Ava

I wake, and I’m alone. Gabe’s side of the bed is empty.

I have a flashback to yesterday morning, and my stomach sinks.

What if he regrets having sex with me?

It’s still dark out. I check the clock, and it says one a.m.

I sit up and slide my legs out of bed. Gucci lifts her head from the chair she’s sleeping on.

“Go back to sleep, baby,” I tell her.

She lays her head back down. I get to my feet and pull my panties on, and then I get one of Gabe’s T-shirts from his chest of drawers. I pull it on and go to find him.

He’s out on the terrace, smoking. His chest is bare, and he’s still wearing the shorts from last night.

“Hi.” I linger in the doorway.

“Hey.” A smile lightens his face, and a weight lifts off my chest.

I pad over to him. He reaches out and takes my hand, pulling me down onto the sun lounger with him. He drops his good leg to the floor, so I can sit between his legs.

His free arm wraps around my waist. I slide my hand over his, and he links our fingers.

I rest my head back on his chest. I can feel his heart beating against my back.

The smell of his cigarette smoke surrounds us, but it doesn’t bother me like it used to. In fact, I’m growing to like the smell. Because it’s him.

“You couldn’t sleep?” I ask him.

“No.” He takes a pull on his cigarette and blows the smoke away from me.

“Are you…having regrets? About…us?”

“No.” His hand comes to my chin, and he tips my head back, so I’m looking at him. “No regrets at all. I just needed a smoke. I always need a smoke after great sex.”

“Great sex?”

His eyes twinkle back at me in the dark. “Astro-fucking-nomical sex.”

“Better.” I laugh softly, and I rest my head back on his chest, running my fingers over the soft hairs there.

“You…don’t have any regrets, do you?” His voice is surprisingly tentative.

I tip my face up to look at him again. “No.”

I didn’t realize his expression was tense until I see it relax with my answer.

I run my fingers over his cheek. “I could never regret last night, Gabe. I’ve wanted you for a long time.”

He takes hold of my hand and kisses the palm. “Me, too. But not as long as you’ve wanted me ’cause you’ve wanted in my pants ever since you saw me in my first movie, right?”

“Jackass.”

I lightly slap his chest, and he chuckles.

“Just kiddin’.” He kisses the top of my head.

He’s not wrong though. I have wanted him since I first saw him onscreen.

But he’s nothing like I thought he would be.

He’s even better.

But then I worry he thinks I want him because he’s famous.

“I’m not just here because—”

“I know, Speedy.”

I look at him. “I just don’t want you to think I’m here because you’re famous. I’m here for this.” I tap my finger on his forehead. “And this.” I draw a heart with my finger on his chest. “And, of course, this.” I grin as I slide my hand down and cup his cock between his legs.

“Who could blame you? It is massive.” He smirks and takes a pull on his cigarette. “And, just so you know, Speedy, I only want you for your big tits and tight pussy.”

“Jerk.” I narrow my eyes at him, my lips fighting a smile.

“And your smart, argumentative, nonstop-talking mouth.” He covers my lips with his, softly kissing me, making my stomach flip. “And just…you. I kinda like you. A lot.”

My heart beats double time in my chest.

“Good. ’Cause I kinda like you a lot, too.”

I snuggle back into him, my insides glowing with joy as I enjoy the warmth of his hard body. And the gentle sounds of the city below. The burn of his cigarette each time he takes a drag. The way he exhales the smoke.

“We do need to think about how this is going to work though.” His voice cuts through the silence.

“How what’s going to work?”

He takes one last pull on his cigarette and then stubs it out. “You and me. And the fact that I won’t fuck you while you work for me.”

I sit up and turn in his lap, straddling him. His hands grip my hips.

“Okay. But I don’t work for you anymore, remember?”

He frowns. “I won’t have you jobless just so I can fuck you.”

“Isn’t that my decision to make?”

“No. It’s our decision to make.”

Our.

I like the sound of that.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I want this—whatever’s happening between us—to keep happening. So, if that means I can no longer work for you, then that’s the way it has to be.”

“What will you do for money?”

“I’ll be fine. I have some savings that I can use until I get another job.”

He rubs his forehead, looking frustrated. “I don’t want you using your savings, Speedy.”

“It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not.” He tips his head back, eyes going to the sky, and sighs. “It’s just…I can’t fuck you while you’re my employee. But I don’t know how not to fuck you.” He looks at me, eyes filled with turmoil. “I want you all the fucking time.”

A shiver runs down my spine. “And I want you, too. So, I’ll find another job and move out of your place.”

“No fucking way.” His head snaps back down. “You’re not sleeping in your shitty car just so we can keep screwing.”

“My car is not shitty. And I wasn’t suggesting sleeping in my car. I’ll find another place to live.”

“And how are you going to do that with no job?”

“I don’t know.” I sigh. “But I’ll figure it out. It’s my problem to fix, Gabe.”

The look that flickers over his face tells me he doesn’t agree with that statement. “I’m fucking you, so that makes you mine. And any problem of yours is mine to fix.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. And, while we’re at it, while we’re sleeping together, you’re not fucking anyone else. Got it?”

Ha! Like I’m so interested in sleeping with anyone else.

