Page 35 of The Broker

“What the hell do I do now?” I said to the empty passenger seat of my car. I’d only prepared for a few scenarios, and all of them had hinged on him responding to my text message.

I checked my watch, telling myself I’d give him another five minutes to respond. It was mid-afternoon, so it was possible he was in the office or out at a meeting.

Seven long minutes ticked by before I sighed, reached over, and grabbed the handle of my bucket. He wasn’t home, and I was already here. Might as well get the job done.

I punched in my code to the garage door, stepped inside, and immediately slipped off my shoes. The house was disappointingly quiet and dark. I tightened my grip on the bucket handle and walked to the kitchen—only to pull to a stop.

“Hello?” I called.

There was no answer. There weren’t any traces that Noah was home, but something felt strange. Off. I got the sense I wasn’t alone.

The bottles of cleaner inside my bucket rattled quietly as I padded on my bare feet onto the cold tile floor of his kitchen. It made no sense for me to move with stealth, but I did anyway. Maybe part of me hoped to catch him by surprise, to see Noah in the wild.

There were no dirty dishes stacked beside the sink like there had been last time. In fact, the kitchen seemed to be in decent shape. I smiled to myself. Was he picking up some good habits?

I set my cleaning supplies down on the island and scanned the room. My first sweep would be decluttering and then I’d—

A pleasure-soaked moan came from his bedroom.

The sound of it was unmistakable and it wrapped around my body, squeezing me so tightly, I forgot how to breathe. My heart stumbled and beat faster. Had he not answered my text because he’d pulled one of the toys from his sex drawer and was too busy getting himself off?

A smart, professional person would have made a quiet exit so her client would never have known she’d stopped by. I knew the appropriate thing to do, yet I couldn’t stop myself. An invisible force propelled me forward, and I moved down the hallway on silent feet.

I ignored the way his deep moan was followed with a softer, feminine one.He’s watching porn,I thought. My brain refused to recognize that he might not be alone in his bedroom, so I was completely unprepared for the sight waiting for me when I reached the edge of his open door and peered around the corner.

His bed was a mess.

The sheet was a twisted rope, spilling over the side, and clothes were scattered across the floor. My gaze lifted to take in the tangled bodies on the mattress, and I went utterly still. It was an unnerving feeling to be suddenly icy cold and scorching hot at the same time, and it meant I couldn’t move. My feet became concrete, anchored to the floor.

Sweat glistened on Noah’s bare skin as he cradled the woman’s hips and thrust into her from behind. They were both on their knees, but she was bent at the waist and face down on the mattress, her arms outstretched in front of her.

She wasn’t completely naked like he was; she wore a garter belt, dark thigh-high stockings, and a black blindfold that pinned her red hair in place.

As he fucked her, the redhead’s fingers clawed mindlessly at the sheet beneath them. She reached for and found the headboard, making the large wedding ring on her left hand sparkle in the light.

TEN

Charlotte

My brain emptied at the sight of Noah fucking a married woman, and my face heated to a million degrees. I’d seen this redhead before and envied her, but today? Oh, Ihatedher. Not just because she was clearly cheating on her husband, but because of the man she was doing it with.

He’s supposed to be mine,a bratty voice whined in the back of my mind.

God, I shouldn’t have wanted him anymore. I fucking hated cheaters, and this should have been an enormous bucket of water extinguishing any flame that burned for him.

But it had barely any effect.

Worse, I immediately began to justify what he was doing.Hewasn’t technically cheating—he wasn’t even in a relationship with anybody.

As I stared at the writhing couple on the bed, a thousand good reasons to turn and walk away played through my mind. And yet I remained, completely transfixed. The power of them together had an inescapable grip on me.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to escape either.

The sight of them, ofhimlike this, was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen. The redhead was beautiful. She was probably twentyyears older than I was, and had a body to die for, one far superior to mine. She was stretched out across the bed, her perfect ass up for him, and there was barely a hint of jiggle as Noah’s hips crashed against her.

His hands were clenched on her so tightly, there were dents in her skin around his fingers, but he needed to hold on like that. It was because his tempo was punishing, unrelenting. The sharp slap of their bodies meeting punched through the air over and over again.

All my blood rushed to the apex of my thighs, and I squeezed against it, causing a deep ache of pleasure.

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