It surprised absolutely no one when her legs shook and her voice cracked and she came hard as hell, all over his face.

Chapter Fifteen

Watching Eve come was like watching the northern lights, except better. Because Jacob could explain the northern lights, which took some of the beauty out of it, for him. But he couldn’t explain this woman. He couldn’t explain why everything about her flung him off the cliff of control and into some reckless abyss. He couldn’t explain why he was already dreading the moment when he’d get up and leave her alone in this room—because he would leave, for a thousand valid reasons, and because that was what Jacob always did. Left before he could be left.

He just couldn’t explain why, this time, the thought of his usual routine felt like dying.

He couldn’t explain anything.

So he simply enjoyed the taste of her on his tongue, and the look of sheer ecstasy on her face, and the sound of his name on her lips. Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, steady as a heartbeat.

When she was done, he put the toy aside and kissed her thigh and sat up. Found his glasses. Dragged the covers over her limp, naked, beautiful body and tried to think of the right thing to say. It was incredibly difficult, and not just because his dick was harder than it had ever been and all he wanted was to feel that magnificent pussy tightening around him and— Stop. That was not a constructive train of thought.

Eve opened her eyes and rolled over to look at him. There was a hint of resignation in her smile. “You’re going to be weird about this, aren’t you?”

“Not weird,” he said, but even his voice was incredibly weird, all hoarse and thick, so it wasn’t the most convincing statement he’d ever made. The problem was, when Jacob had sex, it was always under very specific circumstances. Either he’d taken a woman out on five to ten dates, decided he liked her, and discovered she felt the same, or . . .

Actually, that was the only time he had sex, and it always followed the same pattern. They’d fuck, he’d call the next day, and either she’d pick up and they’d go on another date, or she wouldn’t pick up but she would periodically text him to come over, very late at night.

When Jacob had been younger and more hopeful, both of those arrangements usually ended because he was “too much.” Now that he was older and wiser, they ended because he was “emotionally distant”—or, as he liked to call it, sensible. Whatever the case, when it came to women, he always knew exactly what was going on. Exactly how things would end.

But Eve was different.

She was his employee, for one thing, and also kind of his tenant, which meant he’d just landed himself in a potential ethical minefield, but she was also—

She was his friend, and friends were diamonds to him. Sometimes, when they worked together, she felt kind of like his partner. She was permanent, that was the issue, or rather, he wanted her to be. But Jacob’s romances were never permanent. Whether they were the dating kind or the 1 A.M. fucking kind, they were never, ever permanent.