“No, Bart, I don’t foresee any additional holdups with the check. Like I told you yesterday, we’re just waiting on the bank to—”

“Fucking bureaucrats,” Bart Jenkins mumbled. “I don’t have time for their bullshit. Maybe if I golfed more often with old man Chandler, I’d get better service.”

“Doubtful. I’ve heard his swing is killer. He’d probably annihilate you.”

Bart huffed out a laugh. “You know, Hamilton, you’re the oddball in your family, aren’t you? Your father and Oliver, they’re the serious ones. The sharks. You just make jokes and amble through life, smiling at everyone while you quietly pile up your assets.”

“Some of my friends would debate the quiet label, but yeah. That’s me in a nutshell.” I smiled and kicked back in my chair, crossing my legs at the ankle on the edge of the desk. It was almost lunchtime, and I was starving.

Maybe I’d meander over to the diner and—

Nope. With a side of hell no.

Ally had asked me for space to make up her mind, and I was going to give it to her even if it drove me crazy. I was already more than halfway there, so it wouldn’t take long.

“All right, I’ll check in again tomorrow.” Bart sighed. “I hate fucking waiting.”

“You and me both,” I said under my breath as I hung up.

Phone in my hand, I debated my lunch choices. If I wasn’t heading to the diner, I needed some sustenance. Maybe I’d ask Shelly to pick me up a sub when she was down at the bank, since Thursday was payday.

Thursday already. I hadn’t talked to Ally since Saturday afternoon. Almost a freaking week.

But who was keeping score? Not me. I scarcely had even noticed that we never went this long without talking. Even after the kiss following Laurie’s bathtub adventure, we’d bumped into each other at the diner midweek.

Bumped into meaning I’d gone over there intentionally because her blueberry pie was the best on the planet, but whatever. I wasn’t going to do that this time. Even if it meant I starved to death.

I reached for my office phone just as the button for the receptionist’s line lit up. I grinned. That woman was a godsend. “Hey, Shell, can you stop by Jersey Angel’s while you’re out at lunch?”

“Sure. Pastrami on rye, light mayo, extra Russian, leaf lettuce, not shredded, tomatoes, extra peppers and onions?”

“You’re the best. And a brownie. Cheesecake if they have it.” Damn sweet tooth.

“Of course. Grape soda?”

In front of anyone else, I would be slightly embarrassed about my pedestrian food choices. Shelly, however, had worked for the family business for more than a decade. She knew my weaknesses.

Even those that came in purple cans.

“Yes, please. Thanks so much.”

“No problem. One more thing, sir.”

“Ahh, Christ, not the fucking sir shit—” I broke off as the door to my office swung open and Ally stepped inside carrying a Hamilton Realty folder.

The one that contained the contract I’d had drawn up, probably. Why else would she be toting around a folder?

I swallowed deeply enough that Shelly probably heard it. Maybe Ally too. Fuck, had she always been this beautiful?

Probably. I’d just been blind. A complete fool.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Ally said tentatively, gripping the folder until it dented.

Good sign? Bad sign? Impossible to say for sure. She might’ve returned the signed version, or she could be plotting to throw it in my face. With Ally, one was never certain.

Just another thing I loved about her. Platonically loved. Like a friend I had sex with.

Great sex.

“You’re not interrupting,” I said to Ally. “You know you have a standing invitation. Just a second.”

I returned to my phone call. “Thanks so much, Shell. Gotta go.” I clicked off without finding out if Shell’s one thing was to announce Ally’s impending arrival.

It didn’t matter. I’d deal with anything else later. Like next year.

“It’s the middle of the workday. I should’ve called first, but—”

“No need. Standing invitation,” I repeated, rising and coming around the desk. I met her at the door and closed it, using the wood for support as I indulged in a nice long look at her. “You look incredible.”

It wasn’t an exaggeration. Her dark hair had been left long and loose, flowing down her bare back. She had on a red sundress type thing that showed off her breasts and narrow waist, not to mention her long legs that went on forever and ended in strappy red sandals.

