Page 111 of The Broker

Noah had zero issues with this. His arms were around me and his mouth latched on to mine in a kiss that announced he had missed me as much as I’d missed him.

“Working late?” I asked when we finally came up for air.

He laughed, and it sounded sheepish. “Not really. I stayed because I wanted to see you.”

God, I loved that and snuggled deeper into his arms. “I wanted to see you too.”

“You did, huh?” He threaded a hand into my hair and peered at me with electric eyes, leaning in to kiss me again—

“We need to talk,” I said.

The second my words registered, he went wooden, and his expression blanked.

“Fuck,” I groaned. “I said that wrong. What I mean is, I have something I want to talk to you about.”

He let out a breath like he’d narrowly dodged a bullet. “Oh.” He chuckled, maybe needing it to release the tension in his body. “You know that phrase strikes fear in the heart of anyone who hears it.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

He showed me all was forgiven when he kissed me.

But his lush mouth was addictive and distracting, and when his tongue stroked against mine, the heat it caused was so intense, it burned away all thought. I gripped fistfuls of his shirt when he lifted me, rising onto his feet so suddenly that the chair beneath him rolled away.

My backside hit the desktop with a solidthumpas he seated me on it, and our kiss deepened further. It was aggressive. Urgent. I wasn’t the only one swept away by it, either.

Noah seemed just as consumed.

I tore my mouth away from his, just long enough to utter it. “We can talk later.” I found a better option. “After.”

“After.” The repeated word from him was half question, half agreement.

I sat on the edge of the desk with my legs parted around his hips and had one hand on the back of his neck, and the other clenched on his ass. He ground his lower body against me, sending sparks skittering up my spine, and I went breathless in an instant.

His hand worked itself under the hem of my t-shirt, fingertips sliding over my bare stomach, moving up until he gripped one of my bra-covered breasts. I sighed into his mouth and squeezed his ass in encouragement.

“After what, baby girl?” His tone was sinful, pure seduction. “After you let me get you naked, bend you over this desk, and fuck you senseless?”

The room was hazy with lust. It felt like it had been weeks since we’d been together, and not days, and it was difficult to keep my mind coherent enough to answer.

But when I opened my mouth to speak, Noah’s body solidified into cold stone.

We’d been too intoxicated with each other to hear the footsteps coming down the hall. It was why I flinched when my father’s booming voice flooded the room.

“What thefuck?”

TWENTY-NINE

Charlotte

Up until this point in my life, if anyone had asked me if Ardy Owens was a violent man, my answer would have been a solidno. But the way my father barreled into the room now had me second-guessing everything.

I turned on the desk just in time to see him charging at Noah and me, with a face full of fury, and I gasped. I was too stunned to do anything, so when Noah pulled me down off the desk and to the side, I stumbled on my feet.

He’d flung me aside, out of my father’s path, but in doing so, he’d given himself up. It made it easy for my father to latch his hands onto Noah’s shirt and jerk him close, thrusting the men face to face.

Time slowed when my father reared back with his right arm, closed his fist, and readied a punch. I moved before my mind could approve it, putting a hand on each of their chests and wedging myself between the men.

“Daddy, stop!” I cried.

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