I opened my mouth… nothing came out.
How was I supposed to tell him that I hated every second of this—
hated pretending everything was fine.
How was I supposed to tell him that my first week in his building had been terrifying.
That Nathan had cornered me, questioned the numbers Falkirk had been given.
That Jennifer—sweet, steady Jennifer—had looked at me with tear-filled eyes, hinting that something didn't add up.
And worst of all…
that I agreed with her.
He watched me, waiting for an answer I didn't have.
The tension between us thickened—like shaking a bottle of Coke, pressure building with nowhere to go.
It burst in a frenzy of hands and mouths.
My teeth caught his bottom lip, and his answering groan vibrated through me—deep and helpless.
I scrambled into his lap, his hands finding my hips, pulling me onto him as he claimed my mouth again. My shirt gave beneath his hands—fabric tearing under the urgency in him, under the week of fear and exhaustion and wanting that snapped loose all at once.
He pulled the cup of my bra down, his mouth finding me like a starving man. "Fuck," I gasped as he sucked me into the heat of his mouth, teeth scraping against the sensitive bud.
I gripped onto his shoulders, grinding against him. His body answered with a shiver, trembling with restraint.
And it hit me—this. This is how I could help him. By giving him—
Me.
"Bedroom. Now," I hissed between my teeth—the most coherent sentence I could manage, if you could call it one at all.
He didn't hesitate. Strong arms slid beneath my thighs and he carried me across the living room, mouths crashing into each other.
A door swung open—kicked, maybe—and I was flying. Tossed through the air and onto the soft mattress. From the bed I watched the muscles under his skin dance as he stripped himself bare.
My pants followed, shimmied down and discarded, the remnants of my shirt and bra joining them on the floor.
Our eyes met. His raked down my body, primal need behind the exhaustion. The look of a man deciding exactly what he was going to do to me.
His cock twitched against his thigh.
Then it was over—
Skin met skin. Hot and electric.
My nails clawed down his back, a smile forming against his mouth as a feral noise fell from his lips.
"Emma," he pleaded, pressing the hard length of himself against my leg.
"Not so fast." My hands found his shoulders and shoved.
He fell back onto the bed beside me, confusion flickering across his face.
But a slow, hungry smile spread across mine.
