Page 57 of Open for Negotiation
The music coming from my phone switches from a soft, top pop hit to LIA crooning on about milk and light and a smile spreads across his face.
“Dance with me.”
I blink rapidly without meaning to because of everything that could leave his mouth, that was the last thing I was expecting.
“You want to dance with me?”
“Mmm hmm. I do.” He rises from his chair and offers his hand to me. “Are you going to leave me hanging?”
He looks every bit of a delicious, dangerous temptation standing there before me, offering to wrap me up in his arms and lose himself in music with me. Who am I to say no to something so perfect?
“Never.”
Max
This has been one of the worst days I’ve had professionally, in years. For a moment that I’ll never admit out loud, I wondered if I should just step down from Fortress, establish a board of directors and let them take over operations.
For the first time in my life, I almost gave up.
But then the ball of light that is Scarlett Hale came floating into my office with pasta, wine, and her smile, and everything shifted for me.
She places her hand in mine and I pull her to her feet, never letting go when I round the desk so we can stand face-to-face, chest to chest, with my hand cradling the small of her back.
The music wraps around us as we entwine around each other in a slow dance. One of her hands rests on the back of my neck and I can feel her fingers gliding back and forth across my hairline at the nape.
I guide the hand I’m holding and place it up around my neck to join her other one, then wind both of my arms around her body, pulling her flush against me.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” I ask her.
“I’m thinking that I never expected to like you as much as I do. I’m thinking that being here, like this, with you, is making me happier than I’ve been in a very long time.”
I should tell her I feel the same. I should admit that she’s crawling under my skin and making a home there. I should lay myself bare to her.
But I’m a coward.
I’m too scared to feel this close to someone again.
So instead, I slide my hands up her body and take her face in my hands.
“You’re so fucking incredible,” I say in a whisper before sealing my lips over hers.
We’re a blur of movement once the fuse is lit, and she moans against my mouth, shoving me back until my thighs hit the edge of my desk.
A laugh bursts from my throat. “Someone is eager.”
“I’m just chasing what feels good,” she mewls, shoving my suit jacket from my shoulders.
With a firm grip under the cheeks of her ass, I lift her up and off the floor, spinning around to place her on the desk. I shove things off, letting papers and pens scatter across the floor, but I don’t care. All I care about is her.
She reaches down and pulls her skirt up so it bunches around her thighs. She’s wearing the most delicious pair of thigh high stockings.
“Fuck.” I unbuckle my belt and shove my pants and boxers down just enough for my cock to spring free. “I’ll have dreams about fucking you in these stockings.”
She wraps her legs around me and uses them to tug me closer to her. “I need you.”
I anchor myself with one hand on the desk by her waist and the other places the tip of my cock at her entrance. Her opening physically pulses, trying on its own to suck me in.
“Goddamn,” I grunt under my breath. “Say you’ll come home with me tonight.” I push in just a bit.
“Yes, yes, yes, I will.” She wraps her hand around my wrist. “Please.”
“And say you’ll go somewhere with me this weekend.”
“Anywhere. God, I’ll go anywhere, just fuck me.”
At that, I laugh and finally press inside of her, fucking her into oblivion right there on my desk, forgetting, just for a moment, the chaos closing in on us.
