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Oh, I would have liked that very much. But I wanted her spread out on the soft mattress even more.

Not kneeling on this hard floor. I couldn’t enjoy this if I thought she was hurting.

“No, but you’re wearing far too many clothes at the moment,” I said, tugging on the bottom of her loose white tank top.

I slowly peeled it upward, and she lifted her arms, helping me yank it over her head.

Jill reached for the clasp of her bra between her breasts, but I took over.

“Let me.” Her hands fell to her sides as I unhooked the clasp, and the second her breasts sprang free, my breath caught in my throat. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen them before, but every time was like the first time.

“Fuck,” I murmured, pulling her bra away from her body and dropping it to the floor. I skimmed my hands down her bare skin. “You’re unreal.”

My hands slid down to her hips, where I tucked my fingers beneath the waistband of her shorts to pull them down.

I planted kisses along her shoulder and down her breast as I pulled her panties down next, pausing to let her kick them away.

She was completely bare before me now. But not just me.

With a glance at the wide, open curtains, I asked, “Need me to close the curtains?”

“No,” she said, her hand trailing down her front until it dropped between her legs.

I gently nudged it away. “That’s my job. Lie down on the bed… close to the edge.” If anyone in this room was going to be on their knees, it’d be me.

Devouring her.

Worshipping her.

She obeyed and sat naked at the edge of the mattress. I knelt in front of her, putting my hands on her knees, smiling at the way we both pretended I wasn’t the one at her mercy.

“Open wider for me, darling,” I commanded, forcing her knees apart with my hands when she moved too slowly. “I want to see all of you.”

I let out a quiet groan as I shifted closer. I usually took my time with her—teased her, edged her, made her beg. But not tonight. There was no patience left in my body.

I kissed her thigh, then again a little higher. Her fingers latched onto my hair as I nudged her legs over my shoulders and wrapped my arms around her hips, locking her in.

And then I was on her, licking the length of her slit with fast, greedy strokes.

She gasped like she wasn’t expecting me there so soon.

She arched her back, pushing back farther against her palms but not fully lying down.

And I liked her that way—it meant I could steal the occasional glance up at the blissful look in her eyes as I savored her taste like a man starved.

“Oh, oh!” she squealed, her chest heaving between words. I closed my lips around her swollen bud, sucking on her until her toes curled against my back.

I teased her entrance with a finger, but the way she moaned my name broke something in me. I needed her. Now. As much as I loved feeling her come undone on my tongue, the thought of her coming all over my cock made me hard as a brick.

Reluctantly, I dragged my mouth away from her slick skin. Her arousal was still wet on my lips as I stood up, her eyes following me the whole way. She watched me unbutton my shirt, chewing on her bottom lip as she drew her knees together.

“I’m selfish,” I said, my fingers hurrying on the last button before I pulled my shirt off. “I wish I could feel you skin on skin, with nothing between us.”

Jill’s lips parted, and I could sense her hesitancy.

And then, maybe stupidly, I admitted to her for the first time, “I’ve had a vasectomy.

” I wasn’t thinking of the words I was saying and their implication—that I would not be fathering another child—and my stomach turned over as I waited for any sign of disappointment.

This was not the conversation to have right now.

But a smile tugged at the corners of her lips. Her knees fell apart again as she reached for my belt buckle with both hands, unfastening it as she looked up into my eyes. “I want to feel all of you,” she said, yanking my jeans down.

That was all I needed to hear, and I was fully naked within seconds. I nudged her gently until her back hit the mattress, her hair splaying out across the white comforter. I followed her down, bracing myself on my forearms as I hovered over her. Chest against chest, skin on skin.

I kissed her first. Slowly, because I didn’t want to rush this moment. With everything going on, it felt heavier than it had before, like we both knew this might be the last time we could do this without consequences. Once we left this city, everything would be different. We had to make it count.

Shifting my weight above her, I guided myself to her entrance as she parted her legs wider for me.

She held her breath as I slid into her slowly, tilting her head back against the pillow.

I exhaled a shaky breath against her mouth as I pushed all the way in.

“God, you feel like heaven,” I whispered.

There were no restraints this time.

No blindfold.

No condom.

Just us, totally bare and raw and real. My mouth hovered over hers as I rolled my hips forward, drinking in every squeak and moan that escaped her lips.

I kept my pace steady, wanting to make this last, but those noises made it hard to maintain control.

Her fingernails slid down my back with a light scratch and her legs hooked around my hips.

The glittering skyline out the window turned into a blur as I lost myself completely in her.

And then, digging her nails deep into my skin, she begged, “Harder, please. Fuck me harder.”

Fuck. I gave her exactly what she wanted, slamming into her in a way that made the whole bed rock. But I never took my eyes off her face, watching for any signs this could be hurting her. Her eyes fluttered closed and her lips parted open with a loud sigh.

“God, Jill,” I rasped. I was starting to lose it, and so was she, if her desperate moans were any indication. “You’re going to come all over my cock, aren’t you?”

