He laughed. "Let me see if it's still stable." I watched him climb up the steps that were nailed into the side of the tree. The boards creaked when he stepped up into the house, but nothing broke. He put his hand down. "Penny Taylor, I'm officially inviting you up into my tree house."
I laughed and climbed the little ladder. I grabbed his hand and he helped pull me up inside. This was more what I was expecting his room to be like. I laughed as I looked around at all the toys and comic books on the floor. There were actual windows in the little tree house, which had somehow preserved everything despite the hole in the floor. There were even pictures that lined the wall. Photos of James as a happy little boy. He had the same facial features, in an adorable little boy kind of way. "You're so cute. Is this you and Mason?"
James laughed and unpinned the picture from the wall. "Yeah. That was taken at summer camp one year."
I laughed and snatched the picture from him. They both had braces and looked so scrawny, nothing like either of them did now. "I have to show this to Bee." I looked up at him and he was smiling at me. "I'm gaining the best family I could possibly ask for, you know. Not your parents, obviously. But your siblings and your friends. I love all of them so much."
He scratched the scruff along his jaw line. "You have such a positive way of thinking about everything."
"That's what they are. Our family."
He turned away from me and gazed at the other pictures on the walls. I would have perused the other pictures too, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from his face. Even his favorite place growing up seemed to make him sad now. I wanted to joke around with him about how he barely even fit in his old tree house. But I didn't want to push him. It seemed like he had something to say. So I just waited, staring at his perfect features in the moonlight.
He sighed and leaned his head against the wooden boards behind him. "When you asked me why I preferred here over my bedroom, I just..." His voice trailed off. "It was the only place where I felt like I could breathe."
He had said that to me before. That he felt like he could finally breathe again when he was with me. I moved onto his lap, straddling him. "So, now I'm your tree house?"
"I wouldn't put it that way." He placed a soft kiss against my lips, cradling the back of my head in his hand.
"How would you put it?"
He grabbed my lower back and rotated us so that my back was against the wooden floor and he was on top of me. "You're my life, my heart, my soul, my everything."
He was so sweet. But for some reason all I could seem to focus on was how handsome he looked with the moonlight streaming in through the branches of the trees, dancing across his face. I spread my legs even wider and pulled my dress up my thighs.
There was an intensity in his eyes that hadn't been there before. And any trace of sadness had suddenly disappeared.
"You must have had fantasies of bringing girls up here, James." I reached out for the button of his dress pants.
"I never thought I'd be this lucky."
I grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled his lips down to mine. This was always the best way to know if we were okay. We both had this internal need that was constantly clawing at the surface, ready to escape. And tonight had been a complete disaster. We both needed this.
He pressed down on my clit through my thong and I moaned into his mouth. I needed all of him.
"James," I panted. "I need you. All of you." I reached down and grabbed his erection through his dress pants. I had only managed to unbutton them and my fingers fumbled with the zipper.
I yelped as the elastic in my thong snapped against my hip as he tore it off of me. But the sensation was quickly replaced by pleasure as he thrust himself deep inside of me.
Fuck.
He groaned into my mouth and grabbed my thighs, pulling me even closer to him. He didn't wait for me to adjust to him. His fingers dug into my hips as he fucked me just like I needed him to. Intense. Raw. Perfect.
It felt like I couldn't get close enough to him. I hooked my ankles behind him, drawing him even closer, and wrapped my arms around the back of his neck. I couldn't get enough. "More," I said breathlessly.
He lightly bit my bottom lip and kissed me hard, completely consuming me. His mouth claimed me just like his cock, making me feel full in the most satisfying way.
I moaned again as he tilted his hips, hitting a spot that usually made me lose control. But I wasn't ready to let go. I never wanted to let go of him. I grabbed a fistful of his hair, deepening our kiss.
We should have been clumsy in the darkness, but I knew his body better than I knew my own. I had explored every rippling muscle and every inch of his skin. I felt the fire building in my stomach and I could feel myself clenching around him. Not yet. I wasn't done with him.
"God, Penny." He grabbed my hands, pulling them from his neck, and pinned them against the floor of the tree house. He thrust his hips faster and harder, driving himself deep inside of me.
I didn't want to come, but I could no longer think straight. I moaned again, trying to resist the building tension. I could stay in this elevated moment forever.
"Come for me, baby."
And just like that, I lost control. "James!" I felt my back arch and my body shudder beneath his as I came down hard. I immediately felt his warmth spread up into me and heard his satisfied groan. His breath was warm on the side of my neck and the comforting feeling made a lingering chill run down my spine. His chest rose and fell against mine, pressing against my taut nipples. Everything he did was perfect. Everything.
I grabbed his face and held it a few inches above my own. "You're everything to me too. Everything, James. I'll never get enough of you."
He lightly kissed the bruise under my eye. "I hope not."
Part 2
Chapter 11
Monday
"Strictly professional, huh?" asked James.
"You know what I mean." I squeezed James' hand as we crossed the street.
He ran his other hand through his hair and looked down at me. "Not really. Will you at least eat lunch with me?" He flashed me a smile.
"Of course I'll eat lunch with you."
"So you're fine with everyone knowing that you're my fiancée?"
"Yes. I've already met a bunch of your employees. But the interns are new. They won't know who I am. Of course they'll find out, but I want them to know me first, you know? So I just mean like, don't make out with me in my cubicle in front of everyone."
He laughed and squeezed my hand back. "I'm the boss. I can do whatever I want."
I shook my head. "Exactly. Which is why I'm asking you not to."
"So you draw the line of professionalism at PDA?"
"Precisely." I smiled up at him.
"But you're holding my hand on the way to work." He raised his left eyebrow.
"I'm allowed to hold your hand outside of work."
"Anyone from the office could see us though. You're sending me mixed signals."
"It's my first day, I'm nervous. I need your hand."
He looked satisfied with my answer.
And I did need his hand. Despite what he said, I knew everyone could see the two small bruises on my cheekbone. Foundation wasn't meant to conceal bruises. Hopefully no one would say anything to me. But it wasn't a great way to start a new job. My only real job before this was at a retail store during summers of high school and my first summer of college. I hadn't worked since I had met James. He had insisted that he wanted my free time to be spent with him. And since I had been so busy during the school year, the summers had quickly become my favorite.