The office I’ve set aside for her in our secure building is as comfortable as I could manage on short notice. Or what Anjie could manage.
I nod to the Bastards assembled in the main workspace, coding away with the Ultra team in order to be ready for tomorrow. Logan catches my eye, then looks significantly at January.
I give a tiny shake of my head. I’ll discuss what happened with all of them later. First, January and I need to finish this.
When I shut her office door, she doesn’t sit down. Instead, she remains standing, clenching her hands together as she takes in her office.
“Is all this for me?”
There’s a couch against one wall, with several pillows and a blanket, a desk with a brand-new Mac computer on it, and a few of my cousin’s paintings on the walls—irises done in long strokes of purple and yellow and green, stark against a plain white background.
All this is January’s. I’ll give her more if she’ll let me.
“This is your office, yes. Why don’t you sit down?” I want to hold her, to find comfort with her, but she won’t stop pacing.
She shakes her head. “I need to move. How did you find me?”
“Doc hacked your phone. They were all worried about you.”
She picks up a fountain pen from the desk, sleek and black in her long white fingers. “I never meant to hurt them. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You’re not alone in this. Not anymore. I’m here for you, and I always will be.” I swallow hard and ask her for the one thing she’s never given me, not even after she gave me her heart. “Please, trust me.”
She goes still as a startled deer, and the eyes she raises to mine… wide and beautiful and brimming with tears. “I… that’s what I wanted for so long. Even before I wanted you to love me.”
I gather her up tightly because I’m never letting her go again. No matter what. “You can trust me. If you want to sell Ultra to Fuchs, we will. If you want me to grind that bastard into nothingness, I will. I swear, I’m at your command.”
Her smile is watery. “I can tell which you’d rather do.”
“It’s not what I want. It’s what you want. What you trust me to do.”
“And if the others disagree?”
“You come first. They’re a close second, but you’re number one with a bullet point.”
Even when she was accusing me of having hurt Chloe, I still loved her so much. Which probably proves I’ve fallen for her for all time.
She takes a deep breath. I can see her mind working, analyzing and weighing the options. I stay quiet, because she’s the one leading me this time.
“First, I want to absolutely kill it at this meeting with Pixio.”
“You will.”
“Second, I want to make sure Grace can stay here.”
That’s going to be trickier. “Elliot’s finding a lawyer as we speak.”
“Third, I want to bury Fuchs and Corvus. Like, deeper than the mantle of the earth deep.”
I don’t remember exactly which layer of the earth that is, but I’m sure it’s pretty far down. As deep as I want to bury the son of a bitch myself. “Good, because we all want to do that.”
She stops, thinks some more. Then reaches up to run her fingers down the column of my neck. Shudders run through me.
“Actually, first I want to do something else.” She begins to unbutton my shirt.
“Oh?” My blood is already magma hot, my cock iron hard.
“I missed you.” Her fingers find my pants button.
“Jesus.” I kiss every part of her bared skin I can reach, tugging at the neckline of her blouse until I hear it tear. “You have no idea how insane I went. Even Finn thought I was going overboard.”
She hooks a knee around my hip, dragging us both toward the desk.
I resist. “Sweetheart, you deserve something softer.”
She pushes herself up onto the desktop. “It feels like a featherbed. You make it feel like the softest surface ever.”
I growl and grab her hip. “You’re the soft one.”
She nips at my bottom lip. “I love how hard you are. That you can be tough as steel out there but make me feel so soft when you’re with me.”
Our first time was on a desk, but this feels nothing like that. As I pull her skirt up and her panties aside, this isn’t some urgent, frustrated grind. It’s a homecoming.
I dip my fingers into her pussy, test her wetness. So soft, so hot, ready for me. Waiting, begging.
Her arms come around my neck, holding me loosely, trusting me to stay. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” I reach blindly for the drawer, for the box I put in there in hopes of this exact situation. Once the condom is on, I push forward, filling her with one full thrust.
Her head falls back. “Yes, yes, this is where I need you.”
I keep my movements slow but demanding, and she gives and gives and gives.
“Don’t ever leave me again.” I don’t care that I’m begging, because I trust her with my vulnerability. I trust her with everything of me.
“I won’t,” she promises, her gaze holding mine. “I trust you.”
I let go, my orgasm flooding me. She’s clutching at me, holding on as her own climax takes her.
“I’ve got you,” I tell her. “I’ll never let you go.”
Staying like this forever is something I really, really want to do, but we’ve got work to do. It’s going to be an all-nighter, just like before finals at Stanford.
Gently I pull out of her, take care of the condom, then adjust her panties and skirt. There’s not much I can do about her shirt except buy her a new one. Which of course I’ll happily do.
January’s smile is fond as she lets me take care of her, her hands finding my shoulders, my arms, my chest, as if she can never bear to let me go either.
I dip my head and kiss her again, because I can’t resist that smile of hers. Can’t resist any of her.
“There’s something I should tell you about the meeting tomorrow,” I murmur into her throat. Lord, but her skin is soft.
“Mmm?” Pleasure is blurring her voice.
“Fuchs eats lunch every day at Roasted. Right when we’ll be there.”
She shoves herself upward and blinks down at me. “Oh. Oh, oh, oh.”
“That’s right.”
“You’d better tell me your plan. All of it.” Her next words are the sweetest I’ve ever heard. “We’re in this together, after all.”