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And right now, she is my respite.

I lose myself in the tight sheath of her, my harsh breaths the only sounds filling the room. I’m mindless, fingers roaming everywhere, tracing the divots on her spine, cupping her breasts, clutching her shoulders and waist. “God, it’s so good. You’re so good,” I rasp when she lowers herself to the mattress, giving me an even better angle, knowing I’m hitting the right spot when she fists her hands around the sheets. With her left cheek on the bed and her eyes closed, she appears almost serene, except for the way her nostrils flare and she meets each one of my thrusts with her own.

I almost hate to disturb her—almost—but I’m way too close to tumbling off the edge of consciousness. Bending over her, I place my left hand next to her head and snake my right underneath her, my chest against her back, essentially caging her in. “I can’t hold it much longer. Need you to come.”

She opens her eyes and tilts her chin enough that I can kiss her mouth, or merely lick into it, having lost all ability to multitask when I find her clit, slippery and overly tender from the way she jolts when I circle it with my fingers, the base of my shaft just as wet from her. And when I slide my fingers down either side of her, surrounding the place we’re connected, she moans.

“Please, Millie.” I grind against her, unable to slake this yearning for her. I could claw my chest open to wrap her up beneath my rib cage, and still, it wouldn’t be enough. “Please, fuck…” I don’t even know what I’m begging for, my mind completely disconnected from my body. “Please, please, please, Millie.”

She shifts, weaving her arm between her body and the bed, her fingertips clashing with mine, showing me the tempo she needs, but instead of trying to continue, I ease off, levering back up to my knees, massaging her back, enjoying the way she undulates below me, rolling her hips, working herself on my cock as she touches her clit. I grit my teeth, close my eyes, and pray I can hold it together for a little longer.

Then I start moving, plunging in and out of her, and with both of us working together, she finally orgasms, going completely still, red splotches marring her pale skin as she arches her spine. And that’s what does it for me. I come with a roar, spilling into the condom, and even though it’s necessary to make sure she doesn’t get pregnant, I loathe it in this second. Hate anything that keeps her from me.

But the feeling fades quickly because she carefully lowers herself to the bed and rolls to her side, gazing up at me with a dazed sort of smile. I drink her in like I’ll never have another chance and tuck a loose lock of hair behind her ear. She inhales and stretches like a cat then tells me, “Noah said you like to look at me and that he knows you want to have sex with me.”

“What?”

She nods, biting at the corner of her lip, her dimple shallow. “Yesterday. He told me he’s okay with us dating and said when people are physically attracted to each other, like you are to me, that means you want to have sex with me.”

“How does he know that?”

She arches her brow like Really? Knowing her, she probably gave him a biology textbook and had a fifteen-point slide presentation ready for the first time he asked where babies came from.

“Hold that thought.” I hop off the bed to get rid of the condom and clean myself up as fast as I can so I can get back to her. Once in bed, I tug the sheets up around us, tucking her into my side, focusing all my attention on her. “So, Noah…”

She nods. “He got me thinking. Made me come to terms with some things that have been rolling around in my brain for a while. You ready to hear it?”

“Yes.” My abs tense reflexively, waiting for a punch to the gut.

“I want to quit being your assistant.”

There it is. “You want to quit? Because of Noah?”

“No. I want to quit because I want to be with you. For real. Without having to pretend I’m working for you.”

All the tension I’d been holding in my muscles yields, and I curl myself around her even tighter. If I could, I’d wrap around her like a snake. I’m sure she’d love it. “Who is going to sort my Skittles? Feed Harold?”

“I will, but I’m going to do those things because I want to and because I want to help you. Because I’m your girlfriend.”

I pop my head up from her shoulder. “Girlfriend?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“You want to be my girlfriend?”

“Yeah. I want us to be together for real.”

“And that’s okay with Noah?”

She grins impishly. “Yeah, I told you. He was the one who brought it up. Said⁠—”

“I look at you like I want to have sex with you.” I purposefully track my gaze down her body, pausing at her nipples, the red marks dotting her breasts, stomach, and thighs. “So, no stories about babies being dropped off by the stork for him?”

“You’re kidding, right?” She drapes her leg over my hip, and I drag my hand over the journey my eyes just took, ending with my palm molding to the soft flesh between her thighs. She shivers at the touch but leans into it, burrowing her face against my throat. “You know me better than that.”

“I do. It was a joke, baby.”

After a moment, she tips her head up, a tremulous smile on her face. “Baby?”