Page 60 of The Beat Match

She raked her fingers up his back and over his shoulders. “What if it’s work?”

“It’s definitely work.” Another meltdown. More stress.

“You should get it.”

“I should debauch you again.”

She laughed softly. “Or that.”

He kissed her until the ringing stopped, refused to give up this slice of perfection. He still couldn’t believe he was bare in Annie, his release seeping out, something so erotic about that hot slide coating them.

Another goddamn ring. He hung his head and cursed.

There was no avoiding fate when it was gunning for you.

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18

Annie watched Wes warily as he glared out his massive windows, his phone clutched in his hand. His tone was direct and curt. He paced a steady line. This was the third call since they’d woken up and the blissed out, affectionate man from the bedroom had officially vacated the premises. This was business Wes. Pulled-in-a-million-directions Wes.

She loved him more than ever.

He hung up and dragged a hand through his hair. He was already showered, shaved, and suited up. Tie. Button-down shirt. Slacks. She was back in her sexy lace dress, the only clothes she had at his place.

She picked up his coffee mug and joined him by the window. “Is work always this insane?”

He glanced at the offered mug, but his gaze roved to her legs, up her thighs to the low neckline of her dress. His eyelids fell heavy. “Are you always this sexy?”

He pressed a kiss to her neck.

She almost dropped their mugs.

He took his coffee, eyes now locked on her face. “It’s not unusual, but the merger has taken the intensity to a new level.”

“Is it worth it?”

“Without a doubt. If the merger falls apart, we’ll lose market share. It’ll affect our bottom line, our growth. Jobs would be cut.”

All a huge deal, but that wasn’t what she’d meant. “Is it worth it to you? I’ve only ever seen your work life at a distance and didn’t realize it was this intrusive. Is it what you want to do, or did you get into the family business because it was expected? Do you love building a pharmaceutical empire as much as you love DJing?”

He took a slow sip of his coffee. “My father may have steered me toward Aldrich Pharma, but I couldn’t imagine not working there. My name’s on that company, and engineering pharmaceuticals makes a difference in the world. It’s a legacy of sorts. The DJing is a rush, but not like the accomplishment I feel at work. When life has been rough, work has been my escape. Problem solving, so many moving parts under my control. If you’re not in it and focused, everything falls apart. It’s a different kind of gratification, but no less important.”

“So you love it? Even with all this stress?” That kind of pressure would have flattened her. She flipped the page when a Sudoku puzzle got too hard, quit jobs when they became tedious.

“Aldrich Pharma is part of who I am. It makes me happy in an exhausting and thrilling way, and our breakthroughs change lives. If I lost it or left, it would be like losing a piece of myself. So, yes, the stress is worth it. The hours are worth it. But thank you.”

“For what?”

“For asking. No one has ever cared enough to ask how I feel.”

The coffee mug was toasty in her hands. Weston’s sincerity made the rest of her warm and sated. “It’s okay if you need to go. I know we said we’d talk, but you’re busy and I don’t want to add to your stress. And I haven’t mentioned it, because we were doing that whole ignoring-each-other thing the past week, but I worked on your video feed. I took it in a different direction, which you might hate, but it’s pretty good, if I do say so myself. Vivian helped splice it together, but it needs your genius beats to bring it to life.” His blue eyes were intense. Unreadable. The white-blue of an immovable iceberg. “If you don’t end up liking it, that’s cool. I won’t be offended. I can try something else or do nothing and let you create whatever it was you envisioned because I’ve clearly overstepped.”

He plucked her coffee cup from her clutches, placed it next to his on the glass end table, then he was everywhere, one hand in her hair, the other pressed against her back, fingers digging into her spine. His mouth moved against hers in a seductive rhythm that short-circuited her brain. He tasted like coffee and untempered desire.

“I can’t wait to see the video feed,” he said, his voice deliciously rough. “And I want to work on the music with you, have you in my studio when I’m there. Teach you the way I should have taught you when you blackmailed me. I want you with me as much as possible, sleeping over every night.” His request was desperate almost, like he thought she’d say no.

Had he lost his marbles?