Текст книги "Dick: A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance "

Автор книги: Nikki Wild

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Текущая страница: 19 (всего у книги 20 страниц)

“Preston—are you okay?”

Maddy looked up at me from the heap of sheets she’d made on my bed. Her brown hair was a tangled mess around her face and her green eyes flashed with concern as soon as she lifted her head and saw me. She was wearing an undershirt of mine and no panties. She looked more stunning than I’d ever seen her before.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of her as I committed her image to memory. This was how I wanted to remember her: her pretty face still bleary from sleep, completely unaware of what was about to come; that light dusting of freckles across her nose looking golden in the mid-morning light; her full, delicate lips chapped from where I’d roughly kissed them the night before.

“We need to talk, Maddy,” I said, willing my voice not to break.

She sat up on the bed and combed her hair with her fingers, trying to wrestle it into place as I looked down at her. Her gaze drifted to my knuckles. “Preston, you’re bleeding…”

“It’s over,” I said, trying to push the words out past the lump in my throat. I could feel everything inside of me screaming not to do this, to find some way to fuck Jane and my father over.

But there wasn’t a way that didn’t put Maddy directly in the line of fire. My father had connections, and with an almost laughably small amount of his fortune, he could make the rest of her life a living hell. I couldn’t do that to her. She didn’t deserve it. I couldn’t let her go down with the ship because of me.

“You quit?” she asked, a glimmer of hope flaring in her eyes. She smiled. “That’s… that’s great! I mean, we’ll have to figure a few things out now, but it’s what you wanted, right?”

I shook my head at her. She wasn’t getting it. I had to leave no doubt in her mind as to what would happen next. “No. I didn’t quit. It’s over. We’re over.”

Maddy stared at me for what seemed like an eternity. With every moment that passed, a new expression washed over her face. First there was dumb shock, then confusion, followed by a snort of denial, and then her lips quivered. That last one didn’t leave her, and I could see her emerald eyes filling with tears.

“You can’t be serious,” she whispered. I rubbed my face with my hands, trying to hide my own tears.

“You’re so stupid,” I said, turning my sob of despair into a rueful laugh. “You’re so fucking stupid, Maddy. Don’t you get it? This whole thing has been one big laugh at your expense! I mean really, how pathetic does a girl have to be to fuck her stepbrother?”

When I lowered my hands, Maddy was still looking at me. I wished she wouldn’t. It only made things that much harder.

“Why are you saying this?” she demanded, her voice cracking. “Why are you being so cruel to me?!”

“Because you deserve it!” I roared. I tried to imagine Jane’s face instead of hers and felt my neck and face turn red with anger. “Because you’re fucked up and desperate and everybody knows it but you! My father and your mother—they bet me a sad, pitiful girl like you would do anything to resolve her daddy issues. I didn’t believe them, but look at you. I did it. I won!”

Maddy launched herself up from the bed and crossed the room to me. Tears streamed down her face and she shook like a flower in a storm as she cupped my face in her delicate hands.

“Stop it, Preston. I don’t believe you. You wouldn’t do this to me. Not after everything…”

I seized her wrists and she gasped. I knew I was hurting her, but I had to or she’d never believe me.

“You stupid girl,” I whispered. I managed a sneer, though the disgust I spat was aimed at me and not at her. “You filthy slut. You’d do anything to have a man tell you you’re not worthless, wouldn’t you? You’re just like your mother—”

Finally, something inside Maddy snapped. She slapped me so hard across my face I tasted blood in my mouth. Stars burst in front of my eyes and I held my breath, staring at the wall as she panted in front of me. At least now I had an excuse not to look at her.

“You’re a monster,” she said hoarsely. My soul fractured. In every word, I could feel her beautiful, perfect heart was breaking. “You’re a fucking monster. I hope you rot in hell.”

As she grabbed her clothes and hurried from my room, I realized she’d never know that I already was.

It had been two weeks since I’d last seen him.

The agony had faded into a comfortable numbness that, at the very least, prevented me from crying all night. In fact, sleep came now more than ever. I found myself spending a lot of time unconscious, and for that I was never more grateful.

Every moment I spent in slumber was a moment I didn’t have to think about Preston Harvey and how he’d ruined my life. And when the dreams came—the ones where we were still together, where his lips crashed against mine so fiercely they stole my breath away—a bit of wine was all that was needed to chase them away again.

