Page 67 of Forty and Fighting Dirty
Piper’s brow arched. “Does this mean you’re not going to fire me the minute the lodge is open?”
My lips twitched. “I haven’t quite decided yet.”
She laughed, shoving at my shoulder as she rolled her eyes, then squealed as I picked her up. She bounced on the cushions of her pretty yellow couch, then reached out to cling to one of the arms while I dropped to my knees in front of her.
“I like this dress,” I said, pushing the fabric up to reveal her thighs. I couldn’t move her into my place, but I could show her Icared in other ways. My fingers skimmed over her tights, reaching up to the waistband hidden beneath the dress.
“It’s my lucky dress,” she told me as she lifted her hips, a flush growing on her cheeks. “I’ve gotten three free coffees in it.”
“You’re about to get something better,” I said, my lips curling.
Her eye roll was exactly what I wanted. I laughed, tugging her tights down to her knees. I pulled her boots off one at a time, then pulled the sheer black fabric off to reveal her skin.
“I haven’t shaved my legs,” she said a little breathlessly. “Sorry.”
“I’m not worried about a little leg hair, Darling,” I said, and I pulled her legs so her ass was perched on the edge of the sofa. Then I ran my lips along the inside of her knee and placed kisses all the way to the crease of her hip. Piper shivered and sighed, thighs spreading in invitation.
And I got to work.
TWENTY-SIX
PIPER
I tangledmy fingers into Rhett’s hair as pleasure shattered through me. He groaned his enthusiasm against my skin, and I lost myself in the decadence of his touch. Broad hands pulled my thighs wider. Strong fingers sank into my flesh. I trembled and clung to the edge of the sofa.
I’d convinced myself that the time in his kitchen had been a fluke. There was no way sex could feel so good, so intense. It had been a trick of my mind, a distorted memory that wasn’t based in reality.
I was wrong.
When Rhett entered me this time, I forgot how to speak. Ecstasy carried me in its raging current, and I drowned. Rhett’s dark eyes brought me back to the surface, his touch dragged me back to shore. I sank my fingernails into his shoulders and clung to him, pulling him down for a kiss.
One thing I’d learned about Rhett over the past couple ofmonths was how observant he was. He noticed people’s reactions, moods, and habits, and tweaked his personality very slightly in every interaction. We all did it to a certain extent, but Rhett was a master.
To have all that attention pointed at me and my pleasure was an experience like nothing else. He drank in every half moan and twitch of my facial expressions, single-mindedly focused on making me fall apart. And he did. With a brush of his thumb against my clit, a stroke of his palms over my skin, and a hard, rough kiss pressed against my mouth.
Only then did Rhett loosen the reins on his control. His movements became less fluid, and his eyes took on a wild, ferocious quality. I came again at the sight of him like that—dangerous and sinful and mine.
Panting, with our bodies draped over the sofa, we let our heartbeats return to normal. Rhett’s fingers traced shapes over my arm and shoulder as he held me, his breath ruffling my hair. I pushed myself up to my elbows, my body squished between him and the back of the sofa, and glanced at him.
He looked unguarded and content. My heart flipped as his lips curled gently, a tender expression on his face.
Not knowing what to say or how to say it—or if these feelings were just a mix of hormones and muddled thoughts—I laid my head back down on his chest and draped my arm across his stomach.
I could have asked him what was happening. I could have sat up and faced it head-on. What were we doing? Would we keep sneaking around? He was my boss, and there was this house to think about. Were we making everything more complicatedby sleeping together? Were we doing something more than sleeping together? What was I to him?
If I’d been brave, I would’ve opened my mouth and asked the hard questions. But his body was warm, and mine was languid. Snow drifted down from the skies outside the big front window, and the stillness of the house stayed my tongue.
I didn’t want to have that conversation, because for the first time in a long, long time, I’d done something simply because I wanted to, and because it felt good. It was indulgent and reckless and maybe it would come back and bite me in the ass—but it felt too good to stop.
All of a sudden,it was Thanksgiving. The weeks had passed in a blur of work, parenting, and Rhett. We stole moments together wherever we could. More than once, he ducked into my tiny office, closed the door, and kissed me until I couldn’t think straight. Work at the house slowed down because we spent so much time fooling around. I couldn’t find it in me to care. I felt younger, more carefree. I felt amazing.
My sister Georgia came to visit, driving my car over and bringing all her friends from Heart’s Cove. They descended on the town in a flurry of laughter and love, and a part of me longed for that kind of friendship in my own life. I met them at a local brunch spot on their first morning in town.
The weeks had been so busy that I hadn’t quite mentioned to Georgia how Rhett and I were,ahem, getting along now. She’d heard me vent about him for weekswhen I first started working for him, so when the boys and I arrived at the restaurant and Simone, one of Georgia’s friends, asked me how work was going, all I could do was blow it off with a “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“That bad, huh?” Simone asked me.
“Worse,” I replied, avoiding my sister’s stare. Georgia watched me from across the table, and she saw too much. She always did.
