Page 48 of Business Casual
“Prospects,” she snorts. “I’m not trolling through the streets, Charlie.”
“Thank god for me, you’re just trolling through tree fields.” I press a quick kiss to her shoulder, think about it, then lean forward again and drop a wet kiss to her neck. She squeals and rolls, and I follow her across the bed. I catch her mouth with mine and she laughs into me, hands clutching my back. We kiss for a long, languid stretch of time, her foot rubbing up and down the side of my leg and my fingers tangled in her hair. It’s probably how we should have started all of this, if I contained even an ounce of patience.
“What were you saying about one night, not one time?” she asks quietly.
I lean up on my elbows above her, then glance over my shoulder at the bottom of the bed. There are six condoms left.
“I need another snack first.” I drop a quick kiss to her mouth, then push out of the tangled sheets. I need carbohydrates. Electrolytes. Maybe an espresso from the fancy machine on her countertop. If I only get one night with Nova Porter, I’m going to make it fucking count. “Be right back.”
I get rid of the condom in a wad of tissues and grab my boxers off the floor. Nova watches me from the bed, limbs loose and tangled in the sheets. Curved halfway on her side, I can see a peony blooming across her rib cage, the same petals as the ones drifting across her shoulder blades. She nuzzles farther into her nest of sheets, some of her hair falling across those gemstone eyes.
I stop and stare, and then stare some more.
“Bring back the fudge stripe cookies that are in the cabinet,” she orders.
I shake myself out of my stupor and give her a tiny salute. “Yes, ma’am.”
I’m halfway down the hallway when she shouts, “The peanut butter too!”
12
NOVA
I wake upto Charlie sitting shirtless at the edge of my bed.
His pants are undone and low around his hips, a cup of coffee in his left hand. It’s a good look.
Unfortunately, it is also way too early.
“What time is it?” I slur. The room is still dark and my body feels like it was hit by a Mack truck. I am sore in places I didn’t even know I had. “Didn’t we fall asleep like twenty minutes ago?”
I usually don’t let casual sex partners spend the night, but Charlie passed out immediately after our last round, face down on my mattress with his arm flung over my waist. He looked so peaceful, and he didn’t wake up when I dug my finger into his rib cage, so I allowed it.
“Close,” he replies, voice low and raspy. It’s the same way he sounded last night when he had his mouth at my throat, asking me if I wanted to come. Fabric rustles and the weight by my legs shifts. “It’s early.”
I squint open one eye in interest and watch as he attempts to button his shirt. It’s horribly wrinkled, and he’s missing one in the middle, but he endeavors. I stare at the inch of bare chest I can just barely make out in the predawn light, legs shifting beneath my mountain of blankets when I see the hickey at the base of his throat. There’s an entire line of them all the way down his torso, two right at his hip. He had sunk both of his hands into my hair and watched me with his jawclenched tight when I put them there, his entire body trembling beneath my touch.
Then I put my mouth on his cock, and he bit out my name like a curse.
Last night was…good. I am immensely proud of myself for the idea.
“I’m heading out.” He finishes with his shirt and drags his hand through his hair, a massive yawn tipping his jaw open wide. His body slumps and he rubs his palm over his chest. “But I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye.”
“Bye,” I mumble, wiggling farther down in the blankets. I don’t remember putting the blue knit quilt on the bed last night. I don’t remember grabbing the pillows either. But I am sufficiently tucked in, everything just where I like it.
He huffs a laugh. “It’s like that, huh?”
I grin into my pillow. “Help yourself to some coffee.”
“Already made some,” he says, voice still rough at the edges. “I’m taking a cup.”
“That’s fine.”
“It’s my souvenir glass.”
I snicker into my pillow. “Bring it to the shop later and I’ll etch it for you. ‘Nova Porter rocked my world.’ ”
He laughs again, louder this time, a rumble in the stillness of my bedroom. He leans forward and slaps my ass through the blankets. “Hell yeah, she did. Maybe that’s the tattoo I’ll get.”
