She offered what had to be hard for her, given the facts, a genuine smile. And it was a testament to their friendship. “I want you to be happy, Brooks. That’s the most important thing.”
Gratitude. Relief. Both flooded Brooklyn’s senses in the most welcome way. She moved to Mallory and hugged her. “Thank you for trying. I know this isn’t ideal.”
“It’s not. I’m doing this for you,” she said in Brooklyn’s ear before releasing her. “Because you deserve something wonderful. And if you’ve found that in Jessica, who am I to make it difficult?”
“I want you to get to know her. Some of what you had to say was true. She admits that. She hasn’t lived a squeaky-clean existence, but there’s so much more there, and I believe wholeheartedly that she’s a good person.”
Mallory sighed. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but set it up.”
Brooklyn couldn’t have held back the smile if her life had depended on it.
“Wait.” Sam pouted. “So Mallory gets to hang out with the new love of your life, and the rest of us don’t get to witness it?”
“You already got to have dinner with her,” Hunter pointed out.
“Yeah, but not with Mallory.”
Brooklyn held up a hand. “You’re all invited. We can do drinks some night at Showplace. Maybe next week.”
Sam sat back with a thoughtful smile. “Mallory and Jessica forced to play nice in the sandbox. I can’t even wait.”
“Me neither,” Brooklyn said.
“This is all well and good, and I’m thrilled you’re happy, genuinely, but I should point out that I still very much want this account.” Mallory turned to Brooklyn. “Are we all still on the same page about that?”
Brooklyn sat a little taller, charged up. “More than you realize. Nothing’s changed on that front. Foster is ours.” She glanced at her friends as an impulse tugged at her. “I know MCs aren’t generally supposed to be work sessions, but I did have an idea I wanted to run by you guys for the commercial spot. With the not-talking and the tension, though, I was feeling fraught.”
“Fraught?” Sam stared at her.
“Yes, fraught. People say fraught. Stay with me.”
“With you,” Hunter said. “And not at all fraught.”
Brooklyn laughed but pressed on. “I have an adjustment I’d like to make to the storyline. If it’s crazy you can tell me. I can handle crazy and we can stick with what we have.”
“MCs don’t have rules, and stop all the prefacing. Let’s hear it,” Sam said, popping a malted-milk ball. “And can I just say that whoever invented Whoppers needs to marry me.”
“I’ll draft a Craig’s List ad,” Hunter said, sending Sam a smile, which earned her an elbow to the arm. “What’s your big Brooklyn idea this time?”
Here goes nothing. “Okay. Everything happens just as we’ve mapped out, but there’s no groom.”
“No groom.” Sam repeated the words slowly, trying to understand the meaning.
Hunter was clearly intrigued. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying? Because that’s kind of awesome.”
“A gay wedding,” Mallory whispered, her eyes moving back and forth as if searching through the idea for drawbacks. “You know, that could be interesting.”
“Hear me out,” Brooklyn said, standing now because she was just too energized not to. “The world’s changing. We know this. We’ve all seen it firsthand. Gay and lesbian content is everywhere. Books, hit TV shows, mainstream films. Gay weddings following the Supreme Court ruling are everywhere. Totally trendy. Taking on an ad campaign like this one for their product, their new product, I might add, puts Foster on the cutting edge. They seem hip. They seem open and with it. What do we know about the Foster family and their political beliefs?”
“Big donations to the left,” Sam said. “Both at the state and national levels.”
“Well, there you go.”
“Yeah, but it’s still pretty bold,” Hunter pointed out. “We could crash and burn if they don’t want to go there.”
“Or,” Brooklyn said, “we look like forward-thinking geniuses who are going to lead them to the big, wide world of generation next.” She snapped her fingers. “And just like that, a whole new demographic of customers.”
No one said anything for a moment. Brooklyn gave them time to work it through. It was no small proposition, and if they were going to move forward, they needed to be all in. One hundred percent onboard.
