Chapter Ten
Jesse
After
I stood unnoticed in the doorway of Emery’s office, watching him while he worked. Unless it was a weekend, I rarely had an opportunity to do this. There had only been a handful of mornings before this one when I’d leaned into the molding and stared at him.
He was worried—I saw that on his face from the moment he told me he’d been awarded the project. He didn’t want to spend too much time in Boston, but he didn’t want to spend too little either. This job was paying him millions. It was a lot to process and even more to manage.
While he was away, I would get alone time with my kids, something I’d never had before. And when he was home, we would be together as a family.
I saw no problem with the new arrangement.
Emery took a pen out of the drawer and wrote something on a pad. His stare moved between the computer and the paper. Each letter was uppercase, all close in height and width, his handwriting like a font. I could see it as clearly as the picture of our children that was framed and facing me on his desk. There was another one of just the two of us in Scotland. The third photo was of our dog, our other baby who slept at the foot of our bed every night.
Anyone looking into this house would see a couple who had been together since they were nineteen-years-old with two beautiful children. They would notice I gazed at my husband, not the camera, whenever our picture was taken. We had a dog from a champion line of Labradors, two businesses, two homes, and more money than we could spend in a lifetime.
On the outside, we were envied.
Perfect.
Untouchable.
But inside our circle of four there was a weakness.
Me.
Emery slowly turned his head and our eyes caught. I exhaled, feeling the tightness stay in my throat even after the air was out of my lungs.
“Why are you so far away?” he asked.
I felt his words in the pit of my stomach. It was a slow burn that moved to the lowest spot in my navel and went as high as my breasts. “I was admiring you.”
“Come do it from my lap.”
I moved across the room and when I was within reach, he took my hand and led me around to the front of him. He kissed me the second I was seated, his arms wrapping around my waist. “What have you been doing?”
I ran my hand across his cheek, feeling the roughness of his whiskers. “I just sent the offer to Charlotte, like you asked me to. Now, I’m coming downstairs to get something to eat and figured I’d stop by your office to see if you wanted anything.”
His nose grazed my cheek. “I like having you home.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed you.”
Before I could react, he put both of his hands on my face and pulled me toward his mouth. The second I felt his tongue, his grip tightened and said, “Are the kids home?”
He wouldn’t know. I was the one who managed their schedules, who made sure Tommy got where he needed to be even if I wasn’t the one taking him. With Viv having her license and own car, I parented her completely different, but I still knew where she was at all times.
“No, honey. They’re not home.”
“I was hoping you would say that.”
He gave me a quick kiss and then we were both on our feet and he was unzipping the back of my fitted skirt. I gasped as the material fell to my ankles. I felt so bare in the lace panties and blouse. I wasn’t stable, not with his eyes on me.
“Breathtaking.”
His compliment wasn’t much louder than a whisper, but he might as well have shouted it. That was how noisy it sounded, how consuming it felt when his words entered my ears.
Standing before him like this made me vulnerable. It made the mask want to drop as quickly as my skirt. It made me worry that if he just looked deep enough, he would see what was really hiding inside me. While his stare roamed my face, I deflected, changing my thoughts, putting my concentration on something much safer than the direction it was headed in now. And when I finally opened my mouth, “I need you,” came out of it.
I’d never spoken truer words.
“Mmm,” I heard as he guided me to the edge of his desk.
Once I sat on the thick wood and spread my legs, he began kissing me and his pants fell to the floor. His tongue filled my mouth at the same time as he entered me. His skin slapped against mine, our sounds matching. Heat poured between us as we climbed toward that spot, grinding, gnawing, panting our way there.
Nothing happened slow or gradual on Emery’s desk. Our movements were rough, animalistic. Each time his mouth pulled away, our eyes locked and the passion between us smoldered again.
And when Emery reared back his hips, I was lost—in his movements, in the way he loved me, in his ability to make me forget everything except for the tingling and euphoria happening between my legs.
I wanted to hold onto that for as long as I could. But within a few strokes, I was shuddering, digging my nails into his shoulders, feeling the burst of sensations spread through me.
Seconds later, while he held my cheeks and pressed his lips against mine, I felt my husband come.
***