The Proposal, page 27
We were at each other’s throats in a completely different way now. Burying my face in her neck as her pussy clenched around me and her fingers yanked at the hair at the nape of my neck. I wasn’t going to last long.
“Being inside you and making you come are my two favorite new hobbies.”
She covered my mouth with hers. Her soft lips and the nips from her teeth drew a shudder out of me.
I tightened my grip on her. My fingers clenched, shudders racing up and down my spine. The neighbors would probably knock to find out if we needed help moving any furniture, but that wasn’t going to stop me.
Spinning around, I pinned her against the wall. Canting my hips and hitching her legs up higher, holding under her knees and thrusting, I powered into her and drank down every moan from her lips. Sweat rolled down my back. I’d never been happier for those grueling gym sessions and weekly basketball games. The threads of me were fraying. Zara’s body and touch were ripping me apart at the seams.
“Leo!” She threw her head back, staring into my eyes with a look teetering on the edge of shock and awe. Her pussy clenched around me as every muscle went rigid, her back arching off the wall.
I couldn’t hold back a second longer. I exploded into her, filling the latex between us. Spots danced in front of my eyes and I pinned us both to the wall, slowly letting her legs down and wondering if this was what it felt like seconds before your heart exploded.
Panting, covered in a fine sheen of sweat, I kissed her with a Super Bowl-wide grin on my face. I was crazy about this woman. I was batshit, losing my mind crazy about her. A lump lodged in my throat at the sobering thought.
Her eyes opened and she smiled back at me, pushing away those scary, crazy fears that rushed in right behind the tide of endorphins.
“And that’ll teach you to steal my cupcake.” She let out a wrung-out chuckle and loosened her arms around my neck.
“In the spirit of full honesty…” I rubbed my nose against hers, maintaining eye contact. “I brought another half dozen cupcakes. They’re on the chair under my coat. Freshly made today.” I leaned out of smacking range and used my finger to close her slack jaw.
Her face morphed from shock to outrage to a bright wide smile. “You jerk, you did that on purpose.” She shoved at my chest, laughing and searching for her towel.
As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t keep us pinned against the wall for the foreseeable future, exploring her body, and sating this growing need for her touch. We’d have to eat at some point. Neighbors probably wouldn’t appreciate the round-the-clock sex Olympics. And there was always the job we needed to get done.
Snagging the towel off the floor, I held it out to her. “I can’t say it didn’t work out well for both of us. We even got to share the cupcake.”
“I’m not sharing the new ones. They’re all mine.” She rushed out of the kitchen to the chair, knocking my coat onto the floor and grabbing the box.
“Oh no, you don’t.” I raced after her, ready for a rematch on the counter, floor, or wherever else she’d have me.
With lightning speed, she stole a cupcake from the box in a mad dash for the bedroom. “It’s mine. I deserve it.” She snuck a glance over her shoulder, taking a bite of the blue icing top.
“You’re going to pay for that, thief!”
She crossed the threshold to the bedroom. “The things you promise me.”
I stalked into the room.
On the bed without her towel, she peeled off the paper and took a huge bite of one side.
I crawled onto the bed and tugged her down off the pillows by her ankle.
She held the cupcake up high like that would be enough to keep me away.
Our game of cat and mouse was one we’d both win. Over, and over, and over again.
37
Zara
I traced my finger down his chest, hiding my smile as I circled the flat disk of his nipple, letting it pebble under
“You’re teasing again.” my touch. We’d had no trouble getting dirty again after a shower.
I pushed up from his body, pressing my palm against his chest. “I thought you liked it.”
“It drives me fucking crazy.” He palmed my ass, kneading and squeezing the supple flesh I’d never thought of as particularly sexy until he couldn’t keep his hands off it.
“That’s the point.” I nipped at his pec.
His fingers flexed against my sides, bringing his own retribution against me.
I laughed and wriggled out of his hold. Flopping back on the bed, I stared up at the ceiling with my hands over my chest. My laughter died down, and, like they always did whenever he wasn’t touching me, the thoughts kicked into overdrive. Lists upon lists. Backup plan after backup plan. “We need to get to work.” My heartbeat slowed from 100-yard dash to its normal, steady rhythm.
“Not right now.” He walked his fingers across my stomach. His mastery of distraction would be my downfall.
“Yes, right now. We’ve lost two days already. Oren & Co. might suck at creating events people love, but their presentation skills are next level. We can’t leave anything to chance.” I rolled off the bed, thumping straight down to the floor. Hopping up, I rubbed my butt. I kept forgetting it wasn’t just a mattress on the floor anymore.
“Kathleen loves us. We’ve got it in the bag.” He placed his hands behind his head with a yummy sleepy smile, swaying me to abandon my mission in the race to the finish line.
“And I don’t want to drop that bag.” Slapping my hands over my eyes, I ripped the blankets off the bed, dropping them to the floor. Do not look directly at the man candy. He deserved a large flashing sign over the bed. Hazardous to productivity and thinking straight.
“Always so demanding.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stretched his arms over his head. Every muscle and bulge tempted me to drag him right back into the sheets, and screw the bag.
