Total pages in book: 199
Estimated words: 192134 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 640(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192134 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 640(@300wpm)
I grin as I open my e-reader app to see the newest hide-under-the-covers read by my favorite mistress of horror. I tap out a thank you as I close my apartment door behind me.
CJ: Thank you so much! I can’t wait to read it. You’re a genius.
Graham: Sleep well, sweetheart, and don’t stay up too late. You need to rest up for lesson two. I know you’re busy tomorrow, so I’ll see you on Wednesday. Be ready.
Lesson two . . .
Oh my God, lesson two.
I shiver, my thumbs quivering as I reply.
CJ: Will do. Thank you and . . . good night.
Graham: Good night . . .
Lesson two, ready or not, here I come . . .
9
Graham
Never-ending first-Tuesday-of-the-month status meetings are par for the course at Adored. But since efficiency is my watchword, we can usually make it through them in less than an hour.
That’s due in part to Sean’s legacy.
He was a master at getting things done fast, smoothly, and right-the-first-time. I learned a lot from him. If I run into a thorny situation at work, I’ll often ask myself what he would have done.
The trouble is, as I wonder briefly how to quell the shareholders’ urge to slap up a “for sale” sign prematurely, I fight like hell to not think of him.
Because of what I did to his sister last night.
I glance at the photo on the wall of the conference room, one of Sean and me at a hockey game shortly after Adored went public. We were having the time of our lives, rooting for our team and high on the success of our new public venture. Now, though? I see him up in heaven, banging a fist on the cloudy floor, wanting to know why the fuck I thought it was okay to show his baby sister how to come so hard she saw stars.
“And that’s what we have going on in distribution,” Debra says, the bespectacled head of that department finishing her status report.
“Great. Fantastic.” I turn to goateed Taylor, who’s up next with a download on production.
As he talks about factory capacity, my mind drifts dangerously again to CJ, her hot body clenching on me when she came. She was so tight, and it felt fucking amazing, but the best part was how abandoned and shameless she was, rocking against me, chasing her own pleasure.
She shook me to my core.
How could she do that? Be so innocent and yet mind-blowingly sexy at the same time? That’s what’s driving me crazy. She’s a beguiling mix of contradictions—a wildly sensual woman and yet a virgin.
I want her again. Right here. Right now. Want to push up her skirt and slide into her.
But. She. Is. My. Partner’s. Sister.
Oh yeah, and I’m in a meeting.
I do my best to refocus, but Taylor already gave me a heads-up on this yesterday, and I have more pressing things on my mind. I like to take my time with a woman, explore her body, drive her wild with pleasure, but I’m not really known for going gentle and easy. That’s not my MO. And I’ve never been with a virgin, not even when I was one. Hell, I lost my virginity to a woman who was way more experienced. She was four years older and knew exactly what she wanted, and I was a lucky son-of-a-bitch that she was willing to deal with my teenage self.
But I’m a guy. I didn’t need coaxing along the road to sexual self-realization.
Now, with CJ, I’m . . . concerned.
What if I scare her or, God forbid, hurt her without meaning to? I could never forgive myself.
What if I lose control and take her hard, fucking her up against a wall because I just can’t hold back. Can’t take another second of being so close but not close enough?
That’s why I left so abruptly last night. Staying there, breathing her in with her body so warm and smelling like sex, would have killed my resolve. I had to get the hell out of her sensuality zone and cool off.
Though cool isn’t the best adjective to describe the scenes that played out in my head when I returned home, unzipped my pants, and came in my hand mere minutes after the door shut behind me.
But cool, calm, and collected is how I’ll have to be for lesson two. Sucks that I have to wait another night to get my hands on her since she has theater tickets tonight. Fucking Hamilton. But I’m sure I’m not the first guy to play second banana to that musical.
I drag my fingers through my hair before dropping my hand to the armrests of the leather chair Sean once occupied. I move them to my lap as if I’ve been burned by the ghost who’s haunting me, whispering in my ear, If you hurt her, I will break your fucking back.