Page 172 of By His Rule

Pushing my tits together just so, I snap the perfect picture before hitting send.

Deciding that it’s best to end it there, I put my cell on airplane mode and plug it into the charger on my nightstand.

After righting my top, I slip back into bed, but as much as I might want to drift off, my body is burning and my heart is racing.

Thoughts of Ryder staring at that photo and jerking off morph in my head to someone else doing the same.

Unable to stop myself, my hand slides down my stomach and slips inside my sleep shorts and panties.

Ryder is right, I am wet. But it’s not for him.

It’s for a man who shouldn’t feature in my thoughts, let alone my filthy fantasies.

In my head, we’re back in the gym, but when I press my hands against his chest, it’s not to push him away. Instead, I slide them up, curl them around his shoulders, and pull him closer. And we don’t stop.

I come with his name on my lips like a plea, my cheeks heating with both arousal and embarrassment.

After cleaning myself up, I crawl back into bed with shame still burning through me. I can’t lie though, I do feel more relaxed after the release. Although, it still could have been better…

41

LORELEI

“Oh, shit, shit, shit, shit,” I chant as I jump out of bed.

I should already be at work.

With my heart racing and my hand trembling with panic, I rush around my bedroom, dragging clothes on and throwing my wild curls into a messy bun. There is no time to do anything more.

My head lightly pounds, but it’s nowhere near as bad as I deserve.

Kian is going to kill me.

By some miracle, I’m out the door and racing down the stairs in twenty minutes. There is no chance I’m risking the elevator this morning. There’s no time to deal with that kind of drama should something go wrong.

I burst out of the building in a rush with my Uber app searching for a car.

I should have ordered one the second I woke up, but I was too frantic to think straight.

It’s still telling me that it’s trying to find one when a voice hits my ears.

“Good morning, Miss Lori. Can I offer you a lift?”

“Fuck,” I hiss. If Jamie is here, then Kian knows that I’m late.

Blowing out a slow breath, I walk over.

It’s too late to try and cover this up now.

“Morning, Jamie. Yes, that would be fantastic, thank you.”

“No problem, Miss Lori. Did you have a good night with your friend?” he asks as he opens the door for me to climb inside.

“Yes. A little too good, actually.” He chuckles as I get comfortable before closing the door on me.

I sit back and wait as he pulls away from my building in the direction of Callahan Enterprises. As we get closer, the dread I felt the moment I looked at the clock only gets worse.

Sitting forward, I speak to Jamie. “Is Kian mad?”

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