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My teeth clanged against my fork, too rough of a bite made with too much shock. Brody Hammersmith. My business mentor, the man who had been at my side throughout the majority of my journey up the ladder. His name alone was worth more weight in gold than any other reference she could give me. Brody never talked much about his family, though I’d heard of a daughter once or twice in passing. What had he called her? Lydia? Lola? “Lottie.”
She stared blankly at me.
“Your father calls you Lottie.”
“Yes,” she breathed.
I shook my head, surprise getting the better of me. “Fuck the reference,” I said. “It’s definitely not needed. You can start on the first of next month. Though I will say, I was not expecting to run into Brody’s daughter on my brief getaway.”
She stifled a laugh as she popped another shrimp in her mouth. “And you wondered why I ran away when you told me who you were.”
“I can’t be that scary,” I mocked. I lifted my glass of wine to my lips, savoring the scent of it before taking a sip.
The smile that spread across her face was one of fucking heaven. “I don’t know about that,” she teased. “Dad’s pretty much drilled it into me that every man he mentors is a piece of shit playboy who often thinks with his dick but has a good mind for business. No offense.”
Piece of shit playboy with a mind for business. He wasn’t entirely wrong. I had a reputation, and so did the other men I knew he worked with, but surely I wasn’t that bad.
Although I held great respect for Brody, the idea of him disapproving so drastically about a woman I could sleep with, his daughter no less, only made her that much more enticing.
“None taken,” I smirked, stuffing the last bit of food into my mouth and swallowing. “He’s not wrong, I suppose.”
“I know he’s not.”
“Then tell me,” I started, pushing my chair back and lifting myself to my full height. “If you knew better, Lottie, why didn’t your body react the same way as your mind?”
She leaned back in her chair, that iciness of her features returning in a second. I stepped around the table, coming ever closer to her, and watched as her chest rose and fell with shallow breaths.
“If you knew better, why couldn’t you stop yourself from staring at me in the stables yesterday?”
She sucked in a breath, averting her gaze to the glass of wine in front of her.
“If you knew better, why did you touch yourself after you ran?” I tucked a knuckle under her chin, the warmth of her skin a stark contrast from the cold glare she leveled at me. “And why did you think of me while you did it, all alone in your bed?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she snapped.
“I could tell by the way you looked at me,” I said, my lips tugging upward. “I could tell by the way your cheeks flushed as you took in every ounce of me. Tell me, Lottie, do you think the real thing would be better than what you imagined?”
She tried to push my hand away, her irritation growing, but I held strong beneath her chin. The flush in her cheeks grew darker, her lips parting, her eyelids lowering just a millimeter. “You’re extremely unprofessional.”
“You’re imagining it now, aren’t you?” I purred. I leaned down over her, bringing my face as close to hers as it had been two nights prior. Just a breath between us. My cock already throbbed in my slacks, begging me to give it something, anything. But I wanted her. “Wouldn’t you rather have the real thing instead of some silly fantasy? Wouldn’t you like to know what it feels like when I touch you instead of having to settle for your fingers?”
Her breath caught in her throat, those goosebumps breaking out again like hives across her skin.
“Let me show you.”
The music shifted into something deeper, darker, more my speed as if my own interests had somehow leaked into the playlist. It was a song I’d heard a few times before, enough to know it by name—When You’re Smiling and Astride Me by Father John Misty. Slow enough that I could do exactly what I wanted to tip her over the edge.
I hooked my free hand in hers and lifted her from the chair, her body following everything I silently commanded of it. She portrayed a cold and hard exterior, but her body had a mind of its own. One that ignored her denial of what she truly wanted, what I could feel emanating from her in waves.
The lyrics slowly filtered in as I pulled her body into mine. Every inch of her against me felt exactly as I imagined it would, but I knew damn well she hadn’t expected anything close to what she was experiencing. From the way she shivered to the way her breathing shallowed, every little space where we connected was new to her, surprising and unfamiliar.
It wouldn’t be by the end of the night.
She moved with me as I slowly began to sway, each sensual chord and note amplifying just how much I needed to take her. It normally didn’t take this much effort, but for a prize this big, I’d play into it.
Her lower lip caught between her teeth as I cupped the side of her neck, my thumb hooking around the front side and dragging across her bobbing throat. “Tell me to stop and I’ll stop, Lottie,” I rasped, lowering my face to hers. Our lips brushed, just the faintest of touches. “Tell me to stop and I won’t touch you exactly how you want me to.”
Her eyelids fluttered closed, and I took that as the only sign I needed.
