Page 47 of Santa Baby

I unraveled in moments. My skin was damp with sweat as he drew out my pleasure, edging me toward a climax before reeling me back in to elongate the moment.

No one had ever been able to get me off with just their tongue. It was a religious experience, and soon I was begging, my hands tangled in his hair as my legs shook and toes curled around the most mind-blowing orgasm I’d ever felt.

I rode it out on his tongue, his name on my lips.

20

MASON

Iclicked my pen twice and set it down again, watching the light of the screen projecting this quarter’s earnings play over the glossy brown conference table. It was Monday morning, and for the first time in my professional life, I wanted to be anywhere but this place, this building high above the New York City street, staring at numbers and listening to the head of marketing go on and on about his team’s ideas for next quarter.

My mind was unfocused. My body was at odds. Ever since I left the yacht, I hadn’t been able to get the feeling of Fia’s warm, supple skin off my hands. Her scent punctuated my every nerve. Her taste? God, I’d brushed my teeth at least a dozen times and I could still taste her on my tongue.

This was a problem. I couldn’t get her out of my head before but now?

I rolled my neck as the meeting continued, sitting at the head of the table flanked by eight others. I’d been feeling out of sorts since I woke up this morning at four, well before my six o’clock alarm. A rigorous workout then a five-mile run through Central Park hadn’t changed anything. In fact, it made the feeling worse. I found myself on the Upper East Side before I realized where my feet were taking me and had the urge to walk into Fia’s apartment and finish what we started Saturday night. It took every ounce of restraint to cut back through the park and shove her naked image from my head.

I wanted her. I imagined all the ways I could—would—have her. But I needed time. For the first time in my life there was someone I was willing to break all of my rules for. I wanted repeats with Fia. I wanted her in my bed beside me when I woke up. I wanted to make her breakfast and sip coffee while watching her mouth move as she spoke and just that. Just that. I wanted something other than this scheme. I wanted something else with her entirely.

I glanced at my watch, then back at the presentation. Quarterly projections for next quarter were on target. The stagnant summer season had bled into massive sales and higher profits during the holiday season like I anticipated. Nothing was amiss. Nothing was alarming. Nothing needed my immediate attention other than the woman from my dreams currently across town.

Saturday night, while swaying in the Hudson, we’d lain in bed together for hours, my hand between her legs and my mouth locked on hers until the early hours of the morning. I’d explored every sweet inch of her perfect body with my lips, my tongue, and my teeth until she was limp and gasping, but I’d stopped her from returning the favor. That night was for her. Nothing felt better than having the knowledge of how and where to touch her to make her melt in my hands.

I wouldn’t consider myself a selfish lover but sex had always been contractual for me. There was an expected give and take. I was a master at setting firm boundaries and laying out my rules. I’d given up on dating years ago, in my late twenties. I couldn’t connect. I didn’t understand the gentle, impossible to read nuances that made or broke the relationship I was trying, maybe not that hard, to foster.

Robotic. Cold. Dominant.

I didn’t feel like any of those things with Fia.

I just had no idea how to tell her how I felt. We hadn’t talked about the fact we’d crossed a major line when we kissed for the first time. Instead, we kissed again. Then I spent a night kissing her elsewhere.

“Do you approve of that, Mr. O’Leary?”

I blinked and stared at the man presenting. Connor Clare, my head of marketing, blinked back at me, his face a wash of stone. I’d always liked him because he was just as cold and robotic as I was, and a genius to boot. I had no idea what he’d been talking about for the last twenty minutes but I silently nodded my agreement to what could have been the acquisition of my company to some major wholesale conglomerate.

As people started shuffling paperwork and chatting quietly, the meeting coming to an end, I noticed Colin looking in my direction. I held his gaze for a few seconds before rising and leaving the conference room without a word to anyone, heading straight to the elevator to travel the two floors to my office.

Colin slid past me as I stepped inside. He leaned casually on the far wall as the doors shut.

“What do you need?” I asked in a bored tone.

“What’s up your ass this morning?” He chuckled, crossing his ankles as he angled his gaze toward his watch. “I had a half-hour break. Thought I’d check in.”

Great. Just great. The Christmas lull creeping through the office hadn’t affected him yet, apparently, even though over half of my employees were already enjoying their time off before returning to the office in January. Colin wasn’t one of them.

“You had Deck the Decks this weekend, didn’t you?”

The door opened to reveal a quiet, empty lobby and even emptier hallways normally full of administrators and their assistants. Only Gabby remained, and she lifted her head from her computer screen as I walked by with Colin hot on my heels.

“I did.” I walked into my office and winced as Colin shut the door behind us.

“So, how was it?”

“The same as last year. Tedious, stale, a whole lot of dry conversation.”

“How did Fia do?”

Ah, here we go.