Page 37 of Takeover
Yes.
No.
Maybe.
Ugh.It had just felt so… intense and visceral and real.And he really had been asleep and horny.
I knew what this was, but why was I disappointed that he had no idea how he’d touched me in his sleep?
Lance prattled on about communication strategies for the team and how we had to try some new sake bar around the corner, and how maybe now I could actually take a goddamn break.
But I was too busy, too focused on the horror show of my life.
My husband-to-be had gotten me off this morning.Spectacularly.Worse, he'd been asleep when he’d done it.
Imagine how good he’d be fully awake?
Oh my God.And then he'd come out walking around in those thin gray pajama pants, and I could fucking see everything.And he'd still been hard.Very, very hard.Honestly, he needed to be careful, because that thing could club somebody on the head and knock them clean out.
"Are you okay?"
"Sure.I'm fine," I muttered as I played with my cup of hot cocoa.The warmth soothed me, but I hadn’t taken a sip.
"I know you better than that.You look stressed the hell out, Gwen.I know you think you have to do this thing, but you don't."
"Yes, I do.It's done anyway.The engagement party is in a couple of weeks."
He pressed his lips together."I guess the view can’t be ignored."
I didn’t like the subtle dig, but I let it slide, knowing he was just worried about me."The penthouse, yeah, it's a stunner.And if I'm being fair, at least Micah is nice.I can't read Atticus at all.He's like a granite wall."
A granite wall with a very big?—
"So what, he's kissing you now?"he asked.
A wash of heat hit my face so hard I was surprised it wasn't sandblasted."Um, what?"
"That kiss, is that a thing now?"he asked through clenched teeth.
Hell."Look, this thing is happening, so I'm trying.And he is doing… I don't know, doing a reasonable facsimile of trying.Your anger is at the wrong person.Dad is the one who used me.Dad is the one who put me there."
"While I’m pissed off at the old man, it looked like Pendragon was doing a whole hell of a lot more than trying."
"Well, we have to make it look real, okay?I'm trying to make the best out of a shitty situation.You were there.I was blindsided.It's already hard enough without your judgment.We are stuck, so we might as well try to get to know each other."Utter bullshit.I didn’t want to lie to Lance, but he wasn’t going to let it go.
"But I thought?—"
I tugged him to a stop."You thought what?"
"I thought that you weren't going to do it."
"We covered this, Lance.If I don't do it, Morgan has to.And while Atticus Price might be cold-hearted and not particularly gregarious or chatty, he met the terms.Someone else might have pushed for more.It's a good deal.And even better, it’s not Bronson Jacobson."
"And what about you?I care about you, Gwen.You're just going to suffer in silence?"
"Yeah, if it means my employees have what they need and aren’t carved up for parts.If it means my sister doesn't have to get tied to somebody at the age of eighteen, yeah.I can do anything."
He sighed, his shoulders slumping."It’s just… I don't know.I'm used to you fighting."
