Just To Be With You

 Just To Be With You

The Sullivans - 12

Bella Andre

CHAPTER ONE

Rain fell steadily outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Sullivan Investments skyscraper, just as it had for the past several days. Coffee shops seemed to outnumber all other retail outlets in the city two to one. And Ian Sullivan’s sister, Mia, had already texted him a half-dozen times to remind him that he’d better not show up late to di

And yet, despite all that, it was good to be back in Seattle.

Surprisingly good.

Ian had worked out of the London office for the past several years, and his European investments were thriving as a result. But now that Sullivan Investments was on the verge of making a massive investment in eAirBox, an i

In any case, Ian was glad that he’d been able to keep it all in the family with the deal he’d made today with Jake McCa

“I’m glad we were able to make this deal work, Ian,” Jake said through the video conference feed set up in one of Ian’s smaller conference rooms on the 15th floor.

Jake’s T-shirt put his tattoos on full display, and though he was an incredibly intelligent guy with great business sense, it wasn’t much of a stretch to look at him and guess that he’d come from a pretty rough upbringing. Ian would never have imagined that his soft-spoken librarian cousin and Jake would work as a couple, especially considering the story that Jake had gotten Sophie pregnant during a one-night stand. But they’d turned out to be one hell of a good team, and Ian was happy for both of them.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for what you’ve done with your pubs, Jake. Everyone here is glad we can be a part of your expansion.” When Ian’s head legal counsel excused himself from the meeting to take an urgent call, he took the meeting in a personal direction. “How are Sophie and the twins doing? Smith and Jackie must be getting big.”

“Hold on a sec and I’ll show you.” Jake got up from the chair in his home office and returned a short while later with a kid squirming under each arm. “Kids, say hi to your Uncle Ian.”

Jake and Sophie’s twins were ridiculously cute as they waved and gri

Ian didn’t have a clue how Jake managed to run his business so well and have time to take care of his wife and kids, too. Marriage was the only thing that Ian had ever failed at, so badly that he’d come out of it one hundred percent certain that a wife would never—and should never—be in his future again. Which meant kids were out of the picture, too. Fortunately, there were plenty of Sullivan babies to spoil rotten.

Ian had just said his own hellos to the twins when they wriggled out of Jake’s grip and made a break for it. Ian heard Sophie’s laughter as she scooped them up just before she came in range of the camera’s lens.

“Hey, cuz.” Sophie seemed utterly unperturbed by the fact that her kids were not just squirming like crazy now, but were also trying to pull each other’s hair. “I’d love to catch up more, but since it looks like I’m going to have to break up a baby brawl in a minute, I wanted to let you know that I’m supposed to tell you not to be late to your mom and dad’s house for di

“Mia texted you, too?”

Jake and Sophie just laughed as they split the kids between them and Smith’s and Jackie’s wails began. “Say hello to everyone for us.”

After shutting down the video conference feed, Ian headed for his office down a long open hallway that looked over dozens of cubicles. At fifteen minutes past six on a Friday night, everyone had already left. Though he’d been back at the Seattle headquarters for only a week and a half, Ian had seen for himself that everything in the office was ru

Only once had he made the mistake of letting himself be spontaneously thrown off course. But in the wake of his messy marriage and even messier divorce, he’d been even more careful to make sure that the women he co

At the threshold of his office, Ian shook all thoughts of love and romance aside before he stepped inside. Love had no place in the worldwide empire he’d built, and he was glad for that fact, especially when he needed every ounce of his focus right now to do whatever it took to finally close the eAirBox deal.

Mentally drafting an email to his board regarding the new counter-offer he was pla

He couldn’t immediately place the legs, but the scent was one he’d come across only once before, at his cousin Marcus’s wedding in Napa Valley a handful of months earlier. Equal parts vanilla and spice, the combination was at once i

Tatiana Landon.

If she were anyone else, Ian would immediately have alerted her to his presence. But he needed to take a few moments to steel himself against the powerful way the beautiful actress affected him. And at the end of a long, hard week, he found it took him more than a few seconds not only to solidify his walls, but also to make absolutely sure that they would remain impenetrable.

Finally, he cleared his throat. But her feet didn’t stop tapping out the beat and she didn’t turn the chair around. Her evocative scent grew stronger when he moved closer, and he gritted his teeth against the potent impact it had on him as he reached for the top of his chair to turn her to face him.

He’d only just begun to spin the chair when she let out a little shriek and jumped halfway out before falling back into it. One hand was pressed over her mouth, the other over her chest, her legs tucked beneath her on the big leather seat as she stared up at him with big green eyes.

Before he could stop himself, Ian was drinking in the gorgeous expanse of skin on display from the way the skirt of her dress rode up her thighs. Her long hair was loose around her shoulders and her skin was flushed from the fright he’d given her.