Chapter 14
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
TESSA
I wake up the next morning in a Linc Salinger induced sex haze that makes walking feel like I’m bouncing on marshmallows. It’s all his fault. I barely got any sleep, thanks to his beautiful body pressing against mine the whole night.
I’m sitting in the business suite at the hotel, going over our presentation in preparation for tomorrow morning. We fly out in the afternoon, which I’m worried is too soon because I’d like to stay to answer any questions James Gold might have.
But I also want to see Zoe. And I need to talk to Angela. Because I can’t tell her over the phone that I’ve finally broken my post-divorce cherry. All of Manhattan will hear her shout of victory.
Linc is in one of the break out rooms, talking on his phone as always. He looks at me through the glass and smiles and I feel it in my stomach.
Of course I smile back. It’s almost impossible not to, especially after last night .
The man made it his personal mission to give me as many orgasms as possible. Frowning isn’t really an option.
We didn’t have much time for talking this morning. He had to rush out for a zoom meeting first thing, and I had to call the office because my schedule for next week is already filling up and I need to get my staff working on things in advance of my own meetings in New York.
And just like that it feels like I’ve burst my own bubble. Because that’s what this is, a lovely sexy little bubble with the two of us inside. But after tomorrow reality will bite.
We’ll go back to being Salinger and Carmichael. My chest does a weird little twisty thing at that thought.
“You okay?” Linc asks, making me jump. I didn’t even notice him coming out of the side room.
“I’m fine.” I force a smile onto my face. “Everything okay at work?”
“That one wasn’t work. It was a conference call with my brothers.”
After all of our conversations I feel like I know them. There are six brothers including Linc, and their baby sister from their dad’s third marriage. I haven’t seen a photograph of them yet but I’m desperate to see if any of them look like him.
“Is everything okay with them?” I ask.
The corner of his lip quirks. “I like it when you’re being nice to me,” he says. “I think I’ll demand it at all times.”
I lift a brow. “Demand all you like. When we’re back in the office everything changes.”
“Why?” he asks, as though he’s surprised by that.
“Because…” my voice trails off. “You’re you and I’m me.”
“I’ve no idea what that’s supposed to mean.” His phone starts to ring again, and he looks at the screen, groaning. “Hold that thought,” he says. “We haven’t finished talking about this.”
“Sure,” I say sweetly, as he walks back into the other room again. Truth is, I think we’ll be nice to each other. And the fact is, I won’t have to see him that much since he’s out of the office almost all the time.
It’s weird how that thought feels like a bad taste in my mouth. My brain has obviously been overstimulated by the hot man shouting at his phone in the glass booth.
“Tonight I’m taking you out to dinner and then we’re coming back here and I’m fucking you until you forget your own name,” Linc announces casually that evening, when he walks into the cottage.
He’s been out most of the day. He’s a workaholic, just like me and it’s one of the things I’m finding stupidly attractive about him.
He comes from money. He’s made more. And yet he never lets up. He just keeps on going.
“We have the presentation first thing,” I remind him. And right now I’m packing because we won’t have time in the morning. My heart is already racing thinking about going home. I’m feeling stupidly torn between wanting to see my daughter and wanting to spend longer here with him. Every time he looks at me my body responds.
“Okay, I’ll let you remember your own name. But you’ll have to scream out mine.” He walks over and presses his lips against my throat. “Hello, darling.”
I smile, because he’s so ridiculous. And so ridiculously handsome. He’s wearing a pair of dark gray dress pants and a white shirt, the sleeves rolled up. His aviator sunglasses are hanging from the v of his shirt where the top buttons are undone.
“How was your day?” I ask.
“Busy. Stupid. How was yours?”
“I got everything finalized,” I say proudly .
“I’m sorry I left you to work alone.” He genuinely looks it, too. “There’s a problem with a client in Paris.”
“The one you always sweet talk?” I ask. I try to keep my voice light, but yeah, there’s a hint of jealousy there. Not that there should be. Because this thing is clearly physical. And when we go home it’s over.
“She’s fifty,” he says. “No need to go all green eyed over her.”
“I’m not green eyed,” I protest.
“Sure you’re not.” He gives me one of his trademark heat-inducing smiles. “Come on, take me through the presentation. Then it’s dinner and bed for us.”
He pulls me off the chair I’ve been sitting on, then lifts me onto his lap. I can smell the warm depths of his cologne. Feel the heat of his skin from the sunshine on his walk back from the hotel. He kisses my neck again, just where he knows I’m the most sensitive, and I let out a sigh.
“The presentation, Carmichael,” he reminds me.
I lean forward and start up the slide show, talking him through each one. He asks me questions – pertinent ones, and I answer them as though he doesn’t already know what I’m about to say. Because he’s just as on top of this as I am.
And at the end, there’s a last slide. On top it says The Blooper Reel . In the center is a video and it starts to play.
It’s of Linc running along Pig Beach, being chased by the biggest, hairiest angry mama pig you ever want to see.
As he lands face first in the sand more words come up over the video.
“Hampshire PR will run the extra mile to make sure you’re happy.”
“Not funny, Carmichael,” he growls into my ear. But there’s amusement in his voice and it makes me grin.
“I think it’s hilarious.”
“I thought we agreed you’d delete that video,” he says, pushing the hair away from my neck so he can kiss it again .
He has a thing about my throat. I’m starting to think he might have been a vampire in another life.
