Chapter 22 #2
“Hey, Dad!” Her voice is too joyful, too chipper, like it belongs to somebody else.
Oscar embraces her. “Hi, princess. How’s the night going so far?”
“It’s been a success.”
She smiles, but I’m as tuned into her facial cues as I am to Daphne’s moods by now. She’s putting on a show. It fucking guts me that she can’t be herself around her own father.
“Can I introduce you to Matt Becker?” she asks, that bright expression practically painted in place. “He’s been helping me get the hotel off the ground in Pine Falls.”
Oscar quirks a doubtful brow. “Has he now?”
I hold out my hand. “Your daughter is very good at getting what she wants,” I say, hoping it’ll give Zoey a break.
Eyes narrowed, he hums and shakes my hand. “Weren’t you part of the group that fought against my hotel plans a few years back?”
“I—”
“He’s actually working very hard to get the townsfolk on our side,” Zoey cuts in. “A great business partner.”
Oscar hums again, clearly not convinced.
My stomach sinks. Dammit. Why do I care what this asshole thinks?
“I spoke to Craig and Mark,” he tells Zoey. “They said most of the shareholders are reassured about your ability to lead. You handled yourself well tonight, princess.”
Her face lights up at her dad’s words. I want to punch him for it so badly.
She admires him with every fiber of her being, but I know his type.
I witnessed him in action in Pine Falls for almost a year when he was trying to seal that resort deal.
This interaction? I see it in a matter of seconds.
He knows exactly how to keep her under his thumb.
He uses praise when it benefits him. When he needs to reel her back in.
It disgusts me.
“Thanks,” she says. “The vote is next week. I’m sure I’ll have good news to share with you then.”
“I don’t doubt it.” He glances over her shoulder. “Enjoy the rest of the evening, you deserve it. I have a couple more people I need to greet before we wrap this up.” He side-eyes me. “It was nice to meet you, Matt. Careful with my daughter, okay?”
Zoey gasps. “Dad.”
Oscar chuckles, but his threat still hangs in the air. “I’m joking, princess.” He pats his daughter’s arm and leans in close, though not close enough to keep his next words from reaching me. “I know you’d never stoop so low.”
I take the punch without flinching.
Straightening, he gives me a dark grin. Then he’s gone. Next to me, Zoey is frozen.
I wrap my hands around hers, massaging them. “Are you okay?”
She lifts her gaze to mine. “I am so sorry.” She covers her face, head lowered. “I—I don’t know why he said that. That was so insulting. I don’t—”
“Hey, hey, Zoé. Listen to me.” I grasp her wrists and bring them down gently so she’s forced to meet my eye.
The surprise flashing on her face when the sound of her name registers swells my heart with pride.
After she told me I was butchering her name, I spent hours on Google Translate, listening and repeating it until I could pronounce it correctly.
“What your dad says, or what he thinks of me—of us—doesn’t mean anything to me, you hear me?” I cup her cheeks, not caring for a second that people might see. That her dad might see. Let the fucker choke on his gasp.
“You are all that matters to me. Nobody else in this room. Do you understand?”
She nods between my hands, eyes brimming with a kind of vulnerability I’ve never seen in her before.
She inhales shakily, her bottom lip trembling. “I understand,” she whispers, her voice breaking slightly. “If anything, I’m the one who doesn’t deserve you.”
The words cut so much deeper than the vicious ones her dad slung. I wish I could wipe away all the hurt, all her doubts. Shut down all the voices that have told her she isn’t good enough and make the assholes who are too stupid to cherish her suffer for it.
“You do deserve me.” I tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. “More than anyone ever will.” Swallowing, I trace her cheekbone with my thumb. “God, I want to kiss you so bad, Zoé. Let me kiss you. Please. It’s all I’ve been thinking about all night.”
A tiny moan escapes her lips, and it takes all I have not to dive for her mouth right here and now. Her eyes dart around, scanning the crowd.
“I—” She sucks in a harsh breath. “Not here.” Now she’s the one gripping my wrists and removing my hands from her face. She laces her fingers with mine and tugs. “Come with me.”
I don’t blame her for not wanting her dad to see us, but the secrecy still carves a small ache in my chest.
Ignoring the sensation, I follow, letting her guide me through the crowd.
There’s a new urgency to her movements, a sizzling current running up my arm.
