Page 54 of This Is Love (The Light to My Darkness 3)

“Impossible.”

“You don’t want to be with me anymore.”

“That couldn’t be farther from the truth. I want to be with you every second of every day.” Until I take my dying breath.

“Then why were you in London?” She shoved the chair back from the desk and stood up. Her sadness was replaced with anger. She looked like she wanted to punch me. “Who was that woman you were with? Why else would you not want me to remember that day?”

“Because I wasn’t there when you needed me. And I’ll feel guilty about that until the day I die.” Most people said those words with empty promises. But my day was sooner than she realized. And I meant every word.

“And the brunette?”

“I wanted to give you a present before Liam was born. The book you wrote is brilliant. Those agents that rejected you wouldn’t know a good piece of fiction if you shoved it down their throats. I got you what you wanted. And going with a London imprint provides more anonymity. I have all the papers back in New York. From what I can tell, the advance is very generous. They just need your signature.”

The anger disappeared from her face. “She’s a literary agent?” She shook her head and the anger was back.

“Your literary agent. If you want. Of course it’s up to you. But I wanted to give your book the exposure it deserved.”

She scoffed. “The kind I could never get based off of the words I wrote alone?”

“That’s not…”

“You promised you wouldn’t interfere. I wanted to do this one thing on my own.”

“And you still can if you want to. Or you can take the deal. It’s good, Penny. She was passionate about the project.”

“Or was she passionate about getting to work with you?” She lifted up a stapler off the desk and threw it at me.

I dodged it and it slammed against the wall, exploding staples every which way. “What the hell was that?”

“We’ll never know if I had what it takes now, James! I asked you not to help me!” She picked up a cup filled with pens.

I held up my hands in front of me. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“By sneaking around behind my back and making me think you were being unfaithful?!” She threw the cup at me. “Spoiler alert, your fake affair didn’t worsen the blow!”

I dodged the cup but got hit by a few stray pens. “Penny, I did it for you!”

“For me? Really? Because I had this one thing. One thing I did on my own. Can’t you see how much I needed this? God!” She wiped underneath her eyes, spreading more blackness across her cheek. “I need a few minutes alone.” She turned away from me. “Just…get out.”

“It’s my office.”

She stormed over to me. “Not anymore. And I’m not some naïve 19-year-old girl upset about a grade. This meant everything to me, James.” She poked me in the middle of the chest. “It’s the only thing I ever wanted to do on my own and you fucked it all up. You did the exact opposite of what I wanted. It’s like you don’t listen to me at all. I don’t know why I ever let you read it in the first place.”

It was like she had turned back time. She was a student again. Yelling at me about her grade. I felt my cock harden, pressing against the front of my pants. All I wanted to do was bend her over and spank her perfect ass. I loved how worked up she was. There was nothing better than fucking her when she was pissed off at me.

She made the first move before. All those years ago, her anger turned to passion. Today it didn’t look like she was going to stop being angry anytime soon. So I made the first move before I busted the zipper on my pants.

I grabbed the back of her neck, pulling her lips to mine. I expected her to push me away. To slap me. To tell me to screw myself. Instead, she moaned into my mouth. I let my hands slip to her ass and lifted her legs around me. Her body fused with mine as I slammed her back against the adjacent wall. A certificate swung off its nail and crashed to the floor.

Penny tugged on my hair to deepen the kiss, but I pulled away.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered against her lips, our breath colliding in pants.

Her fingers dug into the back of my neck. “I don’t forgive you,” she said. But her voice was airy with desire. She knew how similar this was to our first time. She wanted this just as badly as I did. Which was why the next few words came out so easily.

“You’re infuriating, Penny.”

“Then punish me, Professor Hunter.”

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