Page 56

The office is silent as I stare into Father’s crestfallen face on the monitor. My chest is heavy, and I feel like the tie is a noose around my neck, preventing me from breathing.

“Voss got Townsend and a few other shareholders. Townsend called me this morning and told me he’s not selling to us but will yield his shares to Voss tomorrow. It makes no sense.” I watch my father’s face crumble in front of me, and it’s almost like I’ve been hit in the face by a two by four.

I failed.

I’m the King of fucking Wall Street, and I couldn’t even protect my father’s legacy.

He was right all along. I don’t deserve his love and hugs.

I don’t deserve to be a Kingsley.

Father shudders, and for the second time in my life, I see moisture welling in his eyes. He looks toward the ceiling, trying to stanch the emotions from bleeding through, a tough Kingsley until the very end and a javelin spears my chest.

I feel sick with regret and want to cast up the breakfast I had this morning in the office with Grace. I should’ve stepped in sooner. I shouldn’t have waited until the last minute to help him.

I should’ve done so much more.

Perhaps if I took Voss off the board when he first started showing interest in TransAmerica or quit Pietra and gone back home to work for Father and spend the time developing connections with the Board of Directors to promote me as CEO, things would’ve turned out differently.

Sweat beads the back of my neck, my hands shake on my lap. I’m a failure—

“It’s over, isn’t it? All these years. My entire life put into the company and he gets to come in and take it all away.” Father seems to have aged years before my eyes. His normally tall, proud frame has shrunken into his seat, his eyes vacant and filled with loss and pain.

It reminds me of that night when he cried in the storm, when he gave the hug to the little girl and said goodbye to the woman he clearly loved with his entire heart such that there wasn’t room for the rest of us.

“I need to go, son.”

I have no words, no reassurances as he disconnects the call.

A quiet knock interrupts my thoughts, and the office door slowly opens. The scent of jasmine hits my nose and a burning sensation appears behind my eyes. Letting out a shuddering breath, I bury my face in my hands, my shoulders trembling, aching, a shameful heat filling my chest.

“I failed him, Grace. I’m unworthy. He was right all those years ago,” I choke out, my breathing coming out in pants. I feel lightheaded, dizzy, sick with shame and sadness.

“Oh, Steven,” Grace murmurs as she walks to my side and crawls onto my lap, lending me her warmth and her touch as reassurance. She twines her arms around my back, her hands smoothing down the bunched muscles as she presses kisses on my cheeks, which I belatedly realize have grown damp.

Her touch unmoors me. And those dreadful emotions come tumbling out of their own accord and I’m helpless to stop them.

I guess you can’t only keep the good ones.

Life is full of different flavors. You need to taste the bitter to enjoy the sweet, experience sadness to enjoy happiness.

Grace’s wise words curl around my tattered heart as she whispers endearments into my ear .

“You’ve tried your best. He knows that, Steven,” she says gently.

I look up, my blurry vision finding her violet eyes glazed with moisture as well, as if she couldn’t bear to see me in my current state.

Her thumbs gently swipe my cheek as she says, “You’re enough, Steven. You’re loved.” She repeats these affirmations, and I tremble, my hands clutching her waist, needing her presence to keep my sanity, to keep the noose around my neck from choking me alive.

“I love you,” she chants, her beautiful lips parting as she leans closer to me.

“I love you, Steven. You’re loved,” she repeats before pressing her soft lips to mine.

Her kiss is an elixir, an antidote to the venom spreading inside my veins.

Her touch is a bandage, slowly wrapping my bloody wounds in loving care.

Light slowly seeps into the void that was threatening to swallow me whole as Grace adjusts herself on my lap and presses her lips against me more ardently, her hands trailing to the back of my hair, her fingers scraping my scalp.

The heavy heat of shame slowly morphs into something else—a simmering flame as she swipes her tongue on the seam of my lips, begging me to let her in, in more ways than one.

The atoms in my body vibrate with renewed tension, my soul eager to expel out the darkness inside me and replace them with the light within her.

My hands slowly travel up her back, a new heat gathering in my groin, and I tangle my fingers in her hair as I angle her head so I can taste her more deeply, so I can drink this magical elixir of hers and chase away the pain.

She lets out a soft moan as her lips part and my tongue sweeps in, sampling her, savoring her, my soul letting in more light with each passing second.

