d nearly been driven off the road. Or the frustration with dealing with an issue that I hadn’t caused. Or finding Jordan Wright’s face there when I’d just wanted to deal alone.