Attainment (The Temptation Series) Read Free Page A

you next week.”
    “Bryce,” she says not looking up. “You know that despite
your stubbornness, your mother would still be proud of you.”
    I sigh. “You tell me this every time.”
    “Well, it’s true. She would, and you need to hear it.”
    I head for the door without looking back and give her the
reply that I always do, “Thank you.”  Except this time, I don’t really mean it.
    ***
    A few weeks later, we are standing on the threshold of our
newly refurbished apartment with my hands covering Alexis’ eyes.
    “Are you ready?” I ask, drawing out the unveiling of the
renovations.
    She urges me forward. “Yes! Yes! Come on, let’s go in.”
    Releasing one hand from her eyes, I turn the handle on the
door, opening it for us to walk inside. “Keep them closed until I say,
alright?”
    She huffs. “Yes, okay, you are such a control freak.”
    “And your problem is?”
    “Bryce Edward Clar—“
    “Okay, okay,” I chuckle, while holding her back against my
front and slowly shuffling us along the entryway of the apartment. Leaning
down, I slowly and softly whisper into her ear. “You can open them, my love.”
    I tilt my head around to get a clearer view of her reaction,
seeing her eyelids flutter and the expression on her face morph from
anticipation to amazement. It’s not as if she had no idea what the newly
refurbished apartment was to look like. Because she did, after all, help
redesign it. I guess that seeing it in the flesh for the first time, together
with the extra little bits and pieces I’ve organised without her knowledge, is
the cause of her happy astonishment.
    She steps forward and gazes over the lounge area. “Oh,
Bryce, it’s...it’s...wow! It’s wonderful.”
    The layout of the apartment is still relatively the same, except
now there is no step down into the lounge. Alexis wanted to minimise as many
steps as possible, considering a rolling, then crawling, then walking little
person was on their way. The other noticeable change is the softer colour
palette throughout the lower level, and the now child-friendly furniture—no
sharp, sleek lines or edges.
    Where there had been greys, whites, blacks and deep blues,
there are now creams, beige, fawn and chocolate browns. I’d arranged for new
family photographs to be enlarged, framed, and displayed on the walls, together
with replica cushions of the ones Alexis went a little cuckoo over when she
left Rick. I’d even arranged for some Twister carpet to be laid in my new
recording studio, which was no longer really fitting to be labelled a ‘recording
studio’. You see, it is now a larger room containing many new toys. Not man
toys...but child toys, including the carpet.
    Before Alexis has a chance to move further into the
apartment, I seize her hand gently and spin her around, stepping her backward
until she’s stopped against the entryway wall—my prurient intentions now made
clear by the pressing of my raging hard-on against her hip.
    “I believe we need to break in this freshly rebuilt wall,” I
suggest seductively, pinning her arms above her head and grazing my lips across
her ear.
    Thoughts of the first time I had her pressed to this very
spot flit across my mind, and it’s obvious to me that I want her now just as much
as I wanted her then...probably even more.
    She takes in a sharp breath, pushing her plump breasts into
my chest before exhaling slowly. “What did you have in mind?” she purrs.
    Fuuuuuck, I love it when she teases me with her sultry
voice.
    “I think a complete re-hash...” I murmur as I lightly lick
the crook of her neck. “...of our first time together is a good start.”
    “Start?” she questions, her voice still low and sexy. “We
have to pick up the kids from school soon, Bryce,” she adds, lacking
conviction.
    Pulling away from her, I look up to my watch then lean back
in, stopping only centimetres from her mouth. “There’s a lot I can do to you in
the space of an hour,” I say as I watch