I buried my face into his shoulder, trying to muffle the sound of my moans of euphoria as I came so hard that my body trembled.
“Christ, Riley. You feel so damn good that I don’t want this to end,” Seth groaned.
My muscles clamped hard around his cock, causing him to find his own powerful release.
“Holy fuck!” he rasped roughly, his chest heaving as he just held me tight against him, his fingers digging into my ass.
I wasn’t sure how long we stayed suspended in that position, his body pinning mine to the wall as I panted to recover my breath. My heart was thundering so loud I could almost swear I could actually hear it.
Minutes later, Seth finally spoke. “I’m squashing you. Can you stand up?”
My whole body felt like jelly, but I nodded anyway. “Yes.”
I really wasn’t sure I could stand, but I did feel like I could fly.
He lowered me slowly back to my feet, and then picked me up and carried me to a leather chair in the corner of his office. Seth sat and pulled me into his lap. He cradled me there, his touch gentle as he pushed a few locks of hair away from my face.
“You’re so damn beautiful, Riley,” he said hoarsely.
I’d never felt all that attractive before, but Seth made me feel like a seductress. “You’re pretty attractive yourself,” I replied. “Too attractive. You’re dangerous.”
I stroked some slightly damp locks of his hair from his forehead.
“We’re a mess,” I told him. “I have a feeling we look like we’ve been screwing around in your office.”
My heart skittered when he shot me an evil grin. “Probably because we were,” he answered as he stroked a hand up and down my naked back.
“You shouldn’t have sent me that email,” I said with mock displeasure. “It made me want to find out exactly how we could keep breaking that old contract.”
“Baby, that contract is dust,” Seth drawled. “I tore it up a long time ago. I’m way beyond experimenting. This is real, Riley. For me, I think it always has been. I’d be completely destroyed if you walked away now.”
My heart felt like it was in a vise as I met his earnest gaze. God, I wished I could express my feelings as well as he could. I wished that I could make myself that vulnerable. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“You better not. If you do, I’ll find you,” he rumbled as he pulled my head down to kiss me.
I sighed into his mouth, luxuriating in the feel of his soft lips teasing mine.
It was an embrace full of emotion and promise, and unhurried, sexy discovery.
It was a kiss I could lose myself in, and I did for several moments.
Finally, I pulled back to look at him. “I’m still kind of damaged, you know,” I revealed candidly. “Sometimes I’m not sure if I’ll ever be normal. But I’m starting to feel so much better. And it’s all because I’m finally discovering who I really am. Because of you, Seth. Because of us.”
He looked at me like there wasn’t one single thing wrong with me as he replied, “Then I’ll help you put yourself together again, Riley, if that’s what you want. But to me, you’ll always be the only woman I want.”
I tried to blink back the tears that sprang to my eyes, but I couldn’t. One fat drop landed on my cheek. And then another.
“I don’t really even know what normal is, Seth. I realized that today. Everything that has happened in my life has been so dysfunctional that I really don’t know what it’s like to be completely whole,” I said stoically.
“You don’t have to be somebody else’s definition of normal, Riley. You just have to be you. I get that sometimes you don’t know how special you are, but you’re the smartest, strongest, gutsiest woman I know. I wish to hell I could take away everything that’s happened to you that makes you feel broken. Because there really isn’t a damn thing wrong with you.” Seth swiped away the tears on my face with a gentle finger.
“Okay. So maybe I’m not completely broken, but sometimes I just have problems expressing myself. Not when it comes to work or legal stuff, but personal stuff,” I shared.
He shook his head. “Hell, you weren’t exactly encouraged to be demonstrative as a kid or as an adult. I’ve met your mother, Riley. And your father was an asshole pedophile. You learned to keep everything inside you. But that will eventually change now that you’ve changed your environment. Give it time, gorgeous.”
I shot him a small smile. “Maybe sometimes I just think you deserve a woman who completely has her shit together.”
He shrugged. “I wouldn’t want her.”
I lifted a brow. “Why?”
“Because she wouldn’t be you,” he answered earnestly. “It would really suck to have a woman who thought she was perfect. Who would I talk to about my own imperfections?”
“Are you saying you have some of those?”
“You know I do,” he said. “I told you why I wanted to take down that dock and build a superstructure on that property. Most of us have had some dysfunction in our lives. It helps to have somebody who understands and doesn’t judge because of it.”
My heart squeezed inside my chest, and I wrapped my arms around Seth and hugged him so hard that I was surprised he didn’t protest.
It was hard to believe someone as gorgeous, intelligent, and empathetic as Seth still harbored any insecurities, but he did have a few from growing up poor, and his childhood. “You can always talk to me,” I told him fiercely.
“Ditto,” he said as he held me tighter. “I’m here for you, baby. Just talk to me.”
“I will,” I promised. “It’s just difficult sometimes. I guess I’m always waiting for the backlash if I say something that isn’t acceptable.”
“I think you might need to tell your mother to go to hell,” he said thoughtfully.
“I’ve wanted to,” I told him. “I really do. But I guess there’s always some hope that she’ll just accept me as I am someday. Rationally, I know that’s not going to happen. But that little girl in me still wants her to love me, I suppose.”
“I think she does to the extent that she’s capable of loving you, Riley.”
“But it’s always conditional, and I’ve never been able to be enough for her to love,” I mused. “I know I need to accept that she’s just not able to care without some kind of perfection no person is capable of achieving. But I hope I’ll get there.”
“You will,” he said encouragingly.
I smiled at him. “You’re a pretty extraordinary guy, you know.”
I wished I had the words to tell him just how unique he really was in comparison to every other man I’d ever met.
“I’m not special, Riley. You’ve just known some real assholes. I look good in comparison,” he said teasingly.
I laughed as I squirmed in his lap. “I need to get dressed. I can’t believe we’re sitting here having this conversation when I’m naked in your office.”
“I don’t know, I’m enjoying these nude conversations,” he drawled.
I rolled my eyes and got to my feet. “I’m the only one who’s naked here,” I reminded him.