RILEY KNEW THE dangers of bad relationships. She’d seen people fall out of love and she’d had too many friends feel second best to their boyfriend’s careers or hobbies. The span of time that had passed since she and Josh had gotten together was shorter than the amount of time it took to get a gun permit. But she’d be damned if she didn’t feel every bit as in love with Josh as he was with her.
“I’m not one of those girls who spent years planning her perfect wedding, or conjuring up details of the perfect man. In fact, now that I think about it, I’ve spent very little time of my almost thirty-two years on earth thinking about settling down at all. I guess I always figured that if it was going to happen, it would happen, and I’d know when it was right.” Her heart swelled with love for him, and when she continued, her voice was thick with proof. “I didn’t feel fireworks when we first kissed. I felt the earth move, Josh. And every minute we’ve spent together since has had that same soul-altering effect. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing—making love or working. I think of you when you’re with me and I long for you when you’re not. You fill my heart too, and I want to make you feel every bit as wanted as you make me feel, and every bit as complete. I lived a long time without you by my side, and now I can’t understand how that ever felt right.”
Josh pulled her onto his lap and kissed her. His kisses were like heaven to her. The way he moved his tongue around her mouth, exploring and caressing with each swipe of his tongue sent a shiver of heat through her. The impulse to make love to him came fast and hard. She kissed the line of his jaw, his neck, his collarbone. She couldn’t stop herself from taking his neck in her mouth and sucking until he groaned. All the talk of love and forever had her heart reeling. She put her hand on his stomach, feeling the ripples of his abs beneath the thin cotton of his shirt, and the urge heightened like a wild animal being set free. She took his face in her hands and kissed him again. When he wrapped his strong hands around her ribs and lifted her to the table, she knew he was feeling just as feverish—crazed with urgency—as she was. He pushed himself between her legs, hiking her skirt around her waist. His jeans were stiff and rough against her thighs as he took her in a rough kiss. The stubble of his chin scratched her as they greedily devoured each other. She clawed at his back, sucking air from his lungs into her own. Feeling his hardness against her only intensified her need to have him inside of her. She reached for the button on his jeans. He pushed her sweater over her breasts, taking her bra with it. He took her in his mouth, his teeth against her nipple, his hands pressed against her back, forcing her harder into his mouth. She arched back, wanting—needing—him to ravage her. There was no tenderness, no slow, loving motion. They were consumed by pure animalistic need. He gripped her hips and ripped her thong right from her body, sending it shooting across the room, then pushed down his jeans and rammed his full length into her at the same time that he took her mouth in his. She gasped, moaning, clawing, taking every thrust of his tongue, every pump of his hips, and meeting it with her own. His chest knocked against her like a wall of bricks, sending her sprawling backward on the table, their hips locked together. He held the opposite edge of the table, deepening each pump and grind between her legs. Every nerve was on fire, her insides swelled, squeezing tight around his thick length, so lost in the urgency and heat of their lovemaking her nails dug into the backs of his thighs as she begged him to go deeper. On the edge of ecstasy, she sucked in short, fast gasps of air, digging her fingers into his back, until she couldn’t take the fiery sensation anymore and she cried out, her center pulsating in rapid succession as he filled her with his own release, gritting his teeth and grunting against her ear as the last light of the evening sank from the room.
Chapter Twenty-Three
IT WAS THE week before Christmas and the week of the trade show. Days had passed in a flurry of preparations, and by the time Friday arrived, Riley felt like she’d sailed through the week on a cloud, so happy in her personal life that the business of the show preparation barely scratched her elated surface. The trade show was taking place Friday and Saturday, and on Sunday she and Josh would fly home together and spend their first Christmas as a couple in the homes of their parents.
She couldn’t imagine her life being any more perfect. The only hindrance was keeping their relationship a secret, and they’d become a bit lax with covering their tracks outside of the office. Jay usually picked up Riley and then swung back to pick up Josh, but on rare occasions, like today, when they were running late, they rode to work together.
