Counting On You (Counting the Billions, #2)

by Lexy Timms

Abruptly, I realized that I never should have come here. And I definitely shouldn’t have come into his house looking for him. The only time I’d been there before, we’d gone right up to his bedroom. And now, I couldn’t help wishing we could do the same. We were alone there; it wasn’t like there was anyone to see. No one would ever know. Except for us. And that was exactly the problem.

  I swallowed hard, knowing that I should back up, that I should get out of there. Or I should say something, do anything, not just stand there and stare at him. This wasn’t helping either of us.

  I felt a tug of lust in my gut and my panties moistening as I continued to consider his toned physique. If I hadn’t realized it before, I definitely realized it now. Oh fuck, was I in trouble...

  Chapter 11

  Daniel

  WITH MY ABILITY TO work eluding me that day, I had finally decided to go to work in my home gym, sweat out some of that alcohol from the night before, and maybe force my body to quit thinking about Abby. It took a little bit to get myself to focus, but once I got in the groove of moving, I managed to focus just on my breathing and each successive rep.

  I knew my arms in particular were going to burn by the time I was done, let alone by the time I woke up the next morning. Was I overdoing it? Maybe just a bit. But at the same time, I had a hard time caring right now. This was just what I needed, I told myself. Just what I needed.

  So it scared the shit out of me when I turned around and suddenly saw Abby hesitating there in the doorway. If I’d had any equipment in my hands at the time, I probably would have dropped it. But as it was, I just gaped at her for a moment, wondering if I could possibly have overworked it to the point that I was hallucinating or something. But no—no matter how long I stared over there, the sight before my eyes didn’t change. She was still standing there staring at me.

  There was an unmistakable hunger in her eyes, which darted down my chest and then guiltily back up to meet my own gaze. It made something in me want to show off, to give her a cocky grin and maybe say something flirtatious. But I couldn’t think of a single thing to say, and I knew that in the long run, it was only going to make things more difficult for both of us.

  She was probably here to ream me out for ditching her at work today. But that still didn’t explain why she was here, in my house. Not that I would have heard the doorbell ring with my noise-canceling headphones in my ears.

  Oh. I reached up to tug the headphones off so that I could hear her. But she still wasn’t saying anything.

  I frowned at her. “Can I help you?” I finally managed to ask.

  Abby blushed bright red and ducked her head, staring down at her shoes. “Sorry, I know I shouldn’t be here,” she said. But that was all she said.

  I raised an eyebrow at her. “So then what are you doing here?” I finally pressed.

  “I just came to check you out. I mean, to check on you,” she stammered, blushing even more brightly.

  I couldn’t help but chuckle at how flustered she was. Again, I wanted to tease her. It wasn’t like this was anything she hadn’t seen before. In fact, she had seen more than this before. But I could tell she was embarrassed enough at having been caught staring, and I found that I didn’t want to embarrass her to the point that she ran out of there, even though that probably would have been for the best.

  But if she was there, in my house, then I had to assume that maybe, just maybe, things weren’t as black and white as she’d made them out to be. Maybe she and I could never go back to being 100 percent professional.

  I found myself hoping that that was the case.

  “So, are you okay?” Abby pressed on, talking through her embarrassment. But then, she shook her head. “Of course you’re not okay. You’ve never shown up late for work before, and you left work without saying goodbye. Fuck, sorry. I don’t know what to say.”

  She ran a hand back through her blonde hair, only emphasizing the fact that it was loose today, hanging freely down her back. I couldn’t stop staring at her for a long moment. Then, I became aware of the fact that I wasn’t wearing a shirt.

  I felt a faint blush stain my own cheeks, and I grabbed my shirt. But Abby was talking again before I could put it on, her eyes looking earnestly into mine. And I found that I didn’t want to look away from her gaze, even for the two seconds that it would take for me to pull my shirt over my head.

