Total pages in book: 17
Estimated words: 15429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 77(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 51(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 15429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 77(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 51(@300wpm)
We’d been caught in the supply closet, and I’d heard her laughing softly behind me. That in turn had made me chuckle after the momentary shock had subsided. I hadn’t been embarrassed but instead felt a fierce need to protect her, to shield her from any prying eyes.
Because she was mine and her nudity was for my eyes only.
But on the other hand, I didn’t care that anybody had seen us. I actually found it a little bit arousing that we’d been caught. And I felt like maybe Penny had felt the same way.
The young man who’d caught us had sported wide eyes and red cheeks. He mumbled his apologies and shut the door promptly, and then we were left alone again. I’d turned around and adjusted the top of her dress, pushed the skirt of it down, and then tucked my still semi-hard dick into my slacks. Fuck, I could have taken her again right then and there.
All I had been able to think about was my cum slipping from her tight little virgin pussy in that moment. I grew possessive as that image slammed into my head.
Then I’d smoothed my fingers through her hair and just stared at her. She was it for me. There was nobody else in the world I’d rather be with, and I wanted her to know.
And I felt that way even after this one moment in time with her. But we couldn’t stay in that supply closet forever, so when we left, when I took her hand in mine and lead her down the hallway and back to reality, I had no intentions of letting her go. The feeling of my heart racing and pleasure still filling me told me being truthful with how I felt for her and what I wanted was what I had to do.
Even if she’d say she didn’t want anything more.
But I wouldn’t accept that answer.
So I didn’t know how I’d found—let—myself getting pushed back from Penny, watching as she grew even more distant from me, literally. I had been engulfed by the crowd as soon as we found ourselves back in the ballroom, surrounded by people. And all the while, I felt this tug in my heart, as if the farther away she went, the more I lost something.
I’d kept looking back at her, feeling panic fill me. I had to get to her. Then that panic turned into anger at these motherfuckers keeping me from her.
But the people swarming me were like hungry sharks, refusing to back down. And it had been like I was in the ocean, these bodies the current taking me away from her. I should have fought everyone back.
But everything went into slow motion, the noise around me fading, the only thing I could hear was the beating of my own heart pounding in my ears.
And then I couldn’t see her anymore as people filled the space between us, as I felt them crowd me. But their words fell on deaf ears. My mind was too consumed with the “what ifs” and the “if only” thoughts.
I felt like the thing I held most dear had been stolen from me.
And then I couldn’t find her again. Oh, I’d tried, searched. It was like she’d been a mirage, a fantasy I’d conjured up.
Had there been this many people to start with? People were shoulder-to-shoulder, suffocating me. Or was I just now realizing how alone I truly was? Was I just now realizing that the one person I connected with, the woman who I knew I couldn’t let go, was now lost in a sea of money-hungry assholes?
And here I was now. Alone, regretting that I hadn’t tried harder, fought for her and our stolen moments. She’d disappeared, escaped the party like Cinderella escaping her destiny.
She was my destiny. That, I knew for certain.
And I also knew I’d find her. I’d search until she was in my life again. And then I’d make her mine.
Chapter Nine
Everett
One week later
It had been a week.
It had been seven long fucking days since the charity event ended, we’d been caught by the staff… and I’d been stupid and let Penny walk out of my life. But what she didn’t know was that it was only a momentary absence. As soon as I got home, I’d contacted the heads of the charity event and had gotten all the information I could on Penny. I might not have known her last name, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t find out who she was. Anyone who had been at that event had been vetted.
I’d found out there had only been two guests named Penny at the event that night. Penelope “Penny” Vanguard, seventy-year-old heiress who was most definitely not the woman I’d fallen for. The only other one who had come up was Penny Sterling, a twenty-two-year-old plus-one guest accompanied by her sister, Claire Sterling, who was engaged to Stewart Ronaldo, millionaire and owner of Ronaldo Law.