Once we’re out of the throng of people, she makes a left turn and leads me into a quieter hallway.
She doesn’t stop until we’re standing next to a cleaning cart stationed by the reception desk.
She snags an “out of order” sign from the cart, then drags me along again.
“What are you—”
“Shh.” She walks briskly down the corridor, and I trail behind eagerly. She could be bringing me to hell for all I know, and I would gladly follow her through the fire.
She pushes through a door to the left.
“The bathrooms?”
Zoé releases me, and peeks into a few stalls, checking if we’ve got company. When she finds none, she opens the door and places the sign in front of it.
“There.” Grasping the front of my suit jacket, she yanks me flush against her, her back hitting the door, and I have to brace a forearm next to her head to keep from crushing her.
“Kiss me now.” Her commanding tone sends a thrill down my spine.
“Yes, ma’am.”
I hook my finger under her chin, tilt her face to me, and lean in.
No prelude. No teasing.
Just her need melding with mine.
When I finally touch her lips, I’m home.
She tastes like my favorite things: flowers and sunshine. Or maybe she is my new favorite thing. I claim her mouth, coaxing her lips apart until I can glide my tongue against hers in long, slow strokes.
I grasp her waist, digging my fingers into the fabric of her dress, holding her tight against me.
Nails scraping along the back of my neck, she sighs, melting into me. A shiver ripples through me at the sound, threatening to bring me to my knees.
Her leg bends, sliding against the front of my pants, and my eyes roll to the back of my head. She pushes, putting pressure there, and I grow impossibly harder, a groan escaping me.
Zoé grins into my mouth.
“You proud of yourself?” I ask with a teasing smile.
“Not yet.”
She rubs against me again, and I suck in a sharp breath. “You have to stop doing that.”
I dip my chin, parting her lips with my tongue.
“Why?” she pants between kisses.
“Because I’m already struggling to control myself,” I rasp.
Pulling back, her eyes hooded with lust, she says, “Then don’t.”
My heart goes into V-fib at her words. Like a switch has been flipped in my brain, her permission releases all the cuffs on my urges.
I capture her mouth again, pinning her between my body and the door, and drag one hand from her hip to where her dress splits.
“This has been driving me mad all night,” I breathe. “Do you have any idea how much those legs turn me on? So fucking long and smooth.” I dip my head into the hollow of her neck, kissing her collarbone as I toy with the hem of her dress.
When I finally slip my fingers underneath, grazing the fabric of her very thin panties, she tilts her face back and lets out a soft, low moan.
“Fuck, Zoé.”
She moves her hips, trying to force me to where she needs me the most.
I can’t refuse her. I can barely hold myself together. So I sweep my thumb against her underwear. And when I’m met with dampness, I curse against her throat.
She shudders, nails raking my scalp. “Push it aside.”
I’m way past that point. Fabric bunched at her hips, I yank hard, her gasp swallowing the sound.
“It was in the way.” I slip the torn lace into my front pocket, then quickly find my way back to the precious spot between her legs. When I press my fingers against her center, I let out a strangled breath that ripples over her shoulder.
I forgot how perfect she feels.
The night I met her, I had to force myself to not linger on that feeling, to tune it out. That current in my veins that screamed at me that nothing had ever felt so good or so right.
I’m not resisting it anymore. I’m embracing it now.
With gentle fingers, I part her lips, and once they’re coated with her wetness, I move to her clit and rub circles around it.
Head tipped back, she chokes on air and tugs at my hair as I play with the most sensitive part of her.
“I could do this all night, beautiful.” I bite her shoulder, then lick the spot where I left my teeth marks. “Stroking you until you can’t hold it any longer and come all over my hand.” I inhale, kissing my way up her neck until I reach her ear. “I love when you make a mess on me.”
She whimpers.
“That sound.” I groan. “Do it again.”
Fuck, I want more. I slide a finger inside her, then another, and curve them.
Her back arches off the door. “Please, Matt. Please .”
She grasps my biceps, her nails digging into the fabric of my suit jacket.
“Please what?”
“Make me come,” she breathes.
Fuck. I sink my fingers deeper, and she makes it again, that fucking sound that causes every muscle in my body to go taut.
I brush the hair out of her face with my free hand, then cup her jaw, forcing her to look at me.
When her eyelids flutter closed, I tsk.
“Open those eyes for me. I want to watch you when you fall apart.”