He’d tried to call me more than a few times since that morning in his room when he’d finally admitted he was the same soulless beast his father was. He’d texted, too, but I never read them. After the first three days I changed my number, and after that, he only made one other effort to contact me. He sent me an envelope in the mail with a check inside of me for one hundred thousand dollars.

I didn’t want to cash it. I wanted to pretend like I’d never need anything from Preston, or my family in general, ever again. But now that I was out of a job, the sad truth was that I’d have to find a new one, and in the meantime I needed a buffer to keep a roof over my head.

When I handed the check over to the teller, I secretly wondered how much of his winnings from my family’s sick little betting pool this constituted. I’d become so filled with rage that I’d nearly snapped the pen in half when she’d asked me to sign the back of it. I didn’t think that particular thought again.

What good would it do, anyway? It was over and done with. I couldn’t go back in time and fix it now. And in a way, Preston had freed me. I’d never trust my family again, and because of his confession, I had finally cut ties with my toxic mother. It was a step forward of some kind, anyway.

I spent my days distracting myself by updating my resume, my LinkedIn profile, and a number of other job-related things, anything that would take my mind off of my past and point my thoughts toward the future, one that didn’t involve getting used and discarded ever again.

I would even date, as soon as I could get around to it. I wouldn’t let Preston Harvey put me off men. I wouldn’t let what he’d done to me turn me angry and bitter. I wasn’t about to become my mother, although now I could understand just a little bit better what had led to her downfall as a human being.

It didn’t make it right, but at least she wasn’t such a mystery to me anymore.

Just as I was beginning to run out of things to do, I got the call that would change my life forever. It was a call I hadn’t been expecting, one from a very prestigious law firm looking for a new legal secretary to manage their office.

“Can you come downtown for an interview around three?” the appointment-setter asked.

I glanced at the clock. It was nearly noon. Fuck it—I’d make it. “Yes,” I said. “I’ll see you then.”

The first thing I did, after getting dressed, was ride the bus for the very last time. It took me to a Volvo dealership where I bought my first brand new car. It was a splurge, but it was a well-deserved splurge, and one that would ensure I was self-sufficient from now on. No more relying on public transport to get me to my new job in a swanky office building downtown. I was a new woman. This Madison Hearst didn’t depend on anyone but herself.

Once I had my new car, my resume, and my interview clothes in order, I drove downtown and sat through the mid-day traffic while waiting for the turn lane into the parking garage to open up. I had no idea what the problem was. At first I thought there might have been an accident, but as I got closer to the source of the jam, I saw that a parade of news vehicles were blocking the intersection as they tried to find parking spaces directly in front of the Harvey Tower. I shook my head and rolled my eyes. It figured that they’d throw one more wrench into the gears of my life before they were done with me.

Briefly, I wondered what the hell the fuss was about. But it was probably just some stupid PR move Preston or his father had coordinated. Maybe they hadn’t kicked any puppies this week. That seemed newsworthy, all things considered.

Maybe it was something about the wedding. That was only days out now. I couldn’t think of why Mr. Harvey would do something like that at the tower, though. Maybe my mother had put him up to it.

I finally made it to the garage and parked, stuffing my printed-out garage pass between the dashboard and windshield as I stepped out in the warm summer air. I felt good today. I felt capable and vibrant. Preston obviously had done me the courtesy of not blacklisting me, which meant that I now had a rather impressive resume at my disposal. Thank God for small favors, I supposed.

By the time I made it to the sixteenth floor office, I was still ten minutes early. I handed my resume to a very sweet, bubbly receptionist and took a few moments to look around the lobby and get a little better acquainted with what the law firm was expecting.

They took up the whole floor, and they were clearly very expensive. From what I’d read on their website they dealt in criminal law, which seemed awfully exciting. I would’ve been excited for the job regardless, but knowing that I might spend my days involved with the kind of cases I saw on Law & Order sweetened the deal. It was better than resigning myself to something like worker’s comp and business law, anyway.

When Mr. Princeton emerged from his office, my jaw nearly hit the floor. He looked like he’d just stepped out of the pages of a men’s magazine. He wore an impeccably tailored suit and shoes that probably cost more than my new car had, and he had one of those million-dollar smiles that lit up the room brighter than any fancy chandelier could. Not that he didn’t have those, too, but that smile was absolutely radiant.

