Page 236 of Bona Fide

“Stop playing games with me, Lockwood,” I sneer. He twirls a piece of my hair around his finger and tries to keep the cockiness of his mouth from lifting any higher.

“You want me to tell you what I have planned for you other than fucking you, Miss Shelton?” I glare at him as my response. “I forgot how impatient you are.”

“And I didn’t forget how much of an asshole you are.” He bends down closer to me.

“Well, for starters,” he chants. “I’m going to take you in every way possible. Claim every inch of your body. Then—” He sighs. “—find out how we’re going to make this work.”

“Which includes?”

“You tell me, Sox, you want to be with me, but I just buried my bitch of a wife less than a month ago. A little early to have you plastered to my arm and for me to publicly announce that I’m with you without looking like the heartless bastard that I am.”

“You’re not heartless,” I mutter.

“I am when you hold it.” His blue eyes flash with sadness and regret before they hit my chest with a ferocity to protect and hold him. “I don’t want to keep you a secret. I don’t want to be away from you. But I can’t stop who I am and what I am to this country. I have so many responsibilities, so many people relying on me. I’ve fucked up with you. I should’ve gotten rid of Demi years before I met you. I just didn’t know you’d...I wasn’t ready for you.”

“I want you to be who you were meant to be.” I grip the lapels of his suit. “You were meant to be president.”

“I loathe being president because it keeps me away from what I could’ve had. If we would’ve met a decade ago, you would’ve been…” I plead for him to continue by just staring at him.

Open up to me. I need this.

“I want you to be my wife one day. Just not like this.”

“I can do this,” I counter. “If it means being—”

“You’re sacrificing your life for this. It isn’t right but you would be. You’re too beautiful and smart to settle for me, but you seem insistent, and I can’t resist you, Sox. I want to give you everything you want.”

“I want this. I’d give up everything to have this. You don’t understand me when I say that I’m in—one hundred and ten percent, I’m here. Without us, there is no future for me. I’ll go right back to where I was before. Closed off, guarded, and just...empty. So if you don’t want me—”

“It’s not that. I want you more than anything. I just don’t want you to hate me one day.”

“Been there, done that.” I smile. “You still win out every time.”

“You’re too good to me, Sox.” His palm runs down the side of my cheek followed by his fingers. “I don’t deserve you.”

“But you have me—always. Wade... “ I rise on my tiptoes just to get closer to him. Even though we’re chest to chest, it’s not close enough.

Nothing will ever be near enough for me.

“I love you, Reagan,” he mutters, his breath caressing my lips. “I will forever and constantly love you.”

I don’t know who closes the distance first, but our mouths mold together like two pieces to a puzzle. He’s my match, my person, and, hopefully, my whole future.

I jump into his arms, knowing that he’ll catch me. Starting with his jacket, I push it down his arms. Wade bites my lower lip possessively before his ass lands on the couch a few seconds later, followed by my knees.

The buttons of his dress shirt somehow come undone. I think I may have torn one off. The hem of my dress is lifted, and Wade’s hands cup my ass, pulling me to grind up against his hard, still clothed length.

“I’m not fucking you until you tell me that you’re done talking about this you-not-wanting-me-to-be-in-this-world business.”

“I’m always going to feel that way,” he confesses along my jawline. His lips expertly peppering kisses along my flesh and up to my ear, where he whispers, “But if you insist, I can put it in writing.”

I scoff-chuckle, my body releasing a small shudder as his tongue licks the lobe of my ear followed by his teeth.

“Draw up a contract,” I order. “And I’ll read and sign it.”

“And amend it.”

I wrap my arms around his neck. “Just making sure I agree to all terms and vice versa.”

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