“What?!” I was utterly shocked. When the hell? Oh, fuck. I rushed down the steps and took her in my arms. She let me but remained stiff. “You misunderstood me, baby. I shouldn’t have phrased it that way. I meant I was done chasing you, Charlotte.”
“How is that different?” she asked, her tone perilously close to a pout.
A wolfish smile spread across my face before I clarified, “Because I’m going to catch you.”
6
Rhett
“Catch me?” Charlotte's green eyes rounded like saucers, and I suppressed a grin at the relief mixed with the shock that shone from them.
“Hey, you two.” Hudson popped his head out the door. “Sorry to interrupt, but Grace is going to be here in fifteen.”
I grinned mischievously and winked at Charlotte. “No problem. We’ll take this...discussion somewhere else.”
Before she realized what was happening, I scooped her into my arms and headed for the back door.
“What the fuck are you doing?” she squealed.
“Catching you, Charlotte,” I informed her. Then I narrowed my eyes on her in warning, “Language, baby.”
She gasped, but the outrage didn’t reach her eyes. “I can—hey! You can’t—but—wait!”
“Waited long enough.”
Hudson held open the door with a smirk, and Charlotte began to struggle in my arms. “Hudson! Do something!”
“Sure thing, coz,” he replied before jogging down the hall and opening the front door as well.
“Are you kidding me? Has everyone lost their damn minds?”
I tsked as we descended the steps to the sidewalk. “Don’t think I’m not keeping track of the spankings you’re earning.”
Charlotte muttered something that sounded like, over my dead body, and I chuckled.
“Not your dead body, baby. But definitely your naked one.”
Fenton had wisely followed me and was idling on the curb on the other side of the street. He alighted from the car as soon as we’d safely crossed over.
“Where do you think you’re taking me, you big oaf?” she snapped.
“Home.” I deftly maneuvered my way into the car without letting her go, then settled her across my lap.
“I am home,” she argued, pointing at the five-story brick townhouse.
I simply laughed and gave her a hug before kissing the top of her head and relaxing back into the seat.
“I don’t understand. What about that was funny?”
“Your adorably misguided belief that you were home.”
Charlotte huffed, annoyed at my cryptic answers. I might have been clearer if I wasn’t enjoying watching her get all riled up.
“Exactly how was I wrong? You said we were going home. Do you mean your place?”
I lifted her face with a finger under her chin and shook my head. “Our home, Charlotte. There is no yours and mine anymore. Just ours.”
She sputtered some more, but then her expression turned thoughtful, and she sat quietly for the rest of the ride. In order for me to keep from tearing her clothes off and fucking her on the back seat, I thought about our apartment and wondered if she would like it.
It wasn’t far. I preferred to live near the office, so I had renovated the top two floors of one of the residential buildings I owned in the city. I hadn’t thought about a family of my own when I built it, but my parents, two sisters and their families, and my brother all liked to visit. I wanted enough room to have them all comfortable and give me privacy while they were there.
Now, I was grateful I’d designed it that way. There were six additional bedrooms, nine bathrooms, and if we chose to have more children than that, they could always be doubled.
The master suite was set up on the opposite side of the penthouse. Besides the spacious bedroom and bath, there was a sitting room, dressing room, a large walk-in closet, and a smaller room next door that I used for an office. It would be a perfect nursery though, so I’d decided to move my office to another part of the house.
However, if Charlotte didn’t like it, wanted a townhouse, or even to move out of the city, I’d happily give her anything she wanted.
The car went dark as Fenton turned into the entrance for the underground parking garage.
“This is one of your properties,” she stated.
“Very good,” I praised. I’d given her the business portfolio to familiarize herself with our current properties, ones in the process of being bought, and former properties. Looking through those would help her learn what we would or wouldn’t be interested in if a potential investment fell on her desk. I relied on my assistants' recommendations because I didn’t have the time to personally inspect every prospectus or real estate listing.
This wasn’t the first time she’d recalled a property from the portfolio. In fact, she’d done it dozens of times while she’d been working for me. It wasn’t as if she got lucky and happened to have just studied those investments when they applied to a conversation.