Undeniable (Cloverleigh Farms #2)(50)

But no—no! I could hold out. I was strong. I was powerful. I was a man, and I was not going to go down without a fight.

Desperately, I tried to focus on other things. Unsexy things. Terrible, boring things.

Pemberton board meetings. Hughie’s kids’ piano recitals. Charlotte’s Nutcracker performances. Family dinners where my parents did nothing but praise my brother.

I felt like I had this. I could hold out. It wouldn’t kill me. Much.

And then.

And then.

I felt one of her hands wandering up my inner thighs. Playing with my balls. Sliding behind them.

Oh, fuck. She wouldn’t.

But she did.

She kept up her vicious, glorious sucking on my cock and eased one fingertip into my ass.

Not gonna lie. I came a little bit.

And that fierce little vixen only went at me harder. Pushed that finger all the way in. Relaxed her throat and took me even deeper.

Annnnd that was about it.

I no longer had the capacity to care about bets or my company or the fact that she might not be speaking to me by this time tomorrow. I didn’t care that she was getting me back for what I’d done to her ten years earlier in a room at my parents’ summer house or that she probably wasn’t enjoying this quite as much as she pretended to.

It had been nowhere near five minutes, and it had also been fifteen years.

My vision—gone. My control—gone. My manners—gone.

I took her head in my hands and emptied myself into her throat without a single regret.

She took it. She wanted it. She’d asked for it. And when it was over, she sat back, smiling and gasping for air, dragging a wrist across her mouth.

“That was fun,” she said.

Not I win. Not you lose. Not I just sucked off a majority ownership in your company (which she had). But that was fun.

My heart—gone.





We had dinner at the inn’s restaurant, seated on the outdoor patio. Chloe wore a white sundress that showed off her tanned skin and long dark hair, and I could hardly take my eyes off her.

After dinner we decided to head over to the dunes to watch the sunset. Holding hands, we ambled out along the wooden boardwalk and stood for a few minutes with all the other tourists capturing the moment with selfies, then posting them on social media. But neither one of us even looked at our phone. Tonight was ours alone, and I didn’t want to share it with anyone.

We strolled back toward the dunes and took our shoes off to climb up. At the top of the bluff, we dropped down on the sand and watched the sun sink into the lake.

“So beautiful,” she murmured with a sigh.

I elbowed her gently. “Glad you came?”

“Yeah. It’s been a long time since I did something like this—just sat and watched the sunset. It feels like there’s always something to be done at work or at home. No time to sit still.”

“I know what you mean. Whenever I sit still, I feel guilty, like there’s something I probably should be doing.”

“Exactly.” She shook her head. “I can’t even remember the last vacation I took. Or even the last date I went on.”

“Good. Must not have been too memorable.”

Laughing, she poked my shoulder. “Jealous?”

“Always.” I reached for her, hauling her onto my lap, facing me. “From day one, I hated it when you’d talk about guys.”

“I know. I remember. But you talked all the time about girls.”

“Well, I didn’t want you to think I liked you or anything.”

“God forbid.” The wind blew her hair around her shoulders, and she gathered it in both hands on one side. “We’d spent all those years building up animosity, we couldn’t throw all that away just because we were attracted to each other.”

“Hell no. What fun would that have been?”

She grinned. “You know, I used to wonder what would have happened on prom night if I hadn’t walked away.”

“Um, I’d have popped your cherry about four months sooner.”

“Maybe …”

“Definitely. I wanted you so bad that night.”

She laughed. “I’m glad we didn’t do it then. I think it would have changed everything.”

“Probably,” I agreed, thinking back to the way events had unfolded over the years. We definitely didn’t have a conventional beginning. “Our story is sort of zig-zagged, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but it’s ours,” she said, giving up on holding her hair in place and wrapping her arms around me. “And it brought us here, so I like it.”

I pressed my lips to hers. “Me too.”





19





Chloe





Now



Back in our room, I slipped off my sandals. “Today was magical.”

Oliver locked our door and set his wallet and phone on the dresser. “It was.”

“I’d forgotten how beautiful it is here. I need to come back more often.” I went over to the window and looked out toward the lake, but it was too dark to see anything.

“We’ll come back later this summer.” Oliver came up behind me and wrapped me in his arms. “How does that sound?”