Page 10 of Executive Privilege (Event Horizons Agency #1)

"God, you drive me crazy," he murmurs against my skin. "All day, watching you across that conference table, thinking about this."

His admission sends heat through me. I reach for his belt, desperate to touch him, to make him lose the composure he wears like armor.

When my hands find him, he groans, his head falling back against the couch. "Sadie—"

"I want you," I whisper, and something snaps in his expression.

He pushes me back against the couch cushions, his mouth trailing down to my breasts. When his tongue circles my nipple, I arch into him, my fingers tangling in his hair. He takes his time, alternating between gentle kisses and the scrape of his teeth until I'm writhing beneath him.

"Please," I breathe, and he understands.

He kisses his way down my body, settling between my thighs with deliberate intent. The first touch of his tongue makes me gasp, my hips lifting off the couch. He holds me steady, working me with slow, thorough strokes that have me gripping the leather cushions.

"Nicholas," I manage, but he doesn't stop, doesn't ease up until I'm trembling and desperate again. When I finally come, it's with his name on my lips and my body shaking against his mouth.

He moves back up my body, positioning himself between my legs. When he pushes inside me, there's nothing gentle about the way he takes me, both of us too worked up for patience.

"Fuck," he breathes against my ear, his hips driving into me with increasing urgency. "You feel so good."

I wrap my legs around him, pulling him deeper, meeting every thrust. The couch creaks beneath us but neither of us cares. His mouth finds mine in a kiss that's more teeth than tenderness, and when I bite his lower lip, he responds by fucking me harder.

"Yes," I gasp, my nails digging into his shoulders through his shirt. "Don't stop."

He doesn't. He drives into me with single-minded intensity until we're both gasping, until I'm coming around him with a muffled cry against his shoulder, until he follows with a final assault of hard and fast thrusts and a harsh low groan, his body going rigid and then slowly relaxing.

He collapses gently over me, both breathing hard, sweat cooling on our skin.

Then reality seeps back in.

Nicholas pulls back. The shift from intimate to distant is so abrupt it leaves me cold.

"We can't do this here again," he says, not looking at me as he pulls on his shirt.

I sit up, pulling my blouse closed. "Oh, we can't? That's interesting, considering you're the one who dragged me in here."

"Anyone could have—" He sighs, tucking his shirt back in with sharp, efficient movements. "This was reckless."

I watch him button up, literally, the man who just lost control with me disappearing behind the executive facade. The hypocrisy pisses me off.

"Right, because I totally forced you to fuck me on your couch," I say, standing up and smoothing down my skirt. "My bad for being so irresistible."

"Sadie—"

"No, please, continue. I love hearing about appropriate workplace behavior from the man who just had his tongue between my legs on company furniture."

Nicholas stops fussing with his tie and looks at me directly. "That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean? Because from where I'm standing, it sounds like you're having buyer's remorse about something you initiated."

"I'm not," he starts, running a hand through his hair. "I'm trying to maintain some semblance of professionalism here. I don't know why I keep losing my control with you."

"Little late for that, don't you think?" I button my blouse, annoyed. Physically satisfied, but annoyed. "Unless you have selective memory about who said 'my office, now' like some kind of caveman."

"The location was poor judgment."

"Which part was poor judgment? The sex, or the location?"

"The location," he says after a pause. "Definitely the location."

"Good. Because I was starting to think you regretted the whole thing. Again." I grab my shoes from where they ended up under his desk. "So let me get this straight—you can't keep your hands off me long enough to make it through one workday, but you're worried about boundaries?"

He sighs. "I'm not handling this well. I'm sorry. Do you want this to stop?"

The question hangs between us, weighted with the rules we've established. What I want is more complicated than what we agreed to, but I'm not stupid enough to say that.

"No," I say simply.

"Good." He sits back down on the couch, suddenly looking less like the composed CEO and more like the man who was just inside me. "Sadie, about today. I was being a coward."

The admission catches me off guard. "What do you mean?"

"I mean treating you like that, when we're obviously not strangers anymore. I was trying to prove to myself that I could compartmentalize this, keep it separate from work. But I can't stop thinking about you. It felt fake, and I think everyone knew it."

My heart unravels in my chest. "So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying maybe we can figure out something that's not quite professional distance and not quite... this." He gestures between us. "Something that acknowledges what we are without compromising our work."

"And what are we?"

Nicholas is quiet for a long moment. "I don't know. But I know I don't want to pretend you don't matter."

The words send warmth spreading through my chest, even though they're not exactly a declaration of love.

"I can work with that," I say.

"And Dallas?"

"Dallas should be interesting."

Nicholas reaches out and briefly touches my hand—a small gesture, but it feels significant after the emotional distance of today.

"Last night wasn't a mistake," he says quietly. "And neither was this."

"Good to know."

He stands up, straightening his shirt one final time. "We should probably leave separately. you should go first."

"Of course." I put my hand on the door.

"Sadie."

"Mmm?"

"Dallas is not going to be interesting. It's going to be fucking incredible."