Chapter Thirty
chapter thirty
NATE
Eight days.
That’s how long I’ve been gone.
Without Paige.
Without kissing her, making love to her, feeling our baby kick inside her.
It was only supposed to be a quick visit, but then one thing turned into another, and the next thing I knew, I was on a plane to New York, and now, I’m in fucking Portofino, Italy.
“Fuck, where the hell is that tie?”
My phone rings, so I stop my search to answer it and smile when Paige’s face lights up the screen.
“Hey, is everything okay?” she asks, immediately noticing my anxiety.
“Yeah.” I scrub my hand over my face. “I have that dinner tonight, and I can’t find my blue tie.”
It’s my lucky tie. I made my first deal wearing it, so I wore it to another deal and then another. I’ve never not made a deal while wearing that tie, but now, I’m going to have to because it’s not fucking here.
“This one?” Paige asks, holding up the tie.
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“It was in your other suitcase, nestled under your gray tie.”
“Thanks,” I say, “At least now, I can stop looking for it.”
Between living in the hotel and spending most nights—well, really all of them—at Paige’s, and still having a house in Dallas, it’s making it difficult to keep track of what I have and where.
I sigh heavily, and Paige’s brows narrow in concern.
“Sorry,” I say, forcing a smile. “Just a lot going on.”
She nods in understanding. “Traveling is part of your job. I get it. I miss you, but I get it.”
My phone dings with a reminder that I need to leave for dinner. “I have to go. I’ll call you when I get back to my hotel.”
“Okay, I love you.”
“I love you too.”
We hang up, and I grab another tie and then change my mind, choosing to go without one, hoping it won’t fuck up my track record. No tie is better than the wrong tie, right?
I’m in the car, on the way to dinner, when I get a text from Paige that reads
Incoming…NSFW.
And then, a moment later, the sexiest fucking photo I’ve ever seen pops up. It’s of her, completely naked, wearing only my lucky tie around her neck, leaning back in her chair in her home office with a caption that reads
I’m wearing your tie for good luck.
New fantasy unlocked. When I get home, I’m going to fuck you just like that.
Come home soon, and you can fuck me however you want.
Soon.
I can’t wait.
Since I have a good thirty-minute drive to the restaurant, thanks to traffic, I give my dad a call.
“Hey, son. How’s it going?”
“Good. Hoping to close the deal in Portofino and then get back to Rosemary.”
“Your mom mentioned you’ve been gone for over a week. I’m sorry.” He sighs. “I know this isn’t what you want to be doing…”
“It’s not. But I’m not going to leave my family hanging. Speaking of which…I know we talked about me working remotely, but I think it’s too much.”
“I know,” Dad agrees. “I’ve spoken to Valerie, and she’s going to take over for you. You’ll have to spend some time getting her caught up to speed, but she’s a hard worker and motivated.”
“But that doesn’t help with your situation,” I point out.
Dad was supposed to retire at the end of the year. If he can’t find someone to fill his shoes…
“I’ve made the decision to push my retirement back,” Dad says. “Dustin offered to step up as CEO, but I know he doesn’t really want to, and the last thing I want is my son in a position that makes him unhappy. Valerie is willing to learn, but she has a long way to go.”
“Fuck, Dad,” I mutter, hating that I’m putting him in this position.
“Nate, it’s okay. I’m going to interview some candidates and see what we’re working with. You need to focus on Paige and my grandbaby. Have you thought about where you’d like to work there?”
“I don’t know. Nothing feels right. I was thinking about maybe taking a year off. I have enough saved from investments. I can cash in some stocks if I need to. It’ll give me time to figure out where I want to go from here.”
“You’ll figure it out, son. It feels hard right now, but your mom and I are proud of you. You’re putting your family first. As you should.”
I know I’m doing the right thing, and I’m content with my decision. I meant what I told Paige—she and our son come first. They always will. But Bradford Hotels has been a huge part of me since I was born. I’d be more concerned if walking away from it didn’t hurt as much as it does.
