Page 46 of Tributary

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Asa

“YOU WANTED TO see me, Boss?” I never tire of that joke and I’m pretty sure Diana is into it when I call her that at work. As soon as her settlement check cleared, Diana brought me on as Chief Operations Officer for Tributary Farms. I was able to leverage my contacts to process her paperwork pretty quickly and almost immediately, we had more dispensary customers than we could service from the small space in the back room of Houseplant Haven.

Archer had a hot lead on an abandoned warehouse not too far outside Oak Creek, and Diana and I got ourselves situated, gearing up to scale up operations. That’s where I find her now, hunched over a row of sensors in the grow house, wearing her typical worn jeans and work boots.

We’ve got other employees and lab assistants around now, so I can’t really ravage her at work as much as I’d like. She turns her head and grins at me. “Yes, Mr. Wexler, thank you for coming so quickly.” She’d pay for that line later, I vow. I tug her up to standing. “I’ve got a harvest date for you and I’m pretty sure we can time it so we don’t miss Hunter and Abigail’s wedding.”

“You do realize I’d never let you miss your brother’s wedding for some plants, right?” Diana peels off her gloves and tosses them in a bin as we walk toward the door. “You ready to head home?” She nods, double-checking the last row of sensors, even though we’ve got techs monitoring the plants around the clock now.

When Diana sold the building for Houseplant Haven, she had to move out of her sunny apartment upstairs, and I very carefully (with the help of her entire family) convinced her to move in with me. Their role in the proceedings was more logistical, since they started slowly carrying boxes of her things to my place. I lovingly convinced her that sharing a bed with me every night meant I could wake her up most mornings with kisses of all varieties.

We climb in the car and I veer off the typical route back to our house. She doesn’t look up from her phone—she still monitors her sensors from afar, but she’s getting better about trusting our staff to care for her plants. Better this way, I think, wondering how she will handle this surprise.

Diana finally looks up from her phone when I pull into the lot at the Nobler Experiment. She crinkles her brow. “What are we doing here?” She asks, looking at the full parking lot. I shrug.

“Felt like a beer you didn’t have to make.”

“Well, I don’t have to make them,” she says, climbing out of the car. “I like to do—”

When she pushes open the door and sees our families, she freezes in her tracks. “What’s this, Wexler?”

Tessy unfurls the CONGRATULATIONS banner behind the bar and Diana bites her lip. A moment later, Rose Mitchell streaks out from the crowd and all five feet of her surround Diana in a tight embrace. “We’re just so proud of you, darling. You’ve worked so hard for this.”

“What is this even about?”

I step aside to the bar, where a hugely pregnant Indigo is propped on a stool. “She just really has no idea about anything, does she?” Indigo grins. I pop a pastry in my mouth and shake my head. Diana is always first in line to plan celebrations for her friends and family. She’s on the top of everyone’s speed dial. When I suggested we ought to celebrate Diana’s dreams coming true, everyone in town jumped at the chance to contribute.

Ed Hastings ran a special edition of the Oak Creek Gazette with a front-page story about Diana’s business, writing that her plants “flow into the wider river of humanity, carrying our town along in the current of prosperity.” I watch as he presents her with a framed copy, both of them teary-eyed.

My parents catch my eye from the side of the bar, where they stand stiffly, talking with Daniel Crawford. As I walk up to them, I hear Daniel asking my mother to teach him to make latkes this winter. I grin, and drop a kiss on her cheek. “Oh, Asa, you’re here.” She smiles a bit and reaches up to kiss me. My parents are still mortified that I walked away from venture capitalism, but Wexler Holdings is thriving under Andrea’s guidance and it’s looking more and more like Diana might agree to give my mother a grandchild someday. They’re trying their best, although I received several panicked text messages about the linen quality at Diana’s parents’ house.

Daniel Crawford drops an arm around my shoulders and smiles. He’s an easy man to like and he whispers something to me about headstrong women. I notice that Archer and Hunter arrive along with another man who shares similar features.

I hear Diana squeal as she runs across the bar and throws herself into the arms of this man who seems vaguely familiar. “FLETCHER!” She screams, squeezing her youngest brother and rocking him side to side.

She pulls back and punches Hunter in the arm. “He comes home for my thing and not your return from space! Ha!”

I hear Hunter retort that “I’m certain the occasion for his return is my upcoming wedding to Abigail,” but Diana isn’t listening. I make my way toward them and she beams.

“Asa, this is Fletcher. I know you’ve met him via video chat before. But he’s here in real life.”

“Nice to meet you, man,” Fletcher says, pumping my hand. “I can’t believe my sister finally decided on a mate whose head she doesn’t want to rip off.”

Diana circles the room and I follow, keeping her within touching distance. I love to see her happy like this, receiving congratulations from everyone. As the night wears on, I notice she sticks closer to my side and when we sit at a booth, I jump, feeling her hand massaging my leg under the table.

She doesn’t turn away from her conversation with Indigo, but keeps her fingers crawling higher and higher, making me squirm. I grow rigidly hard, uncomfortably close to bursting the seams of my pants as Diana assures her friend she will absolutely drop everything and be present for Indigo’s birth. “It’ll be fantastic,” Diana coos. “You’ll be amazing.” Her fingers flick the tip of my dick and I jump up from the booth.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” I say, retreating to I don’t even know where.

I step out the door of the bar and lean my head against the building. In just a few short minutes, Diana had me nearly blowing up at the table in front of our friends and family. When she slinks up to my side a few seconds later, I still feel like a rocket about to launch.

“This was a nice surprise, Wexler,” she coos, one hand tickling my arm and the other returning to my aching crotch.

“You’re worth it, Diana,” I manage to say, before I turn and devour her mouth. No matter how long we spend together, I am always starving for her. I slip my tongue between her lips and we trade moans. I rock my hips against her center, needing her to feel what she does to me. I know we both need the friction. “We have to get out of here,” I say as she bites the skin on my neck.

She shakes her head and reaches into my pants pocket for the car keys. She drags me across the full parking lot toward the back seat and I look over my shoulder.

“They’re not coming out here any time soon,” she says, shoving me into the car. I scramble along the back seat as she dives in, straddling me and tearing open my pants. I help her wriggle out of her jeans and I gasp when I reach between her legs and find her flowing with wet heat.

“Fuck, Diana.”

“I know. I’m so hot for you right now.” She grunts and tosses off her boots and before I can adjust to what’s happening, she sinks down onto my length. Bare inside her, I feel her body pulsing, drawing me in until I can’t figure out where I stop and she begins.

“I love you,” I whisper into her ear as she starts to move. She sets the pace, finding the rhythm she needs and I feel her pleasure building. I want nothing more than to be the one to help her find this bliss. Always.

“I love you, too, Asa,” she says, and, placing both hands on my chest, she looks straight into my eyes as we both tumble over the edge. Together. I flow into her until our souls converge, moaning her name as she shouts mine. After, I cradle her against my chest, so grateful to be here with this goddess under the full, autumn moon.

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