My smile felt twisted on my lips. “You mean well, but I know one thing for certain about my old man. He never had a shred of love in his heart for me.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore. I made my peace with it a long time ago.” Guillermo had helped me with that. After a particularly bad fight with my old man, I’d gone to the one place I knew I could let my walls down—the restaurant.
Guillermo poured me a drink, sat down with me, and let me talk for hours. He gave me the love and support I’d needed from my own father for years and reminded me that family didn’t always have to be blood. Sometimes family became the people we chose.
I shrugged. “Sometimes though, I catch myself wishing I had been able to make him proud just once. I wish he’d seen that I’m not the screw-up I used to be.”
I turned onto Laila’s street. The Citrine Tower glowed golden yellow, the edges of the building blurred by the rain. I pulled up as close to the front doors as I could get and put the car in park.
Laila didn’t get out of the car. Her hand still rested on my thigh. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re a screw-up, Storm. And forgive me for saying this, but I think your father had his head so far up his own ass he couldn’t see how lucky he was.”
To my own surprise, I started laughing.
When had I ever been able to laugh at my old man’s ruthless ways?
Laila giggled, and soon her giggles became wheezing laughter, and the pair of us rocked back and forth in our seats like idiots, clutching our ribs and complaining between bouts of laughing that our cheeks hurt.
When we finally recovered, Laila nodded up at the Citrine Tower. “Come up with me?”
“Really?”
She giggled again, sweet and flirty, playful and vulnerable. “Really.”
CHAPTER 24
LAILA
Storm and I left his car with the Citrine Tower’s valet, and I counted my lucky stars that there were no paparazzi lingering outside. The last thing I needed was to be photographed entering my apartment tower with my hunky—understatement of the century—new boss in tow. The things people would say.
Of course she’s inviting him upstairs, he owns her company.
Typical for a woman like her to try to sleep her way to the top.
Do you think Laila Hunt wants out of the modeling industry and into the corporate life?
What does Storm Thornton see in plus-size model Laila Hunt?
Lucky for us, it was probably too late, and either the paparazzi assumed I was already up in my suite or still mingling at Ellice’s after party.
Storm walked with his hand in the small of my back, letting it fall only to open the lobby doors for me. We moved inside, the silence between us simmering and popping with the unspoken details of what we were about to do. Was his head spinning like mine? Last night in the jacuzzi, things sort of happened of their own volition. One minute we were bumping knees and the next I was in his lap. But this time required a bit more intention, what with my invitation, followed by the long walk up to my suite. It left plenty of time for one of us to get cold feet.
After last night and the stress of today, I needed a release. I was so pent up that just his hand on my back and the way he pulled me into his side as we rode the elevator up to the top floor had me feeling breathless and flustered. My insides squirmed with anticipation. Perhaps intention and having to wait a little bit longer wasn’t such a bad thing.
The elevator doors opened with a soft chime.
I led Storm down the hall. Neither of us spoke a word, as if we were both sneaking in and about to do something naughty. Or rather, several naughty things. At my door, I fumbled with my keys. My fingers felt tingly and useless as hormones surged to life in my blood. My stomach fluttered. Finally, I got the key in the deadbolt and the lock gave way.
Storm planted a hand flat on the door and pushed it open.
Without warning, he spun me around and backed me into my own apartment, kicking the door closed behind him. It slammed, and in my imagination, the windows shook in their frames.
Storm advanced on me as I continued backing up. My lips curled in a smile, but I tried to look serious as he yanked his tie loose and popped open the top buttons of his shirt.
I bumped into my kitchen island and had to stop retreating. “Who said anything about taking our clothes off? I was inviting you up for tea.”
Storm stopped, his fingers stilling at the last two buttons near his navel. His green eyes widened, and bless his heart, he actually blushed.
I swallowed my laughter. “You’re making a lot of assumptions.”
Storm scrambled. “I was just making myself more comfortable. Tea, huh? I could go for some tea.”
“Chamomile?”
“What?”
I snickered. Damn it all, I couldn’t hold out any longer. But oh, how much fun I was having with him. “I’m just fucking with you, baby. Get over here.”
His eyes narrowed. “Woman, you’re playing a dangerous game.”
“Those are the only games worth playing.”
He pulled his tie off over his head. It messed up his hair in the most delicious way. I wanted to run my fingers through it. I wanted to pull it while I sat in his lap. One more of his shirt buttons came undone, exposing taut skin painted in moonlight as he passed in front of the window and came toward me. He flicked open the last button, and finally the shirt was open and I could see his abs.
Oh hell yes.
As soon as he reached me, Storm grabbed hold of my waist, pulled me away from the kitchen island, and held me tight up against him. His lips crashed into mine and I melted for him. His hand slid through the open back of my dress and ran across my ribs and down to my hip. I felt his stomach, tracing every muscle and teasing the trail of dark hair that led to the waistband of his pants. Slowly, I began undoing his belt.
Storm nipped at my lips. “I’m not supposed to be doing this.”
“I don’t care.”
He smiled as I kissed his chin, jaw, and down his neck. “There’s no going back after this.”
I stopped kissing him and met his gaze. In the moonlight, he looked even more magnificent than usual. It glinted in his eyes and cast half of his profile into shadow. I trailed my fingers along his lower lip. “Why would I want to go back?”
Storm broke. In one fluid motion, he tore the slit of my dress open. I gasped. He growled and raked his eyes over me, soaking in the sight of my nakedness. The dress did not leave room for panty lines of any sort, and therefore, I hadn’t worn any.
He backed me up toward the island. It hit the small of my back and he caught my hip in one hand before running his hand down the back of my thigh and lifting my leg, holding it against his hip. He kissed me deeply while he grew hard, his cock resting against my stomach as he forced me back. Before I realized what was happening, he picked me up and set me down on the island. He seized the shredded fabric of my dress and tore it open a bit further before pushing my legs apart and settling between them.
I braced one foot on his shoulder and the other on the counter.
Storm teased me with more kisses. His lips were wet and swollen, just like my pussy, and all I wanted was for him to touch me. But he took his time, torturing me as I began to squirm on the counter, silently pleading with him to up the ante.