Page 80 of Salvaged Hearts

He certainly would not get the details onthat. The woman was delectable. Pure, undiluted, unfragranced perfection. If a man is going to eat a girl out, he wants to savorpussy, not some chemical concoction they sell them with promises of rose-tainted cunt.

She was bare and beautiful and entirely at my mercy.

She was…Alice wasa vision. A figment of my imagination brought to life. Even as I stared holes into my brother’s counter, it was her body in my mind. The pale, peaked arch of her breasts, the bow of her spine as she came undone under my hands, her ass in the air for me as I buried myself to the hilt, the cry ofmyname off her lips.

In one night, she’d robbed more of me than I’d ever cared to share. She looked like she was going to cry after I came that first time, and I couldn’t have that. Couldn’t let her let down like that. So, I’d done the only thing a man can do—I served herpleasure until her body went limp and sated, her breathtaking face relaxed as she willingly curled into my side. Even the focus line between her brows melted away, and I counted that as a victory. Some primal piece of me wanted to throw caution to the wind, my body begging to feel her bare. It took all my control to think clearly. To remember why that could never happen.

But the entire time…all I could think as I ravaged her wasmine.

“I can’t explain it,” I growled, resuming my pacing. “It’s never been like that.”

“So, you connected,” Ollie said with a shrug. “The chemistry was on point. Don’t have a stroke over it.”

“She’smy wife,” I breathed as panic rooted deeper.

This time, a coughing fit accompanied his snort, like he’d attempted to inhale the scalding liquid in his hand.Good. Karma was a bitch, and sometimes that bitch was instant. Unamused, I arched a brow and watched him laugh-choke-splutter back into coherent words.

“Right. She’syour wife. If you were going to experience some spiritual connection with a woman, isn’t that who it’ssupposedto be?”

“In ordinary circumstances? Maybe. But this isn’t that, and you know it.”

“You lusted after the woman for two years. In close ass proximity, at that. Couldn’t escape each other,” he said, shaking his head for emphasis. “Are you really shocked it was good?”

“It wasn’t like that.”It was.It was like that. I just didn’t think it was so fucking obvious.

“Bullshit. You forget yourself, big brother. You kept her close; you refused to even lend her out to other departments. She’s theonlyPA you let travel with you.”

“She doesn’t annoy me like the others,” I grumbled, but it just made his punch-able face smugger.

“Who was on your arm for every gala?”

“That’s beside the point?—”

“Who did you drag toassist youon family trips?”

“She’s like a walking encyclopedia of?—”

He cut me off again, looking all too self-satisfied for my liking, as he slid off his chair and leaned an elbow on the back of it. “Trouble comes down the pipeline, and it’sheryou consult,heryou allow to run damage control even with Tiffany still on board, andheryou propose to for an elaborate coverup of a media mess.”

“She knew too much?—”

“And was the only woman in the photos? Yeah, I know how you justified it. But this isn’t anewattraction.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Alice

“Don’t I?You’re seriously telling me that your irritation over the last few years wasn’t fueled by the fact that you wanted to do the horizontal cha-cha but couldn’t?” Leighton pursed her lips in that know-it-all way of hers, cocking her head to the side. My wide-eyed silence had a feline smile lifting her cheeks as she kicked her feet back on the barstool beside her. “Sissy, I mean this with a great deal of love, but you’re being ridiculous. Attraction, once buried, seems to manifest as irritation, and you let that man call all your shots for years while whining about it the entire time.”

“He wasmy boss,” I complained, “that’s kind of the name of the job.”

“Hating his guts wasn’t in the job description, but you managed. Hell, you built him up to be some abominable monster when, in reality, he’s actually a very considerate, very protective, very kind man.” She bounced her head from side to side, her mess of hair swaying as she weighed her words. “Albeit a little bossy, he is a billionaire. It’s to be expected.” The last words came out the side of her mouth before she pursed it.

“He called me?—”

“A country bumpkin. Yes. I know.Your great-grandchildrenwill know the tale because you immortalized it in all our brains while you painted him as the heartless dragon. Hell hath no fury like a Rhodes, scorned.”

“He can be such an ass,” I protested. “It’s not like Iimagined it. He could give frost giants frostbite.”

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