Chapter 20

CHAPTER20

“Skip,” Morgan whispered weakly as she reached up and placed her hands over his.

“That’s five,” Eric said as she pushed his hands away and stood up. “Why didn’t you say anything when I told you that I asked Amber to marry me?”

“Because it wasn’t my place to say anything,” Morgan said, grabbing the empty soda can off the table and brought it to the kitchen sink, needing something to do.

A moment later, she felt Eric’s warm breath teasing the back of her neck as he placed his hands on the kitchen counter, caging her in. “You’re my best friend, Morgan, and you didn’t think that it was your place to say something?” Eric asked, taking the can out of her hand and placed it on the counter.

“Would you say something if I was getting married?” Morgan asked, slowly exhaling as she placed her hands on the counter next to his.

“Do you love him?” Eric asked after a slight hesitation.

“I wouldn’t marry a man unless I did,” Morgan said, already knowing that she would never love anyone as much as the man currently pissing her off.

“More than me?” Eric whispered softly.

“Skip,” Morgan said as she pushed past his arm and walked away, deciding that she’d had enough for one night.

“You’re out of skips, Morgan,” Eric said quietly.

“Then, I guess we’re done playing this game,” she said, shaking her head as she headed for the door and-

“Baker House wasn’t good enough,” Eric said as she paused by the door that really needed to be replaced. “Not nearly fucking good enough. You would have come up with some amazing designs, and probably would have enjoyed it but you wouldn’t have loved it, not like this. I wanted to give you something you could love, something that you could lose yourself in so that I could show you just how much I…” Eric said, only to let his words trail off with a heavy sigh and a muttered, “Fucking Theo.”

“What were you about to say?” Morgan asked as she slowly turned around to find Eric watching her.

“Skip,” Eric said as warm emerald eyes locked on her. “Why have you been pushing me away, baby girl?”

“You haven’t called me that in a long time,” Morgan said, surprised by how much she’d missed hearing two simple words.

“I called you baby girl the other day,” Eric said with that teasing smile that she’d always loved, only to add, “When you were embracing your obsession with bubbles,” at her questioning look.

“We do not speak of that night,” Morgan said, pushing her glasses back up her nose as she found herself asking the one question that she had a feeling that she already knew the answer to. “Why did you stop calling me that?”

“I have no idea why I stopped calling you baby girl,” Eric said, not quite able to meet her eyes.

“I thought we weren’t going to lie to each other,” Morgan reminded him.

“Amber had a problem with it,” he admitted, sighing heavily as he reached up and rubbed the back of his neck before dropping his hand away.

Nodding slowly, Morgan asked the one question that she’d been wondering for months now. “And if Amber told you to cut me out of your life?”

“It would never fucking happen,” Eric bit out angrily as his eyes locked with hers.

“Why?” Morgan asked, watching as Eric ground his jaw while he watched her, looking torn and-

“Why don’t you date?” he asked, taking her by surprise.

She opened her mouth, only to close it and swallow hard when he said, “You’re out of skips.”

“Why didn’t Amber ever spend the night?” Morgan asked, deciding that it would be in her best interest to get him to use up the rest of his skips.

“Because,” Eric drawled, sighing softly as he closed the distance between them and took her hand in his, “I didn’t want her.”

When she went to open her mouth, he cut her off with a murmured, “I thought we weren’t going to talk about Amber. Wasn’t that a rule?” as he entwined their fingers together and gave her hand a gentle tug.

“It was,” Morgan said, watching Eric curiously as he led her down the long hallway towards the staircase, “but that didn’t stop you from answering my question about Baker House.”

“It wasn’t worth a skip,” Eric said, leading her upstairs as she felt his thumb caress the back of her hand.

“What is he planning on doing with Baker House?” Morgan asked after a slight hesitation.

“The same thing that I was. He’s got a buyer that wants to turn it back into a hotel,” Eric said, shrugging it off like it didn’t matter.

“What about your plans?” Morgan asked, feeling sick to her stomach at the thought of all the work Eric put into getting Baker House.

“There will be other buildings,” Eric promised her with a teasing smile.

“You loved Baker House,” she mumbled sadly, not really caring that she was pouting as she allowed him to lead her down the hallway and-

Took her by surprise when he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers in an achingly sweet kiss. “I already told you,” Eric said, pausing to brush his lips against hers one last time, “I love you more.”

“I see…” Morgan murmured in a daze as she watched him for a moment, noting the pleased look in his eyes and-

Decided that it was time to find out what he was really up to.

