Page 92 of One More Chapter

“That depends. You said you wanted to take care of your heart first, and I want to protect that more than I want you naked.”

Oh.

A bowling ball lodges itself in my throat, making it difficult to swallow.

Admitting to myself and Anthony that my heart is starting to feel like it’s on solid ground again between us is more than a step; it’s a leap off of a diving board into the deep end. But he boarded up windows for me, and told me to chase my dreams, and has been nothing but wonderful. I step toward him, taking a deep breath as I go.

“I felt safe in your hands tonight. Can I trust you to keep making me feel that way this time around?”

“Yes,” he shudders, his chest deflating as he steps toward me, extending his hands until he’s holding mine. “Yes, Pen, I’m going to take care of your heart first.”

“Okay,” I nod, my words scratching out when I say, “Then this is what I want.”

“Be more specific,” he says, his voice equally as grating. “What do you want?”

I can’t quite put itallon the table—that I want to lay everything out, and find out where we went wrong, and do our best to right this thing between us. Instead of going with the big picture of it all, I settle on what I want right now.

“I want you to finish what you started when you put your hand on me underneath the dinner table.”

He swallows. Tilts his head back. Groans. And then dips his head forward with fire in his eyes. I have to clutch the bell to keep it from falling when he grips me by the shoulders and lathes his tongue stiffly and lazily along the column of my throat.

“Words,” he rumbles between strokes of his tongue. “I needwords, boss.”

“Take off my clothes and take me to bed, Anthony.”

It comes out heady, desperate, but more sure than I’ve been in a damn long time about anything. My future career is up in the air, but I am absolutely sure that I want Anthony Ellis.

“Yesma’am.”

He lifts me like I weigh nothing, and when I clench my knees against his hips, his cock rests right where I need it to be. By the time I start to grind against him, I’m on my back, dazily peering up at a predator cornering its prey for the kill.

“Fuck, you look so good like this,” I whine.

“Like what?”

“You look like you’re about to tear my clothes off with your teeth and fuck me until the end of break.”

He does that thing—that sexy man thing—and yanks his sweater and undershirt up over his head from the back in one fell swoop, leaving me with a picture of his glorious abs.

“Damn. Have you been reading my diary?”

“You seem more like a journal guy.”

He grins widely, but the craze in his gaze remains as he shoves both his hands beneath my sweater and tugs it off.

“If it’s filled with more dirty stories, maybe Iwillsnoop. Is it under your pillow?”

He chuckles darkly, shaking his head as he descends over me, tracing my jawline with his nose.

“Penelope. If I have you in my pillows, you’ll be too preoccupied to snoop.”

I purr, leaning into his touch as he shoves off his jeans and toes them to the floor. I’m in the process of unbuttoning my skirt when he grabs my hands and pins them beside my head, shaking his.

“Let me unwrap my pussy.”

I let out a sharp laugh.

“Yourpussy? Excuse you? What makes it yours?”