His smile nearly touched his ears as he walked toward me, and I stood up, accepting his outstretched hand. “Madison Hearst, I presume?”

“You can call me Maddy,” I said, and for a moment, I was reminded of Preston Harvey and how he’d always called me that whenever we were together. No one else ever had. It had only ever been him.

Stop that, I told myself, pushing thoughts of my asshole of a stepbrother from my mind as I followed Mr. Princeton down the hall. You’ve moved on. He’s in your past. Mr. Princeton is your future, and you should count your lucky stars that he is.

I sat down in his office and watched as he closed the door and stepped around the opposite side of his desk. “I have to say,” he began, adjusting his perfectly form-fitting blazer, “I’m impressed. This is one hell of a resume, Madison—sorry. Maddy,” he corrected himself.

I beamed. Then Preston really hadn’t added insult to injury. I was relieved. “Thank you, Mr. Princeton,” I said. “This is one hell of a law firm, from what I hear.”

He laughed. It was a sweet, honeyed sound. “Let’s cut to the chase. Your qualifications are top-notch. And from just the few minutes I’ve spent with you, you seem like the kind of employee who would fit right in here at Princeton & Kline. All that coupled with the personal recommendation we received from Preston Harvey himself, I’m ready to offer you the job right here.”

I couldn’t help it. I had to ask. “Mr. Harvey contacted you directly?”

Mr. Princeton nodded. “Oh, yeah. He called this morning. Said he saw our ad on a jobs site and knew the perfect woman for the job.”

My heart skipped a beat. Preston had been trawling the job boards for me? Why? What the hell did he care?

A recommendation was one thing. The fact that my stepbrother had been actively interested in my employment was another. I knew for a fact that Preston had way better things to do than scour Craigslist ads on my behalf. Had he grown a conscience since I’d been away? Was he actually feeling guilty?

I tried not to think too hard on it, though it flustered me all the same. “Working for Preston Harvey was… a wonderful experience,” I said. And it had been—right up until the point that it wasn’t anymore. I didn’t count it as a lie. “I’m so thrilled that he was satisfied with my service enough to call you and get my foot in the door.”

Mr. Princeton grinned. “He spoke so highly of you that I was afraid someone else had snatched you up already. You seem to have it all, Maddy. Which brings us to your salary…”

I was on the edge of my seat now. I was sure a place like this paid handsomely. Visions of renting an actual house danced through my head, and Mr. Princeton was about to speak again when his receptionist burst through the door.

“Mr. Princeton,” she said breathlessly, “I’m so sorry to interrupt. But you have to see this.”

He frowned at her. “Can’t it wait, Amy?”

She shook her head so hard I was sure her earrings were going to fly right out of her ears. “No, sir. Come quick. It’s all over the news.”

Mr. Princeton raised his eyebrows at me. “I guess that means you should come too,” he said.

I stood up, my stomach flipping as I followed Amy and Mr. Princeton down another hall toward the break room. What the hell was going on?

As soon as I walked in, I saw it plain as day on the TV. Just outside Harvey Tower, several news crews had gathered around my stepbrother, each one of them shoving their microphones in his face, yet all standing so deathly still as he spoke. Someone turned it up and I gripped my clutch tightly as I listened to what he said.

“…in cooperating with state and Federal authorities, Harvey Enterprises has exposed Harold Verger’s intent to collude with government officials in order to shut down the 39^th Street homeless shelter on fabricated charges of code violations. Mr. Verger then intended to demolish the shelter to make way for a person investment project: a luxury condo development that would cater to the wealthiest citizens of this fine city. Meanwhile, hundreds of homeless would be displaced, including battered women and children for whom there was no other place to turn.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Preston was actually admitting to God and country what Harvey Enterprises had intended to do just to retain a client—one with senatorial aspirations, no less. He was selling himself, Mr. Verger, his father, and his own company out to do it. But there he was, admitting everything on live television.

“Holy shit,” I murmured.

Mr. Princeton folded his arms. “You’re tellin’ me.”

Preston continued, “In light of this and other incidents which have come to light over the past few weeks, Harvey Enterprises will be restructuring. Mr. Harvey—my father—will step down from his position as the head of our company, and with the board of directors’ unanimous approval, I will take his place.”

