The words are out of her before she can stop them, but if he hears them he doesn’t say anything. They’re both caught in the tsunami of orgasm, tumbling and rolling with it, incapable of doing anything but letting the waves take them. With the aftershocks still coursing through her, she slows the thrusting. Her nails have dug marks into his thighs. His cock is spent but not yet soft.
Carefully, Corinne eases free of his body, noticing how he winces. She goes to the bathroom and stands for a moment, weak-kneed and semidelirious with what has just happened. The rubber cock juts from between her thighs, and she no longer feels ridiculous. She feels powerful and grateful and, in the aftermath of her outburst, a little bit anxious.
She shouldn’t. Still naked but without the accessories, she slides into bed so he can spoon her, and the press of his kiss to the back of her neck beneath her hair is familiar and cherished.
“I love you too,” Reese tells her.
Chapter Ten
“It seems like a lot of cash to throw at a failing business, and I’m far from one to look a cash cow in the mouth, so to speak, but it seems too good to be true.” Lynn said this in his careful, measured voice. “Can I ask, Mr. Ebersole, what prompted you to change the terms of the offer?”
Corinne sat in stunned silence. She’d arrived early to this morning’s meeting to find Tony and Reese already in the conference room. New paperwork. New terms.
A brand new offer.
“After discussing some things with Ms. Barton, I came to the realization that I’d vastly undervalued Stein and Sons.” Reese steadfastly did not look in her direction. “With some more research, I’ve determined that there’s a lot more potential here than I’d previously thought, and with my contacts in the greater metropolitan areas, I’m thinking I could really turn this business around.”
“Instead of just selling off the pieces of it?” Patty asked with a look at Lynn.
Ryan shifted in his chair. “You think you can get us in the hands of customers who like what we’re selling?”
“And the mouths,” Reese said. “Which is where you really want to be, right?”
Everyone laughed except Corinne, who managed a smile that strained the corners of her mouth. She’d tossed and turned every night since Friday, caught up in the memories. Only this time instead of sweet and sexy melancholia, she’d been fighting a slowly rising fury. With Reese for showing up this way, for this fuckery, but also with herself for the way, even now, she still wanted him.
At least she wanted what he had been.
Within half an hour, the deal was done. Signed, sealed. Delivered. Hands were shaken. The sense of relief in the room was palpable.
Corinne stayed back after everyone had filed out to take Reese and Tony on the factory tour. She should’ve been relieved, the way everyone else was. The board would be paid enough to make giving up their family business worthwhile. They could all retire. She would be getting a raise big enough to make her suspicious. Big enough to make sure it was going to be really, really hard for her to find another position to match it.
In her office, she tidied her desk and called the kids, who’d just gotten home from school. Last year she’d been paying an after-school sitter, but now that Peyton was nearly twelve, Corinne allowed them to say home alone until she could get there, usually no later than five. It helped that Auntie Caitlyn could be there for them in case of an emergency. Still, Corinne liked to text or call them around this time to make sure they were okay.
“Hey, buddy,” she said when Tyler answered the phone. “How was school? Anything exciting happen?”
“Not really.”
“Anything bad happen?” It was the same series of questions she asked both of them every day. Sometimes there was an answer. Sometimes not. Today Tyler told her a long story about how a kid in his class was getting in trouble for posting an unflattering picture of their teacher on one of his social media accounts.
She spoke with her son for a few more minutes, then with Peyton. By the time she got off the line, she felt much better. At least until she looked up to see Reese standing in her doorway. Seeing her disconnect the call, he stepped through.
“I thought you were going on the plant tour,” she said.
Reese closed the door behind him. “I’ve seen a barn and milking stations plenty of times. I didn’t need to go.”
“You didn’t need to do that,” she told him with a lift of her chin toward the door.
“Yes, I did. I need to have a private talk with you, Corinne.”
She gave him an arched brow. “Hmm, let me guess. New management says no personal phone calls allowed on company time? Sorry, bossman, I’ll be better about it next time.”
“Don’t.” He stood in front of her desk, his gaze dark. Stormy.
Corinne had seen Reese angry a number of times. Their relationship, despite the power and control issues at the core of it, had still been one of the most emotionally open ones she’d ever had. Probably exactly because of that dominance and submission component. She could see that now, although at the time she’d just thought it was the way things should go with all relationships. It had taken her a lot of failures to see how rare it was to have that level of connection.