Rent. Tuition. Student loans. “Put some pants on. You’ll poke someone’s eye out with that thing.”
He laughed. A drawer opened and closed. “Your modesty is safe. I’m covered.”
I dropped my hand, heat cranking up a notch. “Gray sweatpants? And no shirt? Why not whip your dick out and rest it on my forehead?”
He tripped in the doorway, swinging around staring at me, stunned, before bursting into laughter.
Opening the drawer again, I pulled out a t-shirt and flung it to him. He’d already taken over a drawer at my place and I had one at his. Things were moving so quickly, I could barely catch my breath. Did I want to catch my breath? “At least put this on.”
“Had I known this look got you so hot, I’d have changed into it sooner.” He wrapped his arms around my waist when I passed by, burying his face in my neck, nipping at me.
I yelped and wriggled out of his hold. Keeping myself on the opposite side of the table, I fired up my computer and tablet and read through where we’d left off the night before.
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening poring over all our documents, laptops, and design ideas. I brought the more classic, tried-and-true to the table. Leo supplied the off-the-wall ideas we could refine into something unique that no one had experienced before.
The focus was on what we could provide Winthorpe’s employees and clients who came to the hotel looking for something outside of their norm. We emphasized the local flair and flavor, and how we could customize everything to suit their needs.
Feedback from the event attendees was also prominent. It wasn’t about us. It was about them and everything we could do to make their lives easier and more enjoyable.
Tyler’s name flashed up on my phone as it rumbled across the neat stack of paper beside my laptop. The call I’d been dreading. And I’d been slacking off, sleeping with Leo, and now there wasn’t enough time. We still had so much to finish. The bulk of the presentation was ready, but I hadn’t practiced. Leo hadn’t practiced.
I’d let my baby brother down.
“Hey, Ty.” I stood, stretching, my back cracking all the way up to my aching shoulders.
“Hey, Z. We’re flying into New York today. I wanted to know if I should tell them to leave a ticket for you. Everyone gets one free one.”
I stood from my seat and walked to the hallway. “I’m sorry, Ty. Going to New York on Thursday night would be hard. I have a big presentation on Friday morning, and there’s a lot more to do.” My stomach churned. I’d been having so much fun with Leo. If I’d focused a bit more, we could be done by now, and I could’ve gone to New York.
“I’ll still tell them to leave a ticket anyway. It’s free. Sometimes I get through things way faster than I expected!” Hopefulness burned brightly in his voice, and I hated disappointing him. But I’d be crushing him more if he couldn’t go back to school next term. I had to win this contract.
“Have a safe trip and I’ll do whatever I can to make it.” I ended the call and rested my head against the wall. So many things had changed, but so much more had stayed the same.
I opened our lunch pizza box. Three lonely crusts stared back at me.
“Should we eat? It’ll be a late night. There’s some leftovers in the fridge.”
“Chinese food?” Leo looked up from his laptop. “I know just the place.” He took out his phone, rolling right over my leftovers question. Fine, it meant even more leftovers for my fridge.
Not wanting to leave the slightest smudge or stain on any of the new furniture, I took the pizza boxes out to the trashcan.
Returning, I took in my apartment—the same one I’d dreaded setting foot in for so long. Every time I opened the door now, I held my breath, expecting it all to evaporate in a blink. Instead, Leo sat at the new cherry wood table with matching green-and-blue upholstered chairs, rubbing the back of his neck while he pored over the last quarter of our presentation.
Standing behind him, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, burying my face in his neck. I’d skirted this talk, blanketing it in gratefulness, not able to talk much more about it because of all the feelings it brought up.
He’d done this for me. The money. The time. The care. How did my heart stand a chance against someone like him? And he hadn’t gotten any old furniture, even though I would have been equally happy with curb alert leftover furniture no one wanted—what he’d gotten was pinch-myself beautiful. “How did you know?”
He ran his hands across my arms, the rough pads of his fingers sending tingles down my spine. “About what?”
“About all this.” I held on tighter, afraid even now that I didn’t deserve it. “The colors. The fabrics. The wood.”
Hooking his hands behind him, he shifted in his chair and swung me down onto his lap.
“You told me?”
My eyebrows dipped even as I kept my arms around his neck.
He twisted his head. His brownie-batter gaze made me hungry for so much more than the ice cream in my fridge. “You mentioned wanting to study interior design.”
My head jerked back. Mentioned? More like shouted it in a flash of hurt anger. “You remembered?”
“This might surprise you, but I don’t get into screaming matches too often. Ours have burned lasting memories into my brain. I figured being in this place the way it was when that was something you cared about had to make it even harder.”
“But the design. The furniture. How’d you pull that off?”
He looked away. “I take absolutely no credit, other than pulling together some of your designs for Winthorpe and using them for inspiration. You definitely have refined taste. Hunter found someone to put it all together on short notice.”
“What the hell can’t that guy do?”
“I have no idea and I’m a little scared to find out. His connections can be frighteningly responsive.”
“Looks like I owe him even more thanks.”
“What about me?”
“I thought I’d been thanking you for the past week.” I peppered his jaw with kisses.
“It’s been convincing. But like I said before, I don’t need any thanks. I could do it and you needed it.”
