With my head nestled on her stomach and my arms wrapped tightly around her, she strokes my hair, my back and quietly lets me cry the tears of anguish I’ve held inside for four long years.
Chapter 45
6 weeks later…
Alyse
“Thank you, detective. I appreciate the update.
“Yes.
“Please keep me informed.
“Thank you.”
I listen to Asher’s side of the conversation and know it’s about the class-one felony charges that were filed earlier this week against his CFO. The total funds embezzled were close to six hundred thousand dollars, occurring over a ten-month period of time and most of it has already been recovered, thankfully.
“What’s going on?”
“Reigen posted bail earlier today.”
“Well, we knew that would happen.”
“Yeah. Still chaps my hide that fucker isn’t going to be spending his nights on a cot being someone’s bitch.”
“Oh, I think he’ll get plenty of time to get used to that role. Four to fifteen years, to be exact.” I laugh, but he doesn’t. He frowns instead.
I turn back to the box I’m packing and we work in silence for the next few minutes.
“Is this box ready to go, baby?”
Every time he calls me that, my pussy tightens. I hope when I’m eighty, it still does. “Did you put the files from the bottom drawer in it?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“Then it’s ready. You can tape it up.” I stand from the box I just finished securing, wipe my brow, and look around. My office is a mess of boxes and paper and…crap. I didn’t think I had this much stuff in here. It’s amazing what you accumulate over the course of a year.
“Did you talk to the landlord?”
“Yes. He has someone who’s interested in subleasing coming through on Tuesday. And Heather has the movers scheduled for next weekend.”
“She excited about moving to Chicago?” he asks, stacking the box he just taped up onto another. I admire the flex of his muscles as he lifts the heavy object. He looks delicious today in his black Foo Fighters T-shirt and faded jeans. The need to feel his two-day stubble scraping between my thighs is making me pulse with intense need. I want to strip every piece of clothing from him and have him fuck me against the wall. Hard.
“Alyse?” he asks, bringing me out of my lurid fantasy. Damn him.
“Uh, very. Her sister and three nieces live there, so she’s going to stay with them for a while until she finds a place. Her brother-in-law is in the military I guess and is stationed overseas for another three months, so she could use the help.”
“I’m glad she’s making the move,” he says, leaning his fine ass against the nearly bare desk. He crosses his arms, biceps bulging, and smirks as he catches me practically drooling. “Like what you see?”
“You know I do,” I retort, eyes silently challenging his.
“When is Tabitha planning to come?”
“She’s going to commute two days a week for now until they can sell their house. That may take a while in this market.”
He nods. “And Al? What did he decide to do?”
“Who cares?” I say, dropping the tape to the floor as I stalk toward him.
“I care. I want to be sure you’re staffed appropriately so you’re not working eighty hours a week. I’m selfish like that.”
“Wow,” I tease, running my hands underneath his untucked shirt, savoring the taut muscles contracting under my fingertips. “We’re adding selfish to the ever-growing list of notable personality traits, huh?”
“Yes,” he tries to answer, but it comes out as a hiss when my nails scrape his flat masculine nipples. His eyes dip to half-mast. I feel his growing erection against my lower belly. My core tingles, flooding with want. It’s heady to know I can bring a man like Asher Colloway to his knees with just a look or a simple touch.
“Fuck me,” I whisper, my lips finding the hollow of his throat. I don’t know if the movers are still outside in the main lobby or not, but I don’t care. Not like I’ll see them ever again. And my door is shut, so there is that.
His answer is to twine his fingers in my hair, yank me back, and take my mouth with claiming, branding force. His tongue invades, twisting with mine, our moans and breaths becoming one. My hands roam up and down his sinewy back, scratching lightly while his free hand snakes under my yoga pants and panties, palming my bare ass.
I groan when his fingers slip between my crack, toying with my forbidden entrance. He moves lower, dipping into my wetness before bringing a lubricated digit back, pushing it in slightly. He swallows a long moan that passes through my parted lips.