❝ꋬⲧℓᥲ𝖘❞

I clenched my jaw for what felt like the hundredth time tonight and forced my eyes to stay trained on the elevator doors as they closed. I’d spent too much of the evening distracted by the beautiful brunette in a navy dress.

Although the garment wasn’t short or cut too low, it clung to her every curve, making her look damn sexy. I felt like my heart stopped every time I looked her way.

What the hell had I been thinking when I convinced her to get that dress?

How many times throughout the night had I fantasized about finding a dark corner and dragging that dress up around her waist and—

I glared hard at my reflection again.

“What is your deal?”

I turned toward Erin and was met with heated eyes, but the flames burning in her irises didn’t correlate with the way I felt. I was mad at myself for being so distracted by her. But this? I knew this look. She was pissed at me.

“What do you mean?”

“This game of hot and cold. One minute, you want me and you’re practically eye-fucking me from across the room, but in the next, you ice me out.”

“I’ve told you. I can’t afford the distraction, and you are one hell of a distraction.”

“It’s only distracting because we haven’t done it yet” She rolled her eyes and continued as she exited the elevator. “Everyone knows that once you get sex out of the way, it’s not a big deal anymore. It loses the appeal.”

What kind of guys has she been involved with?

If a man didn’t leave her begging for more, then the idiot didn’t deserve the right to touch her.

“Not if the guy does his job,” I huffed.

She spun toward him outside their room so abruptly that I almost crashed into her.

“Let me guess. You think you’ll blow my mind so hardcore that I’ll never want any cock but yours again? Because,” she licked her lips and let out a breathy sigh that echoed straight down my body, “no one will ever make me see stars like you do?” Another little sigh that had my cock twitching.

But then she dropped the act and shook her head. “Please. Everyone with three legs believes that.”

I leaned forward, ready to tease her and tempt her, but my reasons for being here rushed back in before I could make a move.

“As much as I’d love nothing more than to accept that challenge, it doesn’t matter. I don’t have protection with me.”

There. She couldn’t argue that point.

“Protection?”

“Yeah, you know, condoms?” I whispered, doing my best to be considerate of the guests in nearby rooms.

But Erin wasn’t making that same effort.

“We already had this conversation, remember? You are not knocking me up to prove to the Myers that you can sell vitamin water. And remember how I had to go home to get my birth control pills? Because Target still doesn’t sell them over the counter?”

“Condoms exist for reasons that have nothing to do with babies too,” I hissed.

She cocked her head to the side.

Oh, for the love of God!

Surely, this woman had heard of STIs. She freaking dropped out of nursing school.

I huffed out a sigh.

“There are other things that people might need protection from when having sex.”

“Oh, my goodness. Are you assuming I have an STI?” Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped open for the briefest of moments before the expression reversed.

In an instant, she was glaring at me, and her lips were pressed into the tightest line. There might have even been a vein throbbing in the side of her neck, but I couldn’t be sure.

“What? No” I held up both hands, palms out, to ward off the idea, but my voice pitched higher as I tried to defuse the situation. “I mean—no” I tried again, my tone more normal this time.

Jesus.

“Good. ’Cause I do not.” Then her face softened, and understanding shone in her eyes.

But I had no fucking idea what the look was for.

“Oh. Oh wow. I suck—you’re trying to tell me you have an STD.”

At the sound of a gasp, I scanned the hallway, my attention catching on an older couple entering a room several doors down. Both the man and the woman looked at me with pity swimming in their eyes, and I wished more than anything that the ground would swallow me whole. The couple hurried into their room, and the door slammed shut.

“No! I’m good too” I slid the keycard in and pushed open the door. “Get inside. I swear I won’t make it through the weekend without that aneurysm.”

She walked into the room ahead of me and rolled her eyes.

“I can’t decide whether you’re dramatic about that or whether that eye twitch is really going to kill you. Relaxing would probably help. And if you’re good and I’m good, then what’s the problem?”

“I—”

“’Cause I still don’t see how sex with your fiancée”—she used finger quotes around the last word—“would be a problem.” She put her hands on her hips, elbows out.

Oh God.

“Because newsflash, all the other couples are screwing, and they probably think we’re doing the same. Wasn’t that the whole point? That they see this as real? I just—”

Fuck this!

With three long strides, I closed the space between us. Cupping the back of her head with my hand, I brought her mouth to mine, effectively cutting off her rant. The goal was to get her to shut up, but the second her soft lips parted and her tongue glided against the seam of my mouth, nothing but the need heating my blood mattered.

