Chapter 26
26
We move as one, breathing almost completely in sync while the hot rain pounds against the window like a chorus of ratifying applause. I don’t think it’s ever been as good as this. Especially not the first time with someone new. It doesn’t feel like the first time, it feels like I’ve been away for years and have finally come home to someone who knows me inside and out.
“Fuck, you’re so beautiful.”
He pushes the sweat-lined hair from my forehead and slides his tongue against mine, forcing my whole body to shiver on top of him. He must feel what his words do to me, because he whispers into my ear about how much he wanted to bend me over the conference table in my pink suit, about how sad it made him that I didn’t want that too—
“I’ve never not wanted you to do that,” I cry breathlessly. My eyes fly open in panic, and I take a deep breath, as though trying to suck the words back inside to wherever they came from.
His teeth drag at the nape of my neck, leaving a trail of simmering heat all over my throat. All of a sudden, I’m so close, on the edge of a cliff I can only survive if I leap off it again. In between the words “fuck,” “don’t stop” and “right there” on repeat in my head I make a mental tally, and no, never in my life has a man made me orgasm twice in one night, but after what he did to me in the kitchen I don’t question his skill set.
He wraps his arms around my waist, lifting me up with him. He kisses me hard and with a low groan leads me toward the smoky-mirrored wardrobe. I let out an involuntary ragged moan as he spins me around so I can see both of our reflections.
My sweaty hands make prints against the glass and his dark, focused eyes move their attention to mine.
“Say my name,” he growls as he takes my ear in between his teeth, his low voice vibrating down my neck.
“Bancroft,” I pant out as his forearm tightens around my waist.
His palm snakes around me gently, pulling me up into a firm embrace. “No, Grace . For once, I want to hear you say my name,” he rasps.
I throw my head back so we’re cheek to cheek, and the stubble of his jaw scrapes against my skin. I lift a hand and run it through the back of his hair, tugging the strands into a fist. Holding on to brace for whatever will happen when I say the word I have avoided since we first met.
“Say it.” He grips the flesh of my inner thigh. “Please.”
His voice softens as if he’s begging for confirmation that I’m even on the same planet as him. Handing me the keys to his undoing just as much as mine.
I’m starting to understand how power corrupts because as the word “Eric” flitters across my lips I feel almost evil. He lets out a rough laugh onto my shoulder before pounding into me again. The pulsing thrusts create waves of pleasure that burst through me up into my throat. We jump over the edge of the cliff together without thinking about where we’ll land.
Our heads share a pillow in the moonlight, limbs intertwined like an atom refusing to split. The early hours of the morning feel like another world. A parallel universe where we aren’t Hastings and Bancroft: industry rivals. We’re just Grace and Eric: two people finally overlapping. The opportunity to be anything and everything. Whatever we want, together.
A small voice reminds me this isn’t real; we are both just playing pretend for a few hours and tomorrow we will be back to being uneasy allies until this project is over and we go our separate ways. But the sound of my name on his lips, our heavy ragged breath and moans of pleasure replaying in my mind drown out that voice—drown it out so completely that I’m no longer listening.
His arms wrap around me as my face sinks into his chest, the hairs tickling my cheeks as I take in a deep breath.
“What are you doing?” he asks, looking down at me over the slope of his chin.
“Trying to figure out what cologne you wear,” I say, coming up for air.
He chuckles softly. “Why?”
“Some of the girls in the office have a bet.”
“About me?” he asks innocently.
“Oh, come on...” I wiggle out of his grip and prop myself up on an elbow. “Surely you know they’re all obsessed with you? The way their jaws drop to the floor when you walk in the room must have been a good indicator.”
“I never really notice anyone else when I visit your office.” His eyes are glazed but soft in a way that makes me think he’s telling the truth, and the butterflies in my stomach confirm it.
I narrow my eyes and hold my tongue between my teeth, trying to keep in a blush. Slowly, he untangles himself from me and paces stark naked over to the living room. Fucking hell, even his arse is sculpted by the gods.
“Stop looking at my arse,” he calls without glancing back, walking out of sight for a few moments before striding back to the bed and handing me a glass bottle of pale liquid.
“Vetiver,” I read, spritzing myself with the earthy scent and humming my approval. “Mmmm, I could bathe in this.”
“Oh my God, it’s not just the people in your office. You’re obsessed with me too!” he teases with a cheeky smile spreading wide across his face.
“I think this...” I gesture back and forth between our naked bodies hidden by a bedsheet. “... has made you fly up and off the cockiness scale.”
When I go to sit up he catches my waist, eyes twinkling with a devilish sheen as he guides me onto my back.
“You’re obsessed,” he repeats into my ear, caging me on the bed with his large torso. “With me .”
“I am not!” I let out a squeal, executing an extremely poor attempt at fighting him off by lightly pounding my fists against his chest. He takes both my wrists in one hand and holds them against the pillow above my head.
“Well, then. Clearly, my work here is not done yet.”
He leans his head down, taking my lips in his and tracing his free hand up my jaw. My eyes flutter shut, accepting my fate. It’s slow this time. As though he needs hours to archive every piece of me for a private collection. Two bodies pressing together like the pages of a closing book.