Still, he found nothing.
Maybe that’s what they had given him.
Maybe the nothingness was God’s answer.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Taking Notes
Dree
Sometime after midnight, Dree’s phone buzzed.
The contact name wasAuggie,and it read,Take notes.
Dree washed her face and applied lipstick. She was still wearing her work clothes from earlier, which meant a sexy-professional dress.
She’d finally learned her way through the palace to Maxence’s apartment.
At his door, she checked to see if anybody was in the gilded hallway and listened in case somebody was coming around a corner. When the air was quiet and still, she slipped the key from her little satchel-bag and clicked the lock.
Even though the door looked impossibly heavy, it opened to her light touch.
She stepped into the dim room.
Bright light came from the open door and hallway behind her. Her pear-shaped shadow slithered on the thick carpeting.
Small lamps no more luminous than candlelight flickered on the piano and coffee table, but they were wan stars in the darkness. A few more always danced in his bedroom.
She took a few more steps into the room.
The door behind her slammed and clicked, locking.
A force impacted between her shoulder blades, and she fell forward onto her hands and knees. A breeze flipped her skirt up to her waist, baring her thighs and ass, and the cool breeze from the window caressed her skin.
She looked back and caught a glimpse of Maxence’s strong jaw and broad shoulders lined with candlelight. He’d stripped his shirt off, and the tattoo on his forearm with Monaco’s red and white diamond shield at the base pointed down toward his wrist.
Oh, jeez.He was going to cram himself inside her. She didn’t brace herself but tried to open and relax, even though she was cringing inside.
She wasn’t even close to saying her safe word, though. For weeks, Max had been busy with events in the evenings. He’d barely had time at the office to rip her panties off and stroke her once or twice, all to frustrate her with no release. Dree wantedanythingshe could get from him.
A rough hand forced her head down, rubbing her face in the thick carpeting and lifting her ass higher in the air. He slid her panties down to her knees.
She squeezed her eyes shut as she braced herself for his entry.
Instead, a warm, wet tongue slid through her folds.
Oh.
Warmth and tenderness licked through her, a muscular and yet soft intrusion that made her body bloom with desire for more. Her relief and desire coalesced in her throat, and the sound came out as a low moan.
His tongue left her, and Maxence growled, “Quiet, or I won’t let you come.”
Dree choked back another sound. She suspected he liked nothing better than seeing her frustrated and horny while he zipped up his fly.
His tongue moved on her again, stroking her soft skin in ever-expanding and deeper waves.
She dug her fingers into the thick carpet, panting.