My knees almost gave out from under me. This was huge. The only way it could have been more shocking was if a nuclear bomb had detonated in the heart of the city. But then Preston delivered one more surprise for me.

He looked into the camera and said, “There have been a lot of people who were hurt along the way, people who didn’t deserve it and who never should have been in the line of fire to begin with. As a company, we have often asked others to sacrifice for us instead of being willing to sacrifice anything ourselves. The future of Harvey Enterprises is simple: more ethics, more honesty. If that means less money, so be it.” He paused. I felt like he was staring right into my eyes. “If that means those that we’ve hurt can finally see some justice now, so be it.”

“I have to go,” I said, turning to Mr. Princeton. “I’m sorry. I really am. And thank you so much for everything. But I have to go.”

“Maddy—” he began.

I was already gone. How could I possibly stay here?

I raced through the parking garage. I didn’t even bother to get into my car. I kicked my heels off, tucked them under my arm, and made a beeline for the crowded sidewalk where people were lining up to gawk at Preston Harvey and the monumental decision he’d just made.

The reporters were all over him. They were screaming his name along with their questions, all of which was lost to the thrumming of my ears and the cacophony of the crowd. I didn’t care about any of it. All I wanted was to get to him.

In a sea of “Mr. Harvey, Mr. Harvey!”, I screamed, “Preston!”

He turned and looked right at me. The news crews did too. I didn’t say a word, and for an eternity, we just stared at each other like we were the only two people in the world.

Then Preston moved forward, shoving his way through the crowd still clamoring for a piece of him. When he got to me, he tucked me under his arm and pulled me away to the curb where Mr. Fletcher and a limousine were waiting.

“Miss Hearst,” he said, grinning wide. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“You too, Gordon,” I told him, ducking into the backseat as Preston opened the door for me before taking his place at my side.

As soon as Mr. Fletcher closed the door, silence reigned. I looked up at my stepbrother and shook my head, the tears coming before I could stop them from running down my face.

“Jesus, Preston. Why?”

“I have a lot to explain,” he said gently, “and a lot to make up for. I know that. Just give me the chance and I’ll tell you everything, Maddy. I promise.”

I nodded, and as Mr. Fletcher pulled away from the curb, I buckled my seatbelt and reached for the champagne cooler I knew only too well was in the limo.

“Good idea,” Preston said. “Let me get that for you.” And he poured us both a glass of champagne as we sat facing each other for the first time in almost a month.

“I take it you’ve figured out by now that everything I said to you that morning was bullshit,” he began. When I nodded, he continued. “I wasn’t sure you’d be able to forgive me… I had to get you out of there, Maddy, but I couldn’t tell you why. They wouldn’t have let me, and even if I had, there’s no way in hell you would have left. Either way, the kind of vengeance they would have brought down upon your head would have been cataclysmic.”

“They?” I asked him. “Please tell me this wasn’t all our parents.”

“No,” he answered. “Well, not your mother, anyway.” Preston took a deep breath and loosened his tie. “No, it was my father and Jane, if you can believe it. She’s the reason he knew what happened between you and I. She’d been stalking us for a while, and that night we first made love, she snapped some pictures through the open balcony doors.”

“Jesus,” I breathed, shaking my head. “I don’t believe it. She was obsessed.”

“Yes,” Preston agreed. “But not for the reason you’re thinking. Hell, it wasn’t even for the reason I was thinking. It runs so much deeper than that.” He paused again and looked me over. “Christ, you look good, Maddy. You look incredible.”

I blushed. Preston looked good, too—great, in fact. Integrity had done him some good. There was a sparkle in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. I could tell he was happier with himself than he’d been in a long time, and that made me happy too.

Knowing that what he’d said was a lie changed everything. But I still needed to know why he’d said it.

“Okay,” I said, “tell me more. What the hell was Jane up to? What was she trying to accomplish?”

Preston sighed and leaned back, spreading his arms over the seat behind him. “Money,” he said at last. “That particular goal goes back a ways. I acquired Jane as a sort of hand-me-down from my father. She’d been his personal assistant, once upon a time, and a little more than that too. Seems she’d been doing her damnedest to become my new stepmother, but my father wouldn’t have it. In his eyes, she was the kind of girl you fucked, but couldn’t turn into a housewife. He ‘gifted’ her to me, hoping she’d settle for ‘the next best thing.’_” He sipped his champagne and added bitterly, “As it were.”