And so she waited. If there was a time for the Jeopardy theme song, this was it.
“I think we do it,” Hunter said finally, raising her head.
Samantha looked over at her and nodded subtly. “It’s a little terrifying, but I think we need to go big on this one. So let’s go big. We need this account.”
Only one opinion remained. “Mal?” Brooklyn asked.
She stared pensively at the floor before a wide smile took shape on her face. She raised her gaze. “I’ve examined it from every direction, and I keep coming up with the same answer. It’s fucking brilliant. It’s exactly the edge we need.”
Brooklyn laughed in celebration. “Well, then I think we have a decision.”
“How about a toast?” Sam asked.
They gathered their glasses and held them in a circle. “To bold moves,” Brooklyn proposed.
Mallory met her eyes. “And good friends.”
The evening ended much better than it began, and Brooklyn relaxed into the ease of being around her friends, her family. In their comfy pajamas, enjoying wine and chocolate, they slipped easily back into their usual rhythm. They laughed, talked, reminisced, and Brooklyn told them all the details of meeting her family.
“I don’t think you should give up on them,” Hunter offered.
“It’s not that I want to. It’s that I don’t know quite where I’d fit in, you know? Their lives are already established, bound together. I’m like this extra little piece that doesn’t fit into the puzzle.”
Mallory shook her head. “I don’t think they look at it that way. I bet, to Cynthia, you’re the missing puzzle piece.”
That resonated. And she wondered if it could be true, the thought of her being missed. She wasn’t sure, but it was certainly something to think about down the line.
Not yet, though.
Not yet.
Chapter Seventeen
Jessica blinked a couple times purposefully to force herself to refocus on the words in front of her. She was in the homestretch of her day, which had started a good twelve hours prior. She was exhausted, her muscles at the back of her neck bunched, and she was having trouble getting her mind to just hang in there a little longer. But if she could just get through some of the performance evaluations HR had been asking for, she might be able to sneak away before the hour turned ungodly. She’d checked in on Ashton, who seemed to be having a fabulous time at her best friend’s place. It was Friday night, and though she’d sent Brooklyn a text, she’d yet to hear back about her plans for the evening.
It was likely she was with a client, she decided. She’d hoped they’d be able to connect later, decompress. If she could just push through a little longer.
“Hey, Bent,” she called through the open door out to his desk. “Do you have the file HR sent down for me to go through? I can’t find it.”
She heard him close the door as he came in, shuffling through papers.
“My desk is taking over. There’s too much stuff on it, and I can’t find anything I need. The order I so desperately crave in my life is missing. Damn it,” she said, still moving things around. “I hate it when I let myself get out of control like this. I need a serious break. When I’m done with the performance reviews I’m going to call it a night. But don’t let me forget that HR wants—”
The file landed on her desk with a thud, and before she could reach for it, two hands found her shoulders and began to press, massaging gently. At the contact, she paused and instantly melted in surrender as her screaming muscles were silen
ced in the most soothing relief.
“Oh, God, that feels amazing,” Jessica said, her eyes closed in concession as the tension of the day ran off her.
“It must. You’re incredibly tense.” At the sound of Brooklyn’s voice, she opened her eyes and turned, smiling up at the most beautiful woman on the planet.
“Hey, you. How’d you—”
“I talked Bentley into letting me in.” She continued to massage. “It’s kind of a big deal, me being here, infiltrating enemy lines and all. It’s very James Bond. You should call me that. Ms. Bond.”
She tugged Brooklyn’s arm, effectively pulling her into her lap. “Ms. Bond, the enemy happens to like you,” she said, nuzzling her neck and inhaling the wonderful scent of peaches and vanilla that seemed to come with Brooklyn. “A lot.”
“So I’m discovering. Not a hostile greeting at all.” Brooklyn cradled Jessica’s face in her hands and stared down at her. “So, hi,” she whispered.
“Hey,” she whispered back.
