Page 61 of Quarantined with the Billionaire

Why I felt so bold now, I would never know, but my lips once more got ahead of my brain. “But I’m here right now. Once this whole Coronavirus thing is over, everything will go back to normal. You’ll be here in your mansion; I’ll be in my little apartment just a few blocks from work. I’ll see you, like, maybe once or twice a year—”

“You’re considering staying with my company?”

Sighing, I closed my eyes, trying to regather my thoughts. “I don’t know, Maddox. If I don’t, then it’ll be all the easier for you to just go on with your life like you seem to want. All I know…” Shaking my head, I slowly lifted it, opening my eyes to look up in his. There were no blue oceans in them anymore—his eyes were nothing but dark storms roiling inside his head, hiding his every thought from me. “All I know is I have never felt as safe in my life as I do in your arms. I’ll be okay to go back to life before I came here. Being strong, surviving—it’s what I’ve always done. But why can’t I relax and enjoy the calm feeling I have when I’m around you?”

“But your hand is shaking, Bailey. That feels like fear to me. What’s making you tremble like that?”

“My body wakes up when it’s around you, Maddox. It’s this overwhelming onslaught of weird chemicals flowing through my body. Like the first time I had to give a speech in high school. My whole body shook so bad, I was like a jackhammer and on the verge of throwing up.”

One side of his lips turned up. “I make you want to throw up?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying.”

“I know.” He touched his lips to my forehead. “You’re not entirely wrong, Bailey. The problem is not that you’d be gone. The problem is that I have a hell of a time letting go.”

I wanted to ask him what he meant, but his lips crushed against mine, silencing any other words that might have come out. And I couldn’t help but respond. I felt so irrational, so stupid and flighty as I admitted to myself that I loved this man. It shouldn’t have happened—made no logical sense—and yet here I was completely buried in that strange emotion.

It was then that I also realized I’d never loved another man before. If I thought I had at one time, I’d been sadly mistaken.

Unbridled, I kissed him back, sliding my tongue inside his mouth, tasting him like I never had before. He broke it off, pressing me into him, holding me tightly as if to restrain me.

“If that’s all you’re worried about, I can make sure you have no problem letting me go. I can be a real bitch when I need to be.”

I could feel him chuckle, my head against his chest. “If only it were that easy, sweet Bailey.”

“Listen, Mr. Steel,” I said, finding the strength to pull myself from his warm, strong arms. “You’re really good at figuring out how to invest your money, right? But you said yourself that you can’t predict the market. You can never know for sure if stocks are going up or down. And what about this stupid virus? What’s going to happen with it tomorrow, next week, next month? Did you know a hundred-thousand people have this disease just in the U.S. alone? Over thirty-thousand deaths worldwide? There’s no guarantee that either you or I will make it out alive, even while we cut ourselves off from the world. Nobody ever promised me tomorrow. But I’m here now. I’m alive and I know what I want. I want you. I’m okay without tomorrow. I want you here and now, because this moment is the only guarantee I have of anything.”

His dark eyes searched mine as if reading a foreign language. Finally, when he spoke, it was almost a husky whisper, but his few words said so much. “Damn, woman. That nauseating speech you gave in high school prepared you to be a hell of a passionate speaker. You’re rather persuasive.”

“I won’t believe it till you kiss me.”

With that, he did. And it was more passionate, more alive than any kiss he’d given me thus far. It was as if my words had infused his life blood, given him something not just to live for, but to fight for.

And I felt like that was me.

As he held me close on that cool wooden floor, I knew I’d gladly give up anything I had to be with him forever. Something in his soul spoke to me on a level no one else had before. He may not have been with me in that rundown apartment on Stout Street half my life ago, but he could see it through my eyes.

Even knowing, he didn’t run away. He stayed here—and he blew away everything I believed about people with money, everything I despised about the privileged in society. This man defied all my expectations, changed my mind on so many levels.

Tonight, I didn’t care if we made love or just held each other all night long—but I was going to spend the rest of the evening with him whether he wanted to or not.

When the kiss ended, I looked in his eyes and started swaying back and forth to the music. A grin spread across my face and I took his hand before twirling around him. Had I been wearing socks, I would have been able to glide more gracefully across the floor, but I instead tiptoed ballerina-like, leading him toward the art-filled walls before stopping in front of his bedroom door. Looking in his eyes again, I waited for a sign, and he wasn’t saying no. So I turned the knob and pressed through, leading him with my hand in his.

Once more, I considered stripping myself naked in front of him, but the dress was so snug, I knew it wouldn’t come off elegantly. Instead, I would wind up looking like a clumsy elephant had I tried. So I twirled around again several times before backing up to Maddox, bending my neck so that he could undo the zipper for me.

For several long seconds, he didn’t touch me, and I started wondering if he was going to make me turn around and beg. But then I felt the warmth of his fingers at my neck pulling at the tab. Soon his lips were on the nape, sending shivers down my spine as I felt the top part of the dress loosening up. His kisses followed the zipper halfway, pausing midway down my back, even while he finished unzipping the dress. I leaned my head back toward him while taking the thin straps on my shoulders into my hands. Pulling them down, I turned my head just enough to see Maddox, and he understood that I wanted to kiss him again. His lips met mine as I pulled the dress down, baring my breasts to his empty room. I wanted to try to shimmy the dress off my hips, but that would take more effort. Instead, I wound my hands up and over my head, wrapping them around his neck.

He began kissing below my ear, alternating between open-mouth kisses, feathery brushes, and enticing licks, wrapping his arms around my belly. Then he slid his hands up and over my breasts as my pebbly nipples dug into the warmth of his palms. I sighed, leaning backward into him so I could assess the hardness of his erection.

He wasn’t going to protest this time.

Twirling around again, I turned to face Maddox as he had to let go of me so I could move. I tiptoed backward deeper into the darkness of his bedroom as he took another step inside. Grabbing the sides of the dress, I began shimmying back and forth to get it over my hips. It was a pretty thing, but given another chance, I wouldn’t wear it again. As I moved the dress down my legs, gathering it together so I could toss it in a chair, Maddox turned the fireplace on. The shadows caused by the flames bounced around the room as I placed the dress in a chair.

I stood beside the bed, not too far in front of Maddox, ready and willing to be whatever he wanted me to be. I sucked on my lower lip, hoping this wouldn’t be the ultimate rejection he’d threatened.

“My God, you are unbelievably beautiful, Bailey.”

Even in the semi-darkness, I wondered if he could see the way my cheeks flamed at his statement, making me want to cover my body with my arms. But I refused. Unless and until he outright rejected me, I was going to stay here, baring both my body and soul.

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