I made a face. I couldn’t help it. It was just too weird. “She was fucking your father before she was fucking you?”

Preston winced. “Don’t remind me. Anyway, I guess she altered her goals to marry me instead of my father, but when it was clear that wasn’t working out, he hired her back out of pity. She began her game of seduction all over again, this time abandoning the whole marriage plot in favor of serving as his mistress. Maybe she’d never inherit his fortune, but in the meantime, she could benefit from countless secret vacations and gifts.”

“Wow.” It made so much sense. A strange, twisted kind of sense, but sense nonetheless. “How’d you figure it out?”

“Honestly?” Preston grinned. “I guessed. I figured if my father was cheating, it’d be with a younger woman. The one I caught him on the phone with at dinner sounded awfully insecure. He was constantly reassuring her that things were better this way, that she was still special to him despite his impending nuptials, yada, yada, yada. Jane had also gone to great lengths to get those pictures, and with the way my father was trying to push her back on me, I knew there had to be something going on there. So I went out on a limb and got hold of my father’s cell phone one day, and sure enough, there were plenty of late-night calls from Jane.”

“I can’t believe he let you get close enough to grab his cell phone,” I said. “I would’ve thought for sure that your father would have been keeping an eye on you.”

Preston laughed. “I had to play the part of the baby bird with the broken wing for a while, but my father’s a megalomaniac. At the end of the day, he was so sure he had bested me that he couldn’t help but flaunt it. He was convinced I was nothing to him, that I couldn’t possibly have anything up my sleeve. Honestly, it wasn’t a hard act to pull off. I was devastated about you, Maddy. You have to believe me about that. I understand if you can’t forgive me… I gave you a good recommendation at that law firm…”

There was still so much hurt swirling inside of me, and yet I could tell that Preston wasn’t lying. He had risked so much just to tell me the truth. Unlike the things he’d said to me that morning in his bedroom, this was all real.

“I do,” I whispered. “You tore me apart, Preston. But I believe you.”

He nodded somberly. “I know. And I know that apologizing doesn’t cut it. But I am sorry. Do you want to know the rest?”

“Yes,” I said, gulping down the rest of my champagne before pouring another glass. “Let’s hear it. I want to know exactly how you took them all down.”

Over the next several miles, Preston explained everything to me just as he’d promised. After he’d become certain that Jane and his father were involved, he’d spent the next several days “confiding” in her. He’d done everything short of getting intimate with her to convince her that he’d “seen the light,” and that he wanted her back. He spoke at length to her about her relationship with his father, all while wearing a recording device. And then, once he had what he needed, he’d presented that tape to my mother.

Predictably, she’d been furious—and, as Preston told it, a little heartbroken too. She’d taken the whole thing straight to his father, which had ensured Jane a security escort from Harvey Tower in front of all the friends she’d made, and more than that, she’d never work in the city again as long as the Harveys were around.

In an attempt to salvage things with my mother, Mr. Harvey had felt obliged to take her on a one-week “pre-honeymoon” to work things out. Preston took that opportunity to put in a few calls with state and Federal authorities concerning his father’s illicit and unethical dealings with a senate candidate—after he’d gone through his father’s files in his absence, of course.

Once the authorities had what they needed, they’d come down hard on Mr. Harvey and Mr. Verger while Preston had gained immunity—after all, his father had been blackmailing him, and thanks to Jane, he had the pictures to prove it—and as a result, the board of directors had no choice but to vote Mr. Harvey out of his position, as was in their best interests. Since he’d been groomed for the position since childhood—and since this stipulation was part of the corporate bylaws anyway—they’d unanimously agreed to put Preston in his place, and the rest of it I’d seen play out on the news conference on TV that afternoon.

It was an incredibly well-orchestrated plan, and frankly, I was in awe of just how perfectly it had gone. But I was also pissed, because it seemed pretty unnecessary for him to have said what he did before.

“They threatened to come after you, Maddy,” he finally explained. “They would have ruined your life… Or worse. And they’d frozen all my assets until I forced you to go, so our plan of running away together wouldn’t have worked. I needed you to be so convinced I was a monster that you didn’t come back until everything was settled.”

“And is it now?” I asked him. “Settled, I mean.”

“As much as it can be,” he said. “I have my money back, as well as unfettered access to the company’s finances, too. In addition, I get to direct our future endeavors—and that means the shelter on 39^th Street stays right where it is.”