“I love you,” she repeats as we part for air, and my eyes prickle for a different reason. Her words are a balm to the jagged edges of my soul, and I can’t get enough.

I fist her hair and pull as I drag my tongue down her neck, tasting the saltiness of her skin, the sweetness of jasmine mixed with honey. I want to forget. I want to get myself drunk on her. I want the pain to go away and be replaced with anything else.

She whimpers, the sound turning my cock hard. I bury my face in her cleavage. If I’m going to die without oxygen, I’d rather be smothered by these smooth mounds. My teeth nip at the swollen globes peeking out from the V neck of her shirt and I can feel her hardened nipples saluting me from within.

Grace slowly crawls down from my lap, and she kneels on the carpeted floor under my desk as she slowly unbuckles my belt and eases my throbbing cock from my pants.

My heart still hurts, but her touch is giving me life.

I stare at her, my ragged breaths sounding loud in the quiet office, and she holds my gaze as she licks a long swipe from my heavy balls to the glistening tip, her hands cradling and moving along the shaft.

Her pupils are blown as she sucks me in like it’s the best thing she’s ever tasted. The darkness inside me is replaced with sharp lust and the heady warmth of so much love for this woman before me, a queen worshipping a commoner such as myself.

She bobs her head, moving faster, and the burning sensation crawls up from the base of my spine.

I grip her head and move her harder along my shaft, hissing at each glide, at each suction.

“Fuck, Grace. Your mouth.” I toss my head back onto the chair and close my eyes, my balls constricting.

“I won’t be able to hold it in long enough today,” I groan.

Knock. Knock.

We freeze at the sound at my door and I straighten up as Grace hides under the sturdy desk.

“Yes?”

The door creaks open and Sean pops his head in. “Steven, I heard we’re losing TransAmerica. You don’t have any backup plans? ”

My muscles tense, the earlier heaviness slowly creeping back in, invading my body once again. I let out a shuddering exhale as I try to keep my face passive in front of my boss. It’s one thing to fail, but another thing to fail in front of vultures and sharks.

“Steven?”

My tongue is tied, twisted as the darkness wraps its tendrils around my throat and my world swirls again. Just as I feel myself sinking deeper and deeper into the void, Grace delivers a toe-curling lick on my cock from the base to the tip.

The sudden shock and sensation jolt me back to the present and I grip the handrest with one hand, my other hand fisting her hair, trying to stop her…or not stop her.

I clear my throat, my body flinching as Grace swirls her tongue around my tip. “I’m thinking of options.” I feel breathless for a different reason now.

Sean mulls over my answer as Grace bobs her head on my cock once more, the rod springing back to life and hardening, lengthening at her ministrations.

Sharp pinpricks of pleasure gather at my balls, traveling throughout my shaft, and I bite my cheek to swallow a groan.

Fuck me. My legs tremble, sweat gathering on my forehead and the back of my neck as she moves harder against me.

“There has to be a way for us to stop them. Voss is unhinged and out of control. He’s been poaching most of our largest clients and tossing money and enticements at them,” Sean muses, his brows furrowing.

“Something isn’t right with the man. He’s been crazy before, but this is on another level. We need to take him down.”

I nod. My voice is rendered mute as Grace, fucking Grace, attempts to swallow my dick down her throat and my jaw clenches from the need to groan from the sharp pleasure.

I hear a low whimper—my darling is getting turned on with this act—which I mask with a loud cough.

The thought of her clenching her thighs down there and trying not to moan has me hardening even more and I feel her choke and gag on the length .

The pleasure swirls, and I can smell her arousal.

My breathing is coming in quick pants and I can feel the flames gathering at the base, shooting up my shaft.

My skin is heated, my cock feels ready to explode, and I grip her hair harder in my fingers, wanting to pull her off, but my hips arch up, not ready to let her go.

“You okay, Steven? You don’t look too good.” Sean narrows his gaze at me, his eyes cascading over my face, no doubt noting how I’m sitting rigidly, flushed and ready to blow.

My balls contract and my legs tremble as the pleasure sharpens to a boiling point. Shit. Shit. Shit. Her fucking tongue and throat are taking me to nirvana.

A muscle twitches in my jaw as my body shakes and I shift in my chair. I let out a ragged breath before murmuring, hoping my voice still sounds steady, “Indigestion this morning. And I’ll handle this, Sean. Give me a little bit of time.”