Page 87 of Pride
Then he climbed back on to lie beside me, twisted the cap off the water bottle, and told me to drink.
I shuffled up the mattress so I could sip from the bottle, and as I did, he said, “Was that your first time having multiple orgasms?”
I nodded as I gulped the water down, not realising how thirsty I was.
“Get used to it,” he said with a smile. “I’ll be giving you a lot of those.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
ALEX
She was right when she said I’d been overthinking. I’d let a certain someone get into my head, with all his talk about saviour complexes and her being vulnerable. He’d always had a way of doing that. I needed to stop it happening. I didn’t want him to dictate or control any part of my life.
In my confusion, I’d thought I needed to go slow. Build trust and strengthen our connection. But she already trusted me and our connection was undeniable.
I wasn’t a slow burner.
And I was thanking every one of my lucky stars that she’d come to my bedroom tonight, because this was exactly what I wanted, her lying naked in my arms, sighing contently after I’d taken her to the heights of pleasure that she’d never experienced before.
Giving pleasure was what I loved the most. It turned me on more than anything. As I’d eaten her pussy like a starving man, I’d rocked against the mattress, coming just as hard as she did when she whimpered and cried out. I don’t know if she knew that, but she had as much control over me as I had over her.
After she’d rehydrated, I turned the lights off and pulled her into my arms as we lay together in my bed. It felt so right, havingher here, and I knew I’d never let her go. This was where she belonged. With me, by my side, in my bed.
“Can I ask you something?” Her quiet voice echoed in the darkness, and I buried my face in her neck so that I could inhale her intoxicating scent before replying, “You can ask me anything.”
“Why me?”
I started to give her neck little kisses, whispered kiss, brushing my lips so softly against her skin. “You know why.”
She moved her head to grant me better access to her neck as my kisses went from whispers to something stronger.
“But it all felt so sudden.” She sighed.
With my lips pressed against her smooth silky skin, I wondered how to respond and decided to go with the truth.
“I might’ve lied to you, that night,” I said, giving a slight grimace in the dark. Hoping she wouldn’t react badly. “And in my defence, I did ask if we’d met before when we were introduced.”
She shuffled her body to face me, and said, “You mean we’ve met before? But I don’t...”
“You don’t remember me, and I’m not surprised. The first time I met you, you had a lot occupying your attention, and to be fair, I wasn’t seated in your line of sight.”
“I don’t know what you mean. Where did you see me?”
I put my arm around her waist to pull her closer to me, and because I wanted to touch her in any way that I could. It always calmed my raging thoughts to have her close. Then I stroked and caressed her hip as I spoke.
“A few weeks before that night at the gallery, I was at a meeting in your offices to discuss a possible merger with a company that I sit on the board for. I was sitting at the table when you came in. You were very apologetic for being late to take the minutes, even though the meeting hadn’t started, andGold made you sit next to him, blocking you from my vision, but I saw you. I also saw the way he spoke to you in front of everyone, belittling you, making sexist jokes and remarks at your expense. I’d always hated the guy, but that day, I realised I fucking loathed him. But you? You took everything in your stride. You didn’t let anything faze you. You were professional and gracious in a room of arrogant assholes and entitled pricks, present company excluded, of course.”
“Oh my God,” she gasped, putting her hand over her mouth for a second. “I remember that meeting. I think I might’ve cried in the bathroom after or punched a wall. One or the other. That was the day Mr Harrison slapped my ass when I got up at the end of the meeting. He was such a fucking creep. Always touching the female staff and making everyone uncomfortable. I never saw him in the office again after that meeting, though. I think maybe they fired him.”
I didn’t want to elaborate on what’d happened to that fucker. I didn’t want to kill the mood, so I just hummed in response and said, “Maybe they did.”
“I wish I could rememberyou, though. I know you’d have stood out to me. I guess I was a bit flustered and too focused on taking the minutes.”
“It was a crowded boardroom. And I tried to stay in the background as much as possible.”
“You? In the background? I find that hard to believe.” She snuggled closer to me as thoughts of that day rolled through my mind. Some of them were thoughts I didn’t want to dwell on.
“I had my lawyer, Sammy, with me. He did most of the talking.”
