24. He said, “Since you asked so sweetly.”
24
He said, “Since you asked so sweetly.”
Zach
I was already awake when the rest of the city stirred in a torrent of rain. Only a sliver of daylight sliced through the storm clouds and the open curtains into the bedroom. Perfect weather for sleeping in.
I blinked at the nightstand. The clock was fuzzy without my glasses, but when I squinted, I could just make out the numbers.
6:00 a.m.
I groaned. Sleep-in over. A mountain of work waited for me at the office. I needed to drag my backside out of bed—my very naked and very cold backside, courtesy of the sheet thief beside me.
“Quit wriggling,” a muffled voice grumbled. “I’m being cuddled here.”
The pillow lifted. I was greeted by a tumble of dark hair and chocolate eyes crinkled by a sleepy grin. My smile back was automatic. A pleasure. How was Eden always so lovely? Palming her hip, I urged her soft skin to press closer and bent down for a kiss—
Eden slapped a hand over her mouth. Wide eyes stared up at me.
“Move your hand,” I said. She refused with a shake of her head. Impatient, I grazed my nose along her cheek. “I want to kiss you.”
Her fingers inched apart. “I haven’t brushed my teeth yet!”
“I don’t care about your morning breath.” It was all in her imagination, anyway. I nibbled her neck, loving the way she squirmed. “I want to make you messy again before I head to work.”
Eden’s eyes shifted to the clock on the nightstand. Her brows drooped.
I could read her like a book. She was thinking, “This early?”
Could she read my face as easily to see I was thinking, “This late?”
Frustrated, I rolled away and flopped onto the pillow, a sullen glare pointed at the ceiling. Priorities were blurring. I’d been spending more and more time with Eden and even more time distracted from work. My billable hours were plummeting. The money I was bringing in was still well beyond the minimum, but for me, low.
The lowest it had been in two years.
Eden propped herself on her elbow. The tangled ends of her dark hair tickled my cheek before her lips did. “Zach?”
“Mmm?”
“When you become a partner at your firm, will it make you happy?”
I stared at the ceiling. Would it make me happy? Waking up next to Eden, sneaking my palm over her belly, and letting it linger while I listened to her adorable snores melted my anxiety. She made me happy. I dreaded walking into work, and my stomach roiled at the thought of turning on my computer or opening another email. I’d been on this hamster wheel for a long time. Twelve years. I was exhausted, but…
“I’ve been working towards becoming a partner since I graduated from university,” I said. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted.” I reached up to touch her cheek. “Well, it used to be.”
Eden smiled. “What changes when you become a partner? Will you get to work less?” She kissed my neck with enough of a lick to drag a sigh out of me. “Maybe sneak in a few mornings so we can snuggle in late?”
“Yeah, I think so. I’ll have more say in how the firm’s run and how we treat people.” The first thing I planned to do was give Sue a raise. “I’ll finally get proper recognition in my field. I’ll actually be someone worthwhile—”
The gentle press of Eden’s index finger stopped my words.
“Hey, none of that.” She frowned. “You’re worthwhile. You’re more than your job.”
“I know it won’t make sense to someone like you.”
“It makes perfect sense. We’ve walked the same road; I just climbed to the top of my ladder a little earlier than you did. But that’s cool because I can give you a hand up the last few rungs.”
“Behind every great man is a great woman?”
She smirked. “You seriously think I plan on standing behind you?”
“Charging out in front?”
“Nah, let’s go one better. Side by side. We’re going to be the ultimate power couple.”
“No, Denny Dee.”
Her face fell.
“We’re going to be a family,” I said.
Eden’s lashes fluttered in rapid blinks. I understood that look now. Emotions. Tears. She kept both locked behind the veneer of a smile. When would she feel safe enough with me to let go?
Her arms latched around me.
Oh— now?
Suddenly, she didn’t care about morning breath. Her lips burst against me in feverish kisses, urgent fingers clawing at my skin to roll me on top of her. I chuckled against her collarbone. I wouldn’t be heading to the office as early as I’d thought. Warm hands sailed over my skin. Scorching kisses stole the breath out of my lungs. I barely had enough air to grunt when her fingers curled around my cock.
“We should spend a little longer on foreplay, don’t you think?” I ground out.
“No. I do not.” Her hand worked me up and down in a gentle pull. “God—just—” Her head fell back on the pillow.
“Mmm?”
