Page 39 of Master Debater

With Willa on my arm, I’d be ready to take on anything. It also helped I’d hijacked another one of Fowler and Fowler’s clients this past week—an entire hockey team, who was in the middle of a shakeup. It’d leave me damn close to crossing that line in a month, if not place me on the other side of it. Victory was going to taste about as sweet as my date.

As soon as I settled behind the wheel, Willa cleared her throat. I turned my head and drank in the sight of her. The red dress emphasized her hourglass figure, and the plunging neckline showed off her cleavage with perfection. “Did I not do a good enough job telling you how incredibly gorgeous you look? I thought my dropped jaw and vow to strip you bare later tonight made it clear, but I’m happy to do it again. There are other adjectives I could use too. Sexy, dangerous, so fuckable I’m not sure I’ll be able to behave myself.”

Two spots of cheeks bloomed on her cheeks. “Thank you, but that’s not what I’m talking about.” The dangly earrings in her ears rattled together and reflected sparks of light across the dashboard as she shook her head. Then she gestured to the gear shifter and the lacy thong around it.

More specifically, the lacy thong I’d removed from her that night in the performance center, when I’d been tongue deep in her pussy. “I told you that you weren’t getting them back and that they now belonged to me.”

“Trust me, I remember. I just didn’t know you were going to put them in your car for everyone to see.”

“My windows are tinted, and they’re for me to see. If someone gets a glimpse, well then, it’s their lucky day. As long as they look and don’t touch, and that goes for the panties and you.”

“And you’re sure I can pull off this dress?” Willa smoothed her hand down the side of it. “Leah talked me into buying it over FaceTime while I was in the dressing room, but I worry it’s too snug and too red, even if the sale was too good to pass up.”

“There’s no such thing as too red, not with that body.” I reached over the console, grabbed hold of her hand, and lifted it to kiss her knuckles. “You look stunning, Willa. I can hardly keep my eyes off you, and I definitely won’t be the only one, which is why I’ll be keeping you at my side all night long. Then, after I make everyone jealous, I’m going to enjoy stripping that dress off you and seeing it puddled on my bedroom floor.”

A smile curved Willa’s pearly pink lips. “Thank you for the reassurance and compliments. You’re one of the reasons I felt confident enough to try it on in the first place.” She leaned across the console, placing her hand on the side of my face as she brought her mouth down on mine. “And don’t worry. I plan on being very much plastered to your side.”

She planted her other hand high on my thigh and swiped her tongue across the seam of my lips, lingering for long enough to send the world spinning.

On the way back to her seat, she tried to sneakily remove her thong from the gear shifter, and I curled my hand around hers, the lace, and the knob. “You’d better stick to your day job, sweetheart, because you’d make the worst pick-pocket or spy ever.” Her lower lip popped out, and I reached across her, snagged the seat belt, and clicked it in place. “How many times do I have to prove that I’m going to win whatever debate we have?”

“I might surprise you one of these days.”

Truth be told, she’d surprised me several times this past week. I’d been so fucking grumpy the other night, and she hadn’t cared in the least. She sat at my side and aimed her sunshiny personality at me until it’d slowly spread and overtaken my inner thunderstorm.

Something was shifting between us, and I couldn’t decide whether I should embrace it or run before it was too late. So, I deflected, clinging to the cockiness that would hardly come as a shock to her. “That’s cute,” I said as I pulled onto the road. “But it’s never going to happen.”

Waiters circled the floor with fancy trays, and I lifted two flutes, thanking the waiter before handing Willa one of them.

She took a sip, humming her pleasure over the bubbles, and then looped her elbow through mine. Then she inclined her head and said in a voice only meant for me, “For someone so uncivilized in the bedroom, you’re such a gentleman. And I mean that in the best possible way. Have I mentioned how hot and bothered it leaves me?”

I splayed my hand on the small of her back and curled her tight to my side. “I seem to recall you saying something to that effect, but please, tell me more.”

Her lips brushed my ear as she whispered, “I’m starting the countdown to the moment when you follow through with your promise to strip me of my dress.”

I clucked my tongue. “My, my, keep talking like that and I’ll be forced to spank you.”

Willa sank her teeth into her bottom lip and batted her eyes at me, pushing her breasts against me and providing me with a view of her breasts that left me growing hard against her hip. “If that’s supposed to be motivational, you need to work on your threats, Mr. Fox.”

Fuck me. The woman wasn’t going to rest until my massive erection was part of the art exhibition. Fingers crossed the people in attendance had suddenly become extremely open-minded. And calling me Mr. Fox? She was downright daring me to make good on my warning. Actually, that fell short. The siren was tempting me to take her into the nearest empty closet or room so I could punish her and brand her as mine.

“I’m going to tally up how many times you were naughty during this event and make you pay.”

“It’s more greed than naughtiness. Someone left me high and dry last night while they were at the office, and when it comes to you, I want it all. The gentleman and the caveman. Tender caresses and the spanking.”

Keeping my arm tight around her, I maneuvered us so our backsides were aimed at the wall and gave her a tiny smack. A teaser of what was to come. Besides her and then me, that was.

“Willa! Nate!” The voice was familiar, but it took me a second to clear away the lust haze and recognize it. Right in time for my mom to barrel toward us, her heels clacking against the floor, so much happiness on her features that panic automatically bubbled up within me. It was one thing for me to take a risk, but ever since Dad passed, Mom took losses in general harder. If she got attached to Willa, only for it to not work out…

My lungs flattened, turning into heavy, useless organs inside my chest.

“It’s so good to see you.” Mom gave Willa a hug, complete with an air kiss to her cheek. Then she hugged me and, as she pulled away, she placed her hand on the side of my face and Willa’s, beaming as she glanced at the both of us. “It’s extra lovely to see both of you in the same place.”

Considering she and I lived in the building, that struck me as funny. But then she added, “You look quite cozy as well. I had a feeling I might need to give Nate a nudge, and I was so pleased that instead of having to wait to get you both together at the gallery that he called to inform me that he’d simply bring you with him.”

Willa laced her fingers with mine and squeezed, reading me like a damn book. I peered down at her, prepared for a hint of sorrow or perhaps irritation. Instead, she gifted me with a comforting smile that said she was here with me, not to freak out, and that she had my back.

Which made it easier to release the tension in the line of my shoulders and shake off the pressure.

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