Page 81 of Say My Name

“Nineteen minutes.” Her voice is low, a little rough.

“You counted.”

“I was waiting.”

I grip the edge of the door, grounding myself.

I step inside, and she closes the door. Her condo is quiet except for traffic several floors below. The laptop on her coffee table is open to the clinic portal, and her phone lies beside it.

“The test was positive?” I ask.

“Yes.”

“You’re certain?”

“I know how to read an ovulation test, Dominic.”

The irritation in her voice is so familiar it almost makes me smile. It’s the sound of Elena defending a position, and it’s more real than anything she said on the phone. The clinic told us cycles can shift. “All right.”

“And you’re certain you want me here?”

Elena folds her arms. “I called you. I told you I wanted you here, and I told you I’m ovulating. Which part remains unclear?”

“The part where I arrive and you decide the phone call committed you to something.”

Her arms drop to her sides. “It didn’t.”

“Good.”

“You can stop looking at me like I’m about to run.”

“Are you?”

“No.” She steps closer. “I’m about to kiss you.”

Her directness hits me like a physical blow, and it takes a half-second to get my own response in order. I meet her eyes. “That answers one question.”

Her hand closes around my tie. “Do you ever stop?”

“You haven’t kissed me yet.”

She pulls me down, her mouth claiming mine.

Every minute of restraint since her birthday disappears. I catch her waist as she pushes my suit jacket from my shoulders, but I make myself follow her instead of taking over. She tugs the knot of my tie open, yanks it loose, and tosses it toward the chair without checking where it lands.

Her kiss is rough and a little uncoordinated, desperate in a way that tells me more than her words ever could. This isn’t planned; it’s pure, unfiltered want. She catches my lower lip between her teeth, releases it, then comes back as if twenty minutes of waiting used the last of her patience. I let her set the pressure and the pace. Let her show me everything she can’t say.

Elena never leaves anything lying on the floor. The sight of my tie there makes my cock press hard against my trousers.

She feels it when I pull her closer. Her lips part against mine, and her hips move into me once, deliberate and impatient.

“Still want me to stop looking at you like you might run?” I ask.

“I want you to stop talking like you aren’t hard enough to make this uncomfortable.”

“It’s extremely uncomfortable.”

“Good.”