I asked the question, but I already knew what she wanted. She’d wriggled underneath me and sweetly spread her legs. One of her hands clung to my hip, urging me to give her what she wanted. The hand she’d used on me was now stuffed between her legs, furiously working her clit.
“Zach! Just—” More squirming.
This was so, so fun. “Mmm?”
“Just hurry up and put your big dick in me, would you!”
A laugh rumbled in my chest. “Since you asked so sweetly.”
I slipped the tip of my cock along the wetness slicked between Eden’s thighs and slowly slid into the spot she begged to be filled. Pleasure shuddered through me before sinking deep in my bones, urging me to plunge deeper, possess even more of her. She didn’t mind. Oh no. She loved it . Her eyes squeezed shut. Her mouth went slack with a long sigh.
I kissed her jaw. “That’s what my girl wanted, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” She licked her lips and tilted her hips to force me even deeper. “Fuck, yeah.”
I groaned with her. “Yeah.”
For once, Eden didn’t try to rush me. She lay back, letting my hips control the pace, rolling with each thrust, her breath panting against my neck until my skin prickled. Her fingernails grazed over the stubble on my cheek.
“Why is it always so good with you?” she whispered.
I planted my palm beside her head and arched up on shaking muscles. My first kiss brushed one of her closed eyelids. “Because”—my second kiss landed on the other side—“I love you.”
“Yeah— oh —you do, don’t you?” Eden’s eyes snapped open, searching my face. “When did you know?”
“Hmm?” I didn’t want to talk. I wanted my lips on her when I was inside her. I wanted to kiss her again. So, I did. And then I licked her neck. Nipped it.
“When did you know you loved me?” she insisted.
“I was—fuck, Eden—I was falling for you forever.” I tried resisting the urge to buck my hips. No. That wouldn’t do. We could still fuck slow and steady and share sweet words. “I knew for certain the day you moved in. When I— oh —when I saw your—your toothbrush next to mine.”
“Why did you wait so long to tell me?”
“I was scared.”
“Of what?”
“That I wasn’t good enough for you. But I will be soon—”
Eden’s index finger pressed against my lips. “Don’t say that again, okay? You’re good enough. You’re incredible. Not your job. You. Hear me?”
I nodded.
“Now, come here,” she said. “I want you to show me how incredible you are.”
Eden’s eyes darted around the coffee shop.
“Stop that,” she whispered.
“Sorry.” I peppered a trail of kisses up her neck. “What did you say? I couldn’t hear you over all of the kissing noises.”
She fought the giggle, but a bubble of laughter escaped before she flattened her lips in a frown. She lifted her chin. Oh, yes. The little liar just hated all the attention. I laughed into the crook of her neck.
“People will see you,” she said, sounding slightly thrilled about it.
“No one’s looking.”
I peeked over the top of her hair. Hazel eyes stared back, frozen wide open.
I was wrong.
Michaela was watching.
People plodded into the boardroom.
I dumped my files at the head of the table and sank into the leather seat next to Chris. Absently, I drummed my fingers and glanced around the room. These meetings were a waste of time and another one of Human Resources’ attempts to build a ‘culture of positivity’ when none of us had the time to think, let alone care. Hopefully, Chris would make this one quick. I had a thousand messages to catch up on.
Michaela slunk into the room and sat four seats down. She forced her lips to curve whenever someone said hello or asked about her weekend, but no one could call her pinched look a smile. She had no time for them. All her attention was on me. Daggers shot down the boardroom table.
Chris’s eyebrow rose as he shifted a glance between us, but he said nothing. He shuffled his papers and started working through his agenda with his usual ruthless efficiency.
“Zach, I’ve heard word we’ve been recommended to the buyer of the shopping centre complex out in Campbelltown,” he said. “I’ll book drinks and feel them out, but I’d like you to lead the team if we can get the deal across the line. Can you be ready?”
I nodded even though my stomach plummeted to the floor. “Sure.”
The sale was massive—months of work. The current projects we had on the books were already stretching everyone to breaking point. My promotion couldn’t come quickly enough. Right after I gave Sue a raise, I’d hire more people. We’d all been drowning for too long.
Michaela snorted with annoyance. “It’s great Zach has the opportunity to get back to his childhood.” She leant over the boardroom table to make sure I saw her smirk. “Does your mummy shop out there?”
