Chapter Thirteen

Working from home

Matthias

He still felt a little bit stiff when he moved, but apart from that, the whole appendectomy experience had been surprisingly easy to move on from.

Len laughed like a fool every time they met, though. Luke was less obvious about it but clearly had a hard time holding his humor in check.

“Fuck it,” Matthias grunted and swept the brush across the canvas.

“It looks good,” Nina murmured and groaned a little when she straightened from the drawing in front of her.

“What? Oh, the painting,” he said, and looked at the seascape in front of him.

Nina’s goddamned father had told him that the abstract flowers he was working on looked like a cheap replica of something the distinguished painter Cornelius Amadeus Miller had already done. The old coot had shared this with a straight face and fuck it if the man hadn’t been right.

This time it might be a Winslow Homer copy, but at least it was a good one.

There was a massive problem with it, though.

“What did you mean?”

“Leonard fucking Jackson,” he muttered. “Laughing idiot.”

“Ah,” she said. “It is kind of funny, though.”

He blinked and stared at her, wondering if she’d lost her goddamned mind.

“I puked all over you.”

“Yes,” she said, and her lips twitched. “It went into my cleavage and down –”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he snapped. “There is no need to go into details.”

“We laughed as we cleaned me up,” she shared.

Matthias froze and stared at her.

“Len wiped my vomit off your tits?” he asked silkily, not finding this funny at all.

“Well...”

“Len wiped –”

“Oh, get over it,” she snapped. “He handed me paper towels, and yes, he helped to wipe the top part of my chest.” She raised a hand to silence the string of curse words he was about to unleash on her. “While I had my bra on, and it was not one of the lacy ones.”

He closed his mouth and tried to come up with something to say that would make the whole thing less horrific, but settled for a hoarse, “Jesus.”

“Matty, it wasn’t so bad. You were sick.” Her lips twitched again, and he saw how her tee moved a little around her waist as she pressed back laughter. “At least you had soup for lunch and not the pasta.”

He groaned and threw his brush on the table.

“The painting looks good,” she said, clearly trying to placate him.

He did not feel like being placated, but a change of topic was eminently desirable, so he turned to look at the canvas.

“Huh.”

It did look good, actually. But still...

“You don’t think so?”

Should he tell her?

Fuck it. He’d just spit it out.

“I liked painting when I was younger. Liked the art classes, and back then, I dreamed of doing it for a living...”

“But?”

He sucked in air and turned to look at her.

“I hate it,” he said with a sigh. “Or, not hate it, perhaps, but I don't like it the way I did back then.” He winced and wondered if she'd think he was a boring old moron but went on anyway. “I miss the office. I've felt locked in and overworked for years, but while I've been on this paternally ordered sick-leave, I’ve realized that I actually like my job.”

“Yes!” she half-shouted and threw her pen on the table. “Thank God!”

“What?”

“I hate this, too,” she said. “I like doodling, but it’s mostly something I do while I think about, you know... rolling forecasts and how to best break down development expenses.” She made a face and pushed out a weak laugh. “And a new model for business cases. Christ, I’m such a boring, middle-aged moron.”

He started laughing, and her brows went up in surprise.

“We should like creating art because I used to, and you’re Cornelius Amadeus Miller’s daughter. And we’re both not bad at all at it.”

“I know,” she said.

“Let’s just go back to the city,” he said and pulled her into his arms. “We’ll stay tonight, but let’s go home tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” she breathed out and tilted her head back. “I’d really like that.”

Her hair was held back in a lopsided ponytail, and a few tendrils had escaped, so he pushed them away, which put a streak of aquamarine on her cheek.

Hm.

Not a bad idea at all.

“Take off your tee,” he murmured.

“What?” she asked, but she knew what.

Her voice had hitched in a way he recognized, so he grinned and stretched his arm out to dip his finger in the sap green he’d mixed with the aquamarine to create shadowy shrubs on the canvas. Then he slowly moved his hand over her collarbone and into her cleavage.

“Matthias...”

“Yeah,” he said and leaned down to move his mouth over her neck. “Let’s get naked,” he breathed into her ear. “I think I might like painting if you’re naked and I get to –”

“Oh, fuck. Sorry.”

They jumped apart, and Matthias turned to look at his younger brother.

Jake stared back at him with his mouth open.

“Hey,” Matthias said, and couldn’t hold back a snort of laughter. “You’re early.”

“Who the hell are you?”