“Goes both ways,” I tell him.

He laughs dryly. “Yeah, like I want to fuck anyone else. We’re in this position because the only person I want to be inside of is you.”

Holy shivers.

“Well, that’s sorted then.”

“That might be sorted, but your job problem isn’t.”

“Gabe”—I sigh—“it’ll be fine.”

“I want you to work for me again.”

Now, I’m the one frowning. “No.”

“Look, just listen…I want you to work for me. But I won’t pay you a salary. I’ll just pay you an hourly rate. So, you work for me during the day, and we keep our hands off each other during that time, purely platonic. Boss and employee. And then, when you clock off at night…”

“I get off the clock and onto your cock.”

Laughter bursts from him. “That’s one way of putting it. So, what do you think?”

I tap my finger to my lips. “Will that work for you though? Because, even when you’re not paying me, technically, you’ll still be my boss.”

“I can live with that. So long as we’re screwing off the clock.”

I smile. “Okay then. I accept your proposition to have sex off the clock.”

He grins seductively. “And you keep living here.”

“Yes.”

“And sleeping in my bed.”

“Yes, Gabe.” I lean in and press my lips to his, silencing him.

His fingers slide into my hair, his mouth humming a sound of appreciation.

The kiss quickly deepens into something more.

“I want you,” he says against my mouth.

“You already have me.”

And he does. He has all of me.

“You look good in my shirt,” he murmurs. “But I prefer you out of it.”

His hands find the hem of his T-shirt, and he pulls it over my head.

“No bra. I like.” He runs his finger between my cleavage. “New house rule: No bras will be worn in the apartment.”

“That go for working hours?”

His eyes meet mine, a dirty glint in them. “Definitely.”

“You sure? I know how easily you get distracted by my girls.”

“Um, I think you’ll find they’re mine now.” He cups my breasts in his hands and lazily rubs his thumbs over my nipples.

Lust bolts straight to my clit.

“Yours?”

“Yep. I licked them, so they’re mine.”

I laugh loudly. “I don’t think it actually works like that.”

He lifts a brow. “I think you’ll find that it does. And possession is nine-tenths of the law.” He provocatively gives them a squeeze. “So, yep, they’re definitely mine. And I’m going to name them.”

“Okay, Master of My Boobs, what are you going to call them?”

He stares at my breasts and then pushes them together. “Pinky and Perky.”

Another shot of laughter flies from my mouth. “Pinky and Perky? God, you’re odd and a little bit crazy.”

He grins up at me. “Just crazy about my girls.” Then, he presses his face into my boobs and starts to motorboat them.

“Get off!” I squeal, grabbing at his head, trying to pull him off.

But then he captures one of my nipples in his mouth and gives it a hard suck.

“Oh God.” I melt against him. My fingers slide into his hair.

He lavishes attention on both my breasts. His hands grip my ass, and one of his fingers slides under my panties, teasing at my hole.

“I need you to fuck me,” I gasp.

The next thing I know, I’m moving, and Gabe is carrying me over to the railing. I don’t even argue about his leg. I just want him.

He puts me to my feet and turns me around. I take hold of the railing. His hands grab my hips, and he yanks my ass back, so I’m bent over.

“Can anyone see us up here?” I ask him.

“Do you care?”

I stare back at him. His eyes are dark and inviting. I shake my head.

He pulls my panties down. I kick them off and widen my stance, ready for him.

He groans. “You look so fucking sexy, Ava. Like a goddess.” He slaps my ass, making me moan. “My goddess.”

His.

I definitely like the sound of that.

I hear the zipper on his shorts pull down.

Excitement slides through me.

“Are you on birth control?” he asks, his voice raspy with desire.

“Yes.”

“I can go inside and get a condom, or I can fuck you like this. It’s your call. Just know that I’m clean. I always suit up.”

I glance back at him. “Always?”

His stare fixes on mine. His eyes are as dark as the night surrounding us. “Always,” he reaffirms.

“So, why do you want to go bare with me?”

The question seems to surprise him. Or maybe it’s not the question that surprises him, but the fact that he’s just realized that he asked to do something with me that he’s never done before.

“I don’t know,” he says honestly, his voice sounding raw. “All I do know is that I want you like I’ve never wanted anyone in my life. And I want to feel you. All of you.”

His words touch me everywhere.

“Am I getting the condom?”

“No.”

Possession flashes in his eyes. His expression is taut with need.

He grabs hold of my hips with both hands and slams his cock inside me.

I cry out at the wanted invasion.

“Fuck,” he groans, stilling. “You feel incredible.” His hand slides up my spine, and he gathers my hair up and winds it around his hand.

He presses a kiss to my back and then tugs my hair. “Hold on tight ’cause I’m gonna fuck you hard.”

Biting my lip, I stare over my shoulder at him.

He looks beautiful. Stunning.

And he’s all mine.

Every rough, gorgeous, dirty part of him.

“I like hard. So, give me everything you’ve got.”

His nostrils flare. “Fuck, you’re gorgeous.”

His fingers on my hip bite into my skin. He tightens his hold on my hair, and then he starts to fuck me like I’ve never been fucked before.

Hard and raw and maddening.

And I never want it to end.

Any of it.