Page 36 of Bound to Him
He shivered, and strangely, all the tension eased out of his body. He pushed up onto his hands and knees, and I didn’t stop him as he turned and curled onto my lap. He scrunched his eyebrows and stared into my eyes and a strange energy sizzled between us. It was a bit awkward and made me uncomfortable, but I slid my arms around him and held him close.
“Lollipops, huh?”
I stared down at his lips and they quirked into a crooked smile. “You seem like the type who needs something to keep his mouth out of trouble. If you’re sucking, you can’t shoot yourself in the foot.”
He huffed out some air that seemed like it wanted to be a laugh and surprised me when he rested his head on my shoulder. “My sister thinks I’m lucky.”
“Oh? I knew I liked her.”
He nudged me with his elbow. “She knows all about you, and that you won some business thing ten years in a row.”
I laughed. “Really? Why didn’t your grandfather leave her the Divine Conglomerate?”
Noah tucked his face against my neck and sighed. “He died when she was young—not her own person yet. Besides, my family is old-fashioned. Only the fact that my dad thinks people with money should be ‘above common morality’ kept him from kicking me out for being ‘a cocksucker.’”
Scowling, I tugged him closer, and he huddled against me. “He said that to you?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he murmured, eyes slipping closed. It hit me that he was tired. We’d had a long, oddly emotional day, given that the entire wedding was for show. I felt like we’d really been through something together, and we still barely knew each other.
“Where are we going?”
“What?” I asked, leaning to the side to see his face better.
“You seemed committed to giving the appearance of this wedding being real. People take those vacations after they get married. Where are we going?”
“You mean a honeymoon?” I laughed. “No, that’s one thing I can’t afford. I can’t take time away now. Too much to do.”
“Of course,” he said quietly, but I couldn’t read the expression that settled onto his face as he eased off my lap and crawled over to what I’d already started thinking of as his side of the bed.
Was he disappointed? I studied him and the way he curled away from me as he settled under the blankets, his back a defensive semicircle. I felt bad about the fact that I’d... what? Ruined his idea of what his wedding should’ve been like? For whatever reason, I felt worse about what was happening now than earlier because he’d been happy for a moment.Fuck, I’d destroyed it. I turned off the lights and climbed under the blankets to stare at the lump he made in the shadows.
For a long while neither of us moved, but then I broke. I reached out, snagged him around the waist, and pulled him close. He relaxed against me as I wrapped my arms around him. I planted one hand across his chest and slid the other down to grasp his cock. “You’re mine for now. Tell me you understand.”
“Yes, I get it.” His words were drowsy and his warm skin against mine was making me sleepy, too.
“Good.” Where would a man like Noah want to go on a honeymoon? He was an artist. Would he enjoy Paris and the Louvre? Didn’t all painters want to see France? Italy? Europe was great for art lovers. I shook my head at my thoughts. There wouldn’t be time for all of that. My stomach sank as I snuggled up against his back, and he rested his hands over mine.
It was too bad we only had six months.
* * *
Noah lookedgood beside me in the passenger seat of my red Jag. He was stunning bracketed by the black leather. I tried to keep my eyes on the road instead of staring at him. He’d showered this morning and put on new underwear. I was fairly certain he’d picked a see-through mint-green pair of silk boxers, but I’d left him a couple of choices on the bed before I’d gone to check on things in my home office, so I wasn’t certain those were the ones he’d picked out. The conservative charcoal gray wool suit he wore didn’t give me any hints.
“Why do I have to go? No one will be in the office on a Sunday.” His jaw jutted stubbornly and had my cock tingling. Why did I like this bratty side of him?
“Because I said so. And every last employee will be there because I told them to drag their lazy corn-fed behinds in or else.”
He snorted. “Half of them are probably hung over from our wedding reception.”
I smirked. “Oh, I certainly hope that’s the case.”
He glared and stared out his window, testing my patience. I’d felt a lot of things last night, and while I was still softer in my emotions toward him than I’d expected to be, I didn’t have time for this feeling-sorry-for-himself nonsense. “I hate the office.”
“Even that big, shiny new building?” I found myself trying to tease a better mood out of him and was appalled. I should tell him to get over it and get his big-boy shitkickers on and wade through the muck his father had created with me, but I didn’t want to bark orders at him.
“Especially that eyesore downtown.”
I couldn’t help it, I chuckled when he crossed his arms, just like he thought he had a fucking say in the matter. He would be going into the office with me.
