Page 26 of Midnight Kisses

For now? Orgasms.

CHAPTER 9

MILES

After her thirdorgasm of the morning, Perry fell back asleep.

I slipped out of bed carefully, so as not to wake her, and fetched a new bottle of water. With a smug grin, I put it within her reach on the bedside table.

She said hydration was important for her skin and she’d certainly lost enough other fluids in the last 24 hours.

It was six-thirty, which was later than I usually got out of bed, but I felt fucking great. Hottie in my bed, good sex, mystery of who she was solved, and some fuckingsleep. Everything was excellent.

After a quick shower—I used the guest bathroom down the hall to avoid waking Perry—I stared into the depths of the fridge. On weekends I usually had brunch with Matty, and on weekdays I stole a piece of fruit off Sadie’s desk. Luckily, Mum had threatened to come by tomorrow after some shopping, so I’d preemptively added some bagels to my usual supermarket order. I pulled out the bagels and a bunch of stuff that could go on them, and scrolled bullshit on my phone while I waited for theespresso machine to heat up. It made a noise like a screaming cat, so I’d wait until Perry was up to start grinding the beans.

I thought waiting for a sleeping person to wake would irk me—I’d imagined it would be like being on a red eye flight and everyone on the plane was asleep except me. I would fidget in my seat, silently getting more and more resentful until it took all my willpower not to turn on all my overhead lights and shout and bang things. But I hadn’t given into these urges since I was a teenager. Ah, fond memories.

Today I felt great. It should have occurred to me earlier that having a sex partner stay all night would be triple the good effect of someone who left after the first round.

Or maybe it was Perry.

“What’s all this?”

Perry-with-the-pretty-pussy was standing in my kitchen, barefoot in her slinky white dress. She looked good in my house. My dick thought so too, interest stirring like I was twenty again. That was the Perry effect. It still surprised me that I hadn’t wanted to let her go last night, but I felt even more strongly about it this morning than I had then. When she’d made to leave, everything within me had shoutedno fucking way. That, and the way she’d nestled into my arms; her air of calm so potent it extended out over me. I really couldn’t remember laughing with someone like I had last night. Perry was sweet, but she had enough edge to think I was funny, which sweet girls usually didn’t. Sweet girls (correctly) pegged me as a prick, so maybe instead of finding Perry charming, I should be worrying about her lack of self-preservation.

That wouldn’t be in my best interest though.

I’d already scrapped my original plan to fuck her out of my system last night, and had gone as far as asking her to stay. I watched her push a bagel down in the toaster, shooting a furtive look at me from under her lashes as she did so.

With that one look, the plan that had been dancing at the edges of my mind all morning locked into place.

If there was one thing I was good at, it was charting a course that was bold, and steering us through it despite seemingly impossible odds. Bravery and sheer bloody mindedness always yielded success in business, and I could apply those same skills to guarantee success here too.

Sweet Perry. She had no idea when she took that silly bathroom job that I was going to rock her world.

I tilted my neck from side to side, easing the cricks, like I always did before I laid out an audacious plan in the boardroom.

“Your shower pressure is excellent,” she said.

“It is, isn’t it?”

“And you have proper big towels. I hate when hotels don’t have towels big enough for me. Like I have an hour to spend dabbing myself dry with a square washcloth.”

I murmured agreement and said, “Let’s get you caffeinated. I have some things I want to sound out. How do you take your coffee?”

She cocked her head. “Bagelsandcoffee. Wow. I thought you were going to be a ‘your ride share is outside’kind of guy.”

I put a hand on my chest like this wasn’t the absolute truth. “Perry, don’t wound me.”

“Ah, yes, your one feeling.”

“Two, now.” I reminded her.

“Espresso with milk, no sugar, please.”

“Coming up.”

“Shall I fix the bagels?”

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