Page 123 of Square Deal

I grabbed his ass and tugged him up higher so that I could kiss each and every ab. He groaned, so I urged him higher up and opened my mouth to taste the salty sweetness lingering on his hardened cock.

“Take it deep,” he demanded, surging farther into my mouth. I loved that he didn’t treat me like something breakable. I wasn’t a fragile porcelain doll to him. He took what he wanted and gave me twice as much.

I closed my lips around his shaft and sucked, hollowing my cheeks and swirling my tongue around the head. He grunted andgripped my hair at the roots. I breathed through the urge to gag when he thrust against the back of my throat.

The remnants of last night’s mascara began to streak down my cheeks. It didn’t matter how much you invested in quality cosmetics. If you gave good head, you were going to look like a hot mess.

And I was going at it like I was licking a melting popsicle on the Fourth of July.

“Fu—” Isaac nearly choked when I grazed the tip with my teeth and then took him deep. “I’m gonna come?—”

He tried to pull back, and I appreciated the thoughtfulness, but Mama didn’t raise a quitter. I grabbed his ass cheeks and held him in my mouth until he came with body-wracking tremors. I swallowed and licked my lips like it was the best damn thing I’d ever tasted.

Isaac kissed me on the mouth. “You know what they say about breakfast.”

“Most important meal of the day.” I winked.

He laughed hard and kissed me again. “Shower?”

“Good idea.”

We hopped in the water together and scrubbed the salt and sweat off our sticky skin. Sex was meant to be messy. If you were looking nice and neat by the end of it, you did it wrong.

Isaac wrapped a towel low around his hips and then draped one around my shoulders. “What time do you have to be at the inn?”

I hopped up on the edge of the sink and wrapped my arms around his neck. “What if I told you I’m letting one of my associate planners take the reins on her first event, and I’m only on call if needed?”

“Reaaaally,” he said, drawing it out. “That doesn’t sound like the Hell Yes Ma’am I know and love… And fear.”

I smiled against his lips. “Say it again.”

“I’m fucking terrified of you.”

I swatted at his chest. “Not that. The other thing.”

Isaac chuckled. “I love you, Hannah Jane.”

“I never get tired of hearing you say that.”

He pecked my lips and helped me down. We retreated to our separate corners of my bedroom to get dressed. Me, from my walk-in closet, and him from his trusty suitcase. “You know,” he said as he used my steamer on a button-up shirt. “The, uh, whole leaving stuff at your place could go both ways. Next time you come up to Manhattan, bring some stuff along to keep at my apartment.”

I laughed as I stood in front of the full-length mirror in my lace bra and panties and set my hair in hot rollers. “You sayapartmentas if it isn’t bigger than my house.”

He smirked. “Semantics. Life in the city.”

“You mean it, though?” I asked with hairpins trapped between my lips. “About me leaving stuff at your place?”

“Of course,” he said as he buttoned up his dress shirt. “I want you to be comfortable there. I’m trying to spend more time in this time zone, which unfortunately still puts me six hundred miles away from you. But uh, I don’t know. Maybe we could split time between New York and here. Maddie and Luca make it work.”

I flipped his collar down and brushed away some nonexistent lint. It’s not that I was avoiding going to stay with him in Manhattan. I was just holding on to the dream that maybe I could get him to fall in love with Beaufort.

I was high maintenance, but a city girl, I was not. I enjoyed the occasional visit, but I liked knowing everyone in town. I loved the gossip. The community.

I couldn’t imagine not having Chase as my neighbor, or not working across the street from Maddie. I couldn’t imagine going to a bar and Bridget not being there to mix my drink. I couldn’t imagine life without Steve, Erica, Kristin, and Mel. They were my found family.

“Let me,” I said gently as he began to tie his necktie. I nimbly folded and tugged it into a perfect Windsor knot.

“You’re good,” he said, half-amused.

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