“You’re wet for me.” His voice was rough, strained.
“I have been since the first day we met.” I adjusted my arms around his neck and held on tightly. “Please, Griffin. I need you.”
He positioned himself, and then he was inside me—one slow, devastating thrust that made me almost cry out. I bit his shoulder instead.
“Jesus. So hot, so tight,” he hissed in my ear. “Best goddamn pussy I’ve ever had. Been wanting you again since Holly Creek.”
His rhythm built, his hips driving into me with a desperation that matched my own. My back pressed against the wall, his hands gripping my thighs, I lost myself in it—the friction, the heat, the way he filled me so completely I forgot where I ended and he began.
“Don’t stop giving me your dick.” My nails dug into his back. “Please don’t ever stop.”
My body was changing in ways too subtle to notice—breasts a little fuller, skin more sensitive—but inside, everything was different. My hormones had been raging all week in his presence. Every touch amplified, every sensation sharper.
I was carrying his baby. Our baby. And he had no idea.
I wanted this baby. Wanted to be a mother. To finally have someone to love unconditionally, with or without the daddy by my side.
Preferably with.
The way Griffin was taking me right now—rough and possessive and so good—I’d take this time with him as long as I could. Until the very last day of the contract. Because I knew the truth, even if I didn’t want to admit it. I was just a convenience to him, a simple solution to a problem. Someone to stand beside him and smile for the cameras and make his investors believe he was settled.
I’d come to New York to tell him about the baby, not knowing what would happen. Not knowing this man could barely love anyone or anything except himself, Theo, and his company.
Maybe that wasn’t the kind of man I wanted in my life anyway.
But I wanted this baby. And the five million dollars meant I could live on my own terms without Griffin. Move my family to a better home. Pay for Pauli and Charlie’s college. Give them the life I never had.
I only needed to survive this time with Griffin without my heart breaking in the process.
“Jessa.” His voice pulled me back, ragged and desperate. “Look at me.”
I opened my eyes, meeting his gaze—storm-gray and intense and locked on mine like I was the only thing in the world that mattered.
“You’re not allowed to leave,” he growled, thrusting deeper. “No matter what a shit I am. Not until I say so.”
Is that what his ex did to him in the past? Leaving him with a baby to figure things out on his own?
A laugh bubbled up, half-moan, half-defiance. “The contract has an expiration date.”
His mouth found my throat, teeth grazing skin. “Then we’re on the same page.”
The only thing I was on—was the wall, as the pleasure built, coiling tighter with every movement, every slide of skin against skin. I was so close, right on the edge. When his thumb found my bundle of nerves between us and pressed there—I shattered.
My cry muffled against his shoulder, my body clenching around him, and he followed seconds later with a guttural sound that sent aftershocks through me.
We stayed there a moment, chest to chest, his pulse pounding with mine. When he lowered me, my legs were jelly; his hands stayed at my hips until I steadied.
“I need another shower,” I said, aiming for light. “You’re very inconvenient, Mr. West.”
“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” A ghost of a smile, then he scooped me up and carried me into the bathroom like it cost him nothing at all.
He set the water, then looked back at me—something unreadable flickered then gone. Steam climbed the glass.
“I have to work more tonight.” He reached for his clothes and dressed with cool efficiency. “And I’m leaving early tomorrow morning for meetings. I think Sophie is in the city, so I’ll ask if she can watch Theo. I’ll see you tomorrow night at the cocktail party.”
“I’ll be ready.”
We both hesitated—his with a gaze as if longing for more, but mine with a different sentence hovering on my tongue. Then he nodded once and left. The latch clicked and I bent over to catch my breath.
