I followed him out to the main foyer, glancing back to see if anyone was watching. When we were there, we crossed the hall to the solarium.

He pushed the glass doors open, revealing an empty, circular room lined with beds of tropical-looking plants. A round central bed of trees towered over us, blocking the other side.

The background noise of Mia’s voice, punctuated by the occasional laughter of the crowd, faded away as the doors closed after us. The room was silent except for the hum of the irrigation system. It was also dark except for the little fairy lights nestled in the trees and plants.

“I shouldn’t have gone to New York today,” he confessed, his low voice echoing in the stillness. “I couldn’t stand being around you. Knowing what you’d done, it fucking ate at me.”

I reached out to touch the leaf on a tree next to me, rubbing my fingers over the soft texture.

“I get it, and I’m sorry. I know you’re private and you don’t share your personal life. I would never betray that.” I lifted my gaze to his. “I’ve been thinking a lot about it this week. And I think if I overdid it with the pranks, it wasn’t to make fun of you. Maybe some messed up part of me wanted your attention.”

He stepped closer, his tux brushing the front of my dress.

My eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness, sought out the planes of his face.

“You’ve always had it.”

I should’ve gone. Should’ve turned on my Manolos and run as far as I could.

Instead, I grabbed the front of his suit and pulled myself up to meet his lips. They were firm under mine and opened in surprise.

It was meant to be a quick kiss. A reassurance that the moments of heat, attraction, openness we’d found weren’t entirely lost.

Still, I dissolved into the feel of his lips.

Avery broke the kiss first. “I’ve told myself a hundred times this is a bad idea. But maybe if we both want it…” He lifted a hand, brushed a knuckle over my cheek. “It’s not so bad.”

My fingers reached up to wrap around his wrist. He stilled, and even in the dark I could feel his stare. Feel my body tingle.

Then he dragged my mouth up to his. And everything melted away. Because Avery Banks was kissing me.

It was hard and hot and everything. Even before his hand fisted in my hair, forcing me closer. I couldn’t remember a kiss being so satisfying and so desperate at once.

Avery hitched my knee around his hip. Oh, yeah. More.

We weren’t in the office this time, and the control had snapped. He was wild. His mouth teased mine before demanding I open under him. I made him work for it, resisted the press of his tongue until I parted my lips. He groaned, his open-mouthed kiss taking me over.

I wanted all of it. Wanted his decisiveness, his arrogance, the deep-down decency he denied to the world.

We staggered back, and my body hit something hard—a tree trunk?—knocking the wind out of me. It didn’t matter. It was like we were drowning, the only source of oxygen the other. I arched under him like I wanted to fit myself to his mouth, his hands, the growing hardness I could feel through his pants. My hands found his chest, stretched up around his neck, and my stomach tightened. Lower.

His fingers threaded in my hair. When he tried to free them again, they tangled in the bound strands, and he growled as he tugged. My scalp prickled as the pins came loose, sprinkling on the ground. It wasn’t gentle, but I didn’t care.

My fingernails dug into his biceps through the jacket. A breathy noise escaped when he shifted, pulling back only long enough to change the angle and kiss me harder.

Part of me said to slow down. But we were a train, barreling toward a destination I’d pictured so many times lately that I could’ve cried from the relief of knowing that this time was real.

The bark scraped my back as Avery pressed me into the tree.

I didn’t care.

We were in a secret place where one thing mattered. There was only his groan when I tugged his shirt out of his belt, reached up under his shirt, and raked my nails down his back. The strength of his hands when he grabbed my hips and ground against me, my thin satin panties.

He growled as he ripped the panties down. Then his hand smoothed down the back of my thigh, hitched my knee around his waist.

His fingers brushed between my thighs and the world went dark. His touch electrified me, making my head fall back.

He pressed against my mouth with one hand while the fingers of his other slipped inside me. I moaned, my lips wrapping around his thumb. Fuck, he was hot. I’d known he would be.

I needed his cock. Even as he pulled his thumb from my mouth, replacing it with his mouth and hitching my knee higher as he started rubbing circles over my clit, it wasn’t enough. I managed to get his zipper undone, and when I wrapped my hand around his hot length, I wanted to cry out in triumph.

I heard the foil of a condom rip. Then his touch was gone, but only for a moment. It came back to my hip. Then he used the tree to lift me up.

I knew what was happening before it happened. Still, the feel of him pressing inside me was incredible.

Our mouths fused again like we couldn’t get enough. Like we had to kiss until we unleashed everything we’d felt for months. Years.

Avery’s low groan as he pressed inside matched mine. Holy shit, he’s in me.

My boss, the man I’d spent every second torturing, resenting.

The man I couldn’t seem to get out of my head.

He was part of me. Filling me. Stroking so deep it felt like he’d never end. My nose bumped his as I breathed. His fingers dug into my ass as he pinned me against the tree.

His forehead rested on mine. My back was sweating, sticking to the bark. None of it mattered because I was strung tight enough to snap. Shaking fingers found his neck, pulling him close to my mouth. His hands tightened on my ass, pinned me against the tree so he could speed up his strokes.

The angle changed until he was hitting me even deeper, the force of his thrusts banging me against the tree. Then he shifted. I didn’t know why until I felt his fingers rub my clit. My vision went blurry. Tears burned at the backs of my eyes, but I wanted it. Every damned second.

I gasped.

Yes.

Fucking yes.

The wave started at my core, like a high. A drug. Each muscle in my body contracted, from where he was buried so deep I couldn’t tell where I ended and he began, through my arms, my legs. My aching breasts and nipples. My clenched toes.

I fell off the edge, my body shaking.

Avery’s hot mouth dragged over my jaw to my neck. He groaned against my skin. The hottest sound I’d ever heard.

One stroke. Two.

Then he exploded inside me.