Page 33 of Abyss

She swallows, trying to scoot further into her side unsuccessfully, and I’m distracted by that, too. The soft bob of her throat, her tanned skin that looks satiny and sweet. The way her thighs fill out that skirt . . .

“I’m sorry.” I roll my head against the headrest with a frown. “I promise, I tried not to be one for as long as I could.”

She ogles me. “Oh, did you? I’m sure that was quite the feat for you. Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

I shake my head, my vision shaking along with it. “No, but it is supposed to make you feelsomething.”

She huffs out a deprecating laugh, mumbling, “Unbelievable,” under her breath.

Our car stops in front of our hotel, but I don’t move, my fingers wrapping around her wrist when she starts to pull open her door. A silence hangs between us momentarily after she turns to meet my gaze.

I open and close my mouth, my attempts to articulate a single thought seeming futile. “I’m sorry I embarrassed you tonight,” I finally manage, the words feeling heavy over my lips, my chest.

My hand tightens slightly over her wrist like a plea . . . a need for her to understand.

She sighs, whether in frustration or relief, I can’t be sure, but if I had to guess, it would be the former. “You didn’t embarrass me, Hudson. You almost cost us the deal. A deal your entire company has worked hard for and deserves to win.” She shakes her hand. “How could you threaten Corbin like that?”

“Like what?” I say louder than I’d like, immediately regretting it when she flinches. “I told him he either takes his hands off your waist or we’d walk out, deal or not. He was fucking touching you!”

“Yes, and that was reckless of you,” she argues, shifting onthe seat. “You can’t jeopardize something so huge for your company like that. You wouldn’t have said it if you weren’t drinking.”

I smile, thumb brushing the inside of her wrist as my eyes drop to her lips. “You sure about that?”

Her soft breath tickles my skin, chest rising and falling as her raspy whisper hangs in the space between us. “We should get you inside.”

I nod reluctantly, running my hands down my face, as she pulls away.

Fuck, what the hell is wrong with me?

I wish I could say it’s just the alcohol or the stress over wanting to win this deal over the past few months, but I know I’d be lying to myself.

With some help from the driver, I amble out of the car, my feet not quite recalling what feet are supposed to do. Seeing me struggle, Kavi presses against my side, curling her arm around my waist, while quite literally holding me upright. And because I like the way she feels, and smells, and looks, I pull her closer, my arm wrapped around her shoulder.

We hobble inside, swaying as we do, before stepping into the elevator. At some point while she’s tracking the floors changing on the digital counter, I place my nose in her soft hair, unabashedly taking a whiff. “God, you smell so fucking goo—”

I don’t finish that sentence, incomprehensibly stumbling back against the wall behind me and taking her with me. Her soft chuckle hits my ears first, alerting the rest of my senses, and my hand clasps around her hip, pulling her ass over my erection. “Kav.”

She turns around in my arms, soft hands cupping my face, thumbs running over my scruff. “Hudson, listen to me. I’m going to take you to your room and get you into bed—”

“Now you’re talkin’.” My dick twitches inside my pants;though, I’ll be honest, I’m not one hundred percent sure he’s going to display his Olympic prowess tonight. You know, beingslightlyinebriated and all.

“We have to be at RCS’s office by eight-thirty tomorrow, which means only about five hours of sleep.” She locks her arm around my waist as soon as the elevator doors open, pulling me forward.

I stumble behind her, trying to stay quiet in the halls, when she tells me to shush.

Jesus. She tells me to shush like I’m a child and not a forty-six-year-old man. Since when did she get this spine and sass?

And fuck, I’m a forty-six-year-old man.

“Do you like age gap?”

Her nose wrinkles as she stalks toward my room. Coming to a stop in front of it, she waits for me to find my key, taking it from my fumbling fingers when I can’t steady it enough to open the door.

When the hell did I get this slightly inebriated?

Pushing the door open, she waits inside before I follow. I immediately shuffle over to the bed, falling on it face first. My eyelids feel like dead weights, dragging me down into the pits of a deep slumber.

Seconds later, she’s jostling my shoulder. “Hudson?” She tugs at my feet, removing my shoes, before she’s back at my shoulder. “Hudson? Can you drink this water? I had Tylenol in my purse. Take it so you don’t have a massive headache in the morning.”

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