Page 141 of Failure to Match

To my immediate relief, he placed a tender, soothing kiss on the corner of my mouth.

“I’ve been wanting to do that all fucking day,” he murmured, pressing his hips tighter against mine. I bit back a moan at the rock-hard feel of him, my core clenching around nothing. “All fucking day, Jamie. While you’ve been stealing glances at the clock, counting down the minutes until your date, all I’ve been able to think about is this.”

I shivered when he moved his hips again, grinding against me. My pulse was thundering, heat simmering under my skin.

“I’m tempted to take you to my office, lock the door, and make you get on your knees for me.” His fingers dug into my flesh with promise. “I want you sucking me off before your date, and I want you swallowing every last fucking drop so if he tries to kiss you, you can let him know exactly what he’ll be tasting.”

Holy shit.

That was… so filthy I didn’t know how to respond. Butholy shitdid my body like it. His words washed over me like liquid fire. The ache in my core was bordering on unbearable.

“You’re driving me out of my fucking mind. You want to talk about red flags? I’m fuckingterritorialover you.” He traced his lips over my jaw, all the way to my ear. “I should have fuckedyou last night. I should have made you beg and scream until you forgot about him.”

“Why didn’t you?” I’d waited for him, even though I shouldn’t have. And the longer I’d waited, the stronger the urge to go to the library had become. The craving had been for him. The closeness and intimacy I would have gotten if he’d come to my room.

“I needed to finalize our agreement with my lawyers. It took longer than I thought it would.”

My chest squeezed. I couldn’t muster the energy to argue with him this time. Instead, I lifted my chin and allowed his mouth better access to my neck.

There was a good chance there was at least one security camera in here. There was an even better chance I didn’t care.

“When do you have to leave for your date?”

“You should maybe stop calling it that,” I breathed. “It’s a business meeting.”

“Don’t go.”

“I have to. It’s a business meeting.”

“If I stopped you from going, would you hate me for it?”

“Probably, seeing as how it’s a business meeting.”

“Might be worth it.” He nipped at my skin, then licked it soothingly. “He wants to fuck you.”

I bit back a smile. “We’re not allowed to sleep with our clients. It’s a massive conflict of interest.” At this point, it didn’t really matter if he knew. Or maybe it did, and I just didn’t care.

“You think he’s your soulmate,” he argued.

“I didn’t say it, Imogen did.”

“You weren’t listening properly.”

“Spoiled pet, the letter D, tattoos. Pretty sure I got it all.”

There was a beat of silence before he pulled his head back. “She didn’tjustsay tattoos.”

My amusement slowly waned. “What? What else did she…” A scar. She said it could be a bunch of tattoosorprominent scars.

Hope—pure, unfiltered,foolishhope—tore through me, slashing my heart open. My eyes flared, scanning his face, his jaw, his neck. “Do you have any? Scars?”

It didn’t help that he’d always kept his clothes on during sex. I’d assumed it was another kink; part of the power imbalance thing we both enjoyed. It hadn’t occurred to me until now that there may have been another reason for it.

He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it... and said nothing.

I blanked. Every thought I had running through my head vanished in an instant, and all I could do was stare up at him, my lips parted, my lungs frozen.

His hands ran over my thighs, his steel length hot and prominent through the layers separating us. I remained silent while he continued to struggle. Sometimes people just needed a bit of time to put their words together and that was okay. He could take however long he needed. I’d still be right here.

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