Page 94 of The Fear of Falling
My breath catches in my throat, and I stare at this man with his beard and bird shirt and apparently the answers to all my problems. But I have to be sure I’m not misunderstanding. “He’s going to sell his company?”
Rogers nods once.
“And he’s going to work with you?”
Another nod.
Dare I ask? “Here in…in Utah?”
“He’ll have to spend some time in Arizona until he’s up to speed, but I imagine we can make a decent split of things and save us both from too much time on the road.”
If this man wasn’t our biggest investor, I would throw my arms around him and give him the tightest hug imaginable. But since I can’t do that, I content myself with a teary smile that hopefully conveys everything I’m feeling. “You have no idea what… Thank you.” But then I frown. “Why are you the one telling me this? Why didn’t Benson…?”
With another warm smile, Rogers gets to his feet and pats my shoulder. “I think he wanted you to be certain it was real and not just words. So did I, to be frank, after some of the conversations we had last week. This is quite a shift from his plans before. But seeing your reaction, I understand why he would choose this. A man who’s willing to do anything for the woman he loves is a man worth investing in. I can’t wait to see what all of us do together.” He winks, and then he’s gone, leaving me in a puddle in my seat.
Benson said he would find a way to make this work. And he did.
Something loosens in my chest, like a long-tied knot that I didn’t notice until it unravels and falls away, letting me breathe.Hope doesn’t feel dangerous like it did a few minutes ago. It feelspossible.
When my limbs gain enough strength to work again, I stumble back inside right as Benson appears in the lobby, his eyes full of questions.
“Eric’s with Melissa,” he says, pointing a thumb behind him. “I guess Cathy had a conference call, and he wanted to—”
Grabbing his hand, I tug him past a snickering Lynda and her “I’ll pretend I didn’t see you” and into the storage closet behind her desk. I pull the door shut, and then I throw my arms around Benson’s neck and pull myself in tight. “I love you,” I say into his neck.
His arms wrap around me in a strong embrace that feels like it’s the only thing holding me together as I process the conversation I just had. “I told you,” he whispers. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Sinking my weight back onto my feet, I tilt my head back to meet his gaze. “But how did you…?” Actually, I don’t care. Locking my hands around his neck, I pull him down until our mouths collide.
Benson rises to the occasion splendidly, coaxing the kiss deeper and guiding me back until my shoulders rest against the nearest shelf. “I couldn’t sleep last night,” he says when he breaks away to give me a chance to breathe. His kisses move to my jaw and down my neck as he talks, leaving a trail of heat behind. “I’ve been so desperate for a way to make this work, and then it hit me.”
“But your business,” I say, though the words come out breathless when his lips press against my throat. “You love what you do.”
He chuckles and comes back up to brush a kiss against my lips. “I also love facing something new. It won’t be that different, anyway.”
“But you won’t get to see as many cool places.”
“I’ve already seen them.”
“And you won’t have as many—
“Avery.” Placing his hands on the shelf on either side of my head, bracketing me in like the heroes do in the books around us, he levels me with a firm stare that quiets all my thoughts. “Like I said, I couldn’t sleep last night, so I had a lot of time to think about this. My job means nothing if it means I can’t have you. Iwantfewer companies to work with.” He kisses my forehead. “Iwantto try something more stable. Something where I have actual stakes in the game.” He kisses the corner of my mouth, lingering there in a way that makes my legs turn to jelly. “And I don’t want to go anywhere if you’re not going with me.”
He snakes his hand behind my neck as his lips find mine again, and he kisses me long and slow and deep, so languid that I feel like I might combust here in this closet.At work.
As if remembering where we are at the same time I do, Benson groans and drops his head to my shoulder. “Whose idea was it to keep this a secret?”
I laugh and tangle my fingers into his hair despite knowing I’ll have to fix it. I have come to learn that Ilovehis hair and running my hands through it while he kisses me. “Yours.”
“I’m an idiot.” The look he gives me when he lifts his head is so full of attraction and desire that I’m kissing him again when Lynda’s voice cuts through the moment.
“Oh, I’m sure they’re around here somewhere, Eric.”
Cursing, Benson leaps back and stumbles over a box of books, crashing into the shelf on the opposite side of the closet. I barely have time to grab the nearest thing before the door opens and Eric appears, his eyes jumping from one of us to the other.
“Found it,” Benson chokes out, holding up a copy of Dani’s book.
I grimace. That book is literally all over this closet. “And here is the…” I hold up my offering, wincing when I see the box of staples I grabbed. I don’t even know if I have a stapler on my desk.
