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He kissed his way down my body, taking his time like we had forever instead of stolen moments in the dark. His tongue dipped into my navel, making me squirm. His teeth nipped at my hip bone, sharp enough to sting once more before his tongue soothed it away.

When his shoulders pushed my thighs wider, I had to slam my hand over my mouth. The first touch of his tongue was electric, making my whole body jolt. He made a pleased sound, vibrations adding another layer of sensation.

He explored slowly, learning what made me gasp behind my palm, what made my hips lift off the desk. His tongue traced patterns that seemed random until I realized he was spelling something. His name. Claiming me with letters and pressure and heat.

When he found the rhythm that made my thighs tremble, he stayed there, consistent and perfect. My free hand gripped the desk edge hard enough to hurt. The familiar tension built low in my belly, coiling tighter with each stroke of his tongue.

Then his fingers joined the dance, two sliding inside while his mouth continued its sweet torture. He curled them just right, finding that spot that made stars explode behind my eyelids. The dual sensation—his tongue on my clit, his fingers stroking inside—was too much and not enough all at once.

“That’s it,” he murmured against me, the words adding vibration that nearly undid me. “Let go for me, beautiful.”

One more curl of his fingers, one more perfect stroke of his tongue, and I shattered. The orgasm rolled through me in waves, each one stronger than the last. My body clenched around hisfingers while he gentled his touch, drawing out every aftershock until I was boneless and gasping.

When I finally opened my eyes, he was standing between my legs again, licking his lips like he’d just finished dessert. His hair was wild from my fingers, his mouth swollen and wet. The evidence of his own arousal strained against his pajama pants, and I wanted nothing more than to return the favor.

“Come here,” I said, reaching for him.

But as I sat up, reality crashed back like cold water. The folder beneath the budget reports. The photos on my phone. The man I was actively betraying looking at me like I hung the moon.

“I should—” I scrambled for my clothes, suddenly desperate to be covered, to hide from what I’d done. What I was still doing. “Caleb will be waking soon.”

“Piper, wait?—”

“I’m sorry.” I pulled my shirt over my head with shaking hands, tasting him on my lips, feeling him everywhere. “I shouldn’t have… This was a mistake.”

His whole body stiffened at the word “mistake,” and I wanted to take it back immediately. But what else could I call it? Making love to him while his computer hummed with evidence I’d stolen? Letting him worship my body while I plotted to destroy his career?

“Talk to me,” he said softly, reaching for me again. “Do you not want this? Not want me?”

I shook my head silently.

“Let’s talk it through. Tell me what’s wrong.”

Everything. The word sat on my tongue like ash. Everything was wrong, starting with me and ending with the impossible situation that would destroy us both.

“I just… I can’t do this right now.”

I fled before my resolve crumbled, leaving him standing alone in his office, surrounded by the evidence of exactly how much I didn’t deserve him.

Back in my room, I pressed my back against the door and slid to the floor. My body still hummed with satisfaction, nerve endings sparking with sense memory. I could smell him on my skin, taste myself on my lips from his kiss. Between my thighs, I was swollen and sensitive, physical proof of what we’d just done.

The burner phone dug into my hip, a sharp reminder of who I really was. Tomorrow, I’d have to send those photos to Ray. Tomorrow, I’d have to look Lachlan in the eye over breakfast and pretend I hadn’t just used his trust to gather intelligence that would destroy everything he’d worked for.

But tonight… Tonight, I’d had a glimpse of what we could have been in a different world. One where I wasn’t Ray Matthews’s daughter, where I didn’t have prices on my head that only betrayal could pay.

From down the hall, I heard his footsteps heading toward his room. Slow. Heavy. The quiet click of his bedroom door felt like the ending of something that had never really had a chance to begin.

I stayed on the floor until dawn painted the walls pink and gold, replaying every touch, every kiss, every place where his mouth had marked me. Memorizing it all.

Because I knew, with the kind of certainty that came from a lifetime of losing everything good, that it would never happen again.

Chapter 15

Lachlan

I staredat the ceiling in the early morning light, my body still thrumming with the memory of Piper beneath my hands and mouth. The taste of her lingered, sweet and intoxicating, making me hard all over again just thinking about how she’d come apart on my desk.

But it was what happened after that kept replaying in my mind. The way she’d scrambled for her clothes like the house was on fire. The panic in her eyes when she’d called what we’d done a mistake.