“Uh,” Matthias said. “Your older brother?”

“My older brother has an endless supply of stuffy suits in fifty shades of gray and answers his phone.”

“You called me?”

“My brother does not wear torn jeans and a too tight tee.”

He was wearing an old college tee, and since it had made him happy to find out that it was in no way too tight, Matthias decided to ignore that stupid comment.

“What did you want?” he asked.

“He does not have a cooler haircut than me and has never in his life had a beard.”

“Do now,” Matthias said patiently, smirked a little at the haircut-comment, and repeated, “What did you want?”

“And he has never in his life smeared paint on any woman he was feeling up. Hell, I’m not even sure he’s ever felt any women up at all.”

Nina pushed out a strangled sound, and Matthias saw a blush creep up her cheeks.

“Hey,” he snapped. “Show some respect, please.”

“Shit.” Jake blinked a few times and made a visible effort to collect himself. “I’m so sorry,” he said and took a step forward. “I’m Jake.”

“I can see that,” Nina said. “I’m Nina.”

“Of course,” Jake said, and walked further into the room with his hand stretched out in a greeting. “I don’t look like Matthias.”

“No,” Nina said with a grin. “Both you and Matty have Jacob’s eyes, though.”

Jake blinked a few times again, but then a wide grin spread on his face.

“We do, don’t we?” he said and laughed in Matthias’ face as he added teasingly, “Matty.”

 

***

Nina

Luke was waiting outside my house, and he raised a hand when I parked behind Matthias’ car, which someone who probably was Dane must have brought from the office to my place.

“Hey,” Matthias rumbled and got the same greeting back.

They man-hugged in that chest-bumpy way men did, and I got a softer version.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. “Not that I mind.”

“Wanted to check in on Sir Pukes-a-lot,” Luke said. “Make sure he’s doing fine and all that.”

“Shut up,” Matthias said, but he did it with a grin.

“Hey!”

I turned to wave at Layla, who stepped out of her car, and she had brought Peggy with her. My elderly neighbor slowed down next to us to chat about the weather. She asked gently if Matthias' stomach problems were better, making it sound as if he'd eaten something funky, but smiled sweetly and reached up to pat his cheek when he assured her that he was feeling fine. Then she moved her fluffy dog away from an ecstatic Pippin, and we walked inside to catch up with our friends. Tony stopped by with two of his sisters, and Len joined us with a big stack of pizza-boxes.

It was a relaxed and happy evening, and when we were waving everyone off, I leaned my head on Matthias’ shoulder.

“God, it’s good to be home,” I said. “I love my parents, and you know I adore Jacob, but we’re not teenagers anymore.”

“Yeah,” he said and tightened the arm around my shoulders. “Let’s go inside and do things teenagers shouldn’t do.” I laughed up at him, and he raised a brow. “Loudly,” he added and locked the door behind us. “And repeatedly.”

“Okay,” I said. “I can do that.”

“Tomorrow, we get to do it again,” he murmured. “My place.”

“Okay,” I repeated.

 

***

 

Our plans to repeat what had ended up as a pretty vigorous night crumbled fifteen seconds after we’d entered his home.

There was water everywhere.

Matthias went into immediate overdrive, and called a gazillion people, alternating between cajoling and yelling. A truck showed up within half an hour, and then a few more arrived. Men seemed to be running around like headless hens, although since the vehicles belonged to someone who liked to be called Plumber-Joe, I assumed they knew what they were doing.

I had wisely taken Pippin outside and spent an hour tossing a ball. Then I snuck inside and tried to make coffee, but the water was turned off, so I did a quick headcount and went to the closest Starbucks and got coffee for everyone.

I had just finished mine when Matthias walked out on his deck and sat down with a sigh.

“How bad is it?”

“Bad,” he grunted and sucked back some coffee. Then he turned slowly toward me. “It’s fixable, but it’ll take a while to dry out the floors.”

“I can imagine that.”

And I could. There had been pools of water on the second floor, both in Matthias’ master bedroom and in his son’s room. This had leaked through the ceiling, so there had been another pool in the living room downstairs. And in the kitchen, which I silently thought was pretentious and pretty damned ugly, but still.

“I’ll need somewhere to stay, so I was wondering if I could –”

“Of course, you can stay with me,” I said quickly.

“Babe,” he said with a grin. “I was going to ask if I could drop Pippin off at your place, and I’d get a hotel room or find a short-term rental somewhere.”

Oh.

