Page 84 of Wicked & Wildflower

I sigh against her chest, feeling her body tense beneath my mouth.

“Answer the fucking phone, Everett!” It’s my brother’s voice that booms from the other side of the door. “Adam is downstairs, and he’d like to go home. He’s wondering where you are, since you’resupposedto be relieving him.”

“Goddammit,” I mutter.

Moving back up, I take Dahlia’s face between my hands, planting a soft kiss against her mouth. “I’m so sorry,” I say, pressing my lips to each cheek. “I’m sorry.” Then her jaw. “I’ve got to go cover the desk.” Then her nose. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” she says breathlessly. “We were probably getting a little carried away for the workplace anyway.”

I pull back to smirk at her before planting one more kiss on her mouth. “Don’t leave for the day until I come back, okay?”

She nods. “I’ve got to pick up Lou from your mom’s at five o’clock, though.”

I forgot Dahlia had asked my mother to pick Lou up from school today, since she wasn’t sure how long our meeting with Dawn Patrol would last and Darby’s working on the finishing touches for the flower shop before it opens.

“I’ll be back before then.”

“Okay,” she says, giving me a coy smile as I stand and readjust my hard-on.

Just as I reach her office door, I find myself doubling back. She’s surprised as I take her face between my palms again and kiss her one more time. “I can’t get enough.”

She’s laughing by the time I finally make it out the door.

27

Wicked

Not Finished With You Yet

Please. Please. Please. Can you pick up Lou from Mom’s?

At five o’clock. PLEASE.

You’re desperate.

Unashamedly so. Please, Leo.

Fine, but you owe me.

The minutes tick by painfully slowly as I wait until it’s time to close the shop. Leo comes down the stairs just before five o’clockand lets me know he informed Dahlia he’d go pick up Lou. Then, just after five, I see Scarlett and Jeremiah leave together.

Jeremiah doesn’t speak to me anymore. I don’t give a shit.

Because I know Dahlia’s up in that office by herself, waiting for me, not for him.

It's five-thirty-three when I lock the doors and close up Heathen’s. We’re supposed to be open until six, but I haven’t had a customer in over an hour, and I know if Darby was sitting in that office upstairs wearing a tight ass skirt and waiting for my brother, he’d do the same fucking thing.

I quickly close the till and balance the books before shutting off the lights and bounding up the staircase two at a time. The office is dark when I slip inside, only the dim glow of Dahlia’s office light glowing behind her closed door.

I enter without knocking, and she looks up at me from behind her desk. The blue light of her laptop reflects on her face as she cocks her head. “Leo asked me to stay late, that he’d pick up Lou, but I don’t kno—”

“I’m not finished with you yet.” My steps are purposeful and quick as I round her desk and spin her chair to face me. She watches with me with wide, shocked eyes as I slowly lower to my knees in front of her. “I told you I was going to devour every inch of your body, show you all the things I can do with my mouth.” I press my lips against her outer knee, keeping my eyes on her. “Are you going to let me finish what I started, Wildflower?”

“Everett.” She tosses her head back, her delicate throat moving as a moan crawls its way out. “This…” Her body tenses as I brush my lips up her leg. “Is supposed to be….” Her fingers knot in my hair. “Fake.”

This woman must be doing something to me, the way she causes me to have a visceral fucking reaction to a single word. I swear to God, I’m going to obliteratefakefrom her vocabulary.

I pull away, letting my mouth hover just above her skin, far enough away that it denies her the satisfaction of my touch, but close enough that she can feel my breath as I whisper, “That’s not what I asked. Tell me: do you want this?”

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