He placed his palm against my cheek and tilted my face so I could look into his eyes. “I would never do that to you. Ever. Did I kiss her? Yes. For pictures. That was all.”
“It hurt,” I said, swallowing back that damn lump of emotion. “It hurt a lot.”
His gaze fell over my features, appraising me for a long moment, and during those seconds I saw his expression thaw and his posture relax. He lowered his forehead to mine.
“I’m sorry, baby,” he whispered. “Seeing you with Brent at the office hurt too. So did seeing you with Gabriel fucking Lane in every news outlet available while you guys were off in Argentina visiting your mom. Did you think that would be easy for me?”
“I didn’t know what to think,” I whispered. He held my face with his hand.
“It was fucking brutal,” he said, lowering his hand and setting it over the elastic corset I’d made. He tucked a finger underneath it and snapped at it. “I’m not this,” he said. “I don’t stretch. I don’t mold. I don’t conform, and despite what people say about my career, I’m not a liar. So when I tell you I’m in love with you, Nicole, it’s because I’m in fucking love with you. And when I barge into your dad’s office to tell him I’m more in love with his daughter than I’ll ever be with my career, it’s a big fucking deal.”
My heart stopped as I processed his words, and I found that no amount of swallowing or blinking was going to keep my tears at bay. He cradled my face with both hands and wiped my tears away with his thumbs.
“You said that to my dad?” I whispered. He nodded, bringing his mouth down to mine and placing a chaste kiss on it. I leaned forward to try to get another, but he moved. “So they really might demote you because of me?”
“Not because of you, baby. It has nothing to do with you,” he said.
“But you just said—”
His lips curled into a small smile. “Okay, it has everything to do with you, but it’s not your fault. I made my choice. I’m surprised your dad didn’t tell you when you spoke to him.”
“Well,” I said, eyes wide, “he asked me if there was anything going on between us and I denied it, and then he said you argued and left and . . . yeah, I don’t know. He didn’t make it sound very good.” I paused, searching his face. “I am so sorry.”
“Not your fault.”
“I can talk to him.”
“I have a meeting on Monday. I’ll plead my case and see what they say. If they don’t want me as partner, then it wasn’t meant to be.”
“How can you say that?”
He didn’t answer me. Instead, he bent down and kissed my temple. Just once, but the gesture somehow gave me the answer I needed.
“Are you staying?” he asked. “For good?”
“What does for good mean?” I asked.
“It means for good. That you’re mine and no one else’s. No more fucking around.”
“Are you mine and no one else’s?”
He smiled, caressing my face with his thumb as he brought his lips down to mine. “Always yours. I was never anybody else’s.” That tone. It made me think of the time he’d begged me to scream that I was his. When he’d pounded into me with a ferocity I’d only experienced with him. Just thinking about it had my heart racing. He loved me. He was in fucking love with me.
“Hmm,” I said, moaning when I felt his mouth on my neck, his hand crawling up my leg and under my skirt. “You mean I finally caught the untamable Victor Reuben?”
He chuckled against my chest, his other hand pulling my panties hard and ripping them off. I gasped, startling a little, and when he started moving his fingers inside me and using his thumb on my clit, I threw my head back.
“The untamable Victor Reuben,” he said, nipping my cleavage. “Take your tits out and I’ll show you how tame I am.”
I pulled the top of my bustier down, and uttered an unintelligible “oh my God” when I felt his mouth on my left nipple as his fingers moved inside me. I was all nerve endings, all feelings, no holds barred as he played my body with his fingers, his tongue.
“I’m going to fall,” I said, feeling my toes curling with an impending orgasm. “I haven’t . . . oh my God . . . that’s so good . . . you’re so good . . . oh my God. Victor!”
“Say my name. That’s right,” he said, biting my other nipple.
“Fuck.”
“That’s right, baby.”
And then, on his kitchen stool, I orgasm, eyes closed, toes curled, head thrown back. He pulled me off the stool and turned me around, pushing my torso down, my breasts on the freezing cold granite as he spread my legs. I tried to brace myself, but it was no use. When he thrust inside me I took in a huge gasp of a breath. He yanked the bandana off and threw it on the counter.
“I should use it to tie your fucking hands.” His voice low and in my ear as he fucked me. Hard. “I should blindfold you.” He leaned back and pulled my skirt up, his hand coming down on my ass in a hard slap. “I shouldn’t even fuck you right now,” he said, pulling out of me completely.
“No. No. No,” I shouted, pushing myself back. “Please.”
He thrust in just as quickly and hard as he pulled out, and I yelped at the feel of his girth and the slap of his hand on my other ass cheek. “I should make you fucking beg for it. If I wasn’t so desperate for you, I would.”
“Oh my God,” I said, feeling another orgasm surfacing.
He grabbed a fistful of my hair and brought his other arm around my body to play with my clit. “You make me feel desperate for you, Nicole. I can’t stop thinking about you. I can’t bear the thought of you with another man.”
I gasped, my eyes rolling back. “You’re the only one.” I gasped again, the strumming of his fingers on my clit was increasing and I knew I’d lose it in a second. “Never anybody else. I swear.”
