Riley notices where I’m looking. “If they make you so sad, why don’t we take them down? Wyatt won’t notice.”
I meet Riley’s loving gaze, and I stand from the chair. “It’s good to be sad sometimes. It makes the happy feel that much happier.” I swallow hard, setting the stuffed animal down. “I love the paintings.”
He kisses me on the tip of my nose. “I know you do. I have an hour before my next meeting. Did you have something in mind?”
I lace my hands around his neck and bring his lips to mine. My sunshine. It brightens me from the inside out. “I have a few ideas.” I pull him to our bedroom across the hallway, giggling as I peek around the corner to make sure no one sees us shirking our duties.
He grabs my wrists as his heady gaze overtakes me. “You are my world,” he says, pinning my hands over my head.
Granting him a satisfied smirk, I say, “Is that so?”
“Loving you was destiny,” Riley says, face a mask of lust. It makes butterflies flap in my stomach. His fingers move over my lips and face, a cherishing gesture. “I still don’t know how I got so lucky.”
“I’m the lucky one,” I whisper. “Are you going to give me what I want?” I ask.
“What do you want, Mrs. Astor?”
“You. Over and over for the rest of my life.”
“I’m happy to oblige.” He kisses me hard. “Your lips make me drunk. I’m not going to be able to go back to work. What a shame.”
My head floats as his hands flutter all over my body, removing my clothes. I close my eyes and become a slave to the sensation of being worshipped. When I’m down to nothing but my bracelet and my birthday suit, he takes me against the wall so hard I know the staff hears it. He comes inside me at the same time my orgasm rips through my body. His lips are everywhere as he releases me from my sex haze. We fuck once more before he leaves for a meeting, and even though I know I need to get ready for a meeting of my own, I can’t help the floating, loved-up feeling he’s left me with. The bracelet catches my eye in the mirror. I haven’t taken it off in years. Once or twice to be cleaned, but that’s it. I remove it now to open the diamond-encrusted capsule in the center of the stones. There’s a tiny scroll of paper in it. I unroll it even though I promised myself I never would.
I really love you, lamb.
A tear streams down my cheek and lands on the tiny, fragile paper. I roll it back up and tuck it back into its home.
My love for Riley is like the sun.
His love for me is like an all-encompassing fire.