I turned away and let the snide comment slide into silence. I hadn’t grown up that far west. Why would it matter even if I had? Or did Michaela want it to matter because of the scene at the coffee shop? She was floundering. Nothing between us—including the few times we’d been in bed together—had been close to matching the pleasure I felt doing something as simple as holding Eden’s hand. Michaela had seen the difference with her own eyes now. She couldn’t deny it.
She also didn’t appreciate being ignored. “Maybe you could take the sl—I mean your girlfriend —along to survey the site?” She batted her eyelashes. “Show her your home soil?”
Chris bristled beside me. I didn’t have to look at him to know he was about to blow a gasket because his meeting was being derailed with insults about my girlfriend—especially after what had happened at the gala.
“I don’t think this is an appropriate time for you to raise my relationship,” I said to Michaela in a measured tone.
“Ashamed of her, are you?”
“Absolutely not—”
“You should be,” Michaela sneered. “This firm is revered for excellence. Integrity. Our names shouldn’t be dragged through the mud because of the inane celebrity antics attached to your girlfriend. She’s exactly what’s wrong with this world.”
The fingers I’d been drumming on my files stopped. My eyes narrowed. I’d warned Michaela. She couldn’t keep speaking to me like this, and she absolutely couldn’t say trash about my Denny Dee.
“Truly? She’s what’s wrong?” I tilted my head with the question. “How does she compare to a person who knowingly sleeps with someone in a committed relationship every second Tuesday? Surely my girlfriend has more integrity than a person like that.”
Michaela’s mouth dropped open.
She’d told me in confidence, but I didn’t care. I’d never been okay with the idea of her and Chris, and I was even less comfortable with their reality. I’d heard the rhythmic thumps through the wall of my office late at night. I’d seen Chris and Michaela leave together—more than once and more often than every second Tuesday—and hadn’t uttered a word.
Personal lives stay personal.
What a fucking joke.
Chris leant back in his chair. I hadn’t mentioned any names, but I could feel his eyes on me, calculating what to say next. Nobody else at the table knew he was still involved with her. But if they were even half as smart as they pretended to be, they’d know I was referring to Michaela. I frowned. I should’ve been more careful. Not let her bait me. I’d dumped her right in it.
“How dare you?” she spat. “You think you have the right to say that to me?”
And that was the moment I gave up caring.
“Sometimes, people need to even the playing field,” I said. “They need to take the opportunities they’re given in life and make the most of them. You try to belittle me, but that’s what I did. That’s what my girlfriend did. Then, there’s using people, deliberately hurting them to get what you want, and acting like a cruel, petty bitch. That’s what you do.”
A murmur rippled around the room. Chris cleared his throat to stop the whispering, but it didn’t work. Chairs squeaked as people restlessly tried to get comfortable in the tension closing the walls in around us, waiting to see what happened next.
If I’d read the room, maybe I would’ve snapped my mouth shut, but I was too angry, so sick of Michaela’s games.
I shifted my gaze from her stunned face to Chris. “I won’t work with her anymore,” I said. “I want Michaela off every single one of my files, or I walk.”
Chris cocked his head, trying to figure me out. I’d never stood up for myself. I was loyal. I’d always done my best never to create a scene and follow his rules—and it had almost cost me the woman I love.
Michaela leapt from the chair. “Chris! You can’t! He’s a liability. You—you can’t —”
Her words choked away when my boss pushed back his chair and rose to his feet. Not blinking, his face far too calm, he pointed at her to sit down. He didn’t have to say a word before she sank back into the overstuffed black leather. His hands braced the boardroom table. Blue eyes fixed on me.
“Done,” he said.
“This is fucking bullshit!” Michaela was already back on her feet and marching to the door. “If you think I’m just going to let you effectively fucking demote me—”
Chris barked a laugh. “Walk out, and you don’t come back.”
Michaela’s hand froze on the door handle.
Void of any emotion, he sat down. “Have a bitch session with your little girlfriends in Human Resources if you need to.” His voice was glacier cold. “But if you want to keep your job after bringing your personal life into my boardroom, you’ll sit your little arse back in that chair and finish the meeting.” He rearranged his papers without sparing her another look. “Do you understand?”
Silently, she slunk back.
Chris picked up his pen and started working through his agenda as if nothing had happened.
The only sound in the boardroom was his voice.
No one said a word.
No one moved.
We were a bunch of adults cowering in our seats, no better than children who’d been scolded by their teacher.
And I stared at the boardroom table, questioning for only the second time in twelve years if this career—working for this firm—was truly what I wanted.