Page 60 of Strictly the Worst

“Oh, yeah.” She nods and watches as I dispose of it, then I get back into the bath and pull her on top of me, so her legs are straddling my thighs and our chests are firmly pressed together.

“How was your first time with me in the bath?” she asks, her eyes shining. I love a happy Carmichael.

And yeah, I blink that thought right away.

“Middling,” I tell her, trying not to laugh at her outraged expression.

“Careful,” she says as I kiss her neck. “You might end up back on my hate list.”

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

TESSA

I wake up the next morning in a Linc Salinger induced sex haze that makes walking feel like I’m bouncing on marshmallows. It’s all his fault. I barely got any sleep, thanks to his beautiful body pressing against mine the whole night.

I’m sitting in the business suite at the hotel, going over our presentation in preparation for tomorrow morning. We fly out in the afternoon, which I’m worried is too soon because I’d like to stay to answer any questions James Gold might have.

But I also want to see Zoe. And I need to talk to Angela. Because I can’t tell her over the phone that I’ve finally broken my post-divorce cherry. All of Manhattan will hear her shout of victory.

Linc is in one of the break out rooms, talking on his phone as always. He looks at me through the glass and smiles and I feel it in my stomach.

Of course I smile back. It’s almost impossible not to, especially after last night.

The man made it his personal mission to give me as many orgasms as possible. Frowning isn’t really an option.

We didn’t have much time for talking this morning. He had to rush out for a zoom meeting first thing, and I had to call the office because my schedule for next week is already filling up and I need to get my staff working on things in advance of my own meetings in New York.

And just like that it feels like I’ve burst my own bubble. Because that’s what this is, a lovely sexy little bubble with the two of us inside. But after tomorrow reality will bite.

We’ll go back to being Salinger and Carmichael. My chest does a weird little twisty thing at that thought.

“You okay?” Linc asks, making me jump. I didn’t even notice him coming out of the side room.

“I’m fine.” I force a smile onto my face. “Everything okay at work?”

“That one wasn’t work. It was a conference call with my brothers.”

After all of our conversations I feel like I know them. There are six brothers including Linc, and their baby sister from their dad’s third marriage. I haven’t seen a photograph of them yet but I’m desperate to see if any of them look like him.

“Is everything okay with them?” I ask.

The corner of his lip quirks. “I like it when you’re being nice to me,” he says. “I think I’ll demand it at all times.”

I lift a brow. “Demand all you like. When we’re back in the office everything changes.”

“Why?” he asks, as though he’s surprised by that.

“Because…” my voice trails off. “You’re you and I’m me.”

“I’ve no idea what that’s supposed to mean.” His phone starts to ring again, and he looks at the screen, groaning. “Hold that thought,” he says. “We haven’t finished talking about this.”

“Sure,” I say sweetly, as he walks back into the other room again. Truth is, I think we’ll be nice to each other. And the fact is, I won’t have to see him that much since he’s out of the office almost all the time.

It’s weird how that thought feels like a bad taste in my mouth. My brain has obviously been overstimulated by the hot man shouting at his phone in the glass booth.

“Tonight I’m taking you out to dinner and then we’re coming back here and I’m fucking you until you forget your own name,” Linc announces casually that evening, when he walks into the cottage.

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