by Ava Storm
I stared at him while he stood there until I couldn’t stand it anymore. I made my excuses to the rest of the table and slipped out of the ballroom.
Instead of walking across the lobby to my elevator bank, I went to the closer one. The one that would take me to his room. I still had the key he’d given me last night, and I used it to let myself in.
Then I opened a bottle of champagne and waited.
26
Ford
She was always fucking leaving, but this time, she wouldn’t get far. As soon as she’d gotten off the elevator, I’d had the hotel cancel her room for the night and transfer her things to my suite.
The last speech dragged on. When it was finally time for the four of us to go out, Kai made brief, closing remarks that still felt like they took an hour.
Griffin gave me a curious sideways look as I muttered, “Come on, hurry the fuck up,” under my breath.
After the applause died down and we were allowed to leave, I went straight to the lobby without going back by the table. I’d hear about it later from Kai, but that thought was a distant, buzzing fly. Thoughts of finding Paige were a roar drowning out anything else.
I gave the lobby and bar a cursory glance, but I knew where she was. I felt her as I got closer to my room. Her scent, her skin, her heat. It was inside me.
When I opened the door to my suite, I heard the music first. She’d turned on the sound system that piped music into every room. The lights were off. I let the door slam shut behind me and moved forward into the darkness, my eyes adjusting. She wasn’t in the sitting room, but a glass of champagne was on the bar. I grabbed it on my way past the kitchen into the bedroom.
It was darker in the bedroom, but I knew she was in there.
“Turn on the light,” I ordered from the doorway.
“Why?” Her voice came coyly from the darkness.
“Because you’re going to see who you’re with tonight. And you’re not going to forget.”
I was already pulling at my tie when she snapped on the lamp. My fingers froze at the knot when the warm light flooded the room and I saw her for the first time. She was under the covers, the comforter pulled up to her waist, and she was naked. Her hair spilled down around her shoulders and over her bare breasts. I could see her dress and her underwear on the floor.
“I got tired of waiting,” she whispered.
It was like someone pushed fast forward. I ripped my tie off and tore at the buttons as I came around to the side of the bed she was on. She rose up on her knees, helping me with the buttons. Her small hands pushed beneath the material of my shirt, rubbing the hard planes of my chest.
“Take off my pants,” I ordered, and her fingers crept down slowly, teasingly. She looked up at me while she worked at the belt buckle. I took a deep steadying breath and drank my champagne down while she worked at the zipper. I had to get control, or I was going to fuck this up by finishing it too soon.
But it was hard when her hand crept into my pants and wrapped around my dick. It was already hard, but now it was throbbing. I reached down and grabbed her breast, trying to be gentle.
“Don’t,” she whispered, seeing the strain on my face. “Don’t hold back.”
My control broke. I shoved her back on the bed and crawled over her. My pants were still on, but I had to touch her. I kissed her hard, pushing my tongue in her mouth. I filled my hands with her tits, squeezing and rubbing. I felt like a teenager with my first girl, trying to pace myself and not being able to.
She was shoving at the waistband of my pants, pushing up against me, panting. “Ford, please. Please hurry.”
I pulled back just long enough to shove off my clothes and then fell back on her like a ravenous wolf. I wanted to feast on her, consume her. Her breathy gasps in my ear fueled me. I pushed up on my knees over her. Her eyes were half closed, hazy. I braced myself on one hand and grabbed her chin.
“Look at me,” I rasped.
With effort she focused.
“Who are you with right now?”
“You,” she whispered, the word barely audible. “I’m with you, Ford.”
As she said my name, I drove hard into her. I wanted to be completely surrounded by her, consumed by her. I was balls deep and it wasn’t deep enough. I pounded into her, losing myself in the heat of her body, the sound of her calling my name over and over.
She wrapped her legs around me, pulling me impossibly deeper into her wet warmth. I could feel the flutters of her inner walls around my cock and knew that if I didn’t pull out, I would come too soon. Despite my brain screaming at me to keep going, to find my release, I pulled out, nearly losing myself in the whimper that came from Paige as I left her body.
“No, Ford. Please come back,” she moaned, grabbing for me.
“I’ll be back, don’t you worry,” I growled as I slowly kissed my way down her body. I stopped to lavish attention to her nipples which were already pebbled and hard. I took first one, and then the other into my mouth sucking and gently nipping with my teeth.
“Oh God,” Paige cried, fueling my fire.
I peppered kisses along the line from her breasts to her belly, sinking lower and lower until I felt the heat of her core on my face. I teased her clit ever so lightly with the tip of my tongue and she bucked wildly above me.
“Who are you with tonight Paige?” I asked her again. “Say my name. Tell me what you want.”
“I’m with you Ford,” she stammered as I continued to lick and suck at her most sensitive places. “I want you. Only you.”
With that, I slipped a finger inside her and drew her clit between my teeth. Immediately, she clamped down around my finger and an orgasm rocked through her that had her thrashing wildly above me and screaming my name.
Before she could regain her breath, I climbed back up her body and settled myself between her legs, plunging deeply into her and burying myself to the hilt. My mouth claimed hers again in a scorching kiss.
