She’s crying. Dammit. I’ve probably just given her nightmares for the rest of her life. All I ever wanted to do wasmake her life better, lift her up, and I’ve just dragged her down into the filth that is my life.

Tears run down her cheeks, streaking her makeup. My hands twitch by my side. I just want to pull her in and hold her. She’d probably slap my hands away. I deserve it.

“I’ve already seen the real you,” she says, so quietly I almost miss it. “And I’m still here.”

She can’t mean it. I’m just staring at her like an idiot when she closes the gap between us and kisses me. It’s only when she’s pressed against me that I feel my body come back to my life, and my brain kicks on again because she’s here. She’s still here. My Ella.

Her kisses are salt-stained for what I hope is the last time ever. I can’t get enough of them, or of her. She’s staying. Our touches are frantic and hungry, the kiss deepening as her fingers work at undoing my belt.

I break the contact just to pull her sweater off, then crush her lips against mine again, my tongue tangling with hers and she tastes so sweet. Ella’s busy, pushing down my pants and freeing my cock from my briefs. It’s already hard for her. All she has to do is look at me, and I’m ready to go.

She drops to her knees, and I just about melt then and there. The way she looks up at me with those doe eyes makes me groan. Her lips part, and her tongue flicks out across the head of my cock, tasting my precum.

I fist my finger in her hair, holding the back of her head as she sucks me into her mouth. It’s all I can do not to buck forward and bury the rest of my cock down her throat, she feels that good. Her tongue is swirling while she starts to slide her mouth up and down my shaft, taking a little more of me each time.

“Such a good girl,” I moan, feeling the head hit the back of her throat.

She just takes it. The sight is too good to be true, the way her lips are stretched around the fattest part, her perfect breasts jiggling. Ella on her knees in my office? Dream come true.

I tilt her head back just a little for a better view and slide forward until I’m nearly fully buried in her mouth. It gets me so close, I have to pull back out and drag her up to her feet.

“My turn,” I say, pushing her back against the desk until her ass hits it. I lift her up the rest of the way onto it and push up that teasing little skirt until her panties are bared for me.

“Anton,” she says, protesting, but I ignore her and pull her panties to the side.

“I need to taste you.”

She’s as sweet as I’d imagined. I lap at her pussy, savoring every moan I draw out of her, every twist of her fingers in my hair. She takes a page from my book and wraps her hand around the back of my head to lock me in place, but I need no encouragement. Nothing could make me stop.

I swirl my tongue over her clit until she’s panting, then lick long, slow strokes up the length of her pussy. She’s sopping wet, so I slide two fingers inside of her, curling them to hit that spot she loves so much as I flick my tongue.

Her thighs wrap around my head and clamp as her orgasm hits and there’s no place I’d rather be. Suffocate me here, and I’ll die happy. But my cock has other ideas. I stand and slide it in while she’s still quivering, seating myself deep inside of her.

The feel of her gripping my cock is too much. She’s the best thing I’ve ever felt, and I drive into her with abandon,knowing she can take it. Beneath us, the desk shakes but holds. For now.

I can’t get deep enough, hard enough; my body just craves more of her. I bottom out, then pull all the way out again, leaving just the tip inside of her. She squirms, desperate for me, and when I roll my hips and sink inside again, it brings me to the edge.

She matches every one of my thrusts with a twist of her hips, and soon the pace is mind-blowing, my heart pounding in my chest. The desk groans a protest, but there’s nothing that’s going to stop me right now, not even if we shatter it. One more thrust and she tightens around me, her orgasm pushing me past the brink of my own.

“Oh fuck,” I pant, driving one last deep thrust into her as cum pumps from my cock, filling up that perfect pussy.

We come down slowly, her head against my chest as I support her, holding her close so she doesn’t have to lean against the hardwood of the desk. She exhales, blowing hair out of her face.

Walking her fingers up my side, tracing my heaving breaths, she says, “I want to be with you.”

It takes a long moment for the words to sink in and register. “Really? You’re sure?”

“About you,” she clarifies, her fingers passing the dip at the base of my throat and moving up to stroke my jaw. “Yes. But I’m not ready to be involved with your whole world. The other side of it. It’s just too much for me right now.”

I prefer it that way anyway. I’ll do everything to keep her safe, regardless of how involved in the world she is, but it makesmy life easier if she wants to keep some separation there rather than diving right in.

“That’s fine. Perfect, actually.” I hug her close. “You can just keep doing what we’ve been doing, helping me with the legitimate side of things. You’re amazing there.”

She’s amazing anywhere, and I’ll take her any way she’ll let me have her. As long as Ella is in my life, I can carry on. Relief is a sensation headier than any orgasm, and it floods my body, leaving me gummy-legged. She’s not leaving. She’s staying. She’s mine.

Chapter 20 - Ella

I really never thought I’d be back here, but I’m back in the office working side by side with Anton again. If I’m honest with myself, I think I’m just pretending that a certain part of his life doesn’t exist. That it was just a nightmare. It’s easy to do when we’re talking over contracts at his desk or meeting with contractors at business dinners. Then, I’m so immersed in everything, so caught up in doing what I love, that I forget for a minute what’s behind the curtain.