Crazy Thing (The Brighton Family #5)

Chapter 43

43

ZIGGY

W hen we step out of the elevator, a handsome middle-aged man in a crisp white shirt with a black tie rushes across the windy rooftop, meeting us halfway.

“Mr. Brighton! Good seeing you again.” He whisks the luggage out of Darius’s hands.

Darius offers a brisk nod. “Cal.” His eyes shift to me, his palm settling at the small of my back. “This is Ziggy.”

“A pleasure to meet you,” the man says with a warm smile that eases my anxiousness the tiniest bit.

Salt and pepper hair, cool sunglasses and swagger. Cal is everything I’d imagined the pilot of a private aircraft to be.

Even still, I warily eyeball the helicopter that’s waiting here on the rooftop of Darius’s office building. My pulse bounces in my throat. “A pleasure to meet you, too, Cal.” I pull my cardigan tighter around my shivering shoulders.

Reading my untrusting expression, Darius chuckles, his strong arm coming around my back as his lips press to my temple. He speaks to Cal. “Think you can get this beautiful lady and me safely to the city? ”

The pilot nods confidently, walking ahead of us with our overnight bags. “I’ve got twenty-seven years under my belt. You’re in great hands, Ms. Ziggy, if I do say so myself.” He smiles at me over his shoulder.

My eyes dart to the helicopter again as my hair whips into my eyes. “I’m not scared of flying,” I mumble to Darius for the tenth time today as Cal quickly stores our luggage and steps aside to make way for us to climb inside.

It’s true. This helicopter doesn’t scare me. I’m sort of looking forward to the thrill of being in the air, actually. It’s the rush of being here with Darius that has my belly flipping double-time today.

“Is that why you’re shaking like a leaf?” I don’t have to glance at his face to know that he’s smirking. I can hear it in the amused rumble of his deep voice.

“I’m shaking because it’s freezing up here,” I protest stubbornly, and Darius’s hand protectively returns to my waist as I board the aircraft.

We step into the small but luxurious cabin. Cal promises us a safe and smooth flight before entering the cockpit and closing the door, leaving Darius and me alone in privacy.

I slide into a camel-toned leather seat and Darius scoots in beside me. I’m busy looking around at the glossy wood panels and the brushed metal finishes when Darius’s suit jacket comes around my shoulders. Then he’s buckling my seatbelt and pulling me up against his side.

His voice drops to a quiet rasp. “No worries, beautiful. I’m here to keep you safe and warm.” He lifts my chin with his knuckles and sweeps a kiss over my lips.

“Do you ever get tired of being so corny?” I say, even as a grin splits my face in two.

“Do you ever get tired of pretending not to like it?” Darius shoots right back .

“Ugh. You win. You’ve got me there,” I grumble, pulling his arm tighter around me.

I can hear the whirr of the engine. But the sound is relatively faint from where we’re sitting. Before long, the helicopter is climbing into the sky and whisking us over the mountains of Starlight Falls.

I’m trying to retrace my steps and remind myself of how I ended up here. Mere weeks ago, I was at my metaphysical shop, struggling to figure out how I’d meet my financial obligations. Even more importantly, Darius Brighton was my sworn enemy and all my well-buried memories of him were embedded with rejection and pain.

Now, here I am, dangling ten thousand feet above ground level with Darius’s arm around me. I’m his assistant and his lover, the lines between us hopelessly blurred. It makes me shiver again. Am I being a fool here?

“Still cold?” He stares at me, his palm stroking up and down my bicep.

I force a smile, easing out of his hold. “I’m good.”

He studies my expression more closely. “Is something wrong?”

I reach for the leather file organizer where I stored my yellow notepad. “Should we be getting prepared for the meetings?”

He wags his head. “No need. All the meetings today will be pretty casual. Important but casual.”

I nod. “Do you think we’ll be done with everything in time to fly back home tonight?”

The staff at the office is new. I’m not exactly done training them yet. For some reason, I’m suddenly nervous about leaving them on their own for longer than strictly necessary .

A mischievous smile comes over Darius’s face. “No. We’re not going home tonight.”

I wait for him to explain.

“We’ll spend the afternoon visiting a few commercial real estate sites that I’m interested in acquiring with Laurier. Later in the evening, we’ll do dinner with some of my”—he seems to be searching for the right word—“colleagues. Then tomorrow…tomorrow is a surprise.” When he says that, he’s wearing a wolfish grin that makes me tingle.

“A surprise?” My eyebrows arch upward. I open my mouth to question him further but he cuts me off.

“Don’t ask. Because I’m not telling you.”

Excitement ticks up inside me as I try to imagine what this man could possibly have up his sleeve. “Darius. Tell me.”

“Nope.” He wags his head stubbornly, his lips curved into a smile.

I grab his arm, shaking it. “Come on.”