Except then he’d still be a vampire, because they can’t die. Well that’s confusing.
“I never said that,” I point out.
He moves his hand down to where my skirt meets my thighs, lifting it higher, feathering his fingers against my skin. Until he reaches the apex, and slides them into my panties.
“Linc…”
“Tell me you’ll delete it,” he says, his voice all low and sweet as he starts circling the pad of his finger against me.
“That’s bribery,” I gasp. But all I can think of is the delicious warmth he’s creating between my legs.
“Promise me.” He cups me with his palm and slides one finger inside. I gasp as he pushes a second one in, then moves the heel of his hand against me where I need it most.
“I…”
He kisses my ear, my jaw, the corner of my lips. “It’ll be our little secret, right?” His voice is turning me on as much as his fingers. He has this way of putting you in a trance.
A sex trance. I’m pretty much a zombie for this man.
And then he stops moving his hand entirely. Pulls his fingers out until I’m empty.
“What’s happening?” I ask as he lifts me from his lap and pulls my skirt back down.
The next moment there’s a knock at the door and I realize that Linc must have seen whoever it was walking up the steps to the cottage.
A blush steals up my face, but I’m also stupidly grateful that he made sure I was looking decent before our unexpected guest could see me through the window.
My thighs are still shaking as he strides over to the door and opens it. “William?” he murmurs.
Oh, our concierge. I wave over at him, and he smiles back.
“Sorry to interrupt, but the phone isn’t working,” he says .
“What phone?” Linc asks.
“The hotel phone. Mr. Gold has been trying to call you. He’d like you both to join him for dinner tonight. At his house.”
“James wants to see us tonight?” Linc asks. He looks almost pissed off. “Is he here already?”
William nods. “He arrived an hour ago. His business was wound up early. He asks that you be ready for dinner at eight. I’ll be here at seven-thirty to pick you up.”
I glance at my watch. It’s already six.
“Okay.” Linc glances over his shoulder at me and I shrug.
So much for practicing our presentation tonight. But if the client wants us, then the client gets us.
The customer always comes first.
It’s three a.m. and we should be asleep but Linc is currently holding my hips, staring up at me like I’m the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. I’m straddling him and he’s inside of me, his hands moving me up and down in a rhythm that’s making both of us gasp.
We didn’t get back to the cottage until an hour ago. James Gold was absolutely delighted to see us – well mostly Linc – and spent the whole night regaling him with stories of mutual friends and acquaintances. He was charming to me, too. But it felt like the longest of nights not being able to touch each other.
Every time our eyes met all I could think of was how much I wished we could be alone together.
As soon as we got back to the cottage he swung me over his shoulder and carried me to the bedroom, while I laughed, tapping ineffectively at his back and demanding he put me down .
“I’ve been waiting all fucking night to touch you,” he told me. “Don’t tell me to let you go again.”
And there he was. Sweet Salinger. The man who knows how to make me feel good in every way.
Right now he’s making me see stars as he flutters his tongue against my nipple and thrusts into me, his hands still grasping my hips as I fall into another pit of perfect oblivion.
“Tessa,” he rasps, surging inside of me. This is the second condom we’ve used since we came back from dinner. We’re like two kids at an all-you-can-eat buffet, with a timer hanging over our head.
Because tomorrow we have the presentation and then we go home.
When we both manage to catch our breath he pulls me into his arms and kisses my cheek.
“You called me Tessa again,” I say sleepily against his chest.
“Did I?” he says. “Must have been mixing you up with somebody else.”
“Shut up.” I curl my hand into a fist and softly punch his chest.
“There’s this hot chick at work I keep fantasizing about,” he tells me. “I was kind of imagining you were her.”
“You’re such an idiot.” I smile against his skin. God, it’s so comfy here.
“All staff meetings are never going to be the same again now that I know what it’s like to be inside you.” He strokes my hair. “I’m going to be presenting with a hard on.”
“You’d better not. The entire female population of Hampshire PR will faint.”
He chuckles, his chest lifting and falling. “Yeah, but only you will know what I’m thinking about.”
I let out a long breath. I don’t want to think about being back at work right now. The only thing I’m looking forward to is seeing Zoe. There’s a little hole in my heart that only gets filled when I see her.
But apart from that, I could seriously live in this little bungalow on this beautiful island forever.
It’s hard to believe it’s only been a few days since I stepped on that airplane with Linc. It feels like a lifetime.
His lips brush mine. “You have that little frown again,” he murmurs. “The one you get when you’re overthinking.”
My brows dip. “I don’t frown,” I tell him.
“Sure you don’t, grumpy.” There’s a smile on his face as big as an ocean as he reaches up to smooth the lines. “I want to see these in our next meeting,” he tells me. “So I know you’re thinking of my monster cock.”
I start to laugh and he kisses me again, then he gets up to dispose of the condom in the bathroom. I hear the running of water and the flush of the toilet, before he walks back in looking like a God in a tiny towel.
When he climbs back into bed he pulls me into his arms, so my head is resting on his chest.
And I’m worried, because I could so easily get used to being taken care of like this.
“You’re still frowning,” he tells me.
“Shut up.”
He laughs softly. “Go to sleep,” he tells me. “We have to get up early in the morning.”
“You’re the one talking,” I murmur, loving the feeling of his skin against my cheek.
He chuckles and it makes his chest rumble against me.