He was so sweet my molars ached. “I did. I’d spent so much time making it mine before…”
His embrace tightened at the unspoken pain of having it ripped away and trashed. Everything was perfect now. The flowers on the table hadn’t even wilted yet.
“What happened to wanting to do interior design?” He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
I held Leo’s gaze and slid off his lap. How would things have gone for us if we hadn’t had our run-in? If that hadn’t started off one of the most stressful days I’d ever experienced? Would I have melted into a puddle the first time I saw him, instead of wanting to give him papercuts between each one of his fingers?
His arms tightened around me for a second before he let me go.
“Unpaid internships are required to get your big break. With Tyler in school and student loans, I didn’t have the luxury of spending months or years being underpaid in a job, even if I loved it. There was no one pulling strings for me, so I gave up on that dream and kept my designs to paper and in my head.” I straightened a stack of papers.
He leaned forward, trying to catch my eye. “Let me see them.”
“See what?” I asked, stalling for time. No one had seen the designs. I hadn’t even seen them in over a year. With the destruction Jeannie had rained down on me, thinking about creating beautifully designed spaces while living in a violated hovel hurt too much.
“Your designs. Do you still have them?”
I shrugged. “Unless your movers threw them out.”
“They didn’t take anything that wasn’t broken. Everything should be here.”
The folio I’d shoved everything in had been crammed into a makeshift bookcase made from broken milk crates. Flicking open one of the doors at the bottom of the beautiful cherry wood cabinet, I looked inside.
Beauty had been superimposed over top of my crappy taped together versions.
“Don’t laugh.” I slid the battered edged folio onto the table. “I took inspiration from all over the world. Paris. Spain. London. Tokyo. It’s why they’re so eclectic.”
“You’ve visited all those places?” He didn’t look up, but kept flipping through the pages, spending a couple minutes on each, soaking up the work I’d put into them.
I sat on my hands to keep myself from snatching it back and shoving it under the kitchen sink. “No, I’ve never even been on a plane. But the internet is handy for daydreaming.”
“You’ve never been on a plane? How’s that possible?”
“Everyone can’t hop on a flight and jet set across the country or the globe. Flights. All-inclusive resorts. International travel. Unpaid internships. They all need one thing.”
“Money.” The word was whisper quiet like it threatened our very existence. And it did. They said money didn’t buy happiness, but not having money sure bought a lot of pain.
“Ding, ding, ding.” I rolled my pencil between my hands, the familiar money insecurity rearing its ugly head. My college roommates spending hours searching for the perfect resort and the perfect bathing suit that cost more than I made in a month had never invited me along. Could they smell the sale-brand shampoo and spot my discount-store backpack and notebooks from across the quad? Not everyone at my school had money, but almost everyone seemed to have more than me. Even if they were only taking a week off to go to the beach or hanging out at home—I didn’t have the luxury of either.
“Everyone else went on spring break. I stayed and worked. I figured I’d have the chance when I got older.”
His lips tightened for a flash before he dropped his gaze back to the folio.
“I know nothing about interior design, but every room in here is a place I’d love to hang out.”
“Even the one with the four-poster bed?”
“Can’t I want to be swept off my feet too?”
I shifted in my seat, checking him out from the side of the table. “I’d need a lot more time in the gym to pull that off.”
He laughed. “I have no doubt you could, if you set your mind to it. Determination is your middle name. Do you want ice cream?” He got up and opened the freezer. “Stella gave me some tips on making your favorite.”
“You’re making me ice cream sundaes too? Next time you’re naked, I’m checking your head for a microchip.”
“I can’t help it if I’m just so damn smooth. One scoop or two?” He waved the ice cream scooper at me.
Smooth he was. “Two.”
He grabbed all the sundae supplies I’d somehow missed in my cabinets and got to work.
“How did you ended up working at Easton?” He looked up from the intense study in chocolate fudge pouring.
“The same way I’ve managed to never get on a plane. In college, I’d worked catering jobs. I’d helped organize some events on campus. A little embellishment on my resume, and event planning fit the bill. They had an opening and the pay was enough, so I jumped at the chance. Being choosy or hoping I’d luck into something wasn’t an option. Once I was there, there was barely enough time to breathe, let alone apply for other jobs.”
“Sorry, I didn’t think about you not having a chance to travel.”
I waved off his apology. “I’m used to it. I live such a glamorous life, I can see how you’d be confused.” My attempt at joking didn’t stop the crease in his brow. “I’m overpaid for my experience, as I’ve been told many times before.” Using my thumbs, I smoothed out the ridges of his frown.
“By who?”
I wasn’t saying her name in my place of peace.
He wrapped his hands around my wrists and kissed my knuckles. His lips pressed against the ring he’d slipped on my finger. “Someone at work.”
I nodded.
He set down the mountain of sugar in front of me. “You’re not overpaid. Even someone as inexperienced as I am can see your talent’s wasted there, and your designs are gorgeous. If you want, I could see if some of my old teammates—”
I held up my hand to stop him. “One thing at a time. Let’s get through Friday night. Then you can tell me the whole plan for how I can fix my life—in bed.”