“Do you worry about showing up together?” Riley asked. They’d spent
most of the previous weekend in bed, and when they weren’t in bed, they were christening one of the other rooms in his apartment. Marking each one with their lovemaking. Claiming each piece of furniture with intertwined bodies, breaking the formality of each piece with every loving caress, every ravenous kiss.
“After the weekend we just shared, nothing worries me,” Josh said.
She knew that wasn’t true. They’d both vacillated a hundred times about telling the staff of JBD about their relationship. It had become the most painful decision Riley had ever had to make, and she was still on the fence.
“Josh, I’m not kidding,” she said.
“Riley, we just spent days memorizing every curve of each other’s body. Over the past week we’ve had picnics on the living room floor, moved your stuff into my place. Our place. Let’s not bring the what ifs into our lives just yet. Can’t I just revel in this happy place for a while longer?” Josh stroked her cheek. “I feel like we’re finally having a seminormal life, babe. I’ve never kept pictures of women in my apartment. And now we’ve got that picture of us in our Mets hats from last weekend on the mantel and another in the bedroom. I love how our lives are coming together. I don’t want to think about how arriving at work might rock the boat.”
They’d taken the picture in Central Park the previous Sunday evening, wearing their sweats and Mets caps. Josh had held the camera at arm’s length and they’d smiled like fools. She loved that picture, but she loved the one in the bedroom even more. An eight-by-ten framed photograph of the two of them, their heads angled toward each other on their pillows, fluffy white sheets surrounding their sexually sated faces as they gazed happily into his iPhone camera.
She looked out the window, thinking about how the work week had flown by, with days spent trying not to let their raging hormones give them away and working late into the evenings until they were sure the other employees had gone, then making out like kids on the couch in Josh’s office. As much as she wanted to enjoy the last few days, she felt haunted by their secrecy, and at the same time, afraid to expose it.
Josh cupped her cheek and drew her eyes to his. “I love seeing your perfume bottle beside my cologne in the bathroom. And I love that even though we have two sinks, our toothbrushes hang side by side. I care about all of the rest—I really do—but all I want is to not think about it right now, okay?”
How could she ask for anything more?
WHEN THEY ARRIVED at the office together, no one seemed to notice, and for that Riley was thankful…sort of. She was about ready to just tell everyone they were together and throw caution to the wind, but Claudia had been more pleasant to deal with lately, and from what Josh had told her, Claudia’s efforts were paying off. She’s giving you some fierce design competition, he’d said. She was happy for Claudia. She understood being competitive, even if she didn’t think Claudia handled things in the most appropriate manner. If she could progress on her own merits, then she deserved to, and that’s what she’d told Josh. Everyone deserved a chance. The only chance Claudia wasn’t going to get was a chance with Josh. He was one hundred percent Riley’s.
“It’s like a fairy tale come true, Jade.” Riley paced the ladies’ room floor Friday afternoon. “We couldn’t be happier in our personal life, and I must be doing a good job at work, because he gave me a key to the office last week so I no longer have to ask someone to be there when I want to work after hours or on the weekends.”
“So we’ll be sisters-in-law one day? Awesome,” Jade said.
“I don’t know about all that, but…” Every time Riley thought of how close she and Josh had become and she began to think of a future together, she made herself stop. She didn’t want to jinx their relationship.
“Girl, you’ve got it bad. No details, please. If Josh is going to be my brother-in-law one day then I probably shouldn’t know all those things.” She laughed. “What did you decide about work?”
Riley’s nerves were wound so tight around the office that she was sure everyone could see the love she had for Josh dripping from her pores. When she and Josh were in the same room she avoided looking at him, and when Claudia was around, it took all her determination to keep her girlfriend instincts in check.
The night they’d had dinner with Max and Treat, they’d discussed no longer hiding their relationship, but somehow hiding felt safer. It had become a habit that she didn’t quite know how—or if—she should break, and the conflicting feelings were tearing her up inside.