I left during the middle of the argument with my mother. I couldn’t stay there and be criticized and looked down upon. I was so tired of her judgmental attitude.

I knew she was going to tell Janelle, Michaela, and my father eventually but I didn’t give a single fuck. There was only one person I wanted to be with—one place I wanted to be—and that was in the hotel room with Jenna.

My driver dropped me off and took me straight there. I walked through my hotel door and it was quiet. The door that led to her room was shut and there was no sign of light. I assumed she was sleeping, but I knew the chances of that were very slim. If something really bothered her she’d let it eat her alive before falling asleep.

Sighing, I grabbed the door handle and pushed it open. Her room was dark, despite the light of the full moon shining in. I looked at the bed but she wasn’t there. My eyes ventured over to the window, and I saw a figure sitting in a cushioned chair. From where she sat, there was a distant view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

“Jenna,” I said softly. I shut the door behind me and met up behind her. My hands capped her shoulders and lightly massaged them. “I’m sorry about what happened. It shouldn’t have gone down that way. She never should have said those things about you.”

“Why?” she muttered. “It’s not like she didn’t mean them.”

I pulled away to walk around the chair. I stood in front of her, sliding my hands into my pockets.

“She’ll tell them and they’ll make you fire me. I’ve already accepted that.” Her head tilted up and her eyes found mine. “If you let me go, at least leave me a good letter of recommendation so I can easily find another job.”

“That won’t be necessary. I’m not letting you go.”

Her eyebrows dipped. “You’ll have no choice, Jude. You know how your family is. They’re conniving and manipulative and not to mention Michaela is a vindictive person. If you don’t do it, they’ll figure out a way to do it themselves.”

“Jenna,” I breathed, smiling. I grabbed her hands and squeezed them, pulling her up to a stand. She stared up at me, confused as hell, the worry clear on her face. “I am the C.E.O of Clement Architecture. Everything my father owned was handed down to me. The decisions that are made for that company come down to me. They can demand it all they want, it doesn’t mean that I’ll give in or cater to their demands.”

“I don’t want to ruin your future or the future of the company because of an arrangement we made, Jude. An arrangement that was supposed to be temporary.”

“It won’t be ruined, babe.”

Her lips pressed together. It was clear she didn’t believe me. I led the way to the bed and sat her down, then went to turn one of the light switches on. It was a dim light, but enough for me to see her clearly.

“I wanted to wait until Monday to tell you this,” I started, holding her hands.

“Tell me what?”

“The plan I told you about last Sunday—the one I said would secure the company and its name and keep us on top for years to come?”

“Yeah?” she asked eagerly, intrigued. “What about it?”

“It’s going to happen. I signed on Monday. It’s why I had to stay a little longer. I got through to them and they are going to give a very large investment.”

“Oh, my gosh!” she gasped. “That’s great! So that means that you won’t have to go through with marrying Michaela?”

“No, babe. I don’t. They want me to marry her because her father was putting up the most money, but only if her future was secure too. But now…well, I don’t need them. The company, Joles, is offering way more. My family doesn’t need Michaela. We’ll be fine. I just have to fill them in.”

“Wow…Jude, I—” Her mouth opened and then clamped shut, her eyes glistening. “Did you…”

“What?”

“You said you were going to work on something so that you wouldn’t have to marry her…” Her head shook slowly. “All this time I thought you were just feeding me lies—making up excuses to keep me around longer.”

“What? Jenna, no.” I grabbed her waist and lifted her up, bringing her onto my lap. “I…well, shit. I can’t picture going on without you anymore. There are times when I’m sitting in my office or traveling, where I just have moments that I wish you were there. Moments that I wish I could talk to you or be with you. I…I haven’t felt like this with anyone before, Jenna. I’ve spent so many years by myself, abiding by my parents’ rules and succumbing to their lifestyle, that I realized I wasn’t actually living until I met you. When the arrangement first started, I knew—I just fucking knew that things were never going to be the same again. That I was never going to let you walk away from me.”