  “I saw the article. The one about us. You know, about me breaking up with you.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “And I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

  I shrugged one shoulder. “You didn’t write it, did you?” I asked her. “You weren’t the one who went to the press with the story. I’m the one who should be sorry. I know that this isn’t what you signed up for. That if you had your way, you’d never end up in the tabloids like that.”

  I shook my head. “Yeah, but still. I’m sorry.” She paused, again staring down at the ground. But by now, my bare chest and the shirt in my hands were the furthest things from my mind. “I can’t imagine how hard it must be for you to endure having the whole city thinking that you’re something that you’re not.”

  I stared at her for a bit, trying to figure out some way to respond. Trying to figure out if there really was any way to respond. Finally, I just sighed. “It’s part of the job,” I told her.

  “I don’t think it needs to be,” Abby said, cocking her head to the side.

  “I hate to say it, but you have no idea.” The words slipped out before I could think about how mean they might sound to her. I winced. “Sorry, I don’t mean that. It’s just that—”

  “No, you’re right,” Abby interrupted, but she didn’t seem upset by what I had said. “You’re absolutely right, I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I guess it’s just wishful thinking, but I just feel like if more people got to know the real you, or if you just, I don’t know, maybe gave someone an exclusive interview where you answered all their questions once and for all, then maybe everyone would get bored with you. Or something. And you could live your life in peace.”

  I shook my head. “Wouldn’t work,” I assured her. “Once they knew all those secrets, they’d want to know everything else. More and more and more. And eventually, they’d have wrung enough out of me that I just couldn’t even live anymore.” I barely even knew what I was saying anymore, but the words sure rang true.

  “Is it really living, like this?” Abby challenged.

  I frowned, staring at her. “Well, I like to think that it is,” I told her.

  Abby grinned at me. But then she frowned, her expression sobering. “I don’t want to pressure you, but I came over to talk to you about work,” she said.

  I grimaced. “I’m sorry I left you alone this afternoon. Did you end up going through with all the meetings?”

  Abby shook her head. “I talked to Erin about it, and she was pretty sure that it would be better for us to just reschedule all of them for later in the week. I told her that she was probably right.” I could tell that there was an “except” to that statement, though.

  Sure enough, Abby looked up at me, tilting her head to the side with a question in her eyes. “But I don’t know...are you going to be back to work later this week, even?” Then, she clapped a hand over her mouth. “That’s not what I meant. Or not really. I know you’re doing your best to keep working and everything.”

  “Relax,” I said, shaking my head at how worked up she was. It was hard to believe that this was all my fault. But I could remember the focused, confident person that she had always been around the office. This wasn’t her.

  Abby took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “What I meant,” she said, “was that I just wanted to make sure you weren’t planning on avoiding the office for as long as I’m there. Because if you are, then maybe I should resign. Let you fill the position with someone that you have less history with.” She cracked a small smile. “A dude next time, maybe. Although then I bet Gerrard would be even more jealous.”

  I snorted. But then, I slowl
y shook my head, taking a step closer to her. And then another one, when she didn’t immediately run away. I made it all the way to stand in front of her, reaching out for her hands. “I don’t want anyone else to be my advisor. I definitely don’t want to have to weed through another round of applicants, I’m sorry to say.” I paused, taking a deep breath of my own. “But I like the work you do. And whatever is going on between us, I don’t want that to affect your job.”

  Abby nodded at me. “I just don’t want you to feel like I’m driving you out of your own company or anything by being there. You’re still the most important guy.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, I am,” I told her, and I grinned as she giggled. I shook the hands that I still held with both of mine. “Abby, you’re a great advisor. And if you’re not comfortable working with McGregor Enterprises any longer, especially in light of the recent attention you’ve gotten, then you need to tell me that. But as long as you’re still willing to work for me, I want you working there.”