When she came a second time, it was like a wave breaking over both of us. She spasmed beneath me, and I was submerged in the tremors of her body, riding it out with her. Her lips were parted, her eyes glazed with lust. Her arms tightened around me and her breasts bounced as I began thrusting again. I wanted to drive her into the wave again and again, but I was only human. With one last hard thrust, I exploded inside of her, gasping her name.
The last night of the conference was traditionally the biggest party night for the Blip offices. Everyone knew that the only thing they had to do the next day was get themselves on a plane, and they could do that in just about any condition. Normally I stayed out until one or so and then left the party. This time, I saw the dawn. We exhausted ourselves on each other, but we couldn’t sleep.
When the sky began to lighten, Paige murmured, “I need to go back to my room. My stuff. I don’t want anyone seeing me sneaking back in my dress from last night.”
“Your suitcase is in the closet,” I said into her shoulder. “I had it moved during dinner.”
She shoved me away, outraged. “We’re not sharing a hotel room, Ford!”
I laughed. “This was the last night in Nashville, Paige. What do you think we just did?”
“It’s not the same!”
She tried to sit up, but I wrestled her back down. “I didn’t want you sneaking out again. That act has gotten old.”
“People are going to see us come down together,” she moaned. “I’m going to prove Priya right.”
“No one is going to see us doing anything. The Chicago staff is all out of here by checkout at noon. We won’t leave until two for our flight.” I played with the ends of her hair, curling it idly around my finger. “And who cares if people know?”
“Kai cares,” she pointed out. “It doesn’t look good.”
“Kai owns a fourth of this company, exactly as much as me, so his opinion doesn’t mean shit. And the rest of them don’t own any of it, so same sentiment.”
She rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t look
good for me. No one is going to think you slept with me to get a raise or a convertible.”
“A convertible?” I repeated, amused.
“But I look very questionable,” she went on, ignoring me. “I think I’m going to have to quit.” She chewed on her lip while she thought about that. “But I just signed a lease that I can’t afford without this job. You have to quit.”
I laughed. “It’s my company, Paige. I can’t quit.”
“Then maybe we have to quit having sex.”
“I’ll draft my resignation letter on the plane.”
She rolled her eyes again. “Be serious for a minute. How is this going to work?”
I shrugged and fell down on the pillow beside her. “I don’t know how it works.”
“Should we ask Griffin?”
“God, no.”
“No, that does sound like a terrible idea,” she agreed. She rolled onto her stomach, pushed up on her arms and looked down at me. Her full breasts were pressed up against her arms. I ran my hand up the side of her rib cage, feeling the long slender bones of her back, trying not to get turned on again. “That takes us back to square one. This has to stay a secret.”
“It will stay a secret,” I promised. “We can leave the room separately, meet in the lobby for lunch. I always debrief with my support team afterward. No one will suspect anything.
“I think,” she hesitated, “it should stay a secret from everyone.”
I tried to read her face. “You mean outside of the office, too? You don’t want Shelly or Amanda to know?”
She smiled, “They already know. I mean I don’t want Madelyn to get confused.”
Of course she didn’t. It made sense. I wasn’t exactly stepfather material, but it still stung. I pulled my hand from her back and put it behind my head. “Works for me,” I said, trying to keep the note of coolness out of my voice.
She heard it anyway and tilted her head. “Do you want to be in Madelyn’s life?” There was a strange undertone to the question I didn’t understand. She was searching my face, looking for something.
I stared back at her, wanting to show her what she was looking for. Wanting to hide. Paige was one thing. I’d tried to resist, but she’d been inevitable. A child was another thing. “No,” I said finally. “That might be confusing for her.”
She nodded, but I saw a flash of something in her eyes. Disappointment. Sadness. She buried her face into my arm to hide it, and my hand came up automatically to stroke her back again. Her arm looped over my chest. We laid like that for a long time, something heavy and unspoken lying between us.
Then her hand crept downward, and I stopped thinking about anything but her.
27
Paige
Ford drove me home from the airport. As soon as we got in the car, all the restraint we’d shown on the plane fell away. He pulled me across the gearshift for a long, thorough kiss.
“Next time, we leave the rest of them on the ground,” he said. “I can think of better uses for that plane than getting the Chicago team home.”
“Don’t tell Shelly,” I said breathlessly.
“Wasn’t planning on it.” He kissed me again, then pulled on his seatbelt.
I hated the drive back to my apartment. I couldn’t wait to see Madelyn again, but I felt the hollow ache of not being able to spend more time with Ford. We’d wasted so much time in Nashville. If only I’d made a different decision that first night, the thing with Will wouldn’t have even had a chance to happen. I stared out the window as the people on the sidewalk flashed by. As far as I could stretch my mind out, there wasn’t another free night to spend with Ford. Amanda and Shelly were the only people I trusted to keep my daughter overnight, and I wasn’t going to ask again so soon.
We pulled up to the curb outside my apartment building, but I didn’t get out. Ford turned me toward him and read my face as easily as Amanda or Shelly.
“We’ll find time,” he promised. “I’ll come over after she goes to bed, then I’ll pull your favorite trick and sneak out before dawn.”
