I wasn’t lying when I told Maggie I couldn’t get enough of her. Honestly, I can’t. Now that she’s in my system, I know I won’t be able to let her go so easily.

I lose count of the number of times I get her off—on my desk, in my bed, against the wall between my office and my bedroom—but it doesn’t take long to realize I’ve met my match with this woman. We’re barely even getting started, and I’m already fucking obsessed with her.

Marriage—fake, real, whatever—with Maggie is going to be fun.

“That was—” She starts in a raspy growl, her tan legs quaking as she climbs off of me. Raking her fingers through her hair, she collapses back on my sheets. She starts to pull the blankets around her, but I grasp the edge.

“You cover your body and I’ll put you across my knee.”

Those long lashed eyes flick over me, but then she untangles her fingers from the cover and I tug it back down, kicking it to the floor. I devour the sight of her body, every curve and angle, and when I sweep my gaze back to hers, she giggles. It’s the first time I’ve heard that sound come from her, and it gets me hard all over again.

“You’re bossy,” she whispers.

“And you’re beautiful.” I come to a sitting position, spread her knees far apart and ease myself between her legs. Leaning back, I stroke my fingertips over the smooth flesh of her thighs. “You’re still shaking,” I muse.

“I can’t help it.” My fingers climb higher, to her pussy, and she closes her eyes and arches her back. A ball forms in my throat as I watch her. Her breasts heaving up and down as her breath quickens. One hand coming up to cover her face. The other skimming down, lower and lower, until it covers mine. “God, Gabe, what are you doing to me?”

I take her hand in mine. “You want me to stop?” She uncovers her face and lifts her head from the pillows. She’s so beautiful like this, with her hair tumbling around her face and her cheeks flushed. Licking her lips, she shakes her head.

“No. Please, don’t stop.”

I grin. “Say it again.” She does, and I move our fingers together over her clit. “One more time.” It comes out as more of a breathy gasp because I unravel our fingers and slide one of mine deep inside of her. She grinds her hips, the slow rhythm intoxicating me.

“More?” I demand. She pumps her head up and down, so I add another finger, arching with every other plunge. Her pussy contracts around me, and I let out a guttural groan. When she starts to move her hand away from her clit, I shake my head. Stop her. Use my other hand to cover hers and rub shallow circles over the little nub. “Don’t stop, beautiful.”

She nods again and whimpers something incoherent and I grin as I pull both my hands away from her. She lets out a frustrated sound. Then immediately replaces it with a hoarse moan when I dip my head between her legs and lap hungrily at her fingers and her clit. She bucks her hips wildly against me. “Fuck,” she pants.

“Yes, we will,” I answer. I race my tongue from the back of her finger and down her wet slit. Circle it around the opening of her pussy. Go fucking crazy at the taste of her. I glance up to find her staring back at me with dazed eyes. “I promise we’re going to fuck but let me give you this first.”

“Mmm.”

“Mmm?” I tease. I flick my tongue out again and her fingers stiffen. I blow softly against them, fanning her cunt with my breath. “Is that all you’ve got to say?”

“More.”

“That’s better.” I land a kiss on the inside of one thigh. A tiny nip on the other that makes her gasp. And then a roll of my tongue deep inside her pussy that leaves her thighs trembling around the sides of my head. The noises she makes are unlike anything I’ve ever heard—raw moans that sound like they’re coming from deep in her gut. It’s so fucking delicious that I don’t even give a shit when she moves her fingers from my clit to twist them deep into my hair. “Do you want more?”

“Y-yes.” But she’s already coming. And hard. She shudders from head to toe, grasping my hair and pulling me deeper into her. I inhale her. Taste until she’s lying still and her hands are slack on each of my shoulders. I kiss the insides of her thighs one last time before I chuckle and slide up her body to slant my lips over hers. When I pull away, framing her face in my hands, she gives me a lazy smile. “You’re a beast, Carter,” she sighs.

“Is it too much?”

She clears her throat and moves her head from side to side, her hair a dark canvas over the white pillows. “God, no.”

Her eyes widen when I grip the outsides of her thighs. I roll her over me in one swift motion, loving the way she looks on top of me. Like a perfect fucking fit. “Good,” I say.

* * *

I wake up the next morning before she does, and it takes every drop of self-control I possess not to get her up for more, but she’s too perfect to disturb. Which makes me question my sanity because my dick is going to hate me for the rest of the day for not bothering her and going for another round. I take a shower and when I return to my bedroom, she’s sitting up in the bed, her hair tangled around her shoulders as she rubs the sleep away from her green eyes.

“Your fifteen minutes too late with that wake up,” I say dryly, and a dark flush stains her cheeks. I like seeing Maggie blush—damn, I love seeing her skin grow hot because of me. “Good morning, beautiful.”

She yawns into her elbow as she scoots to the edge of the bed. “I swear I don’t normally sleep this late. I, ah, got used to getting up at five-ish for PT, but I’m still kind of screwed up from the time change.”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me,” I say, but then my eyes narrow when she bundles the sheets around her body. “Well, except for that. It should be illegal for you to wear clothes or a sheet when we’re behind closed doors. Your body is perfection, Maggie. Everything about you is, and I hate seeing you cover up all that”—I frown, searching for the right word—“goodness.”

