Page 29 of Kissed and Missed

It’s faintly alarming how deeply I’ve come to trust her in such a short period of time, but I don’t have a single doubt that she would be excellent.

The woman in question wipes her cheeks again as she sets her phone down beside her, staring out at the ocean. Finally, she swings her legs over the side of the lounger instead and gets to her feet, meeting my eye as she opens the glass door and steps back into the living room.

“Are you alright?” I ask automatically, alarmed by the redness around her eyes.

Honor nods, offering me a wobbly attempt at a smile. “I’m okay. That was… it was my friend Sophie.”

“Oh,” I answer lamely, unsure of whether I should press further.

She slides her phone into her back pocket and wraps her arms around her middle. “We live together. Anyway, she’s an engineer, and she actually works at my dad’s firm.”

“That’s, ah, cool?” I say, unsure what about this warrants her current state.

Honor winces. “Maybe six months ago, my sister told me they have a thing for each other. I figured she was just being gross and teasing me, you know?”

I swallow with difficulty. “She wasn’t teasing you.”

With an unsteady laugh, Honor looks over her shoulder toward the window then down to the floor, clearly at a loss for what to do with herself. Without thinking, I take a step forward and freeze when my brain catches up to my body. It’s clear by the wounded look on her face that she didn’t miss it.

She wants me to hold her.

I want to hold her.

The only thing wrong here is our circumstances.

Finally, Honor shakes her head. “Apparently she’s in love with my dad. She didn’t mean for it to happen, but it did.” She stares at the floor, as if willing herself not to cry.

I swallow. “I’m sorry. That’s… that’s tough.”

It’s technically the correct thing to say, but I know instantly it was the wrong one. With a sharp nod and one last pained smile, she moves past me, heading toward the stairs. Frozen to the spot, I stare blankly at the place where she was just spinning, filled with something like grief that I can’t follow her.

If I did, though, what could I say? She is leaving tomorrow, and as it is, my kid barely speaks to me. I can’t ruin whatever chance I have left of building a relationship with her for a woman I barely know.

It hurts. Fuck me, does it ever hurt, but there’s no way around it. I have to let her go.

18

JULIAN

PRESENT

“Oh god, oh god, oh god?—”

Above my head, Honor’s breathy chants turn to moans as I drag my tongue over her swollen clit, groaning as a fresh wave of arousal coats my tongue. Her fingers tighten in my hair, hips lifting off the mattress as I coax another orgasm from her shaking body.

We got back to the suite maybe twenty minutes ago, after spending nearly six hours in the downstairs ballroom approving everything from appetizers to the band for the gala tomorrow night.

Honor was in her element, bustling around with her tablet, assigning jobs and marking off others. After seeing her like that, managing people, listening to their opinions and concerns, I’m even more confident in my decision to put her in place as the head of The Ballard Fund.

She has a way of making people feel heard and turning them the way she needs them to go without being controlling. My entire staff is charmed by her. People I’ve worked with for yearswho haven’t so much as smiled in my presence, are laughing and cracking jokes. I’ve never felt more a part of my own team than I did today, and it’s entirely due to Honor.

Before we left for the evening, everything was well in hand, and morale seemed to be at an all-time high. The elevator doors had barely closed behind us before I was backing her into the nearest wall, silencing her gasp of surprise with a deep, hungry kiss.

When it opened again, both of us were panting and wild-eyed. The security posted up and down the third floor averted their eyes as we approached, and it was all I could do to keep my hands off her in the thirty seconds it took to go from the elevator to the privacy of our suite.

As the door closed behind us, it occurred to me that I couldn’t give less of a shit about the gala, or the charity, or my businesses. In that moment, the only thing on my mind, the only important thing in the entire goddamn world, was worshiping this woman until she begged me to stop.

The first flat surface we encountered was the narrow, wood console table just inside the entryway. In a matter of seconds, her skirt, stockings, and panties were gone, and I’d lifted her onto the table, shoving her legs apart without ceremony.

---