Page 90 of Owen North

“Fuck,” I rasp, coming up for air. “We’re skipping dinner.”

Charlize’s hands come to my chest as she shakes her head. Lust is written so damn sexily all over her that it takes everything in me to hear her out when she opens her mouth to speak. “We’re not skipping dinner,” she says. “You’re not undoing all your hard work by not showing up.”

I press myself against her and drop my mouth to her neck again.

She moans when I bite her, giving me her fingers in my hair again.

However, when I reach up to slide her dress off her shoulders, she stops me. “Owen, no.” She puts her hands to my chest and pushes me away. “We’re not having sex. We’re getting dressed and we’re going to dinner. And then, when we’ve finished dinner, we’re coming back here and you’re sleeping on the sofa. I mean, I would, but I already know you’ll boss me into taking the bed, so I’m just saving us that discussion which would be extra time together in which your dick might accidentally fall in me.” She takes a deep breath, looking so fucking sexy in her bewildered, turned-on state. She then smooths her dress and adds, “I’ll do up my own buttons even if it means I have to figure out how to become a contortionist. You go”—she waves her hands at me like she’s shooing me away—“and put some damn clothes on.”

I don’t go.

I don’t even begin to move.

Instead, I say, “If you think my dick will ever accidentally fall in you, you have no idea how fucking much I want you, Charlize. I spend my days thinking about how I can get you alone, about how I can convince you to spend time with me, about how I can persuade you that I’ll meet all your high expectations and give you the emotional commitment you need. I think about the fact that I’d skip time in the gym for you, that I’d put work aside for you, that I’d do things for you that I’ve never contemplated doing for any woman.” My eyes bore into hers. “Nothing I do with you will ever be accidental. Not when I’m deliberately going out of my way to make you mine.”

Charlize looks like she’s momentarily forgotten how to breathe.

She also appears lost for words.

Then, she shows me why I’m deliberately going out of my way to make her mine.

She inhales a breath and says, “I knew you were going to be trouble from the moment you said I was intriguing that night we met. And then, when you knew exactly how to ease my nerves later in your hotel room by sharing your Truth or Dare confession with me,thatwas the moment I really grasped it.” She pauses and when she speaks again, her voice is quieter, less sure. “I’ve only ever been with men who didn’t know a thing about vulnerability. No one has ever been willing to get as naked with me as you have, Owen. And that’s in just a week. I’m not sure I’ll be any good at this with you.”

I will never get enough of Charlize’s honesty. It blazes from her in ways I don’t think she’s even aware of.

“You’re already good at it. Trust me on that.”

She breathes another long breath in. “This was just supposed to be me using you for sex for a year. I think you’ve gone and ruined that now.”

“I fucking hope so.”

Another breath makes its way into her lungs before she finally relaxes and gives me one of her fake stern looks I like far too much. “This doesn’t change anything. We’re still going to dinner. And also, if you think any of this means I’m going to start negotiating dresses with you, you are very mistaken.”

My lips quirk. “Turn around so I can do this dress up. The last thing I want is you hurting yourself while trying to do it.”

She allows me to do the dress up.

I then finish dressing and we go to dinner.

I sit through two hours of excruciating business talk.

Not once in my life have I thought any kind of business discussion was torturous, but that was before I met Charlize.

There’s not one minute of this dinner that I don’t imagine her dress falling to the floor, my lips brushing across the insides of her thighs, her legs around my neck.

She’s more than a distraction and I can no longer resist her.

20

Charlize

Idrink three glasses of champagne during dinner and do inappropriate things to Owen under the table. In my defense, waking up with his arms around me and his erection pressing against me started all this. I blame him for all the things I did today that weren’t in line withmanaginghim.

Also, if he ever wants me to keep my hands off him again, he should stop sharing his heart with me like he did last night when he told me about the expectations his parents have of him.

Holy mother of lust, I’ve never been with a man who is so open to slicing into his heart and showing me what’s in there. I never knew just how much a guy doing that could affect me. To say it makes me want to demand he never wear clothes again is putting it mildly.

We have dinner with Mathius Boehme and his wife, Tina. He’s one of the investors Owen signed today. The one I actually liked. I also like his wife. I think these facts go a long way to helping me relax so much during dinner that my brain somehow convinces my body to make obscene advances to Owen under the table.

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