She laughs. “Goodness?”

“The fucking best.”

She turns redder, but I mean every word. Maggie’s body is exquisite, toned in all the right places and curvy everywhere else. I could spend all day watching her strut around without a scrap of clothing on and consider myself productive. Unfortunately, that plan goes to shit when my phone buzzes on the dresser and I pick it up to see an email from Vivi. By the time I finish reading it, my scowl is so deep that Maggie’s eyebrows arch and she pauses just a few feet from the bathroom door.

“Everything okay, Carter?”

“We’re back to last names? I thought after last night you’d—”

“Gabe,” she corrects through her teeth, and my scowl melts into a grin. “You were frowning. Is everything all right?”

I take one last look at my phone then lift my shoulder into a shrug. “It’s Vivi. She’d love to get another exclusive interview with baseball’s bad boy and his island girl. In person.”

Maggie clenches her teeth a little harder. “Your island girl?”

“Her words, not mine.” I lay my phone face down on the dresser and rap my fingers on the wood. Before I can say a word, Maggie speaks up.

“She’s got a lot of pull, huh?” When I glance over at her, she continues, “I mean, she has a big reach. We want to sell this thing, then she’s a good one to do it?”

“Unfortunately.” My jaw goes slack as I watch Maggie tiptoe across the bedroom floor. She’s still wearing the sheet, but it’s draped around her waist and her breasts jiggle in a way that will be permanently ingrained in my mind. My cock swells beneath the towel, so I clear my throat. “Ripping my exploits apart during my career made her, so her readers are ravenous for more Gabe Carter stories.”

Maggie leans her shoulder against the bathroom door frame and worries her bottom lip between her teeth. I nearly groan out loud because she looks so hot doing that, and my dick is going crazy with need for her. “So, let’s do the interview. You should have her come here for our engagement party.”

I lift my brows so she keeps going, slowly walking across the room toward me. “We have to have an engagement party, Carter. Don’t you want to tell the world how in love we are?” By the time she’s finished speaking, she’s right in front of me, so I give in. I fist my hand around the top of the sheet and jerk her to me. She gasps, and the corner of my mouth lifts. “If we’re going to sell this as real, we have to go all the way.”

But she doesn’t sound so sure of herself anymore. She’s breathless and trembling, especially once my head dips to hers. My smirk widens when her lips automatically part. “You’re selling it pretty goddamn well,” I say roughly when I pull away, and she blinks a few times. Then she snatches the sheet out of my hand and stalks to the bathroom. I’m still laughing when I hear the shower start.

* * *

Once she’s dressed—in one of my old tee shirts and a pair of my running shorts that she has to roll up several times to fit—she insists on leaving the suite well before me, but I shake my head. “Remember, beautiful, we’re selling this as real,” I say with a wink before opening the penthouse door for her and linking our fingers together. “We ride down together and I’ll walk you back to your place.”

Dozens of emotions pass over her face as we head to the elevators together but none of them cut me as much as the one she gets when the car stops on the next floor down. Just in time for us to witness her douche of an ex stumbling out of an executive suite, laughing like an idiot and pulling one of the maids close to him.

I stop the doors from sliding closed and step out, unwilling to let this one go.

Does this shithead have any shame? He was just at a party yesterday with her cousin and now he’s here, with another woman. Maggie shuffles out of the elevator and into the hall, her eyes wide, as she watches the two of them stroking each other like they’re being filmed for amateur porn.

I can’t look away either but I’m not in shock. I’m just pissed. I tell myself it’s more because they’re in the middle of my hallway groping each other than Maggie’s reaction to him. When I clear my throat, Ryan breaks apart from the maid and does a double take when he sees me with his ex-girlfriend.

“Ah—” he starts, but I cut him off because he’s given me exactly what I’d hoped for when I spoke to him yesterday. This time, though, he can’t threaten me with some bullshit lawsuit.

“You’re fired.” I look behind him, to the maid who’s ducking her head like I won’t recognize her. This place might be expanding, but I remember all my employees. “You too. You want to fuck around? Do it on your own time or pay for a room. Don’t do it on my time or my dime. Since these rooms go for nine hundred a night, I’ll be sure to take it out of your final paycheck.” Before either can say another word, I draw Maggie away from them, ignoring Ryan’s complaints. “You’ve got five minutes to get the fuck out of my hotel. Then I’ll send security after you.”

Maggie’s quiet when we get into the elevator, her lips pinched together. When she finally speaks, I’m stunned to hear her defend that shithead. “He takes care of his mother, Gabe, and—”

“And he should have thought about that before he fucked a maid in one of my executive suites,” I say roughly, staring straight ahead at the elevator door. “Any of the times. This isn’t the first time he’s done this shit; it’s just the first time he’s been caught. If he really cared about keeping his job here, he’d take it more seriously.”

“Ryan’s never been very good at being loyal to those he loves.” Her words are barely a whisper.

There’s pain in her expression that takes me by surprise, and even though he obviously hurt her, she cares what happens to him. And that makes me fucking worry.