They moaned in tandem, and she nodded and pressed her teeth into her lip. She was on edge, dangling over the valley of pleasure he offered her.
"I can feel how close you are." He leaned over and pressed his chest to her back. "Hold the sheets and tell me if I hurt you."
She whimpered at the promise of carnality. It's who they were together. If nothing else existed, for tonight, this was enough.
"Take what you want. Brand me," she whispered and arched her back as he gripped one of her breasts and put some of his weight on her back, fucking her hard and fast until they both dove into wicked-hot depravity. It was a place she didn't want to resurface from.
Besides, too much waited for them at the surface.
Chapter 41
Damon
He had trouble falling asleep with her beside him for fear if he did, that he would wake up to find her gone again. She slept curled up against him, her breasts heavy and tucked against his side, her lithe arm across his chest, fingers gripping his side as if she were scared too.
"What are we doing, baby?" He kissed the side of her head.
She mumbled something and snuggled in closer as the morning light shone through the window behind him. The smell of their sex stained the air and left him wanting more of her. It wasn't just about the intense pleasure, but about being one, being locked against her and working to bring her to acknowledge that something special existed between the two of them.
Fucking Bridget and every other girl in his past had been about finding release and saying thanks for the ride. It was so different with her.
He brushed her hair back again and let his fingertips trace her eyebrow as he studied her petite features. She could have anything she wanted from him if she would only grow up a little, follow his rules and ask.
Fucking just ask for it. Anything.
She mumbled again and turned over, reaching for the covers. He leaned down and pulled them up before turning on his side and pulling her to rest in front of him. They would be leaving for Florida later that day, but he had another hour or so that he could stay in bed with her. He contemplated getting up and making her breakfast, but the soft press of her ass against his stomach left him not wanting to go anywhere.
He wrapped his arm around her and kissed the back of her neck a few times.
She took his hand in hers and pressed it to her breasts, beckoning him to massage her.
"You awake, baby?" He brushed his nose down the back of her neck and shifted his hips, pressing the head of his dick against her opening, dipping into her a little.
"Sort of." She moved her upper body a little away from his and lifted her top leg, moving it back to rest on his. She wanted him.
He moved to his elbow and gripped her top leg just behind her knee before thrusting firmly and filling her up again.
They moaned together as she gripped his wrist and rolled her hips forward, taking ownership of their sex. He worked her for a few minutes, not quite getting the angle he wanted, but unwilling to roll over and pin her to the bed in an awkward position made for the heat of fucking and not sweet lovemaking in the morning.
It was a good sign she was reaching for him at all.
"I love you." He leaned down and kissed her cheek as he shifted a little and pressed farther into her.
She undulated her hips and worked him without a response. He tried hard not to let it bother him. She loved him too; she had to. Things didn't change that fast. Or did they?
"Lay back," she grumbled and rolled over, pulling her body off of his.
"Horny this morning?" He chuckled and reached for her as she crawled on top of him and turned to face his feet. Desire pumped through him as she took his cock into her hands and worked herself down onto it. The position was deliciously wicked, the tightness of her body only accentuated by the angle. She reached behind her and pressed her hands into his chest as her chin lifted to the ceiling, and long silky strands of hair danced over his stomach.
He reached up to grip a good handful of it and lifted his hips, wanting to give her as much cock as she could handle. That she was in the mood to fuck was a shock. They'd gone at each other half the night. Something inside of him shifted, and he wanted to force her to stop so that he could turn her over and make love to her nice and slow, but she seemed to want something else entirely.
"So good," she mumbled and pulled against the hold on her hair as her moans filled up the room. She rode him like a champ, showing a much more aggressive, wild side of herself than he'd seen before. Where it was a part of her persona he wanted to explore, something told him that a shift had occurred. She wasn't making love to the man she wanted beside her for life. She was fucking a stiff dick. Nothing else.
He gripped her hair tighter as the thought brought anger racing through him.
"Give me more." She swatted at his balls as he grunted. The sensation sent a tendril of pain shooting through him.
"You bet." He flipped them and pressed her to the bed on her stomach before moving to his knees and fucking her deep and hard. "Like this? This what you were after?"
Her laughter caused his libido to die. She moved to her elbows, looking like a goddess in his bed. "Sex. It’s all about the sex with you. Life is just one big huge fuck, isn’t it?"
He rolled off the bed and walked toward the shower. What the fuck was that? He'd reacted to whatever she was doing. He glanced back to see her flop back and laugh loudly again.
"He wants me... he wants me not."
Despair filled him as he closed the door and started the shower. Who was she? Where along the short journey had he lost her? He wasn't sure of the when, but it had happened nevertheless.
She had asked for one more night, and they'd shared in six hours of making love to each other in ways that would forever stain him, but in the early light of morning, everything changed. She had changed.
He wasn't surprised to see her gone and a note left on the counter for him when he walked back out.
There was no reason to open it. He already knew what it would say.
Her engagement ring sitting next to it spoke volumes.
They were done. Over.
Love wasn't enough.
It was naive to think it would be.
