“This is all beautiful.” I wanted to know what was going on between us. I needed to understand whether I was reading something into nothing.
He looked at me and grinned. “I’d call this afternoon pretty close to perfect.”
The thoughtfulness, the preparation, the kissing. I needed clarity. I wanted to understand why we were here. I summoned all my courage and took a deep breath. “I’d call it a date.”
He pulled me closer. “I’d agree—a perfect date.”
Twenty-Seven
Joshua
This might go down as one of the best days of my life.
I squeezed her hand as I led Hartford out of the lift to the penthouse floor.
“It’s been such an incredible afternoon, Joshua. Thank you. When you do something, you really go all out.”
It had been worth getting up at five to finalize the Calmation pitch so I could have the afternoon off to be with Hartford. I’d only just got it finished with ten minutes to shower and change. I’d left the hard copies printing off on the printer I’d set up on the dining room table, and the team were fully briefed. We were ready to go on Monday, and I was enjoying my time with Hartford before then. Life was about balance. Business and rest. Work and play.
The way Hartford’s eyes had lit up when she’d seen the picnic in the park would stay with me forever. She’d looked overwhelmed. Delighted. Like I’d given her the moon. I could have punched the air. I hadn’t quite been sure how it would go down. She didn’t often relax, so taking her to drink champagne and eat cake in the park had been a risk. It had been worth it to see her expression. And then when she’d called it a date, it was as if the blood in my veins had stopped. She’d figured out this was no practice run for me.
I just needed to know if she was still pretending.
We came to a stop outside her door and I leaned against the doorway, taking in her relaxed smile and bright, ice-blue eyes. She seemed to get more beautiful the more I got to know her.
“You’re worth it.” I took a step closer to her so we were toe to toe, tipped her head back and kissed her. Because that was what a date should do after an afternoon like we’d had. And because I wanted to. I wanted this afternoon to be real. For her as much as me.
She tasted of sunshine and heat, and I couldn’t help but let out a groan as I explored her mouth. Her hands dug into my hair and I pushed her against her door, my hands buzzing with urgency and need.
“Joshua,” she whispered as I kissed down her neck. “It’s not . . . you feel . . .” Her hands trailed down my chest to my belt, her fingers slipping behind my waistband. Christ, I wanted to feel her hands wrapped around my cock. I wanted to feel every inch of her skin under my tongue. I wanted to make this woman orgasm so hard she’d never think of another man again.
I reached and scooped up the layers of her dress, smoothing my palm up her leg, reaching higher and higher. I pulled back to look at her, to ask the question burning me from the inside out. Her face was flushed, eyes hazy with what I hoped was wanting. “Hartford.” My eyes dipped to her full, plump mouth.
“What are we doing?” she asked.
Did I have an answer? I wanted to tell her that I’d thought of nothing but her for months now. That nothing between us had ever been faked. That I hadn’t been her teacher but her pupil.
“What do you want us to be doing?” I asked.
She sighed. “You want to come in?”
Yes, I wanted to get naked with her as soon as possible, but I wanted more than that. I wanted her in my place. The place reserved just for me, where I never brought other women. “I want you to come into my flat.”
I pulled her toward me with one hand and opened my front door with the other, then stepped us both over the line.
“You’re so beautiful,” I said. “That dress . . . your eyes . . .”
“Joshua,” she said, her voice a mixture of pleading and disbelief.
“It’s true, Hartford,” I said as I unzipped her dress. “You’re as beautiful on the outside as you are on the inside, and that’s bloody stunning.”
She stood on tiptoes and pulled my mouth onto hers as her dress slid to the floor.
She fumbled with my shirt buttons. I just wanted to rip my shirt off, to get rid of another barrier between us, but I didn’t want to risk her thinking she wasn’t doing it right. So I waited, watched as she concentrated on my buttons, her delicate fingers pulling at the cotton of my shirt. Once it was off, she smoothed her hands over my shoulders. “You’re . . . big.” Her fingers trailed down and across my stomach. “And hard.”