That morning’s kiss had played on a loop in my head all day, and I’d convinced myself that I’d embellished the memory. That there was no way the kiss was as good as I’d remembered. But as our tongues collided, I knew I hadn’t. Because my body was racked with bolts of lust so strong it felt like an earthquake was shaking the room as I tipped her back and deepened our kiss.

I brought my other hand around to the base of her spine, caressing the top of her ass with his fingertips while dominating her mouth. Erin broke the kiss and stared up at me with dark, hooded eyes.

“What—” She licked her damp lips, then pressed her teeth into her lower lip.

And damn it, I wanted to be the one doing that.

“Why’d you do that?”

“So you’d stop talking” I gripped her hips and backed her up against the large wooden table that sat in the middle of the open space.

I wanted her, and I was tired of fighting it.

“Because you might be right. Trying so hard to fight this is probably why I’m so distracted” I brushed my mouth against the shell of her ear, smiling as a shiver ran through her.

“I—” The most intoxicating moan I’d ever heard replaced her words and caused my cock to jump as I sucked on the skin below her ear.

Running my hands down the silky material of the dress to where it stopped mid-thigh, I savored her warmth. When I got to the hem, I ghosted my fingertips across the soft skin of her thigh, then slowly inched the fabric up.

“I’ve imagined doing exactly this all night. Tell me you want this. That you want me as much as I want you.”

“Atlas, I want you so badly” She trailed her hands up my chest and over my shoulders.

“Good. Get that ass on the table” I smirked and stepped back, tugging my tie back and forth to loosen it. “I’ll start with my mouth on your pussy. And I promise it’ll leave you begging for my cock.”

Erin arched a brow before lifting herself onto the table.

“Do your worst, Moreno.”

“Careful what you wish for, crazy. I never back down from a challenge.”

She smirked.

“Men who can do. Men who can’t talk.”

I chuckled darkly.

Yeah, I’d have her pleading for more before our night was over. Even if itʼs the last thing I do.

I rolled and cuffed the sleeves of my dress shirt as Erin slowly spread her knees apart, revealing lacy purple panties.

Stepping closer so they were only a breath apart, I whispered, “Are you wet for me?”

She nodded, her pupils blown out and her chest heaving. Desperate to find out for myself, I captured her mouth again and trailed my hands up her silky thighs.

“I need to taste you” I hooked my fingers into the waistband of her thong and pulled the scrap of material down her gorgeous legs, anticipating the moment I’d finally get to throw them over my shoulders.

Without preamble, I dropped to my knees and buried my face between her thighs. She bucked hard as I circled my tongue furiously against her clit. And when I inserted a finger into her wet pussy and she screamed out as waves of pleasure racked her body, I was desperate to feel her wrapped around me.

My need climbed higher at the idea of taking her bare, and I couldn’t resist any longer. With my palms planted on either side of her on the tabletop, I hauled myself up and positioned my hips between her legs.

“I’ve imagined fucking you like this all night” I met her heated gaze with my own.

“Like what?” she panted, her breathing still accelerated.

“Laid out in this dress with nothing underneath” The corner of my lips turned up as I rotated my hips and pressed against her center, the friction pulling a gasp from her.

I’d never been this turned on by a woman’s response to me. I wanted her to beg. But more than anything, I wanted to know I was pleasing her. That she was as desperate for me as I was for her.

“Atlas…” She arched her hips off the table.

With that small movement, the need to remove the last barrier between us and sink inside her overcame me. I stepped back, popping the buttons down my dress shirt, never taking my eyes off her.

Making quick work of my belt and pants, I freed myself, grinning as Erin traced the planes of my chest and abs to where I fisted my cock.

My muscles tightened instinctively under her scrutiny, but I fought the urge to rush. I liked how her eyes darkened as they raked over my body.
She leaned back on her elbows as I stepped closer and lined myself up with her entrance.

Pausing until she met my gaze, I said, “I’m going to fuck you hard and fast right here, like this.” Then I captured her mouth once more before pulling back and inching into her heat. “Then I’m getting you out of this dress so I can spend hours worshipping your body.”

She moaned and arched her back as I gripped her hips tightly.

“Please, Atlas. I need—”

I pushed forward until I was seated deep within her. Her pussy clenched around me, creating the strongest waves of desire I’d ever felt to course through me. Bracing my hands on either side of her, I held myself still and let her adjust to me before pulling all the way out and slamming back in.

