Page 51 of Thank you, Next

Before she’d left for her San Francisco trip, they’d christened his office, and she could feel a blush come over her cheeks when they passed by that room. She was still blushing when he opened the door to one of the four gender-neutral bathrooms.

“Why are you showing me the bathroom?” she asked right before he closed the door and pushed her up against it. “Oh.”

He moved her hair off her neck and nuzzled there. They hadn’t been together long, but she knew that it was his favorite place on her body. When he kissed her there, she knew that he was craving her. And she responded instantly. Their dinner conversation had been so heavy that her mind had been completely off sex, which was a feat when she was around Will.

But as soon as he touched her, the energy between them changed and she could put her week from hell and her worries about their relationship longevity out of her mind. It was like meditation when his mouth met hers.

That was a great idea. Maybe she’d give up her law practice to become a wellness influencer spreading the gospel of kissing meditation. She didn’t consider it for more than a moment, but it made her laugh.

Will pulled back and said, “Is something funny, woman?” He sounded like a growly caveman, and she pulled him back by his hair.

“I was just thinking that kissing you erases everything bad roaming around in my brain. I feel like I’m addicted to your mouth,” she said, stroking one finger under the neckline of his T-shirt. After they’d eaten, he’d taken off his chef’s whites and was down to his uniform of jeans and T-shirt. Her response to the clothes he wore every day was also conditioned. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to get it up for a guy in a suit anymore. “It’s almost transcendent, like meditation.”

“Too bad there’s only one of me, and I won’t share my gift with the masses.” His tone was sarcastic, which was good. Because the thought of him kissing anyone else, even for the sake of her mental health, had her feeling murderous. “I only want to kiss you to enlightenment.”

His mouth descended on her jaw and her neck. He had one strap of her dress down when she regained a modicum of thought. “Should we be doing this here? It’s so public. Could someone come in? Like Charlee?”

“Charlee is out with Jane tonight. I sent the rest of the staff home to spend one last Friday night with their families and friends before the onslaught.” He looked down at her with a feral and lascivious look on his face that made her pulse jump and her body soften and open to him. That look on his face usually meant multiple orgasms, so she was inclined to believe him. She probably would also have been inclined to have her way with him even if there was a risk of someone dropping by.

“I’ve never done it in a public bathroom,” Alex said, scrunching up her nose. “It always seemed so unsanitary.” She didn’t really need to be convinced, but she liked for Will to seduce her into things. It was a fun game for them to play, when in truth she was ready to take Will inside her at any time and in any place.

“Well, no one has used this bathroom for its intended purpose yet, and I’m pretty sure people will fuck in it eventually.” While Will was talking, he hiked up her dress and found the edge of her lacy panties.

“So we’ll be the first. We have to make sure the energy is good so it’s clear when people walk in that this bathroom fucks.” She’d spent too much time with Lexi’s collection of healers to not believe that places had energy. This whole restaurant had good energy because Will built it. They were just enhancing its charisma.

“That’s pretty woo-woo, even for you.” She bit his bottom lip, so he stepped back on that statement. “I mean, you’re right. I had better make you come more than once.”

With that, he knelt on the floor and pulled her panties down. He adjusted her stance so she was wide open to him. Every time they had sex, it got better. But tonight, there was an edge to it. They’d revealed things to each other, and both of them knew that this was about more than getting their rocks off. Sex with Will was about connecting to each other, reassuring each other, taking care of each other.

Will knew exactly how to take care of her, and he was faster than her fastest sex toy at making her come at this point. When she was done, he moved them both to the sink. She tried to turn into his arms, thinking that he would boost her onto the counter and fuck her that way, but he kept her facing the mirror.

His hands were rough, but she liked that. She liked that he took control of her body during sex. It helped that he knew what he was doing. He pulled the top of her dress down so that he could palm the skin of her breasts while making her watch. It was lewd and raw but also fantastic.

Alex didn’t know the woman looking back at her in the mirror. She was wild and ravenous, open and vulnerable. She was in the arms of a man who meant everything to her. But she wasn’t afraid of loving him.

If she saw that, Will—with his watchful eyes—had to see it, too. She willed him to see it.

Will hiked up her skirt again, and she heard the sound of buttons popping on the fly of his jeans. If she hadn’t already been drenched from his mouth on her, she would have been then. She dipped her head so that her hair hung over her face just as she felt his cock at her entrance. But he wouldn’t let her escape that way. He gently cupped his hand around her throat and lifted her head up so that their gazes met in the mirror.

“Baby, I’ve got to see you. Let me look at you.” She knew he wasn’t just talking about her face right then. She gave him something when she let him see her when she was not at her best. When she felt tears well up again, he pinched her ass and smiled softly. “You don’t want me to see you, but I do. I hate it when you cry, but I’ll never look away.”

Instead of entering her and putting them both out of their misery, he laid an open-mouthed kiss on her neck and teased her by almost coming inside her. “You want me.” It wasn’t a question but a statement by a man gratified by her need for him.

For so long, she’d been afraid to need anyone. He gave her more by being happy with her desire than he could possibly know. She whimpered something unintelligible, and he entered her. He didn’t last long, but neither did she. It was quick and rough and desperate, but he held out until she came, bucking and breaking at her center.

And he held her, standing in that bathroom, which definitely had good energy after that.

TWENTY-ONE

The next morning, Will let Alex sleep in at his loft. He woke intending to cook breakfast for them and then head to the restaurant, but he found himself watching Alex while she dozed. Her face was soft this morning, but he’d noticed that she wasn’t always restful in sleep. She sometimes tossed and turned and talked in fragments of sentences that he didn’t understand. He wondered if her work had anything to do with it. Anyone who bothered to really see her would know that she wasn’t cold—quite the contrary, she cared too much sometimes.

It satisfied him that he could give her that respite from the world. It made him feel a level of peace that he’d never felt. It was something that he thought he’d find in his marriage but hadn’t.

When she woke up, it was all at once, faster than a brand-new cell phone. “What are you still doing in bed? Don’t you need to be at work?” Even though she was completely awake, her eyes were still sleepy, and it was completely adorable.

“I’d rather be with you when you wake up,” he said. “I don’t want you to think I’ve gone off slinking into the night.”

Alex sat up then. “Seriously? I cry one time during sex and you think I’m a fragile flower who can’t wake up on my own?” She slid out of bed so unexpectedly that he didn’t make a move to stop her. He was so perplexed by her change in attitude from last night. “You know I’ve lived on my own and taken care of myself for yeeeeaaars, and I don’t need some man swooping in to save me from myself.”