The moment I released his bottom lip from my teeth, the Josh I knew and lusted after appeared. Gone was the softness of his earlier kiss; we were now building something that was out of this world. This kiss couldn’t compare to the kisses we’d shared before. This was a first time kind of kiss, a kiss that should be privileged and treasured. It was like learning to kiss all over again.

It was his turn to bite my lip. He pulled it out and let it go with a sharp pop. I cried out at the slight throbbing, but even with the tiny stabs of pain, I felt myself quickly wanting more. With soft sweeps, his tongue traced my lip, gliding over and taking away the soft pain from his attack. My needy mouth opened in a gasp, and his tongue found mine. My hips pressed down, grinding into his erection, which offered me the briefest of relief. Dry humping first thing in the morning was now one of my favorite things in the world. His fingers dug into the flesh of my bottom as my tongue swirled with his.

My fingers ran through his hair before I moved one of my hands down the side of his naked torso and found the cotton of his boxer briefs. All inhibitions and sense of reason had flown out the window, and all I wanted was his mouth, his cock, and the pleasure and relief I knew I’d get. I didn’t want to think of consequences or the fear of getting my heart broken by this man, all I wanted was the now and what he was offering.

“You said I can do whatever I want. Is that still true?” I hummed against his throat.

Josh groaned under the sensation, and I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.

“You could tell me to fuck another man right now, and I’d do it.”

Our kiss became frantic, and our movements pure insanity. I couldn’t get close enough, and my desperation soared. I groaned as his lips left mine and traveled along my jaw until he hit the confines of my neck. The sensation of his lips, his tongue, and his teeth combining to unleash torment onto my sensitive skin caused me to cry out.

I reached for his boxer briefs and slid my hand inside until I found his cock. He groaned into the kiss as I stroked his erection with a strong hand and ran my thumb over the tip.

“Christ, fuck, Ashy.” His mouth moved from mine as he gasped for air and his eyes slammed shut.

I concentrated on his face as I increased my stroke and rubbed my thumb through his pre-come. His face was fascinating to watch. The faster I stroked and pumped, the more his jaw ticked, and when I glided over his sensitive tip or cupped his balls, he would bite his bottom lip.

“I want you to look at me when you come,” I whispered into his ear with seduction dripping from my every word. I nipped his lobe with my teeth and felt the first intense throb of his cock, telling me that he was close. “Do you like when I bite you?”

“Fuck,” he growled as his eyes flew open and heat stared back at me. “Make me come.”

I squeezed harder and increased my pace, while never breaking our gaze. The faster I stroked, the hotter his eyes turned. I felt like I could explode from watching him come undone, but right now it was all about him.

With a curse and a moan of my name, Josh stared at me as he unloaded his warm seed in my hand, and I felt like a goddess making a king fall at her knees.

“Holy shit,” he murmured, and I watched as his stomach muscles continued to clench. “Thank fuck for breaking rules.”

“Just call me Ashlyn, ‘The rule breaker,’ Hart.”

“You can break the rules with me any day, Ashy.” He smiled, before leaning over and pulling out a couple of tissues from the tissue box I always left beside my bed. With careful movements, he grabbed my hand and cleaned off his release.

“Thank you for yesterday and last night,” I whispered, as the intimacy of everything that had just occurred hit me.

“You never have to thank me, Ashy. I will always protect what’s mine.”

Mine.

AFTER ASHLYN GAVE ME the best hand job of my life, we both decided to blow off work for the day and spend most of it lazing around her apartment, watching movies, and staying out of the rain. There had been no awkwardness between us, but Ashlyn was still skittish to the point that I found her gazing into nothingness several times. Lachlan was still tainting her thoughts, and it pissed me off that he had that control. The thoughts of finding and disposing of him were seething just below the surface, but my first priority was Ashlyn.

Always.

The flowers were disposed of as soon as she went to have a shower, and the smile I received when she returned told me she’d noticed. We never kissed or intimately touched, but she did lay with her head in my lap, and I played with her hair until she fell asleep. I spent an hour watching her sleep, instead of watching the movie I had chosen. With only the candlelight illuminating her features, she looked like a delicate angel. Peaceful Ashlyn was my favorite kind of Ashlyn. I loved her sass, her no-bullshit attitude, and her ability to render me speechless. Fuck, she was the hottest woman I’d ever laid eyes on, but peaceful, unguarded, sweatpants-wearing Ashlyn was my favorite. There were often moments when I’d catch a glimpse of the girl that I first saw in the library when I was nineteen, and I still felt the squeeze of my heart when she would appear. The nervousness, the quick wit, and the awkwardness never left, and I hoped to Christ it never would.

I left her that night with a kiss on the cheek, and made her promise to call me if she needed me. It was a pretty perfect day, and it started with the best morning I’d had in a long time.

“You seem very distracted these days.”

Eden sat across from me, her nails tapping the top of my desk, and her gaze locked on me as she tried to get inside my head. You couldn’t put anything past her. She was like a bloodhound sniffing out everything that shouldn’t be found. I met up with her and Ky for breakfast, and she followed me into my office with the excuse that she needed to run something by me for the upcoming cover she was shooting.

“Work’s busy at the moment.”

“This is different from work busy.”

“You have different rankings for how busy I am?” I laughed before lifting my coffee to my mouth and sipping on my fresh brew.

A smirk flittered over her lips, and I knew then that she was about to start the interrogation. “Of course I have different Josh rankings. There is work busy, women busy, family busy, gym busy—I know a lot about you, Josh Crawford.”

Fuck, she was hilarious. “If I didn’t love you, I’d think you were a nutter.”

She scoffed before raising a brow and incredulously asking, “So, who is she?”

The sip of coffee I had just taken came flying back up my throat, and I coughed in discomfort as Eden’s prying question hit me. Was I really so obvious that Eden had seen a change in me? Ashlyn and I were . . . what were we? My intentions did not involve being friends with benefits. She wasn’t random pussy that I’d have when I needed relief, and she wasn’t a distraction. She deserved more than that. She was everything I wanted, and I’d spend the rest of my life making her see that.

“I knew it,” she stated with glee and clapped her hands excitedly. My silence was obviously the only answer she needed. “Is it Jessica from accounts?”

Shit, here we go. “What? No!”

Her brow pulled, and I was sure her mind was sorting through all of the women working for Anderson Publications. This interrogation was going to be horrendous, but I knew she wouldn’t stop.

“Sophie from Marketing? I’ve seen the way you two flirt. I’m surprised someone hasn’t walked in on you two going at it in the supply room.”