Without preamble he reaches behind me to unhook my bra, while my fingers dive for the buttons on his shirt. Shirtless, he lowers down, taking a hardened nipple into his mouth. His warmth sucks me in and my knees go weak. My hands grip the warm, muscular flesh of his shoulders to steady myself.

Those long fingers of his curl under the waistband of my thong before he tugs it down my legs. In one swift motion, Barrett pulls me to him and stands.

Our mouths tease together as he walks us across the hall and into his room. He lowers me to the bed.

“I want to go slow, but already knowing what it feels like to be buried inside you makes me eager to feel it again,” he says, moving up the length of me, planting kisses on my belly, my breasts, my jaw, until he reaches my lips again.

“Don’t go slow,” I tell him, wrapping my legs around his hips until I can feel him there at my entrance.

And he doesn’t, at least not that time.

25. Barrett

CHAPTER 25

Barrett

I slide onto the leather seat then loosen my tie. Marcus closes the door behind me.

Tonight, sitting across from Fred Hinkle and his lawyer, Carl at my side, talking concessions and allowances, weeks from finalizing the deal I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the past three months, my mind was elsewhere. Chloe.

How good things have been the last few weeks. How quickly everything has shifted between us. How I couldn’t wait to get out of that meeting and see her.

That’s how it has been every day this week. I’ve been working late nights, crawling into bed to find Chloe’s sleep warm body. Fucking her gently until her soft cries fill my bedroom, then we curl into each other for another few hours of sleep.

She deserves more than that. I want to give her more. I want to take her on a real date. Something that doesn’t involve a hair and makeup team and a ballroom full of people vying for my attention.

Just the two of us.

I come home to find most of the lights off, only a warm glow coming from my study. At the sound of my footsteps, Baxter appears. The soft clinking of the tags on his collar let me know he’s approaching. I drop my wallet and phone on the table by the door, then bend down to rub behind his ears. He nudges his wet nose into my palm, and I scratch his chin.

“Where’s our girl?” I ask, knowing that Chloe’s in one of two places.

When I stand again, Baxter moves toward the study.