Brooklyn claimed her lips in a kiss that made the long day more than worth it, as it had led her to this moment.
When they came up for air, Brooklyn looked around in interest, taking in the room. “You’re kind of sexy up here in your office. In charge of people. Making things happen.” She strolled to the picture window. It was dark out, and the lights of the city twinkled brightly well into the distance. “I should have known you’d have this kind of view.”
Jessica stared after her, already feeling infinitely lighter just to have Brooklyn in the room. “So what do you think of the place?” Was it unattractive that a small part of her wanted to impress Brooklyn with the company she’d worked so hard to build?
Brooklyn turned back around and nodded in approval. “I’d say you’re doing very well for yourself. And that Bentley guy is charming. I have to give credit where credit is due. I think he might have been hitting on me, though.”
She nodded apologetically. “He can’t help it. He hits on all beautiful women. Something we’re working on.”
“It was good for my ego. I think Tina, on the other hand, is wondering what the hell I’m doing here. But while she glared at me, your receptionist had gone home for the day, so she was nice enough to take my jacket and attaché when I arrived.”
“See? She’s not all bad.”
“I’m not conceding that entirely, but your endorsement matters. What are we doing tonight? Where’s Ashton? We could all see a movie.”
“She’s staying at her friend Leslie’s. Way cooler than me on a Friday night. She’ll be back in the morning.”
“Any word from her mom?”
“She called last night and they chatted. I think it’s still a little strained between them, but Ashton seemed to think she was doing all right at the treatment center.”
“So you’re saying your place is empty.”
“It is,” Jessica said, liking where this was going.
“Do you want to hear what I’m thinking?”
“Desperately.”
“You treat me to a fancy dinner and tell me all about your last couple of days and then listen as I tell you about mine. And there’s a lot to tell, by the way. I should also mention that through most of dinner we flirt, because we’re really good at that. My eyes spend a lot of time staring at the skin peeking out from beneath that top button of your shirt, and your eyes dip down to my bottom lip, the way they’re doing right about now.”
God, Brooklyn could push her buttons, and she meant that in a really good way. “And then what happens?”
“You take me back to your place and have your way with me. Or vice versa. I’m still deciding.”
Jessica moved to Brooklyn and placed her hands on her waist and made slow circles with her thumbs. “Can I just say that I love that you showed up here? You have no idea what a sight for sore eyes you are after a boring, long work day.” Jessica inclined her head to kiss her, but Brooklyn’s eyes gleamed and she sidestepped the effort, crossing back to the desk. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Ms. Lennox. We have dinner to flirt through first.”
“Of course, the flirtatious dinner.”
“Do you have work you need to finish?”
Jessica glanced at her desk and back to Brooklyn. “I do, but it can wait.”
“And so can I.” In all honesty, Brooklyn really liked observing Jessica in her natural environment. She was getting a bit of a thrill out of it and was quite pleased with her little impromptu visit. “How about I sit on this comfortable couch over here and you finish whatever needs your expert attention.”
Jessica eyed her as she sat happily on the couch. “If you’re sure you don’t mind.”
“Do I look unhappy?”
Jessica stared at her. “You look hot.”
Brooklyn laughed. “You’re supposed to be working, Ms. Lennox, remember?”
“Right. Right. Working.”
The room fell into silence, and Jessica refocused on whatever task came with the file she’d delivered. But it wasn’t long before it was clear to Brooklyn that her plan had backfired. Because sitting in a silent office, with very little to do but stare at Jessica in her skirt, jacket, and heels as she concentrated, was turning out to be torturous. If one thing turned her on like nothing else, it was Jessica in contemplative mode, in the course of business. Okay, Casual Jessica in jeans and a T-shirt also turned her on in a whole separate way. And then, of course, Morning Jessica was crazy hot. Brooklyn paused, recognizing a theme.
But it didn’t matter.