It’s late, a little after ten, and when I texted Paige that I landed, she didn’t respond. So, using the key she gave me, I open the door quietly, not wanting to wake her.
As she gets further along in her pregnancy, it’s harder for her to sleep, so the last thing I want is for her to wake up and be unable to go back to sleep.
Only, when I get to her room, the bed is empty.
What the fuck?
I check her bathroom, but she’s not in there.
Her car was in the driveway, so she has to be home. The house only has three bedrooms, so I check the in-progress nursery first, but it’s exactly how we left it after she said she’s not ready to work on it yet.
And then I head to the last room, her home office. When I open the door, it’s dark, save for the desk light that’s illuminating the area where Paige is sitting, exactly how she was sitting when she sent me that picture.
With her feet propped up on the desk and her ankles crossed, she’s leaning back. She has her hair up in a messy bun, her reading glasses on, giving her the look of a sexy businesswoman, and she’s completely naked, except for my blue tie that’s hanging down the middle of her cleavage, the bottom landing on her swollen belly .
“I thought you’d be asleep by now.”
“I was, but when you texted that you had landed, I woke up and wanted to surprise you.” She drops her creamy legs from the desk, her feet hitting the floor, and stands, then saunters over to me. “I figured we could start a new tradition, aside from you wearing this tie.” She lifts it up and grins. “Every time you close a deal, you get a blow job.”
She tugs me by my shirt, guiding me over to her desk, and then turns me around and pushes me into the seat, unbuckling and unzipping my pants.
“I missed this,” she says, pulling my cock out of its confines and pressing an open-mouthed kiss to the crown.
I can’t help the moan that escapes my lips when she swirls her tongue around the tip and then takes me all the way down her throat.
As if my woman couldn’t get any more perfect, I learned during our time together in London that Paige loves to suck cock—like really fucking loves it—and doesn’t have a gag reflex.
I reach around her and fist her hair so I can watch as her head bobs up and down on my shaft, wetting and sucking it like it’s the best thing she’s ever tasted.
I haven’t had sex in over a week, so it doesn’t take long before my balls are tightening up and I’m close to blowing my load. But after a week of not being inside my woman, there’s no way I’m going to let that happen.
Gently, I tug on her hair, and her mouth pops off my cock, a bit of saliva dripping from her lips as she looks up at me like I’m stopping her from indulging in her dessert.
“Princess, I need to be inside you,” I tell her as I help her onto her feet and then lift her onto her desk. “It’s been too long, and the only thing I want is to sink into your warmth.”
“Fine,” she sighs playfully, as if I were putting her out. “I guess you can fuck me.”
She spreads her legs, exposing her glistening cunt, and my cock drips pre-cum, knowing it’s about to slide home.
“I don’t fuck you ever,” I say, gripping her thighs and pulling her to the edge. I guide my cock to her opening and run the head up and down her wet slit. “I make love to you—always.”
“Well then, what are you waiting for?” she groans, hating when I tease her. “Make fucking love to me!”
With a chuckle, I push into her, reveling in how warm and wet she is, and once I’m all the way in, we both moan in unison. It’s been too long, and as I make love to Paige, I tell myself I’m done traveling, I’m done being away from her this long. There was a time when I thought I’d never have a future with her, but now, I not only have her, but she’s also pregnant with my baby, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend my life away from her when I can be right here, buried deep inside her, loving her.
A smart man learns from his mistakes, and there’s no way I’m going to lose Paige because of my job. She means too much to me, and I’m going to put her first. Always.
We find our releases quickly, and once we come down from our high, I pull out of her, already counting down to when I can be inside her again.
“Shower?” I ask, grabbing a few tissues from atop her desk to wipe the cum dripping out of her.
“Sounds—”
Her phone rings, and when she glances at it, she says, “Can I meet you in there? It’s Ana. I texted her earlier, asking her to call me when she got home because I needed to talk to her about something.”
“Of course.” I lean down and kiss her and then unbutton my shirt and hand it to her so she can put it on. “Don’t be too long,” I murmur against her lips. “I have a week to make up for.”