Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“You don’t feel that way about me?” I needed him to clarify that. I needed to know that this time, it would work.
Because I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to love anyone else.
“No.” He shook his head firmly. “No, Charlotte. I knew that this time, I wasn’t doing this to keep you. I was doing this with the full knowledge that you were more likely to run away than to stay, ring or not.”
In other words, “You know that if I wanted to say no to you, I could.”
“Exactly.” He let out a relieved exhale. He still held the ring and my hand, one little push away from finality.
I could say no. I could run.
I didn’t want to.
“To be one hundred percent clear: I wouldn’t be afraid to say no to you. You’re not binding me to you. Even if you wanted to, it wouldn’t work. If I were going to run, I would,” I warned him. I let the realization sink in. He had to know that I meant it. Then, I added, “But I’m not going to run. My answer is yes. I will totally fucking marry you.”
He pushed the ring onto my finger; it didn’t quite fit as snuggly as I’d like something so expensive to fit. I would be on high ring alert until we got it sized. It didn’t matter. He took my face in his hands and his mouth covered mine, and we stood there in that ugly office, losing ourselves in each other.
He could have done this in a fancy restaurant. He could have made some grand, elaborate gesture. But he’d done it in a place that was already important to him, in a new part of his life he was excited to start. What better place to start another new, exciting phase?
His tongue tangled with mine and I moaned, gripping his shoulders and practically climbing him. Married. We were going to get married. Happily ever after, till death do us part.
I almost couldn’t believe it.
He lifted his head and placed a hand at the small of my back, jerking me tight against him. “I hate to tell you this, but our first fuck as an engaged couple is going to happen very romantically on this second-hand couch.”
I laughed breathlessly with anticipation and pushed his jacket off his shoulders. “Is there a lock on the door?”
“The entire building is empty.” He nibbled at my jaw.
“Then why do we have to do it here?”
He straightened and gazed down at me, questioning.
“There are all sorts of naughty options,” I pointed out. “I mean, some of those cubicles still have desks. We could really break this place in.”
He laughed. “Desk sex in a cubicle is how you want to celebrate our engagement?”
“It would be a good start.”
He considered a moment. “I have a better idea.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
(Charlotte)
Taking my hand, Matt guided me back to the elevators and pushed the button for the second floor. When the doors opened, it was onto a much nicer space. Huge windows lined the hallway and surrounded a center courtyard with tables and chairs.
“This is all ours,” he said, pushing through the door. “The building goes around it.”
“Nice,” I murmured, turning in a circle and looking up at the sky. “But people up there will get a show.”
He glanced up at the neighboring buildings that rose above ours. “Yeah, well, they don’t have to look. Get your clothes off.”
I giggled and pulled off my jacket. The autumn air was crisper than I would have liked to be naked in, but I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be cold for long. I tossed it on the ground, along with my blazer, and started on the buttons of my shirt. When I shrugged it off, a little thrill of familiar fear shot straight to my clit; was anything hotter than feeling exposed and vulnerable in a public space where I could be watched? Potentially caught in the act?
“This is the like our first time,” I noted, unfastening my pants. “On your private pool deck, where everyone could hear us?”
He made a noise low in his throat, nostalgia mixed with desire. “I remember.”
I kicked my shoes off and shimmied out of my panties. My goosebumps weren’t just because of the low temperature.
“You dared me to fuck myself with a water bottle,” I reminded him, though I was sure he needed none. That first encounter had been momentous. Life changing, even if I hadn’t known it then. Some part of me must have, though. Maybe that’s why I’d spent so much time denying my feelings and running from them.
We’d been perfect together from the start, two deviants matched in every way, but I’d focused so hard on the superficial ones like wealth and distance and our romantic pasts to have seen it until now.