There seemed to be an imminent need for backtracking.

“Of course,” I said breezily. “I’d be happy to –”

“Nuh-huh,” he cut me off. “No taking it back. I’m not staying in a fucking hotel if I can live with you.”

He leaned forward, and I smiled into his kiss.

“So, can I?” he mumbled against my lips.

“Can you what?” I asked, slightly bewildered by the way his tongue had played with mine.

“Stay with you?”

“I like you with me,” I said.

“I like me with you, too,” he said softly. “Come help me pack?”

 

***

 

My house was fantastic, but it was not huge. It worked fine for two people and a dog, and it was a bit crowded when Meggie came for the weekend, but we had a good time.

What didn’t work very well was when the two people in the house also worked a lot.

I had put a desk in my bedroom when I moved in. It had once been two rooms, but the wall had been knocked down, so it was spacious. There wasn't room for two desks, though, so we mostly ended up working at the kitchen table, which wasn’t optimal.

“I’ll use the desk,” Matthias said and rolled his shoulders. “Have some calls to make and want to use the screen.”

“Okay,” I said and closed my laptop. “I’m done for the day. I’ve finally managed to reschedule the meeting we were supposed to have about the supplier issues Peggy and I would like to discuss.”

“Problems?”

“I’m not sure,” I said.

We had found several cases where invoices had been booked without the correct paperwork to support it, and the amounts were never notable, but when we added them up, the total was significant. They had been authorized as per their purchasing process, though, and quite a few of them were co-signed by either Matthias or Len.

“Okay,” Matthias muttered. “Let’s have that meeting. George is invited, I assume?”

“Of course,” I said.

George had been the main reason it was so difficult to schedule the meeting because, according to Dane, the man’s calendar was a nightmare. We’d found a slot finally, and it would be good to knock that topic off my long to-do-list.

“Okay,” Matthias said, and gathered up his things, so I reached for my iPad.

“I’ll read something,” I said and waved a hand to indicate the couch.

“You could read in bed,” he said. “I like having you there.”

“I can do that,” I agreed and tried to hide how a sweet, warm feeling of happiness washed through me.

“Besides,” he murmured as he put his computer on the desk. “I’ll be done in half an hour, an hour tops, and then you’ll be in bed anyway.”

I was not a silly young girl anymore, but there was no way I could hold back a giggle, and his face softened.

The book I was reading had gotten raving reviews, but I was unable to focus on it. Part of that was that I didn’t agree with the reviewers, but mostly it was because I had a hard time keeping my eyes off the amazingly hot man currently discussing polymer prices on the phone.

There was no way around it.

I was incredibly horny.

Our eyes met, and the way something flashed in his made me suspect that he’d read my mind.

“Just sort it out. Len and I can handle the rest,” he said, added his goodbyes and put the phone down frustratingly slowly. “Nina,” he said quietly.

“Yeah,” I answered.

He got up and opened one of the drawers I’d emptied so he’d have some space for his things. Then he turned, raised a hand, and my breath stuttered when I saw what he was holding.

“Yeah,” he echoed. “I have some more shit to deal with, so we need to make sure you’re not disturbing me.”

Then he let a couple of ties unroll. They dangled as he moved his arm slowly, and there was a small smirk on his lips, but his eyes had turned sharp and focused.

“Matthias.”

“Just relax and I’ll take care of you, baby,” he said and pulled the iPad out of my hand.

When he’d removed my clothes, he used a tie to secure my hands to the headboard.

“Okay?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said hoarsely, and moved my hips, hoping he’d put a hand inside the panties he hadn’t pulled off.

“Okay,” he repeated and moved down to grab my right foot. When he’d tied both my legs to the bed, he walked back to the desk, reached into his briefcase, and pulled out a small box. “Now we’ll play,” he said.

His voice was a low, soft rumble, I could see how hard he was underneath his jeans, and I moved my hips a little again.

“I thought you had work to do?” I asked.

“I do,” he said, and I felt how he slid something under my panties and between my folds. “You’ll have to wait until I’m done.”

I was about to say something about something I had no clue what it was, but he raised a finger to his lips and made a shushing sound.

Then he picked up his Bluetooth earbuds, plopped them in and wiggled his phone.

“Have a few calls to make,” he said with a smirk.

I watched him talk to his legal counsel about patents the R&D department wanted to file, and how he tapped on his phone while he spoke.

Then there suddenly was a soft vibration between my legs, and I gasped.

