“You said no calls, no emails, no drop-ins.” She raised her brow and grinned. “You didn’t say anything about…beautiful men with good intentions and strong jawlines.”
I sighed, already halfway defeated. “You’re skating close to insubordination.”
“Only if it didn’t work.” She winked and walked off, her heels clicking with the kind of ambition I saw in myself ten years ago.Young, bold, and too smart to waste. She’d been angling for the office manager promotion, and honestly, after this weekend, I couldn’t hold the stunt against her.
The gallery had no business being that hot.
Still reeling, I retreated into my office and closed the door behind me, pressing my fingers into the small of my back where his hands had just been. The ache bloomed slow and warm.
“Hey baby girl,” my mother sang. “You at the office again?”
“Mmhmm,” I murmured, letting my head fall back against the chair. “Just catching up.”
“You need to rest, Sanaa. Let somebody love on you for once. Settle down. Have some babies before your knees start creaking.”
“Mom—”
“Don’t Mom me. I saw the way you lit up the last time that man brought you flowers. And you didn’t even keep the vase! Something’s wrong with you.”
I laughed despite myself, the sound loosening something tender in my chest. “That was a different man.”
“Well maybe this next one’s the one. You never tell me nothin’. You used to tell me everything.”
I stared at the ceiling, teeth pressing into my bottom lip. I wanted to tell her. Wanted to spill everything—how his mouth still lingered on my skin, how I was walking crooked because of what we did on that table. How his voice stayed in my ear like a song I couldn’t stop playing.
But I didn’t. Because if I told her, she’d never stop asking. And part of me needed this to live in its own space for a while—sweet, sacred, secret.
“I’ll see you soon, Ma,” I said, softer now.
She clicked her tongue. “Don’t forget your father’s trying to grill this weekend. He said bring dessert and your good sense.”
A rustling in the background—then his voice, clear and proud: “Tell her bring that attitude too. I got something for it.”
I smiled hard. “Love y’all.”
I hung up.
The second I did, my phone buzzed again. I answered, already breathless.
His voice came low and slow—honeyed gravel.
“You left me hungry.”
God. My thighs clenched instinctively.
“You called to say that?”
“I called to say I’m still tasting you. Still picturing that look on your face. The one you made when I slid inside…”
I exhaled, ragged and quiet.
“…and when I filled you up, you whispered my name like you missed me your whole life.”
I was wet now. Just from his voice. Just from memory. My hips shifted beneath the desk.
“You can’t call me like this in the middle of my workday.”
“You can leave early,” he murmured. “Or you can sit in that office and think about how I’m gonna fuck you when I see you again.”