* * *

“Just tellme what I want to know and I’ll let go,” the small woman currently hanging off his back said, only to grumble, shift, and after a slight hesitation, she cleared her throat and murmured, “Is there any chance that you could lean down so that I could readjust my hold?”

“I could do that,” Eric murmured as he stood there considering his options as he took in the only two pieces of furniture in the room, the bureau or the bed, and…

“Damn it,” came the sadly mumbled words that had his lips twitching when Morgan was forced to give up her hold around his shoulders and slid to the floor with a long-suffering sigh. That was followed by Morgan grabbing hold of his hand, more grumbling that just made her fucking adorable, and took the decision out of his hands and dragged him over to the bureau, where she shot him a look of warning before releasing his hand, climbing onto the bureau, shifting to get comfortable, and once she was settled, she gestured for him to get on with it.

Sighing heavily, Eric stepped closer until he was standing between her legs, watching as her glare slowly turned into a frown. “Umm, what are you doing?”

“Making this easier for you to terrify me into talking,” Eric said as he placed his hands on her thighs while he waited for the latest interrogation to begin.

“And I appreciate that, but if you don’t tell me what I want to know soon, I’m going to hurt you,” Morgan explained, blinking at him as she reached up and pushed her glasses back up her nose as she waited for him to talk.

“I still have four skips left,” he reminded her.

“Then, why don’t we get those out of the way?” Morgan suggested as she folded her arms over her chest as she went back to trying to intimidate him.

“Ask away,” Eric said, only to glare when the little bully reached up and palmed his face before pushing him away.

“I’m going to require distance for the rest of this interrogation,” Morgan said with a satisfied sigh as Eric reluctantly stepped back, only to sigh heavily and kept moving back when she shot a pointed look down at his feet.

“Better?” Eric asked as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

“For now,” Morgan said with a slow nod. “You were telling me what we’re really doing here.”

“That’s not really a question,” Eric pointed out, feeling his lips twitch as he watched her eyes narrow dangerously on him.

“It’s like you want me to hurt you,” Morgan said, shaking her head in wonder.

“I’m not really into that,” Eric said, watching as her lips twitched before she managed to pull it back.

“What are you up to, Eric Bradford?” Morgan demanded, confirming his fears.

He wasn’t going to be able to pull this off without telling her something.

Morgan was…

God, there was no good way to say this, Morgan was adorable as hell, but she was also beyond fucking paranoid. Always has been. While other kids had been excited about the prospect of Santa Claus bringing them presents, Morgan demanded answers. She wanted to know how Santa knew if she was good, how he knew what she wanted for Christmas, how he was able to get into their house without a key, and how eight tiny reindeer were able to fly without wings.

Her parents did their best to explain everything, but Morgan didn’t buy it, which led to her demanding that he sneak over to her house on Christmas Eve and help her hide behind the couch with a Nerf bat so that she could wait for Santa and get some real answers. Granted, if he’d known that she would end up hobbling her father when she spotted him eating the cookies that she left out to lure Santa closer, he would have taken that bat away from her, but…

He’d been curious to see if she could take Santa down.

That was quickly followed by her parents deciding against surprise parties after they tried to surprise her with a clown for her sixth birthday. Then again, if Bo-Bo hadn’t snuck up behind her with a party popper, she probably wouldn’t have started screaming “stranger danger” and punched him in the balls.

And now…

“Do you want the truth?” Eric asked, watching her closely.

“Usually,” Morgan said, once again gesturing for him to get on with it.

So. Fucking. Cute.

“I was hoping that I could pull this off without having to tell you what I was up to, but then I remembered something important,” Eric said conversationally as he stood and made his way back to her.

“What’s that?” Morgan asked as she watched his every move.

“That you’re a pain in the ass,” Eric drawled as he moved to stand between her legs again.

“That should have been taken into consideration before you started screwing with my head,” Morgan reminded him.

“Probably,” Eric murmured in agreement as he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

“Did you miss the threat of violence that I made a few minutes ago?” Morgan asked, blinking up at him.

“I did catch that,” Eric said, nodding solemnly.

“Then, start talking,” Morgan said as she folded her arms over her chest as she did her best to intimidate him.

“I want a fresh start,” Eric said, leaning back in to kiss her cheek. “I want more.”

“What are you talking about?”

Sighing heavily, Eric turned his head and brushed his lips against hers. “I want you.”