Even her toenails were a dark, vampish red. My tongue tingled. I’d never been one for sucking on feet, but for her, I just might start.

Her cheeks reddened. Seeing Ally blush was a new thing. I liked it. A lot.

“Thanks. Had the day off today, so I figured I’d wear something fun.” She walked toward the windows, checking out the view from this floor as she always did.

The building that contained Hamilton Realty had a primo view of the lake, and today the sunshine was dappling the restless water. It was breezy today, and the whitecaps proved it.

“Day off? Imagine such a thing.” Feigning nonchalance, I sat on the edge of my desk.

No part of me was nonchalant around her, not anymore. Not after we’d had the most amazing sex of my life and all I wanted was to do it again. And again.

Oh, and maybe have a baby with her. Even that paled in comparison to fucking her.

Of course the insistent pressure in my cock was making everything pale in comparison to sex right now. Not just sex. Sex with this gorgeous, funny, intelligent, perfectly imperfect woman.

“Then Jean called off and Sage is probably going to get stuck working a double, but she was insistent she needed the money.”

“I thought she was set financially from her parents. The Hummingbird’s Nest always did well. They certainly got a nice check from the sale of the property.”

I frowned. Why did I care? Sage was a nice girl, and I didn’t want her to struggle financially, but her family wasn’t exactly poor. At least I didn’t think so. Her parents had sold their B&B and retired to the west coast, leaving their sheltered only daughter on her own.

Working at a diner. Hmm. So yeah, maybe they hadn’t left her as much as I thought. Not my business though.

Ally shifted away from the window, standing sideways so she was framed in sunlight. “It did, but Sage wants to make her own way. A loft on the lake doesn’t come cheap.”

“I should know,” I said drily, “seeing as I brokered the sale.”

“Yes, real estate guy extraordinaire.” She fingered her arrow necklace. “Is your father back yet?”

“Later today supposedly. Al, why are you here?”

A wrinkle formed between her brows. “I thought you said I had a standing invitation.”

“You do, always. But you’re fidgeting and you’re holding that folder and c’mon, you don’t really care where my dad is. You’ve never liked him.”

“More like he never liked me. I wasn’t good enough to be friends with you.”

“He never said that. Not once.”

“But it was heavily implied. And of course he’d wonder what you saw in me. Our worlds couldn’t be more different. We just happened to land in the same classroom in the same high school and somehow we ended up here.”

I pushed off the desk and stalked closer. Somehow now that I’d been inside her, even having a room’s distance between us seemed like too much. “Right here.” I brushed my hand down her hair and she shuddered, and fuck if that didn’t make me harder than steel. “My father hasn’t mentioned you in years.”

She rolled her eyes. “Probably hoping if he denies my existence in your life, I’ll disappear.”

“I don’t give a shit what my father thinks, and you shouldn’t either.”

“Sorry to say, I’m not as good at going with the flow and just doing it as you are.”

“Just takes practice. I’d be happy to demonstrate anything you’d like.”

“Mmm-hmm, I just bet.” Her lips twitched with the beginnings of a smile, then she pushed the folder at my chest. “Okay.”

I took the folder with suddenly boneless fingers, but I didn’t open it. “Okay?”

“Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll have a ba—”

“Fuck yes.” Threading my hand into her hair, I tugged her against me and dragged her lower lip between my teeth. Her pupils flared wide and I did it again, making her moan. “Say it again.”

“You didn’t—” She paused to drag in air. “You didn’t let me say it the first time.”

“Sorry. Say it now.”

“Bossy.” She smiled as she stroked a hand down my tie, and I swear she might as well have stroked my dick. “It may be the craziest thing I’ve ever done, but I’ll have a baby with you.”

I slanted my mouth over hers, slipping my tongue inside. She curled hers around mine, all heat and need, as she rose up to her tiptoes and tightened her grip on my tie. Pulling me closer, sinking deeper into the kiss. I dropped my hand from her hair to her ass, palming it brazenly, hauling her against me so that she could feel the rigid outline in my pants. She gasped, her eyes popping wide, and I relinquished her mouth long enough to fumble for her hand and drag her around my desk. I opened the top drawer and threw the folder inside without looking at the contents, then pointed at my chair. “Wait here.”