  “I don’t want to handle meetings on my own,” Abby breathed. She gave me an apologetic look. “I know you’re under a lot of stress, and I know that everyone deserves a sick day every so often. But at the same time, I want you to be the one making decisions about whether we need to reschedule meetings. I don’t want you to just leave it up to me. I may be your advisor, but at the end of the day, you’re still the boss.”

  “That’s fair,” I said, nodding gravely at her and knowing she was correct. “I’m sorry that I left you in that position today.”

  We both stared at each other for a long moment. My shirt lay discarded somewhere on the other side of the room where I’d dropped it as I’d walked toward her, and the attraction between us burned hotter than it ever had before. I didn’t know if I could pull my hands away from her, even. It felt like our fingers were glued together.

  Fortunately, Abby didn’t yank away from me. Instead, she leaned closer to me, leaning up on her toes, using our linked fingers for leverage as she kissed me.

  The kiss was long and heated, both of us caving helplessly against the passion we’d been feeling for so long now. I tugged wordlessly on her hands, drawing her even closer to me. I couldn’t get enough of the taste of her, of the feeling of her soft, warm lips against mine.

  I remembered the last time I’d had her in my home with me. It had felt, then, like everything was going right between the two of us. We had come together so perfectly and collapsed into sleep together, and in the morning, I had made breakfast for her. It had felt so domestic in a way I had never realized I craved. I hadn’t wanted it to end.

  But it had, and now, well. This probably was a terrible idea.

  I couldn’t find it in me to pull away, though. And I definitely wasn’t going to ask Abby to leave. Maybe that was the only mature thing to do, but right now, it sounded like a horrible plan. So as she moaned into the kiss, I finally tugged my hands away from hers, but only so that I could wrap my arms around her waist and tug her body flush against mine.

  Chapter 12

  Abby

  I KNEW I SHOULDN’T be making out with Daniel like this. I tried to remind myself that I had just come by to check on him after he had looked so miserable at work today. I tried to remind myself that I was the reason, in fact, that he had looked so miserable.

  But I couldn’t help thinking about how miserable I had been too. About the fact that I didn’t want to let him go any more than he wanted to let me go. It wasn’t just that I wanted to keep this job as his advisor. No, I didn’t want to lose him from my life in any way.

  I couldn’t help the attraction I felt for him. He was smart, gorgeous, confident. Everything that I could ever want in a guy. And although there was something in me that kept clamoring about how wrong this was, about how I had been burned before and how surely this was just another of those times, there was something else, a louder part of me, that swore that Daniel would never hurt me, that I couldn’t give up on him, that this was right.

  I was confused, and to be perfectly honest, I no longer knew just what to believe. But at the end of the day, I realized that I trusted him. Heart, body, and soul.

  Now, his lips still pressed against mine, his tongue still stroking against my own, he walked me backward until the backs of my knees met resistance. I sat abruptly and lay back on the exercise bench as Daniel covered my body with his. The bench was narrow, of course. There wasn’t really space for us to lie down on top of it.

  But I wasn’t really focusing on whether or not there was enough space for us right now. Instead, I was more focused on the feeling of his knee nudging mine apart, on the way that he held my body close to his. He lowered his mouth from my lips down to my neck, nuzzling along the soft skin there and then dropping lower, nipping at the sensitive skin of my collarbone.

  His fingertips found their way up under my shirt, making me tremble as his touch brushed across my naked skin. I moved into his touch, back arching against the workout bench. Slowly, I reached down, grabbing the hem of my own shirt and pulling it up over my head, dropping it off onto the floor. I could see the change that made in Daniel’s eyes, could see the way they darkened with need.

  He undid the front clasp of my black, lacy bra, and it fell away from my shoulders as well. “Have I ever mentioned how badly I want you?” he growled, laying kisses to my newly revealed skin, his mouth dipping lower and lower toward the hem of my skirt.