His Forever, Book 3
Billionaire Alpha Series
One too many cracks in a shallow foundation will cause it to crumble.
An unfortunate side effect of 'taking a break' is the relief that Bethany didn't expect to feel. With her master's program having started, her teaching assistant job going well and her workload at M&B, she's grateful to take one thing off her plate, but that relief doesn't last too long.
A new woman has joined the firm, one of Damon's old flames. She's sugary sweet on the outside, but just below the surface lies a home wrecker. One with her eye on a certain alpha billionaire. Luckily enough, Damon realizes the heartache before it happens and saves the day.
Through trial and tribulation, love will finally win. Damon and Bethany let down their guards and learn to finally trust each other. There’s only one thing left to do… get married.
Chapter 1
Bethany
"Turn to page eleven, and you'll see our final report on the inventory system implementation for Zarpeth. As a member of the team, each of you needs to read through the document and sign off on the documentation. It's simply a summation of your work and our recommendations to Mr. Talling." Damon glanced around the room.
He stood at the front of the conference room, Delilah beside him, looking like the angel she wasn't. The woman was stunning and stood far too close to Damon's side for Bethany's liking, but there was nothing she could do about it. Damon should have shifted over or made it more obvious that he was uncomfortable with her closeness, but he didn't.
He continued to plow through the meeting agenda and barked his commands at any and everyone around the table. Something had to be going on between the two of them. Sex? Maybe, but there was no way to know for sure.
Bile rose up in Bet
hany's throat at the idea of him sleeping with anyone but her. The memory of making love a few weeks back ripped through her mind's eye, weakening her. She'd been a total bitch that night to prove a point, and it had worked. He hadn't said more than two words to her over the last few weeks. What did she expect? She'd hit him where it hurt the most... in the bedroom.
Bethany glanced down at the packet and flipped to page eleven, working hard to scan the page and getting nowhere. Her thoughts were scattered, her heart broken into a million pieces.
She ran her finger across the page, blinking a few times to try and refocus. She didn't belong there. Delilah had made that more than clear over the last three weeks. The new senior manager at McKenzie and Bryant didn't seem to give a shit that Bethany was Kent's daughter. No one on the team seemed willing to go up against the bitchy blond, and Bethany refused to take the situation to Damon. He already knew all of it from what she gathered.
"There were several reports that we received that were hard to decipher." Delilah brushed her long blond hair over her narrow shoulder and glanced around the room. "I didn't include those findings in the report for obvious reasons. If you want to see me after the meeting, Bethany, I can explain where you went wrong."
Bethany glanced up, her neck and throat warmed with embarrassment. "I'm sorry? What was wrong with the report?"
"You and Delilah can discuss that when we're done here." Damon turned his dark gaze on her, leaving her to feel even more disconnected.
She glanced down without another word and swallowed the hot ball of regret lodged in her throat. She'd asked her mother to marry Kent so that she could get some help paying for her master’s. Never in a million years had she expected the proposition to be loaded with the requirement to work at M&B as part of the deal.
You got what you bargained for. This is ultimately all your fault.
"Any other questions?" Damon asked the group that sat quietly.
Bethany glanced up at him, needing to see something in him that reminded her why she still loved him. She'd spent more time crying to Matt and Kendal than she wanted to recall. Both of them wanted her to fight for her relationship with Damon, but of course they did. They cared about the bastard almost as much as she did.
The conversation with Kendal the day before in the parking lot at UT rolled through her mind, choking her with indecision.
“Ask your question. Get it off your chest." Kendal took a step toward Bethany, his green eyes filled with so many emotions. She knew he had too much of his own shit going on to deal with hers, but couldn't help but dig for anything she could get on Damon.
"How is he?" She pursed her lips and glanced down at the ground as another wave of pain shook her shoulders. There would be no holding herself together with him still in her life. She had to make the decision to fight for him or turn around and walk.
"He's torn in half. He's devastated and has sunk down into being the bastard we both hoped he would never be again." Kendal reached out and pressed his fingers softly under her chin to force her to look up. "If you're angry, hurt, lonely, curious... if you care at all - go find him and tell him."
"I can't, Kendal." She closed her eyes, not wanting him to see how destroyed she was from losing him.
"Then lose him. It's your choice." He released her and walked around her to his car.
His words and actions were heartless, but he was simply goading her to do something before it was too late.
"All right. Get busy. No one is leaving before ten tonight." Delilah clapped her hands and walked toward Bethany. "If you'll hang behind, we can talk about your report."
Bethany glanced up into the other woman's eyes and forced a tight smile. "I'd love to, but I have class in an hour. Maybe another time?"
Delilah snorted and closed the door to the empty room. It would seem that Damon and everyone else high-tailed it out of the meeting as quickly as possible.
Bethany let out a soft sigh and stood up, turning around to face the bitch who'd been riding her tail for the last few weeks.
"I'm not sure if you and Kent have spoken, but I did pull him aside earlier this week just to let him know of the concerns I have with your performance."