With an enthusiastic nod, she smiled with a breathy moan, grabbing the back of my neck and squeezing. So I kept it up, saying whatever filthy words came to mind.

“So fucking wet for me.”

I thrusted deeper.

“This perfect cunt,” I growled with another thrust. “Was made.” Another thrust. “For me.” Thrust.

“It’s yours, Graham,” she cried out. “I’m all yours.”

Thrust.

“I’m all yours, baby,” she said again, tugging on my hair with her forehead pressed against mine. “Make me yours.”

And we both lost control.

Her body tensed beneath me, her thighs shaking as she gasped my name, over and over, like it was the only word she knew.

As soon as I felt her clench around me, I was gone.

I groaned against her mouth as I came, rocking my hips against hers until the final wave rolled through me and I had nothing left to give.

We stayed like that, panting and shaking and sloppily kissing each other’s chins. I ran one hand down the side of her face to push her hair away from her eyes as I pulled out of her. “Was it too much? Did I hurt you?”

She shook her head. “You only make me feel good, Graham,” she whispered, touching my chest hair. Her eyes softened. “I won’t lie to you. I am in pain right now, but thanks to you, I finally have some hope about that. I might have answers tomorrow.”

“I hope so, too,” I said before rolling off her. After pressing a kiss against the soft skin of her arm, I whispered, “Be right back.”

I slipped out of the bed and grabbed a clean washcloth from the shelf in the bathroom, dampening it with warm water before returning to her. She pulled up onto her elbows. “Oh, you don’t have to—”

I wouldn’t hear it. I shook my head as I knelt beside her on the mattress, wiping away what spilled out between her legs.

“It’s my mess,” I said with a little laugh.

Once she was cleaned up, I tossed the washcloth into the corner of the bathtub and found her pulling back the covers to slip underneath them, glancing out at the sparkling lights before she rested her head on the pillow again.

“Are you hungry?” I asked her, pulling a clean pair of underwear from my suitcase. “Want to look at the room service menu?”

“In a minute,” she said with a sigh, closing her eyes. “I just want to rest my eyes real quick.”

I smiled as I pulled my underwear on and joined her beneath the covers.

A minute turned into five, and five minutes turned into Jill lightly and sweetly snoring with one hand tucked beneath her cheek.

I watched her sleep with Manhattan glowing behind her, trailing my fingers along her arm until exhaustion pulled me under, too.

***

“Graham.”

I blinked awake as Jillian’s hand cupped my shoulder.

“Graham, someone’s at the door,” she whispered.

Still half-asleep, I slid out from under the covers and pulled on my jeans from last night. The clock on the nightstand read 5:00– and my alarm was set for 5:15. If I had to guess, that knock was Meghan looking for Jill.

I ran a hand through my messy hair as I padded across the thin carpet to the door and looked through the peephole. It wasn’t Meghan.

It was Xander.

My stomach dipped as I unlatched the door and cracked it just enough to show my face. He looked up from his phone at me in relief. “Hey, you’ve got a Samsung phone, right?”

I blinked, almost too tired to register his words.

“My fuckin’ charger stopped working,” he said, shifting forward like he wanted me to open the door wider and let him in. When I didn’t budge, it caused him to pause. Confusion flickered across his face and his eyes dropped to the floor behind me.

And he stared. A second later, his lips began to part, but no words came out. I glanced over my shoulder at what he might have seen, knowing Jill was safely obscured around the corner.

But there were her black Chuck Taylors next to my gray sneakers. And Xander was looking right in them.

A half dozen excuses ran through my mind, but they all sounded worse than the actual truth. Jill was in my room, and she’d been there since last night. The evidence was staring us both in the face.

“Those are… those are Jill’s shoes,” Xander said, taking a step back. His words were calm, but his jaw clenched as he looked up from the shoes to my face. “Tell me I’m wrong about that.”

I opened my mouth to explain myself, but no words came out—just a strangled, squeaky sound. Xander huffed out a breath, shook his head, and turned around.

“Xander,” I said, stepping into the hallway with my hand on the door.

I didn’t even know what I would say, but it didn’t matter, because he didn’t turn around.

He didn’t even stop walking. When he disappeared from sight around the corner to the elevators, I let the door close behind me and leaned against it.

“Graham?” Jill called from the bed. “Did he say something about me?”

My eyes closed for a few seconds. I walked the few steps forward, past the bathroom and the luggage rack, until she came into view, sitting up with the sheet around her body.

“He knows,” I said, swallowing.

“About… us?”

I just nodded, but that was all it took. I watched all the color drain from her face, and just like that, the blissful feeling from the night before vanished.

Reality began to sink in, and it made my chest feel tight.

I had one of my employees in my bed at a professional conference, and I’d almost ordered her room service on the company card, for fuck’s sake.

Somewhere between my loneliness and wanting to take care of her, I’d crossed a line I couldn't step back from.

What the fuck had I been thinking this whole time?