“Give me a sec, Mike,” Matthias said, moved a finger on his phone, and turned to me. “I’m on the phone, baby, so you need to be quiet,” he said and looked at me over his glasses.

“But –”

“And don’t come,” he said and tapped his phone again. “Yeah, Mike, I’m back.”

I pressed my lips together and tried to breathe slowly as the vibrations increased in strength. Matthias was watching me as I arched my back and tried to move, although if it was to get more pressure from the vibrator or less, I didn’t know.

When he’d closed the call, he slowly unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt.

“Okay, babe?” he asked.

“Yes,” I hissed because he’d turned up the vibrations, and then I moaned.

“Good,” he said. “One more call.”

The pressure between my legs was increasing, but he seemed to know when I was about to fall off the edge into an orgasm and turned the vibrator down. I wanted to come so bad I was ready to scream at him to let me, but he was calmly talking to Len about setting up a test facility for new equipment before it went on the market.

His call seemed to stretch out forever, and all I could feel was how every nerve ending in my body seemed to tingle. I breathed rapidly and hoped Len wouldn’t hear me, but trusted Matthias to close the call if I was too loud.

Then he put the phone down.

“Don’t come,” he said, and it took a second for me to realize that he was addressing me.

“Please,” I whimpered. “I need to –”

He turned the vibrations down to a soft hum and moved the chair until he was facing me. Then he unbuttoned the rest of his shirt and slowly pulled the zipper down on his pants.

“You are so sexy,” he said and pulled his cock out. “I'll never get enough of you.” He took a firm grip of himself and started to lazily move his hand up and down. “Want to push inside and feel that heat.”

“Please take me,” I begged. “I need to come.”

“You’ll get my cock,” he said. “When I think you’re ready for it.”

Ready for it?

I had never been more ready to have anyone inside me in my life and was about to tell him this when he turned the vibrations up again.

“Not yet,” he grunted.

I tried to hold back, but my legs started shaking, and I moaned loudly.

“Please,” I said on another moan.

“Wait,” he said but moved toward me.

I focused on breathing and on watching him push his pants and briefs down a bit further, and then he was on his knees between my legs.

“Matthias,” I breathed out.

“Yeah.” He pushed my panties to the side, positioned himself, and slid inside in one long thrust. “Come for me now, baby,” he said, and I did.

The vibrator was sending sharp tingles through my clit, and his hard cock moved inside me, and I cried out as I let go. He put his hands on my cheeks to hold me still, and bucked his hips hard and fast while the orgasm rushed through me.

“Fucking gorgeous, Nina,” he grunted. “So good. So, fucking good.”

His movements became jerky, and his face hardened, but he kept pounding, and I kept coming.

“Oh, God,” I moaned.

“Don’t stop,” he growled.

I whimpered in response, and then he suddenly leaned his head into my neck and pushed out a loud grunt, and then another one until he’d emptied himself.

Before he went down on his elbows, he removed the vibrator, but then he sank down with a loud sigh.

When our breaths were back to normal, he pushed his clothes away, and removed the ties but came back to the bed, so I curled into him and put an arm around his waist.

“Good?” he murmured.

Was he insane?

“Fantastic,” I said. “Working from home has never felt better, actually.”

He burst out laughing, and I grinned into his happy eyes, feeling way beyond fantastic.

 

***

Matthias

He’d come so hard he saw stars and had Nina curled into his side, telling him she felt fantastic. Life was pretty damned excellent, and he smiled into her hair.

Who could have guessed that having a water-damaged house could turn into something better than anything he’d ever experienced?

It wasn’t just the sex. That part was beyond fucking amazing, but it wasn’t just that.

It was waking up and having breakfast together before they went to the office. Walking or running with Pippin in the evening. Having dinner just the two of them, or with their friends. Even goddamned grocery shopping was fun.

Because he loved her.

When that realization hit him, his heart skipped a beat, but then a slow wash of warmth spread through him. He’d loved before, but this was different, and he hadn’t expected to feel it again, so he smiled.

The doorbell suddenly rang downstairs, and he sighed.

“I’ll get it. It’s probably Luke, he said he’d stop by,” he said, pulled on a pair of jeans and zipped them as he jogged down the stairs.

Then he opened the door and stared at the woman outside.

“Hello, Matthias.”

“Jackie?” he asked, as if he didn’t recognize his ex-wife, and asked what he thought was an incredibly relevant question. “What are you doing here?”