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“Colton,” she panted, and pleasure slammed into me from the sound of my name on her lips. “Yes!” she cried. Her legs stiffened, her fingers squeezed my thighs, and she fell forward.
Ah, yes.
I raised my hips off the bed and pushed deep inside of her. Burying myself to the hilt. I bit my lip to stop a shout, then came harder than I ever had before. Holy Shit.
That was unbelievable.
Her ragged breaths tickled my neck. Her body rose and fell with the rapid movements of my chest. I pulled her dress up onto her shoulders, covering her body, then wrapped my arms around her and squeezed. I never wanted to let her go.
9
Frances
“You did what?” Erika’s eyes widened and her hands flew to her hips.
I knew she would be mad, but I had to tell someone about my weekend with Colton. I kept little from Erika. She even knew about him.
“It was wonderful,” I said, doing a little pirouette in the middle of the twelfth-floor hallway while holding my morning cup of coffee. Colton was in a meeting and kept his office door closed.
“I’m glad you’re happy. I really am, Frances,” said Erika. “But you can’t keep up the pretense forever. You’re quitting at the end of this week and I don’t want your heart broken.”
Placing my coffee on her desk, I crossed my arms. “Why can’t you just be happy for me?” Tears stung the back of my eyes, but I held them in check. Her words hurt because I couldn’t disagree with them. “I just want to enjoy this for as long as I can. Is that too much to ask? To finally want something for me?”
She stood from the desk and wrapped her arms around me. “It’s not too much to ask of me. But it may be too much to ask of yourself. I know you. You will be devastated if you let this get any further.” A single tear escaped and I quickly wiped it away. “It may already be too late,” she said and ran her finger across my cheek to catch the next one.
“Finally, I found someone who genuinely likes me and is kind to me,” I said, straightening my spine and wiping my own tears.
“He thinks your name is Ava Grady. It’s not real and you have to tell him before it goes any further.”
Her aim was true, and her words struck my heart. He didn’t make love to Frances Netto. He thought he had made love to Ava Grady. She was right. I’d already gone too far. I should take a step back and detach myself from Colton before I would have to leave for good in four days. But I couldn’t.
“Just give me four days,” I pleaded. “I deserve four days of happiness.”
“You deserve way more than that. That’s why I want you to end it now.”
“I’ll be fine. I promise.”
Erika placed one hand back on her hip, and pointed a finger at me with the other. “You’ve got four days and then we’re going out and getting drunk so you can forget about this whole mess.”
I smiled, imagining Erika drunk and hitting on the bartender like she always did when she had one too many. But I also smiled to hide the thoughts gaining strength in my mind that I could never forget about Colton. “Deal,” I said soberly and hugged her before walking back to my cubicle.
Colton’s door was still closed, but his blinds were open. He paced his office, raising his voice for anyone on the twelfth floor to hear. When our eyes met, he stopped walking and waved me to come inside. I approached his desk as he scribbled on a yellow sticky note: Can you get me the Morgan file?
I nodded and left his office to retrieve the land registry and other paperwork in the Morgan file. I implemented a new filing system and found everything in seconds.
“What the heck is wrong with you?” Colton shouted into the phone. “How are we going to convince Morgan to sell us this property if we can’t even get the project off the ground? You were supposed to get the mayor’s office to approve these plans two days ago.” He pounded his fist onto the desk and I flinched. I couldn’t help it.
Colton’s eyes shot to mine and I dropped the files next to the phone. I was about to leave and give him back his privacy when his hand covered mine on the desk. I stared at the tendons on his hands as his fingers curled over mine. When I raised my head, the concern in his eyes disarmed me. The tension in my shoulders eased and my heartbeat slowed down. I hadn’t realized how much his outburst had scared me, but he’d noticed.
He caressed my hand with his thumb, and that simple movement was enough to melt my heart. I loved this man. I loved this irritable, smart, sexy man. I panicked.
How would I tell him the truth and make him understand that everything I did, I did for my family? I prayed that he cared enough about me to accept the truth.
I raised my other hand to smooth out the wrinkles in his baby blue shirt. He wore no undershirt beneath it, so my fingers explored unhindered. Moving my hand up along his arm, I wrapped my fingers around his large bicep and squeezed. Butterflies took flight in my abdomen and soared when he smoothed out my hair. Raising my head to meet his stare, I watched as tiny sparks of yellow danced in his dark green eyes.
I made his eyes heat up like that. Me. Not Ava Grady, me—the woman in front of him. I felt power surge inside of me and I wanted to test my ability to assert it with someone I trusted. I wanted to do something I always wanted to do but was too afraid of being judged for it. Keeping my eyes on his, I ran my hand down his pants and flicked open the button. His eyes widened and his lips parted. Rising on my tiptoes, I placed my lips over his and slowly slid my tongue across his bottom lip.
“Sir, I’m walking to the mayor’s office right now,” a voice on the speaker shouted from the office phone.