“I’m not telling you, Ziggy.” He grabs me by the shoulders, planting a firm kiss on my mouth. “Let’s just focus on what’s on the agenda for today.”

“Fine.” With a growl, I pull up his calendar on my phone. I scroll through the app, making sure everything is scheduled correctly. “Okay, so first we’re visiting the construction sites…” I type in. Then we’re having dinner with your friends.” I clap my hands together. “I’m excited.”

I really enjoyed meeting those billionaire wives and I’d love to get to know them a little better.

“My colleagues ,” Darius corrects me. “We’re having a business dinner with my colleagues .” When he says that, his posture straightens and he adjusts the knot of his tie. Laidback Darius is gone, and immediately, here comes Mr. Business Mode .

I almost laugh. “Darius—they’re your friends. There’s nothing wrong with having friends.”

“They’re business associates, Ziggy. I don’t mix business with pleasure.”

I roll my eyes. “You’re kidding, aren’t you? You don’t mix business with pleasure?”

“Never. I keep firm boundaries between my personal and professional lives.”

I cackle. I outright cackle. Because he doesn’t seem to catch the irony in what he’s saying.

“You and me—we’re the epitome of mixing business with pleasure,” I remind him.

His eyes narrow. His nostrils flare. He’s a caged animal. He’s stepped into a trap that he himself laid.

Darius tracks his long fingers through his hair, perfectly disheveling it, before he speaks. “That’s different. You’re the exception.” He says it like he actually believes it. He’s full of shit and he doesn’t even realize it.

I reach across the space between us, tenderly playing with the hair at his nape. “It must be exhausting being so guarded all the time.”

He looks away, setting his jaw. “It’s not exhausting. It’s the way I am.” I watch the vein in his neck pulse. “All I know is, ‘friends’ are just a distraction. A waste of time. ‘Colleagues’ move forward together. Isn’t that more important anyway?”

This man is so determined to keep the world at arm’s length. It makes me sad. He doesn’t even realize how much he’s cutting himself off from the juiciness of life.

“It’s okay to just let yourself have fun sometimes. To just enjoy people for the heck of it, without calculating the return on investment,” I suggest softly, my fingertips massaging his scalp .

“I get it. I’m boring,” he grouses. “And no one wants to do the boring things in life. But those are the important things. The things that get you ahead.”

I lean in, allowing my lips to graze his neck. “You’re not boring, Darius. No one excites me like you do.” I smile against his skin, enjoying the way goosebumps sprout along the thick column of his throat. “But I will say this—you don’t allow yourself to have fun. And sometimes the most important thing is to have fun. To spread love. To let people love you. That’s called balance.”

Easing away, I observe his face. I can see that he’s struggling with what I’m saying. But I can also see that he’s sincerely trying. Aunt Rainbow said that’s the most important thing, right? The willingness to try.

“It’s not fair for me to push my worldview on you. But I’ll say this. You’ve opened up to me, Darius, and you’ve shown me the beautiful soul that I never could have imagined beneath those perfectly tailored suits. Whether or not you choose to share that beauty with the rest of the world is up to you. But I’m truly grateful that you’ve shared yourself with me.”

Bodies confined by our seatbelts, my arms wrap around his neck in the most awkward hug. But it’s a hug he clearly needs.

Darius lifts my chin with his knuckles. “You’re an actual angel. D’you know that?”

My lips curve smugly. “I don’t think an angel would do the things I did with you last night.”

I sense the hitch in his chest, the way his breathing pattern changes. “She wouldn’t?” he asks with playful, heated eyes.

I shake my head. “Nope. ”

“I can’t decide. I think I’ll need you to repeat your performance so I can make up my mind,” he rumbles.

We kiss and we kiss and we kiss, losing track of time. The firm softness of his touch and the heavenly plushness of his lips only intensify the floaty feeling coursing through my body. I forget all about the world outside until I feel the slight jostle of the helicopter touching down on a helipad over looking Chicago.

I ease out of Darius’s arms, blinking around at the city surrounding us, sunlight winking at us through the peaks of the towering skyscrapers.

Moments later, we step off the aircraft and a uniformed driver is right there, waiting to help us with our bags. We say goodbye to Cal and within minutes, we’re in the back of a black SUV with tinted windows, whisking through the city. I pull Darius’s arm around my shoulders and snuggle up against him as I take it all in.

But then his phone dings and I glance his way only to find him frowning and scrolling through whatever message just popped up.

“Stop!” he says to the driver, a note of urgency in his voice. “We’re going to have to turn back.”

“What is it?” I ask, immediately alarmed by his change in mood.

Then my own phone begins to ding with notifications from the new office receptionist. A barrage of text messages—in all caps—floods my phone. My brain struggles to keep up with what I’m reading.

Darius meets my eyes and he growls. “We have a problem back in Starlight Falls. Inspectors just showed up at the office.”