“Good,” he said, pushing my face down so I was flat on the surface as he increased his pace and started to fuck me wildly. I squeezed my eyes shut and screamed when the orgasm finally ricocheted through me, and gasped at the feel of him emptying himself inside me in three slow, long thrusts. “Fuck, baby.”
“Hmm,” I gasped. It was the only thing I could say.
He helped me upright after a couple seconds and pulled me to his chest, holding the back of my neck. “I missed you so much.”
I looked up at him. “I love you too.” His smile was slow forming, but huge.
“I know.”
I laughed, pushing his chest. “You know? This isn’t Star Wars.”
He shrugged. “No, but I know. I think you fell in love with me the last time I fucked you in my office, before you got married.”
“That makes absolutely no sense, but let’s say I did, what took you so long?” I asked. He bent his knees and lifted me into his arms, carrying me toward his room.
“I was a fucking idiot.”
HAVING NICOLE IN my bed, fast asleep, for two days in a row when I woke up was perfect. I got up and headed to the bathroom to brush my teeth before putting on a pair of board shorts and heading outside. I hadn’t stepped foot in the ocean since I brought her home on Friday night, and I needed to clear my mind before I headed to the office for my meeting. We’d talked, fucked, and argued the entire weekend, and I wouldn’t have traded it for any amount of promotions or money in the world. I ran out with my board and caught some waves, and on my way back in, I smiled when I saw her standing outside with a cup of coffee in her hand. Bonnie was running around my grass, probably taking various shits, but that was fine. I’d deal with the dog later. At least she was potty-trained. I unzipped my wet suit and grinned when I caught Nicole licking her lips, her eyes dropping to my exposed chest. I couldn’t stop fucking smiling.
I took it off and tossed it in the basket I had outside and put my board down as I ran up to her and swept her into a hug.
“Victor. You’re going to get burned,” she said, laughing as she tried to balance her cup of coffee.
“I’m sure you don’t have any left in there,” I
said, looking in. Sure enough, there was only a drop left.
“I could have just poured it,” she said when I let go of her. My eyes drifted down to her white shirt, which was now completely wet and see-through. She had no bra on. She slapped me on the chest and my eyes snapped to hers.
“What?”
“Stop looking at my boobs.”
I put my hands out and grabbed them, playing with her nipples over her shirt. She moaned. “You want me to stop?”
“No,” she said, gasping when I pinched them. “Let’s go inside.”
We went inside, stripping clothes off until we were both naked. I propped her up by the wall and started closing the sliding glass door, my lips on hers. She broke the kiss and gasped out a, “Bonnie’s outside.”
Of course. The shitting dog.
“Bonnie. Get the fuck inside the house,” I yelled. Nicole laughed until I pinned her with my stare and pushed the tip of my dick inside her, and then her laugh turned into a series of gasps and oh fucks. Those were my favorite.
“You have to leave soon,” she said, moaning when I grabbed two handfuls of her ass and started driving into her. Fuck. She felt so good. She was so fucking wet. So. Fucking. Wet. I threw my head back, increasing my pace.
“I know.”
“I’m going to come. Fuck. Victor. Victor,” she shouted. “I’m going to . . . oh my . . .”
And then I shattered inside her. I caught my breath and let her catch hers before I helped her stay steady on her feet.
“I’m pretty sure the entire beach heard us,” she said.
“Good.”
She laughed and went back to the kitchen while I ran to my room and into the shower. I had thirty-five minutes to get to work. Fuck.
I was finishing putting on my tie when Nicole walked into the room.
“I brought you coffee. Do you have time to eat?”
I looked over my shoulder at the clock on the nightstand. Eighteen minutes. “Nope. I’ll have Corinne get me something on her way.”
“You look hot.”
“Thank you.”
“Really hot,” she said, lowering her voice. I closed my eyes.
“This is going to be a problem,” I said, looking at her.
“What?”
“Me having to go to work and wanting to stay home to fuck you instead.”
She smiled, looking at the floor between us. I walked over to her and lifted her chin.
“No matter what happens today, I love you. That’s not going to change, and I want you here, that’s also not going to change.”
She swallowed and looked at me. “I’m going to have Marcus pick me up. I should probably stay over there a couple of days. I do pay bills, you know.”
I let go of her chin. I didn’t like that idea at all, but I understood why she felt the need to go. I’d have to find someone to take over her lease so she could move in with me. That topic hadn’t been discussed as of yet, but it would be soon, and that was a battle I’d win.
In the office, everybody greeted me a little warily since I’d been a complete ass for a few weeks. It made me wonder if they hadn’t been informed of anything. When I got to the conference room, only William was there, sitting at the head of the table. He looked up from his phone when he heard me come in.
“Have a seat.”
“Where’s Bruce?” I asked as I unbuttoned my suit coat and sat down where I normally did, beside him. Bruce was the other partner.
“I decided not to call anybody in for this.” He paused, setting his phone down. I looked at it, wondering if he’d set it to record. As if reading my thoughts, he chuckled and lit it up so I could see the home screen. “So paranoid about some things, so careless about others.”
I let the jab slide. He was right.
“How’s Nicole? Did you speak to her about . . . your situation?”