"Oh yeah?" Bethany put her hand on her hip and cocked her head to the side as anger burned through the center of her chest. "And what exactly are your concerns?"
"Firstly, you show up when you want to." She lifted her fingers into the air, ticking off one thing after the other. "You leave when you want. You get the assignments you want. You're getting privileges that no one else is." She laughed obnoxiously loud. "Hell, you get better privileges than Damon, Kent's flesh and blood."
"And what did Mr. Bryant have to say about your concerns?" Bethany reached down and picked up her bag, trying hard to keep her cool. She was the youngest on the team and the low-man on the totem pole. She might have a nice office on the top floor, but she was still going to have to work her way up to earn the spot that went with the office space.
"Your report for the meeting today was short and didn't have nearly enough detail to include your findings in the group summary." Delilah crossed her arms over her chest. "So basically all the work you did is null and void seeing that you didn't document it properly. Bravo. Great job. I'm sure your father and your brother appreciate you spending their time and money to do a piss poor job that a guy off the street could do."
The need to realign her nose raced through Bethany, but she pushed it down. It would be seen as childish and cause more problems than it was worth.
"My documentation was in perfect alignment with what was asked of me. My senior, Patrick, actually pulled me aside to compliment the thoroughness of my work, so I think you might have lost a few documents in the mess you call your desk." She picked up her bag and walked toward the door. "But don't bother with looking for them. I'm putting in my notice today. I don't need this shit, and I most certainly don't need to work for someone that casually loses the top button of her shirt no matter which outfit she has on. It's inappropriate, and you look like a slut." Bethany shrugged as Delilah let out an angry sound. "I'll make sure I explain that to my father when we talk tonight about the reasons behind me feeling bullied at his firm. Have a great day, and here. You still need these."
Bethany tossed the bitch a small container of breath mints and walked out into the hallway. After a quick stop by her office to gather her personal things, she walked to the elevator with her head held high.
She and Damon weren't getting back together because she wasn't willing to bend to his rules nor his demands. She'd made a huge mistake in so many ways over the last few months, but it all started with a selfish request.
"I should have never asked my mother to trade in her freedom for mine." She pressed the button for the first floor and moved to the back of the elevator as a torrent of emotion pumped through her.
She got what she deserved, and her lesson was learned.
Now it was simply time to unwind all that which she'd laid in place.
"Time to make things right." She walked out of the elevator and didn't glance back once. The past was the past, and Damon belonged right there with every other mistake she'd made. She pulled out her phone and called Philip. He was the only friend she had in her life that didn't have a direct connection with Damon. Calling on Kendal or Matt would have been asinine.
"Hey. Where are you? There's a buzz up here that you quit." Philip sounded a little out of breath.
"I did. Are you busy in a little while? I need a drinking buddy."
"You asking me on a date?" He snorted. "I thought you were sold out for the big guy."
"If you're busy, then never mind." She closed her eyes and regretted calling. It wasn't a date at all. It was a desperate cry for a friend. Hers were either tied to Damon, in jail or trying to learn to walk again.
"No. No. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have teased you. I'll pick you up at eight. Just give me the address."
"All right. See you then." She hung up and texted him the address
. Nothing would happen between them because he wasn't Damon.
No one was.
***
"Bethany? That you?" Martha's voice was comforting in ways that didn't make sense, but Bethany was willing to take anything she could get.
"Yeah," she called out to the Bryants’ cook and maid. "I just came by to talk with Kent for a little while."
"He's out back, working on his golf swing. Take the stairs beside the pool down to the grass, and you'll see him." The older woman laughed as she stuck her head out of the kitchen. "Or just follow the sound of cursing. His swing is off today, and he's not too happy about it."
"Thanks." Bethany glanced over toward Martha and paused as she stepped out of the kitchen.
"What's the matter? You look like someone died." She ran her hands over Bethany's shoulders, squeezing softly. "You okay?"
"No." Bethany glanced down. "I quit today."
"Quit what?" The look of shock on Martha's face didn't help the sickness playing around in the pit of Bethany's stomach.
"The firm. I can't do it anymore." She shrugged. "Let me go talk to Kent, and we'll catch up when I'm done."
"All right, child. I'm here for you." She pulled Bethany into a warm hug. "Just don't make decisions in haste. There is nothing good that can come of that."
"I know." Bethany squeezed the older woman once more and pulled from her arms. "Thanks."
"Anytime. I'm making lasagna for dinner tonight if you want to stay," she called after Bethany.
"We'll see." Beth walked out onto the patio and paused, closing her eyes and letting the coolness of the fall weather roll over her exposed arms. She was still dressed in her business casual attire, but it felt more appropriate seeing the conversation that was soon to take place.
"Dammit to hell!" Kent's voice rose up from the side of the house, and Bethany let out a slow exhale. He wasn't just her boss. He was her new father, and he'd made a lot of promises to her as his new daughter. He'd kept every one of them, and where she needed to have a conversation with her dad that night, she needed the first one to be with her boss. Hopefully he would understand.
Mister Big Stuff: A Single Mom Friends to Lovers Novel Page 73