What did matter was the way her temperature was slowly inching up the dial as each second ticked by. As Jessica bit her bottom lip, Brooklyn imagined what her hands would feel like on her body. As Jessica tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, Brooklyn imagined Jessica slowly undressing her, one torturous button at a time. In response to the succession of images flashing across her mind, she shifted uncomfortably on the couch, drawing Jessica’s attention.
“You hanging in there? I’m almost done. I promise.”
Brooklyn nodded. “I’m good.” A lie.
Jessica went back to work and Brooklyn continued to watch. Her mind was her worst enemy, and, try as she might, she couldn’t seem to get the racy thoughts out of her head. She blew out a frustrated sigh, and this time when Jessica’s eyes settled on her, she didn’t disguise her emotions.
Jessica sat back in her chair and studied her. “I know that look.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I do. I pay close attention. I’d tell you to come over here, but you seem to have strict rules. Something about dinner first.”
Brooklyn tilted her head back and forth, considering her options. “Dinner’s overrated. At least I’ve heard that.”
A smile took shape on Jessica’s face. “Who needs to eat? Come over here.”
It wasn’t like she could say no if she wanted to. She covered the short distance, stopping next to Jessica and leaning back against the desk. “You’re really attractive when you work, Jess.”
Jessica laughed quietly. “Yeah?” She eased Brooklyn back until she was seated on the desk and moved to where she stood in front of her. “I like figuring out how your mind works, what turns you on.”
“I have a proverbial list. It’s not overly expansive, but your name appears several times.”
“Yeah?”
“You have no idea.”
Jessica ran her hands from Brooklyn’s knees to her thighs, stopping just at the hemline of her skirt. Brooklyn sucked in a breath, and as Jessica’s blue eyes deepened a shade, she understood her intentions. That determined look only served to spike the need she already felt. “Does that door lock?” she asked Jessica in a shaky voice.
“It locks upon closing after five p.m.”
“You think of everything.”
“Mhmm.” Jessica inclined her head and kissed just under Brooklyn’s jaw. She’d worn her hair down today, and it tickled Brooklyn’s neck in the most sensual way. She closed her eyes as her bod
y responded in spades to the attention Jessica now paid it. And God, it was good attention, attention she was fantasizing about just moments before. Award-winning attention, if there were such a thing. There should be.
Jessica’s hands inched up Brooklyn’s thighs just enough to raise her skirt for access, and she slipped one hand in between. She pulled her face back enough to meet Brooklyn’s eyes as she applied direct pressure to her center. They still had a thin layer of fabric between them, but the contact was enough to pull an audible gasp from Brooklyn, who craved more. “Jess,” she managed to say as the onslaught of sensation tumbled down. Jessica continued, moving her hand in a slow, circular pattern, applying pressure and then easing back. Brooklyn closed her eyes, feeling her own lips part in rapture.
“Look at me, Brook.”
And she did.
She found Jessica’s eyes and held on, and that connection only heightened the allure, elevated the heat. She pushed back against Jessica’s hand as the tension built slowly within her, continuing its climb. Jessica increased the pressure with which she touched her, and Brooklyn held on, her breathing a little erratic, outside of her control. It didn’t take much before the orgasm ripped through her fast and hard. She had the wherewithal to stay quiet in light of their surroundings, but just barely, as she rode out the powerful waves of pleasure that barraged her every inch. She braced her arms on Jessica’s shoulders and marveled at her, blinking several times as she floated back to earth. “Whoa,” she said, steadying herself. “We just did that in your office.”
“I don’t think there was any way not to. Not with you looking at me like that.”
“No, I don’t either.” She ran her thumb across Jessica’s bottom lip and kissed her, doing her best to communicate all the feelings that were swirling inside of her. The fact that Jessica had just given her such pleasure without even needing to undress her was a testament to just how attracted she was to this woman. She’d enjoyed sex before, but she’d always had to work for the payoff, concentrate intricately on the process. But with Jessica, she could let go of everything and just feel, experience, revel in each touch.
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