I opened the door and leaned into the hallway until I caught Shelly’s eye. She had the phone cradled against her ear. “Hold all my calls until further notice.”

She nodded and waved me off. It didn’t look like she’d be going out for lunch just quite yet, which might be awkward if I gave a shit.

I stepped back inside my office and shut the door, locking it. Then I glanced toward my desk.

Ally was not sitting. She had her arrow necklace up to her mouth, between her teeth, sucking on it as I hadn’t seen her do in a million years. Nervous habit 101.

“What’re you doing?” she asked as I skirted the desk. Coming toward her like a damn panther scenting his mate.

Because she was. She would be. Again and again until we accomplished our aim.

Not just mine. Ours now. That it was a joint mission made it more important. This would be the biggest thing we’d ever done together. The absolute best. A little of her, a little of me. Combined into a little person with all their own hopes and dreams and wants.

It was scary as fuck to do this again. To make the choice this time. The circumstances weren’t perfect, and most people—including the members of my own family—would think I was loco for ever posing the suggestion. They would think she was just as nuts for agreeing.

But in my gut, this felt right. Being with Ally had felt right since the very first day. Nothing else in my life had ever felt this natural. This perfect.

I picked up my desk phone and set it on the floor. Then I did the same with my iMac, power strip, and various peripherals. Overkill, perhaps, but I wanted us to have space.

“Seth…” God, that tremulous tone of hers was making my balls throb.

Once I’d gotten the tech stuff out of the way, I leaned over the desk and swept everything to the floor, blotter included. Ally screeched and jumped back, sending the desk chair rolling away across the hardwood floor. Worked for me. I needed room to move.

“I didn’t mean right now,” she said as I approached. “Like right this instant.”

“You didn’t, but I did.”

“You’re at work.” She took a step back, then another, finally bumping into the wall. “Clients are coming and going. Oliver is on the other side of this wall.”

“In the field,” I said easily, drawing her purse strap down her arm before setting the small, weathered bag aside and caging her in with my arms on the wall. “But I wouldn’t care if he was standing in the hallway. Let the jealous bastard listen.” At her gasp, I dropped my mouth to her ear. “I can’t walk out of here until I’ve had you again.”

“You’re insatiable. I never guessed.”

“Did you think about me in bed?” I trailed my finger underneath her jaw and down along the tops of her cleavage. She fought not to shiver and to hold my gaze, but she was on the verge of losing it, I could tell. “I thought of you.”

“Liar. You did not.”

“Only when you went out on dates with assholes,” I admitted. “And it was entirely unwitting. I tried to stop it. To not see you in my mind naked and writhing on their sheets, mainly because no one was ever good enough for you.”

She lifted her chin in challenge. “But you are?”

The question stopped me in my tracks. A tremor went through my hand and she must’ve noticed, because she gripped it and held it against her cheek. “This is where you say yes. That you’re everything I could ever ask for in a guy. More than. And you fuck like a goddamn champ, even though technically, I don’t know the difference. Just roll with it.”

The laugh started in my gut, spilling out of me with a freedom that had never occurred with anyone but her. I buried my face in her hair, pulling in deep breaths of her summery scent. It centered me, just as it always did. She was the embodiment of the lake and the town that had been my home for my entire life.

Memories of the long summer days we’d spent chilling with a picnic basket by the lake—or doing way riskier stuff like joyriding in my dad’s Porsche when he was away—stretched out in my mind, somehow reflected in her eyes.

She was safety, and home, and family in a way no one else had ever been except my brother. And now she was so much more. That fresh-air-in-a-bottle scent of hers was capable of making my dick hard in an instant. The way she’d tied off her sundress so neatly behind her neck, making me imagine the strapless bra she had on underneath.

Or nothing. I was voting for nothing.

Fuck, I had to see. But first…first, I had to make sure.

Sucking in a breath, I turned around and braced my hands flat on my now-bare desk.

