She turns to face me. “But I like coffee and pastries.”
“So get those when you get to work, but I’m not sending you out of here without knowing you’ve eaten proper food.”
Mia sighs, her fingers reaching for my chest. “Fine, but if you’re planning on fucking me like this tomorrow morning, then we need to be up an hour earlier.”
My lips twitch. “I’ll set my alarm.” She steps into my arms and I wrap around her like she’s part of me. She smells good, and she’s warm. I nock her head under my chin. “You’re just at the gallery today?”
“Yep. We have a new shipment coming in this morning. Five new paintings from one of my new artists, so I’ll be there all day.”
“No appointments?” I press.
“Nope.”
“No surprises?”
She pulls back to look at me. “No, but even if there was, I’ll take Theo with me.”
Theo’s a former Marine and built like a wall. I trust him with my wife’s safety, but he’s not me. He’ll never protect her the way I will.
Not with his life.
Not with blood.
“If you have to go somewhere?—”
“I’ll call you or message,” she says, rolling to her toes and pressing a kiss to my jaw. “But I’m not going anywhere today, so you can relax. No one is going to snatch me out of the gallery.”
I don’t mirror her smile. She’s wrong. Given half the chance, anyone would take her. She and I have a combined wealth that would match a small country’s GDP. She’s a ripe target for abduction, blackmail, or ransom.
Mia thinks I’m being overcautious, but I don’t think I do enough. Every instinct urges me to lock her in the penthouse. I can control that environment. Her safety. But if I try to keep her in a cage, I’ll lose her.
“I was joking, Jensen.” Her smile falters. “Nothing’s going to happen to me.”
It won’t because I won’t allow it.
“I know.” I kiss her head. “Food, then work. The sooner you do both, the closer I am to having you back here.” I lean into her. “I want you to think about me all day and what I’ll do to you when I have you back in our home.”
“And what exactly are you going to do to me, Jensen Rivers?”
I pull back so she can see the way my eyes soften. “I’m going to worship every beautiful inch of you.”
FOUR
MIA
There’sa glorious ache between my thighs. I can still feel my husband’s presence inside my body. He stretched me so full I’ll be feeling him all day. And the words that spilled from his mouth like a prayer wrapped in sin?
Yeah, I’m sore and deliciously sated.
Not a bad way to start a Monday morning.
I shift in the seat, trying to get comfortable. Manhattan is always busy, but this morning it’s bumper to bumper and nonstop honking. Theo’s already cursed more times than I can count at drivers cutting in front of him.
I bounce my knee, already tense that Jensen’s escapades made me late, and now the five-minute drive to SoHo is dragging to almost double that.
I glance at my watch. It’s almost 10:30a.m.
Juno’s going to think I’ve been abducted.
