“Work yourself over hard,” he said, his voice raspy. “That’s how you like it. Press down and rotate.”
Her eyes were shut this time, just feeling what her body desperately craved.
He might be physically bound, but verbally, he was controlling her like he always did.
So effortless on her part to give herself to him.
What should be scary was actually relief.
That she could let go so openly. So freely with anyone.
And the harder she worked herself under his words, the more his hips were lifting into her until she was grinding down, them moving in sync.
Her head went back, her mouth opened and she shouted out his name as everything pulsing in her body gathered steam and broke free between her legs.
Ethan was slamming up into her, coming at the same time and letting her know he was right there with her.
She collapsed on his chest and didn’t even realize his arms were around her holding her tight.
35
EVERYTHING ELSE IN MOTION
“Ihave to ask,” Ethan overheard near the end of the week. “Are you any relation to Norris?”
He froze mid-motion, his head lifting toward the adjoining office. It was Carolyn, Mason’s assistant, who rarely spoke up, which made the question all the more startling.
“I am,” Nora said simply.
Ethan let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, the tension draining from his neck and shoulders. So, it was finally out. The truth he’d been waiting to surface, the one thing that would set everything else in motion.
He hated to admit it, but he’d been close to letting the rumor slip himself just to get it over with. Pathetic, maybe, but the waiting had gnawed at him.
Especially after the weekend they’d spent on the island.
That spark he’d seen in her the night of the casino. Confident, teasing, real. It had been there again. And for the first time, he’d let himself believe it wasn’t an act.
He didn’t doubt her heart, not anymore. Not for a long time. But the fear still crept in when things didn’t move as quickly ashehoped.
“You’re his daughter, aren’t you?” Carolyn asked.
“I am.”
“I don’t know why I didn’t put it together before. I’ve heard the name Eleanor, but it was a long time ago. Then there have been whispers and I thought I’d just ask myself. I don’t like rumors or learning from other people.”
He grinned. That was more like it from Mason. Carolyn could have asked her boss, but wouldn’t. She wouldn’t want to get in the middle of it that way.
“It’s not something that I wanted out there right away. My father didn’t get me this job.”
Carolyn laughed. “Anyone who knows your father wouldn’t think that. Anyway, that was all. I enjoy working with you. Maybe I would have judged you unfairly if I’d known beforehand. Not sure if that eases your mind in any way, but it’s not meant to be mean.”
“Thinking I was like my father in personality?” she asked.
He heard the humor in Nora’s voice. “Yes. But you’re not.”
Carolyn walked away and he went back to work wondering if Nora would say anything to him. It’d look desperate if he got up and popped his head in.
But she didn’t. Or couldn’t because he heard her on the phone after talking to someone, then get up and leave. On the way back twenty minutes later, she leaned into his office. “You heard,” she said, smiling.