“What’s—what’s wrong?” Her tremulous question nearly broke me.

I didn’t want her to ever doubt the effect she had on me for a moment. I’d already fucked up so much with my stupid contract and crazy scheme to have a kid when if I’d just talked to her, explained where my head was at, maybe we could’ve made some decisions together. I’d caused her to think that any attraction I might have in her direction was just based in my wanting to knock her up.

Truth was, I’d been trying my goddamn hardest not to notice her that way for years.

Now I didn’t have to shove those errant thoughts away. We were both single. There was no reason we couldn’t do the family thing our own way. With sex and kids and our own rules.

Love wasn’t a necessary component. At least romantic love. I didn’t see her that way. Of course not. I mean, I loved her, but to love her romantically would be taking a huge fucking risk.

The biggest of them all.

“Hey.” She stepped forward and stroked my back, and even in that single touch, she conveyed her growing confidence. Not in general, but in this particular space with me. “You’re running hot and cold.”

I laughed. “Far from it. I’m so hot right now that I’m amazed I haven’t torn a hole in my pants yet.”

“So why did you pull back?”

For fuck’s sake, I knew she was blushing just from that little breathy catch in her voice. I knew so much about her, and instead of that making this boring, almost routine, it made every moment better. Bigger. I wanted to find out everything I didn’t know. How her eyes hazed over as she came, the tremble of her lips just before she went over. The way she’d soak my dick with her release.

Without a condom between us this time.

I pressed my palms into the desk, searching for clarity. For restraint. “Every time, it feels like I’m pushing you.”

I expected her to argue. That’s what she did—what we did.

Instead she reached around me and stroked my cock through my pants, so slowly that I hissed air between my teeth. “Mmm. You weren’t lying.”

Christ, that little purr in her throat? Gonna be the death of me.

She didn’t wait for my affirmation. Her first task was to undo my belt and toss it on the desk, where it hung half off like a waiting snake. The metallic sound of her undoing my zipper seemed loud in my head, competing with the throb of my heartbeat. She dipped her fingers inside, grabbing my shaft through my boxers. I was so hard that just her light grip had my balls drawing up, full and tight.

I might not plant a baby in her this afternoon, but it wouldn’t be from lack of coming. Holy shit. It was going to happen whether or not I wanted it to if she kept touching me like that.

As if she heard my thoughts, she pushed down my pants and my boxers and turned me around to face her before going to her knees. I didn’t breathe. Didn’t make a sound. Just watched and waited as she stroked my dick from root to tip and flicked her gaze from mine to my length, over and over.

It fucking grew in her hand, and she laughed. Softly. Like a damn vixen.

“Some magic trick,” she whispered a moment before her lips engulfed the tip.

I grasped the edge of the desk and threw back my head, fighting not to command. It would be so easy to grab a handful of her hair and pull her down my length, but she probably wasn’t ready for that. Her tentative licks and sucks were working a magic all their own.

“Undo your top,” I rasped. “Let me see you.”

She kept me in her mouth while she reached up with one hand to undo the tie behind her neck. The red straps fell down and my breath caught as I waited to see if she had on a bra or not. She didn’t. Holy fuck, those gorgeous bare tits had been pushing against the material all along.

“You went out like this.” I reached down to twist her hard pink nipple and she gasped, her fingers flexing around my dick. “Showing off all this perfection.” I gave her other nipple a twist and pre-cum slipped from the head of my cock.

Saying nothing, she leaned forward and licked it up. “It’s only for you.”

“Again.” Her mouth was full of me again, precluding talking, but I didn’t care. As much as I was dying for her to suck my cock until I spilled myself in her throat, I had to hear her say it. “Say it again,” I demanded, hooking my hands under her arms. She barely had an instant to release my dick before I drew her to feet. “Say it,” I repeated, latching my mouth onto her tight little nipple and pulling it between my teeth.

Her moan made my erection lurch into the softness of her belly. But I didn’t stop working her nipple, using teeth and tongue. She writhed against me as I pressed my hand between her legs, right through her dress. “Gonna walk out of here with a wet spot so everyone knows?’

