I laugh at the skeptical glimmer rolling through her eyes like a slow fog as she leans back, glowering in my direction. Maxine is beautiful so I don’t fault her for asking, but even if Harper doesn’t see it, I belong to her and only her. “Never, we’re friends only. Besides, Maxine is a lot like me in the bedroom, and that can be challenging to say the least.”
“What does Midnights have to do with your job?”
“Exactly what I asked my father when he found out that not only am I a silent partner for a sex club, but that I also frequent said sex club.” She shifts on my lap and while I want to push into her flesh and keep her, I’d never force her to stay. “My father didn’t like that the board edged him out as CEO when he turned seventy and then appointed me. He told me that if I stepped down quietly, he wouldn’t leak to whatever press outlet would listen, how I’m a sexual deviant who likes to prey on helpless women in order to control them.”
A soft gasp falls from her mouth and her warm, earthy eyes widen. An outpouring of relief runs through me. Asif someone was finally seeing it from my point of view. “He did not,” she whispers.
“Unfortunately, he did. My first thought was to call his bluff but something like that could not only ruin everything I’ve built for myself, but it could ruin the company, and worse it could destroy everything Maxine worked for. If it was just me, then I probably would have told him to shove it and deal with the consequences but I couldn’t let my proclivities bring down the people around me.”
“He had no right. What you do in the bedroom is nobody's business but yours and whoever willingly consents to being with you. Just because you like things a particular way, doesn’t make you a bad person.”
“Doesn’t it, though?”
Her head tilts to the side, eyes pinging around my face with a softness I’ve grown to crave. “I don’t understand,” she says, and I wish I never opened my mouth at all, because what if this is where I lose her?
“But what if he’s right?” I approach the question as I would a wounded jungle cat, ready for the answer to destroy me.
“I’m not helpless, Nolan.” Her voice immediately defensive.
“I know.”
“And you don’t control me.”
“I know.”
“ I can say no or stop or leave at any time.”
“Of course you can. I don’t want to control you, I never wanted that.”
“So fuck him.” She’s smug when she says it.
My head rears back as the words burst through her perfect lips. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard Harper curse. The vulgar sound is harsh coming from her but pulls a laugh deep from my chest.
“I’m serious. What we have or are doing is no one’s business and even if it was, it’s not wrong, so fuck him for thinking he can try and out you to get what he wants.”
“Are you sure you’re real?” I muse out loud as I press forward and capture her lips with mine. It’s a tender action, millions of miles away from our usual embraces but feels intricately right.
A heavy sigh crawls up her throat at the first touch, and I swallow it down, hungry for anything she gives me. Because she’s right. Fuck him. Harper was never someone to control, or someone I tricked into my bed. I presented an option, she said yes, and it immediately became a privilege to be with her.
But I want more. So much more. I yearn for her obedience, but I needhermore.
My arms circle around her waist, and one hand snakes up her spine and into her hair as I deepen the kiss. Exploring with my tongue as her jaw drops open with a heavy pant, allowing me to slip through. It’s the kind of sound a man can get drunk on, one simple noise and my head is the clouds.
“I want you,” she says on an exhale, breath dripping with sweet desperation. She could ask for anything, and I know I could never deny her.
“You have me, Harper,” I confess, not even scared, that for once, I’ve told the truth. I don’t care about what the fallout may be from my words, if she’ll have me, I’ll spend the rest of my life devoted to her.
Her hips roll, the friction is almost unbearable. Unbridled heat radiates from between her thighs, drowning me in warmth I want to wrap myself in. She does it again and a slight whine fills her chest that my cock responds to, hardening to a painful threshold in my slacks.
“You like that, Sweet Girl?”
Her head lolls in a slow nod as she continues to rock back and forth.
“Use me, Harper,” my words strain, already on an edge. “Rub your needy cunt on me, make a mess of me.”
She rocks back and forth, the thin fabric growing wetter with every slow passing. “What’s the lesson for tonight?”She mumbles against my lip, sliding her arms around my neck, pulling me closer.
“No lesson, just you and me, baby.”
