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He was running late, but it couldn’t be helped. After not getting a single wink of sleep the night before, he’d sat and stared at his phone, waiting for Swan’s response to his email from Sunday. Without sleep, he’d fallen behind on his usual morning routine. More like nuked it. Exercise, shower, coffee, then head to the office. Today, though, his workout was ruined because he couldn’t get his cock to go down. Ever try to run with a cockstand? His shower was ruined because no matter how cold the water, his blood still boiled inside him, just like the come in his balls, eager to pump from his dick and into Swan’s willing body. Because he was already behind, he couldn’t rub one out like he wanted to, not that fucking his own hand would even begin to sate his need for the woman who ran from him like her hair was on fire. His coffee was more bitter than normal, and the drive to work was clogged with last minute Christmas shoppers crowding the roads.
He’d hoped that two days was sufficient enough time for her to calm down and reach out to him. Still nothing.
After their clandestine meet up at White, AJ had spent the rest of the evening scouring every face at the party, looking for her. No, he had no idea what she looked like, but from how he had to bend down to kiss her, he could approximate her height as somewhere between five-foot-four and five-foot-seven. Unless she’d been wearing heels, which could throw him off by several inches.
She also smelled like cherry vanilla, a scent he’d never associated with sex before, but now he couldn’t not. Just the memory of that scent in his nostrils and that taste on his tongue made his mouth water to taste and smell her again. To drag the scent of Swan and sensuality into his lungs and absorb it into his bloodstream. Make her a part of him, right to his cells.
He pulled up and parked his truck beside a BMW he’d never seen before. It was probably a client coming to sign some paperwork. It wouldn’t be the first time. Grabbing his beat-up leather satchel with projects plans and documents in it, and his nearly empty travel mug, he headed toward the small building where Blaze was waiting to have their Monday morning meeting.
Maeve would be in, too. She was always there, bright and early. Up until the last few weeks, though, he’d never given her much thought outside of her just…being there. Being useful. As an employee of Harris Construction. Now, though, after kissing her twice, and foolishly acknowledging the attraction between them, he noticed and anticipated so much more.
And that was what was tearing him the fuck up. Maeve and Swan. Two different women, two different circumstances, but the level of utter need for each of them was the same. What he felt for Swan seemed…heavy, needful, his heart and mind both engaged. But with Maeve, it was his heart, mind, and body—as though each part of him was waking up for the first time after he’d thrust them into dreamless slumber years ago.
He could thank his cheating, asshole father for that. He’d learned early to lock up all the vulnerable parts of himself, to keep safe and sane.
Loneliness and emptiness had taken the place of hope and love.
He was changing that.
But wait—after Friday night at the holiday party….
His body hardened, his muscles tensing at the mere memory of his flesh against Swan’s. His devouring mouth against her soft, succulent, submissive lips. She gave as he took, and he’d never felt such incredible hunger as he had in that moment.
Except when he was kissing Maeve.
Fuck.
Apparently, he was enough like his father to be attracted to more than one woman. He hadn’t cheated, technically, but he was still emotionally and now physically involved with two women.
Lifting his head, he spotted someone getting out of the BMW. Long blonde hair, a tight, tailored sweater dress that hugged a frame that was more at home on the catwalk than a construction office parking lot. The blonde turned, bright red lips smiling at him.
“Denise?” Fuck. What she was she doing there? Hadn’t she gotten the hint from his non-responses to her calls and texts that he wasn’t interested? Shit. “What are you doing here?” At my place of work and in my goddamn town?
“Hello, AJ,” she purred, her lips spreading into a wicked smile. He supposed a normal man would be drawn in by an inviting smile like that, but he wasn’t normal. His current fucked up situation was proof of that.
As she came around her car to stand before him, he steeled himself. Women like Denise would take any sign they could that you were interested, so he turned himself in a block of ice.
“Did I forget a meeting?” Like hell he did. While the woman was gorgeous and gave off hot sex vibes, she also gave off stage five clinger vibes as well. Like she was just waiting for the chance to latch on and suck him dry.
She laughed, raising a hand to press against her chest, trying to draw his attention to the tits pushed together and up in her just barely appropriate daytime attire. “Oh, no, nothing like that. I just thought that…after Friday night…we could finally meet. Face to face.”
What the hell was she talking about? Friday night was the holiday party, and he hadn’t seen her there. Had actually been hoping to avoid her. Thankfully, he had.
“Friday night? That was the party. Were you there?”
Pouting, she dropped her hand and made a fist. Huffing, she said, “How can you forget so quickly, AJ? It was only the best kiss of my life.”
His heart stalled, then tripped over itself to race.
His mouth was dry as a desert, his tongue suddenly thick and useless.
Kiss? Denise? He hadn’t kissed Denise on Friday night, he’d fucking remember that.
Denise slid her hand up his chest, fingering the collar of his work polo. Leaning in, her breasts brushed against torso. He was a man, a physical, red-blooded male. And his body responded despite what his mind was doing. Which was blanking…then spinning. In successive, jumpy movements.
“I can see you’re having difficulty wrapping your head around it, my darling. But I promise you, it was me in that conference room. It was my lips you kissed.”
Impossible. Swan was not Denise. They weren’t even in the same ballpark of personalities. For one, Swan had said she was socially awkward. Denise was a mako shark.