I half smiled. “Sure we will.”
I knew we’d try, but how long would that last?
“Hey,” Ford’s grip on my shoulder tightened. “We will. I don’t know if anyone has told you, but I’m a fucking genius. I’ll figure this out.”
I feigned surprise. “You’re a genius? Prove it.”
His eyes heated. “Gladly.” He slid his hand up from my shoulder to cup my head, but I pulled away. If he kissed me again, it would be even harder to go. And I didn’t want it to be hard to go. I’d missed Madelyn so much, and now she was only six floors away. I didn’t have to work tomorrow, so we’d watch as much Paw Patrol as she could stand and order from whatever takeout brochure she waved at me. I’d take her to the zoo tomorrow and buy her another stuffed animal. I didn’t want to spend it missing Ford.
I felt his eyes on me all the way into my building. As I waited for the elevator, I could still see his car idling out front. There was no way he could see me, but he was still there. I waved before I went on the elevator, just in case. There were sharp pricks behind my eyeballs as I got off at my floor and hurried to close the last several yards separating me from Madelyn.
“Mamama!” She yelled when I opened the door. She was standing on the couch, pointing at the TV, but she bounded off it and made a beeline for my knees as I walked in.
I had so many emotions stuffed together in my throat that it didn’t surprise me at all when I burst into tears.
“Now you’ve done it,” Shelly said, coming out of the kitchen as I was wrapping my arms around my very confused toddler. Madelyn was trying to wriggle away. When that didn’t work, she burst into tears, too.
Shelly rolled her eyes at the both of us, but she was smiling. “Welcome home, pal,” she said, patting my heaving shoulder. “Don’t try to hug me.”
Madelyn finally got free, and I got myself under control while Shelly offered her a variety of snacks.
“So how was it?” She asked when Madelyn was sufficiently distracted by a bowl of Cheerios.
I fell back on the couch. “Exhausting.”
“Yeah? Some late nights?” Shelly waggled her eyebrows at me suggestively, then they shot up to her hairline when I didn’t meet her eyes. She dropped onto the couch beside me and angled until she was in my line of vision. “Really?”
I nodded.
“Does he um, did you tell him about...?” She inclined her head toward Madelyn.
“He thinks she’s Alex’s.”
“Because you told him she was Alex’s, or because he jumped to that conclusion?” Shelly asked shrewdly.
I rubbed my eyes. “I can’t remember. Either way though, this is complicated, isn’t it?”
“It’s the string theory of relationships,” Shelly agreed. “You know what could uncomplicate it though?”
“Don’t say the truth.”
“The truth.” Shelly punctured the air with her index finger. “As Amanda would say, it’s an absolute defense.”
“Yeah, against libel. Not against lying to someone about having their child.”
“I’ve also heard it sets you free.”
I snorted. “I’m sure it would.” If Ford found out I’d been lying to him all this time, he’d set me so free I’d never see him again. I knew him well enough now to know he would provide for Madelyn. I’d never have to worry about making rent again. But I wanted more than that. I wanted him. Not a monthly check. Not stiff small talk as I handed her off for alternate weekends. I either wanted all of him or none.
“Does the string theory mean you’ve tied yourself into a knot you can’t get out of?” I asked Shelly. That’s how I felt. A slipknot that was either going to choke out whatever was between us or was going to unravel completely.
“No, it’s a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are…” she broke off when she saw my face. Hers softened and she put her arm around me. “Yes, that’s exactly what
it is.”
When I went back to work on Tuesday, I knew I had to make a decision. Either I had to tell Ford the truth, or I had to end things between us. The longer it went on, the more he’d hate me if he found out the truth. It seemed so clear when I was walking into the building, Madelyn’s hand in mine.
It became downright fuzzy when I walked into the office and saw him leaning against Mrs. Winthrop’s desk, waiting for me.
“You’re early, Miss Stafford,” he said, a playful smirk on his face. “No one else is here yet.”
“That’s because I’m really dedicated to my job.” I brushed past him on my way to my desk, but the office had been rearranged. I looked around, disoriented. He hadn’t turned on the lights yet.
“You’re outside my office now,” he said, pointing.
“Discrete,” I murmured, my eyes still scanning the room.
“And Will has been relocated permanently,” he said astutely. “Kai took care of it.” He came up behind me and slipped his hands around my waist, pressing me back against him. I closed my eyes, unable to stop the smile from spreading across my face.
“Let’s have lunch today,” he said in my ear. “A long one. At my place.”
“We’re keeping this a secret, remember,” I said, reluctantly pulling away. “Relocated desks and long lunches are dead giveaways.”
We did it anyway, staggering what time we left and returned to the office. I was glad when I saw lunch meetings on his calendar for the rest of the week, because I knew that if he was free, I wouldn’t say no.
On Friday, when I brought him the morning report, he said, “What are you doing tonight?”
“Paw Patrol.”
“After Paw Patrol.”
I smiled a little. “Daniel Tiger.”
“Okay, let me rephrase.” He steepled his fingers. “When does Nickelodeon turn off for the night? I want to come over for some R-rated entertainment.”
