“Chloe, I’m pretty sure if you wanted to grow one, you could do it by will alone.”
She let a half smile form, pushing back from her desk and crossing her legs. “I’d grow one just so I could ask you to suck on it.”
I couldn’t contain my laughter, bending over and collapsing into the chair across the desk from her. “I knew you were going to say that.”
Her eyebrows pulled together a little. “Well, before you say anything else, yes, I know this sucks. And . . . I think you were right. We could be in St. Bart’s right now, on the beach.”
I started to speak, but she held up her hand to urge me to wait.
“But the thing is, Bennett, no matter how much I should have, I didn’t want to tell Papadakis no. I wanted to deliver, because we can, and we should. It’s down to the wire anyway and we’ve had a lot of time to work on this. It felt disingenuous to say we couldn’t make it happen.”
“True,” I conceded, “but by letting him push a milestone ahead to the beginning of the quarter, you’ve set a precedent.”
“I know,” she said, rubbing her temples with her fingertips.
“But actually, I wasn’t coming in here to tell you what you’d done was wrong. I was coming in here to tell you I understand why you did it. I can’t really fault you.”
She dropped her hands, eyeing me cautiously.
“At this point in your career, I can’t be surprised you said yes to Papadakis.”
Her mouth opened and I could see a litany of curse words form on her tongue.
“Easy, firecracker,” I said, leaning forward and holding up my hands. “I don’t mean you’re na?ve; I’m not pulling the ‘seasoning’ card again—though it’s true no matter how much you hate to hear it. I mean you’re still building. You want to show the world that you’re Atlas—and to a Titan, that fucking celestial sphere weighs nothing. It’s just that it’s impacted the entire team, and over a holiday. I get why you did it, and I also get why you’re conflicted. I’m sorry this is hard for you, because I’ve been there.” I lowered my voice, moved a little closer. “It sucks.”
The room seemed to grow darker, the sun dipping behind the horizon just as I’d finished my sentence. Chloe watched me, face smooth and practically unreadable.
Well, unreadable to anyone else. Anyone who hadn’t seen that face a thousand times, the one that told me she wanted to smack me, kiss me, scratch me, and then fuck me.
“Don’t smirk,” she said, eyes narrowing. “I see what you’re doing.”
“What am I doing?”
“Trying to build me up. Being a hardass, yet also my lover. Damnit, Bennett.”
“You’re going to fuck me in your office!” I crowed, my words colored with surprise and glee. “God, you’re easy.”
She stood quickly, walking around the desk and reaching immediately for my tie. “Damnit.” She unknotted it, wrapping it around my eyes and tying it behind my head. “Stop studying me,” she hissed into my ear. “Stop seeing everything.”
“Never.” I closed my eyes behind the silk fabric and let my other senses take over, inhaling the delicate citrus scent of her perfume, reaching to feel the soft skin of her forearms. I moved my hands slowly down her body and turned her around, pulling her back to my chest. “This better?”
Her quiet huff wasn’t for my benefit; it was a sound of genuine frustration. “Bennett,” she murmured, leaning back. “You’re making me crazy.”
I gripped her hips, pulling her to me so she could feel the hard line of my cock against her ass. “At least some things never change.”
I blinked up to the flight attendant, who bent low to catch my eye and had obviously just said something.
“I’m sorry?” I asked.
“Would you like a beverage with your meal?”
“Ah, yes,” I said, pulling my brain from the memory of Chloe’s body, tight and coiled around me as I’d fucked her over her desk. “Just some Grey Goose and a cup of ice, please.”
“And for lunch? We have filet mignon or a cheese and olive plate.”
I ordered the latter and glanced out the window. From thirty thousand feet up, I could be anywhere. But I had the distinct feeling I was headed back in time.
I hadn’t been back to France since my return to the States, when I met Chloe in person. For what felt like the hundredth time, I registered how that old Bennett didn’t feel familiar in the slightest.
Thanksgiving had been a revelation in part because, before Chloe, I would have also said yes to George’s demand without even a thought. Chloe was so similar to me in so many ways, it was actually a little frightening.
I smiled as I thought back to my mother’s advice:
“Find a woman who will be your equal in every way. Don’t let yourself fall for someone who’ll put your world before theirs. Fall for the powerhouse who lives as fearlessly as you do. Find the woman who makes you want to be a better man.”
Well, I had found her. Now all I had to do was wait for her to get here, so I could make sure she knew.