She obeys, and I quicken my pace, adjusting each motion to the rhythm of her breath catching, to her body tensing against mine.
And then she’s there.
She holds my gaze, brows furrowed, lips parted. It’s the single hottest thing I’ve ever seen. With one more pump of my fingers, she grips me hard and soaks my hand, her body writhing under me.
“M-Matt!”
I lean in and cover her mouth with mine, swallowing her cry.
“This is not a soundproof bathroom, Zoé. You have to keep it down.”
I kiss her again, softer this time, cushioning her landing as she comes down from the high she’s been riding.
Zoé softens against me, her body yielding in my arms. I withdraw my fingers slowly, wet and trembling with her heat, and bring them to her mouth. She parts her lips without a word, and my heart slams against my ribs.
As she twirls her tongue around each of my fingers, sucking and licking them clean, she closes her eyes and hums.
Groaning, I drag the digits out of her mouth and lean in so I can taste her on her lips.
It’s a goddamn rookie mistake.
I should have known that her taste would be my undoing.
Hot need coils at the base of my spine, and blood rushes to my cock.
I grit my teeth, inhaling through my nose as I push my orgasm down.
But shit, it’s a losing battle.
“Are you okay?” Zoé asks, still panting.
“I can’t hold it.” I bury my face in her neck. “I’m sorry. I have to—”
The words get trapped in my throat as my balls tighten, begging for release.
I’m shrouded in her scent, her taste on my tongue, on my hand. She’s everywhere, yet I still crave more.
Fingers shaking, I fumble with the button and zipper of my pants until I finally pull myself out. Then I reach into my pocket and snatch her underwear.
Wrapping it around my length, I give myself one long stroke. “Let me come, beautiful,” I pant, pleading. “Tell me I can come. I can’t hold it. I tried but I can’t.”
Chest heaving, she nods. “You can come, honey.”
“Thank fuck.” I pump myself twice, hard and fast, and spill everything into the fabric of her panties.
When the spots dotting my vision fade and the tension flees my body, I let out a heavy sigh. “I’m so sorry for those.” My head falls against hers, as I use what’s left of her underwear to clean up the mess I’ve made.
“I don’t care.” She grasps my hand, halting my movement. Inch by inch, she slides against the door until she’s crouching in front of me.
“What are you—”
When she flicks out her tongue and licks me, I swallow a strangled sound.
“Fuck, Zoé. You can’t—”
She bends lower, running her tongue from the base of my half-hard cock to the tip, where drops of cum remain.
I stifle a moan, already thickening again. “Zoé, s-stop I can’t—”
It takes all my self-control to push against the temptation to fuck her right here.
I tear away from her teasing mouth and zip myself back into my pants. Shit, I want her so bad. “I can’t fuck you against a bathroom door, beautiful.”
She gets up, smoothing her dress around her hips. The move snags my attention, fanning the flames licking up my insides. “Why?”
I let out a humorless laugh. “Because I can’t keep fucking you against doors and walls.
” I inch a step closer, wrapping my arm around her waist. “I want to take my time. I want to taste you properly. Savor everything you give me until I’m not starving anymore.
I want to explore you until I can draw maps of your body from memory.
” I ghost my lips against hers. “Let me fuck you slow and deep for hours and then hold you while you sleep.”
The kiss I press to her mouth is full of all the tenderness she deserves. She should always be kissed like this. Like she’s someone’s most precious treasure. And I would give anything for that someone to be me.
When we break apart, her expression is raw. Yeah, she felt it too. That invisible pull between us is more palpable than ever. That evident truth that I’ve fought back until now is too strong to be ignored any longer.
I stuff her underwear into my pocket again and survey the slit in her dress. “Are you… are you gonna go back out there like that?” I clear my throat. “I mean… without anything underneath?”
She gives me a grin that screams trouble. “Don’t stare at my ass too much, and we should be fine.”
“That’s a promise I definitely cannot keep.”
Chuckling, she brushes her hair back into place and smooths her dress. “How do I look?”
“Beautiful. Like you just had the most earth-shattering orgasm.”
She rolls her eyes and swats my chest. “Shut up.” She tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear, then adjusts my bow tie.
“How do I look?” I whisper.
“Like you’ve just had the best orgasm of your whole life.”
She opens the door, and I follow her out, biting back a laugh.
Yeah. I really did.