“But I’m upset with myself. I didn’t get the chance to properly communicate to you why I let you go.”
“Then take your chance now,” I said. “What happened? What did I do?”
His long legs carried him into the kitchen and the only thing he had was the slightest limp. Which only served to etch a swagger into his step that left me breathless. He hovered over me, his chiseled features gazing down into my eyes. My hand was itching to touch him. To smooth over his freshly-shaved skin and fist my hand into the thick tendrils of his shining hair.
He looked like a new man.
One I almost didn’t recognize.
“I know this man is foreign to you, but this is the man I am. Confident. Powerful. Protective. I know what I want, and I never fear chasing it, but that accident ripped that away from me. It wasn’t vanity or ego that kept me in that chair, Grace. It was you.”
“What?” I asked breathlessly.
“Watching you in my apartment. Your hips swaying and that constant smile dancing on your lips. It reminded me of what I couldn’t have. I was broken. Exhausted. Frustrated at my predicament and the downturn my company was facing. I was in control of nothing, and I didn’t understand how to handle it.”
“I tried to help.”
“And you did a wonderful job. But we grew close. From the first time you took my hand in that movie theater to all the times you helped me put my own damn pants on, I knew there was nothing I could give you. Nothing I could offer you from the broken parts of my existence that would’ve ever been worthy for the care and compassion you were showing me.”
I had no idea how to respond to such a thing.
“Grace, you couldn’t be my nurse and my lover. And so long as you were my nurse, my pride was always going to be a downfall. I recognized that, so I leapt at the emotional chance to fire you. To send you off on another path so I could lick my wounds and heal myself.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Why are you here?”
His hand raised to cup my cheek and his touch sent electricity flowing down my spine. I backed myself into the kitchen counter, my hands pressing into the edge of it. His thumb slid across my cheek before dropping to my lower lip, and his eyes watched as he unfurled it from my teeth. The look in his eyes. The intensity of his gaze.
My body was heating for him.
“To apologize,” Hayden said. “And to tell you I’m ready.”
“For what?” I asked with a whisper.
“For this.”
He guided my lips to his and everything else melted away. The anger. The abandonment. The pain. The sorrow. My hands slid up his arms and gripped his shoulders, then I felt his fingertips fall to my waist. Dancing along my skin. Playing with the hem of my pants.
Teasing me in ways I couldn’t take any longer.
My hands fisted his hair and my tongue plunged into his mouth. His hands held tightly onto my hips and he hoisted me onto the edge of the counter. He pressed my legs open and seated himself between them, his groin rolling deeply into me. Our tongues did battle and my lips were swelling against his, and soon my hand dropped to wrap tightly in his tie. I pulled him closer. Slid his suit jacket from his shoulders. Fumbled greatly with the buttons of his shirt before he grunted and pulled everything over his head.
My hands drifted down the chiseled muscles of his chest. Rumbled over the physique of his washboard abs. Tickled the padded lines that disappeared beyond the hem of his tightly-tailored pants.
I looked back up into his eyes as his hand wrapped around me, then he picked me up from the counter and carried me down the hallway.
We fell to my bed and his lips were all over me. My neck. My bosom. My nipples as he pulled them out of my bra. He clawed at me until nothing but my skin was underneath his hands and I could feel my arousal pooling between my legs. I heard him unbuckle his pants and shove everything to the floor, then he rose up and devoured me with his eyes.
His cock was throbbing. Swollen. Thick with girth and leaking with lustful desires.
I rose onto my knees and scooted towards him, then bent down onto all fours and slid my lips across his cock.
His hand curled into the tendrils of my hair and he fucked my face. I could taste his precum dripping down my throat as he swelled against my teeth. The taste of him was luxurious. I felt my arms and legs trembling as he pulsed against the walls of my throat. I lapped at his tip and traced the bulging vein underneath his dick, and the groans that fell from his throat made goosebumps trail along every inch of my body.
But before I could bring him to the precipice I so desired, he pulled me away from his body and pushed me back to the bed.
He grabbed my ankles and pulled me to the edge of the bed. Then he knelt down and curled his arms around my thighs. I looked up and caught his stare. Darkened with pupils that were blown wide with lust. His lips tell to my coated thighs and I began to tremble. To pant with shallow breaths as he grinned against my glowing skin. My pussy was begging for him. Aching for the touch of his tongue. My clit was swollen and my hands were curling into the sheets of my bed.
“Plea