Breaking The Bro Code (Hawthorne Brothers 3)

Still nothing. Well, at least she knows how I feel.

“There’s something else I came to let you know,” I tell her.

She meets my gaze. “What is it?”

I look into her eyes and smile. “I know what I want to do. I want to establish the Hawthorne Foundation and travel the world looking for communities to help.”

Claire gives me a puzzled look. “There isn’t a Hawthorne Foundation already?”

I shake my head. “No. We have a Director of Philanthropy, but frankly, I can do a better job. I want to do the job, and I want to do it more independently.”

Claire nods. “And you’ve told your father and your brothers?”

“Not yet. I’m still drawing up the plans. I want them to be really detailed so I can present them well.”

“Okay.”

Okay? So she approves?

“What do you think of it?” I ask her outright.

She shrugs. “I think… it’s something you should have thought of before.”

“I know. But it’s not too late, right?”

She doesn’t answer.

“I believe there are people out there whose lives I can still help improve, whose dreams I can still help them achieve,” I tell her. “Actually, I know it. You know how? Because I’ve already done my research on the first organization the Hawthorne Foundation will help. They help feed a lot of people in Nepal and Cambodia.”

Claire’s eyes grow wide. Her jaw drops as she lets go of the door.

Yup. I thought that would get her attention.

“You’re going to help the organization I worked with?”

“Worked with?” I give her a questioning look. “I thought you helped establish it.”

She gasps. “You mean it?”

I nod. “I do. I’d like to make your cause my cause, too, if that’s okay with you.”

For a moment, Claire just looks at me with wide, teary eyes. Then she throws her arms around me.

I smile as I wrap my arms around her as well and hold her tight. I bury my face against her neck and breathe in the sweet scent of her soft hair.

I guess I should have started with that bit of news.

“You’re going to help so many people,” Claire tells me in a tone of wonder and appreciation. I see it in her eyes as she pulls away. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” I reply. Then I glance past her. “So, can I come in now?”

Claire takes a few steps back. Her lips curve into a wide smile.

“I have something better. You can kiss me now.”

My heart leaps at the words. I step into her apartment, kick the door shut behind me and kiss her. Claire’s arms come up to wrap around the back of my head. Her fingers stroke my hair. I run my hands along her sides as I slip my tongue inside her mouth and kiss her over and over. She moans. The sound ignites a fire inside my stomach.

Fuck. I don’t know how she does it, but she just stirs me up in the most incredible way.

I lift Claire off her feet and she gasps. I carry her to the dining table and set her down on it.

“Whoa.” She sits up and leans back on her arms. “Are you going to eat me up?”

I take off my coat and drape it over a chair. Then I loosen my tie.

“I’m definitely going to have my fill of you.”

I capture her mouth and push her down on top of the table. Her hands go back to my hair as her tongue rubs against mine. I grab the hem of her shirt and roll it up over her skin. My fingers brush against one of her nipples and she moans.

She’s not wearing a bra? Damn.

I move my mouth to her ear as I cradle both of her breasts. My thumbs rub against the soft peaks and they grow firmer. Claire gasps. My cock hardens inside my briefs.

I drag the tip of my tongue along the edge of her earlobe and suck on it. Then I start a short trail of kisses from her ear to her neck. I suck on her soft skin as I pinch and twist her nipples. Her fingers tug at my hair.

I start a new trail of kisses from her neck to the valley between her breasts, over her shirt that’s rolled up to her armpits. Then I lick one of her nipples. She shudders. I use the tip of my tongue to trace a circle around it as I continue rubbing the peak of her other breast. Then I capture it between my lips and tug. Claire gives another gasp. I suck on her breast and she moans. Blunt fingernails dig into my scalp.

I give her other breast the same treatment, then I drag my lips over her skin, over the soft curve of her abdomen and past her navel to the waistband of her pants. I plant a kiss on her belly button before pulling them off along with her underwear.