Her hips pulsed, driving her covered pussy against my hand. I couldn’t wait another second. I dragged the dress down her body, letting it pool on the floor around her red sandals. She wore only a scrap of white panties, and yes, they had a telltale wet spot right in the center.

I growled. All for me.

It was my turn to drop to my knees. Locking my gaze on hers, I licked that damp spot again and again, groaning as her taste filtered through the fabric. Sweet. So sweet. Peeling the material away from her swollen lips, I flicked her clit with just the tip of my tongue. She whimpered, swaying on her heeled sandals until I banded an arm around the backs of her thighs to keep her still. Taking off her panties would require too much time but I had to have her. Opening my mouth over her pussy, I ate at her like the starved man I was. The man she made me. Her legs trembled so I hauled her closer. Impatiently, I yanked at the thin material, almost as shocked as she was when it gave way. I shot her a glance and her wide eyes tore a laugh from my chest as I tossed the strips aside.

That laughter ended in her moan as I resumed my task.

When the angle wasn’t good enough, I rose and picked her up, setting her on the desk. I kissed her, slanting my mouth over hers as I yanked up her legs, placing her heeled feet on the edge. Spread open obscenely in front of me, the tatters of her panties still guarding part of her pussy, she shivered. And I looked my fill, drawing my fingertip through the wetness she was making for me.

“Say it again,” I said as her dazed eyes lifted to mine. “Tell me who this belongs to.”

“Seth, please.” She bit her lower lip. “God, it’s you. It’s always been you. Okay?”

Her breathless, annoyed words slashed through the roar of blood in my head. Always.

Yes, fucking always.

I dipped my head and cupped her breast in my hand, squeezing it so the nipple stood taut and proud. Then I licked my way around it as she dropped her head back, her long dark hair trailing over the desk. Brushing my knuckles over her soaked slit, I found her clit, so hard and full and pulsing lightly under my touch. I circled it again and again while I sucked on her breasts, switching my attention from one to the other. Her whimpers grew and I slipped my fingers lower, pushing them inside. All the way in. She lifted her hips off the desk, her thighs falling open even wider.

A sterling invitation.

I bent to lick her, sealing my lips around her pulsing clit as I rocked my fingers in and out. She grabbed my hair in her hands, pulling me against her without shame. That just turned me on more. Barely aware of it, I fisted my throbbing cock in one hand as I lapped at her pussy and she gasped, making me lift my head.

She was watching me jerk my cock, honey eyes wide. Fuck.

“Like this?” Regretfully, I slid my coated fingers out of her pussy, swallowing a groan at the way her body clutched at me. I slicked those wet fingers over the side of my dick, making it jump. Ally’s eyes ate up the wet trails I left behind. “So wet. Gonna get even wetter before I get inside you.”

“Not possible.” She was staring at my hands, watching me work my length. “You look bigger in daylight.”

“Thanks. I think.” I had to laugh again, even if it hurt. Christ, even that movement had my erection stretching farther up my stomach.

“Oh, it’s definitely a compliment.” She licked her lips and my balls tightened. “Your cock is beautiful.”

“Beautiful, huh?” I undid my shirt and dumped it on my chair before following instinct and grabbing her hand and bringing it back to my cock.

She didn’t balk. Far from it. Together, we stroked my erection until I was panting. “Fuck, I gotta have your pussy. But first...”

Holding her gaze, I grasped her fingers firmly in mine and brought them back between her legs. She pulled back slightly but I kept my hold steady until she relaxed again. Slowly, I rubbed her clit with our joined fingers. Her wetness seeped between them and she let out a few broken breaths, not quite moans but almost. Her thighs shook. “Seth,” she whispered.

Already I was learning her tells. “Yes. Come on our fingers.”

She licked her lips and dropped her head forward, her long hair tumbling over her gorgeous tits as her chest rose and fell. Without my prompting, her fingers sped up and she lifted her head, her pupils flaring before she closed her eyes and her hips rose from the desk.

