I won't think about the fact that she's my home, my safe haven, because I don't want to think about what will happen the day she has to leave.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Colter
“Baby,fuck.”
I slam my fist down on the top of my desk, not caring how loud the rattle is.
I can practically hear Annaliese’s smirk from where she kneels underneath my desk. She wraps her fist around the base of my cock as her wicked tongue moves, and there are only a few more seconds left before I combust.
“You’re going to pay for this tonight, sweetheart.” She increases her speed, her free hand coming to squeeze my balls as if to say “I look forward to it,” and that’s all it takes.
I groan, hips bucking out of my chair as I spill down her throat, and I can feel her working to swallow each drop, the knowledge of that causing the aftereffects of my orgasm to linger.
Once I’m spent, I let my head fall back to rest on the back of my chair. I don’t even have the energy to pull my scrub pants up, but I push my chair back just enough to reach for Annaliese. With a tug on her biceps, I pull her into my lap and wrap my arms around her.
“You are a wicked, wicked woman,” I murmur against her hair. She hums in agreement, clearly satisfied with herself.
“A wicked woman who just crawled under your desk to suck your dick.”
With her legs straddling my hips and the dirty words on her lips, my body starts to beg for more.
I clasp the sides of her face with my hands, bringing her in to kiss her lips. “Like I said,” brushing my words against her mouth, “wicked.” I open my mouth to add, “But I love it. And I love you.” But I catch myself.
I’ve never told a woman that I love her, and come to think of it, I’ve never said it to Richard, to my cousin, or anyone. Maybe I told my mom when I was a little kid, but the memories are too foggy.
Not the right time, I tell myself. I won’t tell her I love her right after she sucked me off. I don’t want her to think it was just because of the heat of the moment. I want her to know that with every ounce of my core, with every breath in my body, I do love her. I love her strength, her veracity, and her compassion that defines everything she does. There’s only one more thing holding us back, and it’s time I do something about that.
“We should tell your dad about us.” I kiss her twice more, reaching down to grasp her hand in mine and lace our fingers together. “Fuck it. He’s going to hate us either way, Annie. Let’s march down to his office right now and rip the bandaid off.” We’ve analyzed the inevitable conversation that needs to happen with Richard. I haven’t come across a single scenario where he’s excited, or even indifferent, about the thought of us being together.
But delaying the inevitable won’t change the way he feels, and I’m sick of keeping us a secret.
A smile slowly spreads across her face as her eyes light up.
She leans back a hair and her eyes catch mine. “You’re serious?”
I use the grip on her hand to pull her to me, her chest slamming into mine as I crash my mouth into hers with a hard kiss. “Dead serious. We know he’s going to be pissed, why put it off any longer than we already have?” The sooner Richard knows about us, the sooner we can work through his anger.
But once he knows, that means that we can make this public. And I can show her off to the world as my girlfriend.
She pulls her hand from my grip to throw her arms around my neck, kissing me with such fervor. I smile into her kiss as my hands meet behind her back to fall down to her ass, squeezing possessively.
When she pulls back, I reach a hand up to smooth her mocha hair over her shoulder. “Is that a yes?”
She nods, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment. “Yes. Let’s do it. Oh God, I’m nervous.”
She slides off my lap, and I pull my pants up, adjusting the tie and running my hands through my hair so that when I come face-to-face with Richard, it doesn’t look like his daughter was just on her knees for me. Annie does the same, twisting her hair up into a messy bun and brushing the wrinkles from her scrubs.
Grabbing my laptop bag from my desk, I sling it over my shoulder as I guide her to the door. “I’ll be with you every step. It'll be okay. No matter what his reaction is, just remember we’re in this together.”
She nods. “You’re right. He’s my dad for Christ’s sake, and practically yours, as weird as that is to say. He has to hear us out. We’ll be fine, right?” She reaches for my hand, and I grab it, firmly clasping our fingers together.
“We will be absolutely fine.”
She looks around the room before cursing. “I need to grab my purse from the locker room.”
“Want me to wait for you?”
