Shopping for a CEO (Shopping for a Billionaire Series Book 7) Read Online Free
Author: Julia Kent
quirks one eyebrow as the door buzzes. Taking his leave with a look of relief, he goes to the monitor, leaving me and Shannon to stare at Marie with twin expressions of confusion.
“What does that even mean, Mom?” Shannon asks as I go in for a hug. I haven’t seen her since she and Declan returned from a business trip that lasted for two weeks in New Zealand, and the hug goes on longer than it should. I’ve missed her. As she presses her hands against my back I can feel the cool hardness of her engagement ring band.
The ring that has more intimate knowledge of Shannon’s body than even Declan. Shannon’s Twitter nemesis, Jessica Coffin, chronicled the, uh...transit of the three-carat diamond engagement ring after Shannon swallowed it during the proposal. The hashtag #poopwatch led to more than a little embarrassment for Shannon, but she weathered it all with grace.
Marie raises her voice as if lecturing. “It means you never want to date a man who’s obsessed with his dog. They are worse than the ones who are attached to their mothers at the navel. Dog freaks will always put their pets ahead of their women.”
“Dad was a vet tech when you two met,” Shannon says as she pulls away from me. Her expression is a mixture of happiness and aggravation, which means Marie’s been here for a while.
“Yes, but he wasn’t obsessed with, you know...” Obviously distracted, Marie’s voice tapers off as she looks at the giant dining table, a cross between a tornado and the president’s nuclear bomb briefing room. Have you ever seen those reality television shows about the preppers who buy things like coconut flour in 55-gallon drums, or who dehydrate 9,000 pounds of cherries for the day the zombies take over?
Marie’s the prepper version of a mother of the bride. Except substitute chocolate fountains and Haggis for the cherries and you get the basic idea.
“Dog butts?” Shannon offers helpfully.
Andrew walks in just then. Of course he does. The man knows how to make an exit from my life. Over and over and over. That one he has down to a T.
And now, apparently, he’s perfecting the art of awkward entrances .
“Speaking of assholes,” I murmur.
There goes my heart, beating triple time at the sight of him. But this time, I have the upper hand. I’ve got the goods on him.
And he knows it.
“You’re safe,” he says to me in a weird voice. Tight, as though angry, but relieved, as if he cares.
“Of course I’m safe. What are you talking about?”
“You disappeared at the marina.”
Now Declan, Marie and Shannon pay full attention to us, Marie dropping everything. Her eyes light up. Oh, no.
No no no no no.
She’s already busy planning one wedding.
She doesn’t need another one, even just in her head.
“You two had a date at the marina?” Marie asks in a voice that goes up at the end like a wedding planning erection. Like all the blood in her body swells to fill Something Blue.
“No date. In fact, I just happened to walk along the water and ran into Andrew talking about his new appointment as the C—”
Andrew’s across the room before I can finish, his warm, muscular arms around me, lips on mine. He tips me back, like a stage kiss, as if the way his hands press into my waist and back aren’t more than a surface-level gesture.
He tastes like wine and nearly two years of questions.
I wonder if I taste like beer and nearly two years of frustration.
My thoughts quiver, then fade, as the kiss melts me. If this is just for show, he’s putting his heart and soul into it. And his tongue. Definitely his tongue. His hands snake down and one cups my ass, the other pulling me tight. His tongue takes its time, like he’s at the beginning of negotiations for the deal of his life.
Maybe he is.
The man is in no rush.
“I don’t understand,” I hear Marie say as if she’s a thousand miles in the air, floating on the wind with a hundred helium balloons clutched in one
“What does that even mean, Mom?” Shannon asks as I go in for a hug. I haven’t seen her since she and Declan returned from a business trip that lasted for two weeks in New Zealand, and the hug goes on longer than it should. I’ve missed her. As she presses her hands against my back I can feel the cool hardness of her engagement ring band.
The ring that has more intimate knowledge of Shannon’s body than even Declan. Shannon’s Twitter nemesis, Jessica Coffin, chronicled the, uh...transit of the three-carat diamond engagement ring after Shannon swallowed it during the proposal. The hashtag #poopwatch led to more than a little embarrassment for Shannon, but she weathered it all with grace.
Marie raises her voice as if lecturing. “It means you never want to date a man who’s obsessed with his dog. They are worse than the ones who are attached to their mothers at the navel. Dog freaks will always put their pets ahead of their women.”
“Dad was a vet tech when you two met,” Shannon says as she pulls away from me. Her expression is a mixture of happiness and aggravation, which means Marie’s been here for a while.
“Yes, but he wasn’t obsessed with, you know...” Obviously distracted, Marie’s voice tapers off as she looks at the giant dining table, a cross between a tornado and the president’s nuclear bomb briefing room. Have you ever seen those reality television shows about the preppers who buy things like coconut flour in 55-gallon drums, or who dehydrate 9,000 pounds of cherries for the day the zombies take over?
Marie’s the prepper version of a mother of the bride. Except substitute chocolate fountains and Haggis for the cherries and you get the basic idea.
“Dog butts?” Shannon offers helpfully.
Andrew walks in just then. Of course he does. The man knows how to make an exit from my life. Over and over and over. That one he has down to a T.
And now, apparently, he’s perfecting the art of awkward entrances .
“Speaking of assholes,” I murmur.
There goes my heart, beating triple time at the sight of him. But this time, I have the upper hand. I’ve got the goods on him.
And he knows it.
“You’re safe,” he says to me in a weird voice. Tight, as though angry, but relieved, as if he cares.
“Of course I’m safe. What are you talking about?”
“You disappeared at the marina.”
Now Declan, Marie and Shannon pay full attention to us, Marie dropping everything. Her eyes light up. Oh, no.
No no no no no.
She’s already busy planning one wedding.
She doesn’t need another one, even just in her head.
“You two had a date at the marina?” Marie asks in a voice that goes up at the end like a wedding planning erection. Like all the blood in her body swells to fill Something Blue.
“No date. In fact, I just happened to walk along the water and ran into Andrew talking about his new appointment as the C—”
Andrew’s across the room before I can finish, his warm, muscular arms around me, lips on mine. He tips me back, like a stage kiss, as if the way his hands press into my waist and back aren’t more than a surface-level gesture.
He tastes like wine and nearly two years of questions.
I wonder if I taste like beer and nearly two years of frustration.
My thoughts quiver, then fade, as the kiss melts me. If this is just for show, he’s putting his heart and soul into it. And his tongue. Definitely his tongue. His hands snake down and one cups my ass, the other pulling me tight. His tongue takes its time, like he’s at the beginning of negotiations for the deal of his life.
Maybe he is.
The man is in no rush.
“I don’t understand,” I hear Marie say as if she’s a thousand miles in the air, floating on the wind with a hundred helium balloons clutched in one
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