She came silently, her body shuddering and her pussy contracting beneath our fingers. And it wasn’t enough. I needed more.

Before she’d even stopped spamming, I gripped my cock and lined it up with her slit. She registered the movement and opened her eyes, letting out a gasp at the nearness of my erection to her pussy.

Bare. No condom this time. I was going to spill myself inside her, intentionally.

Fuck, my dick was rock-hard just imagining it.

“You’re sure?” I murmured. “You want me to come inside you naked. Want me to fill you up with my cum.” It was probably cheating to stroke my cock, knowing how it affected her, but she couldn’t nod fast enough.

“God, yes. Want all of that...inside me.” She rubbed her damp fingers over her mouth and I lurched in my fist. “Please.”

“Suck them,” I said, and she edged the tip of one inside. That red nail dipping just past her lips as her lashes fluttered and her tongue sneaked out. “Taste your pussy like I did. So fucking sweet.”

She whimpered and drew the finger deeper. Then I gripped her wrist and brought her hand to my mouth, tasting the finger she hadn’t yet, savoring her flavor as I pulled back and slammed home.

“Goddammit,” I hissed, registering her broken moan. “Still so fucking tight. Are you okay?”

Eyes wild, she nodded. “Yes. So full. Fuck me.”

I pulled her finger out of my mouth and pressed her hand to the desk. “Better reach back and hold on.”

She did as I asked and I slid my hand up her leg, gripping her thigh to drag her closer. Hooking her ankle over my shoulder, I wrapped her other leg around my waist. Swiveling my hips, I let her get used to the feel of me inside her for another moment - bare, finally bare - before I drew back and slammed home, rocking the desk on the floor. She gripped the edge of the desk with one hand and pressed the wrist of the other against her mouth to stifle her sounds as I pulled back and did it again, over and over. I leaned forward, grinding my pubic bone against her clit, pushing her hand away to smother her cries with my mouth as I fucked into it her until she was shaking with the need to come again.

I was way fucking past the point.

She gripped me like a fist, squeezing me past my endurance until I had to switch positions or end this right now.

I shifted her opposite leg to my waist and picked her up, holding her on me, lifting her up and down with every thrust. She clung to me, her kisses biting, her moans spilling out like the liquid coating my cock. I could hear each stroke. Smell the scent of us together like the sweetest, dirtiest perfume.

Ours.

Hating to break our connection for even a second, I withdrew and set her on her feet before spinning her around so she faced the desk. I pushed her down and cupped her perfect ass in my hands, tracing that silky pucker between her cheeks while she bit her knuckles to keep from crying out.

And I plunged.

There was no hiding her moan this time. It seemed to fill the office, or maybe it was just my head. Either way, as I pulled back and drove home again, that sound spurred me on. I needed to hear it again when she soaked my dick. Hell, while we soaked my desk. I wanted every dirty drop inside her, but I wanted the proof on the place I worked every day too so I could never forget.

She was mine. Always had been mine. Now I was going to fill her up with my release.

Scooping her up, I reached around her to rub her clit. Hard, fast. She scrabbled to hold onto the desk and bucked back against me, her ass bouncing. “Come with me,” I grated out.

“Going to.” Her ragged response had me hauling back and shoving deep as I circled her clit.

She splintered apart around me, and I couldn’t hold on. I managed to pull out once more and sank home while she was still coming, her relentless spasms milking my cock. I turned my head and bit her shoulder, sinking my teeth into her flesh as my hips flexed and I squeezed out every drop into her giving pussy.

“Oh shit.” She slapped her hand against the desk once, twice. “Tapping out.”

Groaning out a laugh, I pulled out of her. “Don’t move.”

“Not gonna. Can’t.”

As carefully as possible, I gripped her hip and turned her over, hoisting her legs high. She gaped at me.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Keeping my cum inside you.”

She threw an arm over her eyes, chest still heaving. Her tits were distracting as fuck, and my supposedly used up dick was already waking again. “That’s not necessary, is it?”

“Can’t be too careful.”

“Good to the last drop,” she muttered, and I laughed.