Her eyes shimmered with hope as she looked down at me. “You mean it?”

“I do. I kissed you tonight because you mean a lot to me. To them you’re just a secretary, but to me you’re so much more.”

She smiled and laughed a little, turning in my lap and wrapping her legs behind me. She undid my tie and then draped her arms around the back of my neck. A sigh left her as she rested her forehead on mine.

“Tyler called when I got here,” she confessed, and my back straightened, my grip slacking at her waist. “I broke it off with him.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. He called and was talking, but all I could think about was that kiss. Your lips.” Her eyes dropped to my mouth. “I just flat out told him I couldn’t keep talking to him. That I was interested in someone else.”

“Good girl.” I smiled, and shifted over, placing her on her back. I slid between her legs. “Couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss, huh?”

“No,” she breathed.

“I can’t even remember the last time I kissed a girl on the lips. Had to be college—maybe high school.”

“Careful,” she teased. “I might get jealous again.”

I laughed. “I don’t ever want you jealous. You hear me?”

She nodded. “Okay.”

I lowered my face to hers with a hand on one side of her face. My lips pressed on hers and I sighed, deepening the kiss. I meant this. I’d tried for so long to avoid her mouth—to pretend it was only meant for sucking and fucking—but this was ten times better than any of that.

Her mouth was sweet and her lips were so soft. I’d been missing out on claiming these lips—truly owning and devouring these sweet, pouty lips.

She got excited when she felt my cock getting hard in my pants. I could tell she didn’t want to, but she broke the kiss to reach down and unbuckle my belt.

She moved to the middle of the bed and I moved forward on my knees, taking my tie off and unbuttoning my shirt. My pants came down next and I kicked them off, and when I got rid of my boxers, Jenna sat up higher looking up at me with big, doe-like eyes.

“Go ahead,” I murmured, and she eagerly did as told.

That beautiful, sweet mouth of hers wrapped around my cock and I let out a heavy groan, resting a palm on the back of her head.

She took me deep down her throat and then came back up for air, still staring up at me.

“God, you’re so beautiful, babe,” I rasped. “So fucking beautiful.”

She was sucking my cock like she’d been dying to suck it and after dealing with the frustrations of that night, I was about to blow. I pulled her mouth away, clutching her hair and tugging on it lightly. I bent over, keeping her face up in the air, and kissed her mouth, sucking on her bottom lip.

She moaned and I pushed forward, laying her back. Her shorts came down in a flash and I got between her legs. I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to be inside her.

One full, hard thrust, and I was buried deep. Her chin dropped as she stared up into my eyes.

“Show me,” she whispered. “Show me that you really love me.”

Her words were fucking hypnotizing. From that moment on, I had no self-control. I drove in and out, sliding a palm up her arm until I found her fingers, and kissing her like my life depended on it.

She squeezed the hand that’d found hers and used her other hand to sink her fingernails into my hip. I grunted, my cock hard as hell inside her. I was on the verge of coming.

“Say you love me,” she begged on my lips. “Tell me.”

The sensations had taken full control of me. I dropped my face into the crook of her neck, giving full, hard thrusts, repeating the action over and over again until I felt her clenching around me.

“Oh, Jude, yes,” she breathed out. “Yes.”

I picked my head up again, kissing her harder. Once. Twice. “I love you, Jenna Taylor,” I breathed on her lips. “I fucking love you.”

And with those words alone, she shattered.

She came all over my cock, her legs wrapped like steel around me, leaving me no choice but to come inside her.

“Oh, shit!” I dropped my head again, grabbing her ass with my other hand. “Shit, Jenna. You’re so amazing.”

She whimpered and moaned, shuddering beneath me.

“Fuck,” I panted, rolling over and catching my breath.

Jenna moved closer, resting her head on my chest. Then she said the words I never thought I wanted to hear a woman say. Words that would have scared me months ago, but instead made me feel like the greatest man on earth.

“I love you too, Judas Clement,” she whispered. “So much.”