Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 123579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 494(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 494(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
My phone vibrates on the table, too, but with a news alert. I pick it up to read the headline.
“That may not be the only thing he wants to talk about, Sof.” I turn the phone to face her. “Martin Bennett just officially announced that he’s retiring to focus on his company’s philanthropic work.”
Sofie tenses in my lap, eyes going wide.
“Oh, God, Daddy. He’s going to challenge Walsh, isn’t he?”
I nod my head slowly, placing the phone back on the table. Sofie reaches for her phone. When she listens to Walsh’s voice mail, he apologizes for not being able to save her with the foundation and confirms that the Bennett board will vote soon on its new CEO because her father has challenged Martin’s choice.
“Oh, God. Daddy’s really doing it.” Sofie stares unblinkingly at her phone. “He’s challenging Walsh, and essentially Martin’s wishes, to make a play for Bennett.”
“Bennett Enterprises is not your responsibility. Walsh can take care of himself, and your father certainly can and always does.” I press a kiss to the softest lips I’ve ever tasted. “You’re going to take the next few days to take care of yourself. And I’ll take care of you, too, in the ways that count.”
She smiles against my mouth, angling her head to kiss me back. The touch and slide of our tongues raises goose bumps across my arms and incites my dick to readiness despite the heaviness of our discussion.
“I’m sorry.” She squirms in my lap. “I can barely walk. You can’t put that big thing inside me again so soon.”
Our laughter shatters any passion the moment holds, and I can only shake my head.
“I’m serious, Sof. Let me take care of you for a few days. Take some time off.”
She looks at me from under her lashes, capturing the corner of her lip between her teeth, considering my offer.
“I can’t completely check out,” she finally says. “I have a meeting with François Wednesday, and we have a press conference for Goddess Friday.”
“I have a few things here and there, too, but they can be done from right here.” I cup her face. “Let’s be together for a few days. Say yes.”
I slip my hand between the buttons of my shirt she’s wearing, palming her breast, rolling her nipple between my fingers until it swells and pebbles. Her lashes drop immediately, eyes closed, head falling back against my shoulder. My other hand slides between her legs, finding the wet warmth I crave. My mouth waters at the thought of tasting her, eating the sweetness nestled between her thighs. As soon as I slip my middle finger inside, her legs fall open, her hips matching my rhythm.
“That’s my girl,” I whisper through her hair and into her ear.
“Are you controlling me with sex, Mr. Bishop?” Her breathy question is barely a sound.
“It’s the only thing I’ve found that does the trick.” I laugh against her neck. “Otherwise, I’d have no upper hand.”
“Oh, I like where your upper hand is right now.” A husky laugh slips past her pouty lips.
My hand goes still, the wet walls of her pussy still gripping my finger past the knuckle.
“So it’s a deal? You’ll give me the next few days? Forget the madness out there for a while?”
Her face clouds for a moment with something other than passion, and I realize until I mentioned it, she’d managed to almost forget the firestorm waiting for her outside these walls. I want that for her. Just for a little while. Just long enough to repair some of the damage this process has already done. I see it in her eyes, and the bruises don’t show, but I know they’re there.
“Sof, is it a deal?”
She lifts her lashes to look at me, a small smile budding on her face.
“It’s a deal.” She turns so that her long legs hang on either side of mine, straddling me in the chair. “And maybe I underestimated what I can handle. I’m ready if you are.”
Oh, ever ready.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Sofie
How much bliss can one person take? It’s rhetorical, a question I don’t want to answer in case I’ve reached my limit. I’ll just keep testing the boundaries of happiness with Trevor. I didn’t know the world could be this bright, that sex could be this good, this meaningful. Every time we’re together, he entrenches himself more deeply, seeping through my pores. He has worked himself into my crevices, woven himself into the pattern of my life so intricately, I’d have to pick him out slowly and painfully with something sharp to separate him from the fibers of my heart. I didn’t know I had this in me, but Trevor has been digging around inside me, unearthing things I thought were for other women. Not for me.
“Well, that was fun,” Trevor says, holding my hand in the backseat of the SUV as we leave François’s atelier in the Meatpacking District.