Page 53 of The Photograph

“Yeah, we were sixteen, though.”

“Oh yes,” I laugh.

“Still, I get it. It was a sweet time for both of us, learning together, despite all the teenage angst. It’s given us a closeness that I don’t think I’ll ever find with anyone else.” He clears his throat and gazes across the office.

What a lovely thing they have.And I remember vividly my first time, too. There was something tender and nice about how careful the guy was with me. I hope Alex feels that way about me. Sourness invades my gut at the thought of him looking back atourrelationship, of himmoving on.

“I’d love to recapture some of that early innocence,” James adds.

Oh, yes.The look on Alex’s face when he first touched me, the way he marveled at my foreskin. I’ll never forget it. And he’s discovering this stuff withme. God, I want to teach him everything, want to be there for every goddamn new thing he discovers. I throw my pen up into the air and catch it.

“Must be lovely that you and Jane understand each other so well now,” I say.

But James just nods at this as his expression flattens. Is something going on there? I’m just about to ask him when he beats me to it.

“What time is he coming over?”

“7 p.m. We’re going to have dinner and watch a thriller.”

Fuck. How am I going to spend several hours in his company without throwing him to the floor?

James peers at his watch, and I study the bottom right of my screen: 3:30 p.m.

“I think you need to do something to blow off steam.”

“Yes, but what?”

“How about a fight with Rodrigo?”

I lean toward him. “You can’t say that! And he’s been better lately, though I don’t trust it. Shifting the teams around has helped.” I bump my fist with him.

He glances over at where Rodrigo is gesturing at a couple of the younger members of staff. “Yeah, maybe he knew we were thinking of firing him, but I can’t say I trust it either. Are we still behind on the security update?”

“Yes, but at least things are moving forward now. I am going to have to talk to the client, though, and soon.”

James makes a face, then he taps his screen. “Can I help?”

“Yeah, there’s an issue with some of the older Samsung code you could take a look at.”

Along with operations, James does all our deep-dive sorting. The pair of us understand this software so well now. I walk round to his desk and show him the bits I’ve been struggling with for days and all the errors it’s throwing up. Before I know it, we’re both submerged in a tricky coding problem.

When the buzzer goes, I glance around the apartment one last time. Clean floors, dim lighting, chicken, peppers and onion chopped, champagne chilling, and no Marla. I fling open the door, and Alex grins at me, a gray suit showing off his broad shoulders and slim hips. Reaching out, I grab the front of his shirt and pull him into me, putting my mouth on his and touching his lips with my tongue, and he opens immediately, tongue tangling with mine. When he groans into my mouth, I realize he’s hard where he’s leaning into my hip, so I spin us around and walk him backward toward the bedroom. I hadn’t planned on this, but fuck it, food can wait.

Collapsing back onto the bed, I come down right on top of him and rest my elbows on either side of his head, nibbling along his bottom lip. His arms come up, fingers sifting through my just-washed curls and my hips press in, rubbing against him.

Dammit, I’m not taking it slow now, not after the day I’ve had. Kissing down his neck, I unbutton his shirt and trail my lips down each inch of skin that appears. When I glance up, he’s watching me wide-eyed and I work my way down, blowing warm air through the fabric over his crotch. His hands are behind his head now, eyes heavy-lidded.

“Are we doing this now? Not eating?”

“Are you hungry?”

“I’m fine. I guess I thought we’d eat first and then …”

“I thought we’d spend the whole evening in bed. Maybe grab some snacks when we run out of fuel. Then I soap you all over in the shower and we have ridiculously hot shower sex. Well, that was my plan.”

As I unfasten his pants, I remember my conversation with James about capturing all the early innocence, the first times.

“Can I take a photo?”

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