  It didn’t take much longer until he was sliding into me. He didn’t even remove my skirt or panties first, instead just pushing them to the side so that he could thrust inside of me. He was still wearing his gym shorts, with them pushed down around his powerful thighs as he crouched on the end of the workout bench and rocked into me.

  He reached up to cup my cheek, staring down into my eyes as he slowed his movements, gentling them. I trembled, surprised at the depth of feeling I had for him. Already. After just a few weeks of working for him.

  But this was far beyond the work relationship that the two of us had. This was far beyond anything I would have expected from him, really. And as much as my brain screamed at me that I shouldn’t be doing this right now, as much as I tried to remember all my arguments against this...I was helpless in the face of my desire.

  I practically sobbed as he pulled nearly all the way out of me, until he was just teasing me, the very tip of his member left inside of my hole. I wriggled against him, trying to get him back into me, trying to get him to slam into me in the way I needed. For his part, he stared down at me as though I was the most fascinating thing in the world, his pupils blown wide with passion.

  “Please,” I whimpered, and it was as though that had broken some sort of spell between us. He smiled softly down at me and began to pick up the rhythm again, moving faster and faster until I was crying out on nearly every thrust. I couldn’t help it; he was nailing that perfect spot inside of me, bringing the heat in my core up to incredible levels, the likes of which I’d never felt before.

  I clung to him, feeling his strong muscles bunch and relax as he continued to move against me. I could taste the sweat on his skin, a reminder of how I had found him there in his workout room before. I couldn’t get enough of him, of his body, of his mind and personality. I wanted nothing else in my life.

  We came at the same time, both convalescing into something more, our bodies crying out for release. I shuddered apart into pieces as he groaned and fell slack against me. I pressed my forehead against his collarbone, unable to think, just so caught up in feeling his body against mine. My fingers continued to slide down his body, coursing over his slick skin.

  He kissed the side of my neck, and I sighed, feeling utterly relaxed.

  Everything I had been thinking before this, everything I had been worrying about, I was suddenly able to put it all out of my mind in a way that I hadn’t been able to in weeks now. Not that I wasn’t thinking about him. Oh no, I was definitely thinking about him. Smelling him, drinking in the feel of his body against mine.

&
nbsp; Daniel pulled away slightly, smiling down at me. He brushed a hand down my hair, leaning down for one more kiss, this one gentle and sweet. Then, he grimaced. “I really need a shower.”

  “Oh! Right.” I started to pull away from him, sure that that was my sign to go. I could already feel tears start to roll down my cheeks, but I tried not to let Daniel see them.

  Daniel looked stricken, though. “That’s not what I meant,” he immediately assured me. “I was actually going to ask if you wanted to join me?”

  I stared at him for a moment and then nodded wordlessly, letting him pull me to my feet and lead me down the hall to the bathroom.

  He carefully stripped me out of my remaining clothes as we waited for the water to heat up. With a soft smile on his face, he tugged me into the shower, his eyes still just as dark and heated as before. Slowly, as though afraid that I might startle, he reached out and grabbed a loofah, soaping it up and then reaching out to drag it across my body in soft strokes.

  I couldn’t help but watch him as he continued to trail soap suds across my body, leaving no part untouched, no part unexplored. There was nothing particularly sexual about it, but at the same time, it was so incredibly intimate, to the point where I felt like I might tremble into a thousand pieces. But his gentle touches with his hands, stroking down my skin in the wake of the loofah, just made me feel more and more calm and relaxed, until I felt half-asleep there beneath the spray.

  He washed me until I was cleaner than I’d ever been before in my life. I smiled down at him, watching as he glided his soapy hands across his own body. He pumped his cock a few times, and I watched as it twitched in interest for another moment, not fully hard but definitely thinking about it again.

  I grinned, and I watched as a blush spread across his features. He looked for a moment like he was going to say something more, and it made me suddenly aware again of all the conversations we needed to have. What were we doing? Was it possible for us to build something more, he and I? What about the media? What about his reputation? What about the business side of things?