I tried to keep my face impassive, but my lips twitched into a smile. If he only knew how many situations his daughter and I got into over the weekend . . . “I did.”
“And?”
“I already told you. I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble with her if I didn’t know it was the real deal.”
“And how do you know it’s the real deal? How do you know that in five years you won’t be in this office talking about your own divorce? I know your track record.”
My brows rose. Good questions. Fair questions. How did I know . . . how could I explain that?
“I don’t,” I said. “I have no idea what will happen in five years. I came in here thinking there was probably more than a fifty percent chance I’d get fired, or demoted, and I still haven’t been able to stop fucking smiling, and that’s the only way I know that. Who knows?” I shrugged. “Maybe it won’t work out the way I want it to, but I sure as hell want to try, and when I think about my life five years from now, the only thing I see with sureness is Nicole.”
Will tilted his head, his eyes assessing me. “When do the finalized papers get here?”
“They should be here soon. Possibly next week. I rushed Judge Matthews.”
Will nodded. “You know how I feel about you as a person and as an employee. You’re like a son I never had, and that’s one of the reasons I’m being hard on you about this, because as much as I love you, I love my daughter more.”
He picked up his phone and pushed a couple buttons, turning on the speakerphone. Three rings later Nicole’s voice seeped through the room. My breath caught in my chest. I glanced up at him, and he shrugged as if to say let’s see what she says about this.
“Hey, Dad,” she said. My heart gripped at the sound of her voice.
“Hey, sweetheart. I have a question for you, and I need you to answer honestly.”
Nicole groaned. “What now?”
“Promise?”
She stayed silent for a second. “Promise.”
“Are you involved in any way with Gabriel?”
She stayed quiet again. My heart constricted. “No. Argentina was the last thing I was going to attend with him. Why?”
“I mean romantically, Nicole.”
“No.”
“That’s a definite no? What about in Argentina?”
My heart squeezed again. I didn’t want to hear this. I didn’t want to know. Out of mind, out of sight. That had been my motto.
“No, Dad. Why are you asking weird questions?”
“What about Victor Reuben?”
“What about him?” she whispered.
“Last time I asked you, you said nothing was going on with you guys. Were you lying?”
She breathed into the phone.
“Promise, Nicole.”
She breathed into the phone again. “Yes.”
“Yes you were lying?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought if I told you the truth, you’d fire him,” she said, and I could tell she was crying. I saw her cry the other day, but hearing her like this and knowing I wasn’t there to comfort her made my heart physically ache.
“Why would I fire him?”
“Because he’s my lawyer,” she said, crying openly. “Please, Dad. Please don’t fire him. It’s my fault. I pushed him and pushed him.”
I closed my eyes, burying my face in my hands. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t sit there listening to her plead for me like this.
“He’s not getting fired,” Will said. My head snapped up.
“Oh, thank God,” she said, sniffling. “Thank God.”
“He said he told you he’s in love with you.”
“He did.” She sniffled. “And I love him.”
Will stayed quiet for a moment, his eyes appraising me. I kept my face neutral because I wasn’t sure I wanted him reading into my relief. I didn’t want him to know I felt like celebrating. He smiled after a couple beats. “Okay, sweetheart. I’ll let you go now.”
“Okay. Talk to you later.”
He ended the call and drummed his fingers on the table. “So . . .
that happened.”
“Like I was saying, when I met you, I saw myself twenty years prior. I didn’t have a mentor or anybody to walk me through things or help me when I fucked up, and I really wanted to be that person for you,” he said. “But then I hired you, and I never really had to do that. You were like a newborn child who was already potty-trained. I’ve never seen anything like it. I didn’t assign you to take care of my daughter’s divorce so you could make partner. You were going to make partner anyway. That promotion has been yours since you stepped foot in this office.” He paused.
To know I had his support for the role was incredible. While gaining Nicole in my life was a far greater reward, I couldn’t deny the way hearing those words made me feel.
“I wanted you to represent her because I knew you’d do right by her, and I know you’ll do right by her now as well.”
I let out a breath. “Thank you. That means a lot.” More than he could ever know.
“You wanna know how I know you’re right for her?”
I swallowed. “How?”
“Because I don’t even feel like I need to give you a warning, or tell you the things I’d do if you fuck things up, though maybe I should warn you that she can be a little difficult.”
I chuckled. “I got that part.”
“So then you’re good,” he said, smiling. “I couldn’t have picked a better man for her.”
“Thank you,” I said, because I didn’t know what else to say and fuck me, I was feeling emotional. “I’ll always do right by her, Will.” I took a deep, relieved breath. “Does this mean I’m not getting demoted?”
Will laughed. “Yes, but you will need to take time off until Nicole’s papers come in.”
“And not work?”
“And not work.”
My jaw dropped. “What the fuck am I supposed to do?”
“You’ll figure something out.”
I sighed. I guess I would have to.
On my way out, I took a pit stop to Corinne’s office to let her know. She looked at me like she wasn’t sure what to do with the information.
“You’re serious?”
“Yes, I’m serious. Why would I joke about that?”
“But you never take days off.”
Elastic Hearts (Hearts #3) Page 27
