Rowan dropped his shirt to the floor and said, “God, you look amazing there,” as he worked the button and zipper of his slacks. Then, just like that, he was completely naked. I sucked in a sharp breath. I didn’t know where to look first. Perfection, pure unadulterated perfection; that was the only way I could describe Rowan in all his bare glory. I couldn’t memorize every dip and curve fast enough.

“You have any idea how hard I get when you look at me like that?” he asked as his knees hit the bed.

“Show me.” What the what? My response shocked me. But just like Rowan brought out my serious attitude, it also seemed he brought out a part of me I’d only kept relegated to my fantasies. I had no doubt I could be as adventurous as I wanted with him. And that he’d encourage every second of it.

For just tonight, my brain whispered from out of nowhere. I had to bite my lip against the sting of that reminder. It was one night. Rowan didn’t do repeats.

At least I can live out some of my fantasies for tonight. It’s better than nothing.

It had to be, because it was all I was getting.

“Hey.” His breath wisped against my cheek, and I was stunned to find he’d moved to hover right over me as I was sucked into a murky haze. “What’s that face about?”

He sounded so sincere, so soft. The question in his eyes as he focused on me ripped at my chest.

“Nothing,” I lied, my voice gravelly from the lump that had formed.

Leaning closer, he trailed his nose along the side of mine. “You sure? You want me to stop?”

Gah! I really needed him to quit being so sweet!

I felt panicked at the thought of him stopping, at the idea of not having this one night. “No. Don’t stop. Please.”

He pressed soft, gentle kisses on my lips, down my neck, between my breasts as he traveled down my body, each one breaking something inside of me until I feared I might cry. I expected hard. I expected fast. I expected more of what we had in the back of the limo. I never would have guessed Rowan Locklaine was capable of soft and sweet. And that newly exposed layer he just revealed shredded me.

“Rowan, please,” I begged on a whimper. Please what? What was it I was asking for, exactly? I was so confused. I wanted him to stop, fearing I was moments away from a crushed heart, but another part of me was desperate for him to continue, wanting to take in as much as possible before it was all ripped away.

I felt the rough pads of his fingers as he slipped them into the thin straps at my hips and pulled my panties off. “What do you need, baby?”

“God, please... just… just hurry.”

He was back over me once again, resting on his forearm while his other hand reached out and opened the drawer to his nightstand. “Not hurrying this time. This time, we’re doing it slow. I want to feel you wrapped around my cock. I want to savor what it feels like when you come around me.”

My heart thundered in my chest as he ripped the condom open between his teeth, the heat of his body only leaving me long enough for him to slide it down his rock-hard length. Then he was back, pushing into me slowly, inch by torturous inch.

My head tilted back into the pillows as my lids fell shut. A deep moan rose up from my chest as I gloried at the way he filled me so completely.

“Look at me,” he commanded, one of his hands tangling in my hair as he pulled my face back to his. “Keep those eyes on me, baby. Don’t look away.” I gasped at what I saw when my eyelids slid open. I couldn’t understand what I was seeing in the depths of those crystal eyes as they stared back at me. It was something I’d never seen from him before.

The sounds that he pushed from my throat as he pumped in and out of me filled the room, mingled with the sounds of his panting and skin slapping against skin.

“So good,” he rasped. “So tight. Touch me, Navie. I want to feel your hands on me.”

Incapable of denying him anything at that point, I slid my hands over his ribs, up his defined chest, running my fingers over every rise and indention I’d been craving to touch since the first time I saw him without a shirt. A tiny bead of sweat trailed from his temple down to the column of his throat, and I found myself leaning in to lick it off his warm skin. At the touch of my tongue, his chest rumbled against me with his deep growl.

A gasp caught in my throat when he pulled out and thrust back in harder, faster. “Again,” I pleaded.

“You like that?” he asked, offering me exactly what I asked for.

“Yes.”

Each hard pump of his hips pushed me closer. I was hanging from the precipice. “Close. So close. Need you harder.”

“No, just like this,” he insisted, never once speeding up or slowing down, keeping an infuriatingly perfect pace as I hungered for more. “You’ll come just like that. With your eyes on me.”

My insides coiled tight then snapped in a release that overtook my entire body. I writhed and moaned, chanting Rowan’s name over and over as he continued moving inside me, drawing out every single bit of my orgasm. Tears pricked the backs of my eyes at its intensity. I wasn’t sure how I managed, but somehow I kept my eyes open and on him the whole time.

“Fuck,” he hissed as he began moving faster, chasing after his own bliss. I felt him swell inside me and clamped down around, squeezing him as hard as I could, wanting to push him over the edge just as he had me. “Shit… Navie!” he shouted as he buried himself as deep as he could possibly go. Each twitch of him as he came inside me sent electric shocks over my sensitive skin, throwing me headlong into another blinding orgasm. By the time we were finished, I couldn’t speak. I could barely breathe.

I felt a feather light brush of his lips against mine as he pulled out and climbed from the bed to handle the condom, but before he even had a chance to return, my lids drooped with exhaustion and I was pulled into the darkness of sleep.

I could have sworn it was just a dream when I felt Rowan climb back into the bed, pulling my back flush to his chest as he draped the covers over us. And I was positive it was a dream when I heard his raspy voice say, “Never felt anything so good in all my life, Navie. Not once.”

Muted sunlight flowed through the drapes as my eyes opened and took in my unfamiliar surroundings. It took a few disorienting seconds to remember where I was and what had happened the night before. I tried to shift my body, causing a small ache between my thighs that brought back memories of Rowan waking me in the middle of the night with his mouth. My skin flushed red as I recalled the toe-curling orgasms I’d received with perfect clarity.

Then it hit me like a sledgehammer.

Our night was over.

Turning my head on the pillow, I was surprised to see Rowan still asleep in the bed next to me. It was the sight of his relaxed, sleeping form that alerted me to the weight of his arm around my waist. He was holding me. Not only had we slept together, but it would appear that Rowan was a cuddler, as well. I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d held the other women the way he was holding me. At that thought, a sharp, intense pain radiated through my chest.

I scolded myself. Suck it up, Navie. You have no one to blame but yourself.

Pulling myself from my melancholy, I slid from underneath Rowan’s arm as carefully as I could, not wanting to wake him. If I was going to have to do the walk of shame, I wanted to do it without the humiliation of him putting me out on my ass like I’d seen him do the first day I came to work for him. No, I was going to leave of my own accord, not because he kicked me out. And I was going to come back to work on Monday like nothing ever happened.