“You’re incredible,” I said, laughing as I let it all sink in. “I can’t believe you did all this.” But one thing gave me pause. “How’s Mom taking it?” I asked him.

“Not well,” Preston answered. “I’m afraid I’m no longer going to be your stepbrother. I know you’re broken-hearted over it, but we’ll just have to get past it, somehow…”

I punched him in the shoulder, and he cringed dramatically. “Shut up. You’re serious, though? They’re not getting married?”

Preston laughed. “My father is very possibly going to jail, and even if he’s not, he’s been disgraced. She blames him for everything, while he blames her for being out of the country while I turned him in to the authorities. Really, they’re perfect for each other. I don’t see how it wouldn’t work out.”

I shot him a look and he added, “Don’t worry. I’ve made sure she won’t have a thing to her name. I gave her a nice little going away package. And then I told her never to come back. I hope that wasn’t overstepping it.”

“It wasn’t,” I assured him. “I cut off all contact a while ago, and I don’t regret that decision one bit. I’m glad she’s out of my life. Speaking of which, why didn’t you let me know any of this sooner? If you’d explained, I would have stayed away until it was through.”

“I tried,” Preston said, “but you wouldn’t take my calls. And you changed your number, remember? Didn’t you listen to any of my voicemails? I just assumed you’d given up on me. That press conference was a last ditch effort to get through to you. I thought for sure you’d never want to see me again. But despite everything…” He softly, tentatively laid his hand on mine. “I had hope.”

Just like the first time, an electric charge swept through me as Preston touched my hand. I shivered in a way I hadn’t dreamed of since the last time we’d been together. When I looked into his eyes, it was like all feeling returned to my body. I was alive again, all because Preston had touched me again.

“I missed you so much,” I whispered to him.

Preston cupped my face in his hands. “I missed you too,” he told me. “You’re like the oxygen I breathe, Maddy. I can’t live without you.”

He kissed me hard on the mouth, pulling me into a tight, passionate embrace. The city passed us by, but I wasn’t aware of any of it. All I knew was Preston’s love and desire, and it was all I ever wanted to know.

It had been too long since he’d held me like this, too long since I’d felt anything but agony at his absence. “I want you,” I murmured into his mouth, knowing that I didn’t have to say it, but needing to anyway.

“We’ll be home soon,” he whispered back, tangling his fingers through my hair. “I need you more than anything, Maddy, and in a few minutes, we’ll have each other again.”

I shook my head. “I can’t wait that long,” I told him. Then I pressed the button that put the tinted, soundproof divider between us and Mr. Fletcher up, and I lifted my blouse up over my head.

Preston smirked and shook his head at me, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from my breasts. As I released them from my bra he pulled it away, taking one in each hand as he kissed me again, his fingers brushing over my skin with such reverence I thought I would burst into tears right there.

“I’m so sorry,” he said over and over again. “I wish there had been some other way…”

“Make it up to me,” I told him, pushing his head down between my thighs.

Preston sank to his knees in front of me, pushing my skirt up my hips and sliding my panties down my calves as he gingerly kissed his way up my legs. He took his time, caring nothing for what was happening outside the limo, focusing only one my body and how many ways he could make it sing under his expert caress. I leaned my head back and moaned as he pulled me toward the edge of my seat, and when he pressed his lips against my aching womanhood, I felt my core shudder and hum with delight.

“Preston,” I breathed, grasping his hair. His tongue made one long lick from my entrance to crest of my vulva and I sighed, arching, my nipples puckering in the cool air conditioning as he spread my folds with his fingers.

“Every day of my life,” he said between licks. “I’ll do this every day of my life if it means you’ll forgive me.”

“Oh, Preston,” I said again, shivering as he began to torture my bud in earnest. “I already do.”

But that didn’t stop him. I knew it wouldn’t. I had been counting on it.

He slid one of his fingers inside of me, using it to brush my sweet spot as his lips wrapped around my tender nubbin and sucked gently. I reeled, my heels on his shoulders as he devoured me. I felt like the only woman in all the world at that moment, like nothing that had happened to either of us had ever mattered. We were all there was, all there ever would be. I closed my eyes, squirming as Preston brought me to the edge of oblivion, holding me there as I moaned his name and inhaled his scent with every labored breath I took of him.