She gripped my biceps as I moved, holding me tight and meeting each of my thrusts with her own. But I needed more.

Deeper.

And I wanted her legs wrapped around my waist. So I yanked the material of her dress up until it bunched high above her hips, then grabbed her thighs, coaxing her to loop them around me.

Perfection.

It was the only word that came to mind as she laid herself flat on the table and hooked her ankles over my ass. I drove into her over and over, feeling her walls gripping me tighter with each thrust until I was sure I wouldn’t last much longer.

“Erin, baby” With a hand between us, I circled her clit. “You need to come. Now.”

Her spine bowed off the table and her mouth fell open as her orgasm racked her body. And a second later, I was seeing stars as I  followed with my own release.

I couldn’t wait to do that again. One taste, and I was hooked. So we did. And two hours later, as I lay naked in bed with her asleep on my chest, I wondered why I’d been so against this.

Narssica was right.

We were pretending to be a real couple, so I’d enjoy the gorgeous woman in my arms and hope I’d be less distracted from what I’d come here to do.

***

❝乇𝕣ίŊ❞

I stepped into the elevator and pressed the eighth button until it glowed orange. The smile pulling at my lips couldn’t be contained.

It wasn’t only good sex.

Although I didn’t want to admit it to Atlas, he did leave me begging for more.

But spending the morning in the lab with Belinda had been amazing. The experience was everything that had been missing in my life for months. Playing with the formulas, working to solve the puzzles created by reactions and byproducts, finding creative solutions—it was the kind of thrill I’d lost after I graduated.

During college, I had been a lab assistant for one of my professor’s research projects. Dr. Deedey had tried to get me to come on full-time after I graduated, but I’d let people—really, my parents—talk me into nursing school.

They told me I was too much of a social butterfly for the solitude of lab work. But nothing about today felt lonely or solitary. In fact, Belinda’s team was filled with interesting people, and I fit in well.

It wasn’t until I stopped in front of our suite that I thought about a key. My phone and ID were in my back pocket, but I hadn’t taken my purse because I didn’t want the hassle of keeping track of it at the lab.

What did Atlas say he was doing this morning?

If he wasn’t in the room, I’d just have to convince the guy at the desk to give me a new key.

It wouldn’t be the first time I’d been locked out of a hotel room with no plan.

Luckily, the door swung open after my first knock.
Atlas leaned a sculpted shoulder against the doorframe, and the sexy smirk he wore flipped my stomach.

Wow, this man is perfection.

“Let me guess, crazy girl. You forgot the key and you didn’t think about how you’d get in if I wasn’t here?”

Perfection until he opens his mouth.

I pursed my lips and shrugged.

“I would have talked the front desk into giving me a new one.”

He snaked his hand around the back of my neck and pulled me in for a kiss. It wasn’t long, but it left me breathless, nonetheless. With his forehead pressed to mine, he took a shaky breath. Desire spun in the depths of his green eyes, and suddenly, I wanted nothing more than for him to push me up against the door and make me forget my name.

“Later” It was a promise that left me shivering with anticipation.

He stepped back and moved across the room toward the table. Memories from last night swirled in my brain as he settled into a chair at the table where he’d had me laid out and screaming. He sent me a smirk like he could read my mind. But today, the surface was covered with papers and boards and his laptop. He had a Zoom meeting scheduled with his team in California so they could prep for their final presentation with Myers.

“Unmuting,” Atlas warned before hitting a button on his computer.

I glanced at the storyboards as Atlas jumped back into his meeting, discussing how their best approach and pitch would be to target women who are looking for a healthier low-calorie drink option.

“That’s a great idea. I’d totally drink that” The ad sucked me into the drink. “Does it taste good?”

Atlas pulled a bottle out of his bag and handed it to me.

“Give it a try.”

I twisted the cap off and let the liquid hit her tongue. The flavor wasn’t overly sweet. It reminded me of lime-infused water.

“Oh, that is good” I scanned the ingredients on the label and took another sip. This was the original vitamin water; the new one Belinda was working on would have added calcium. She hoped to have it stocked all over the country by midsummer.

“How did it go with all that?” Mick’s tinny voice flowing from the computer’s speakers caught my attention, and he nodded in my direction.

“It was amazing. Belinda showed me around the lab, and I got to work with one of her techs. I think we figured out the problem. But until they run more studies, they won’t know for sure” I glanced at the bottle again, pondering the difference in the vitamin levels of this water and the test one.

“Lab? You worked in the lab?” Mick asked.

Didn’t he just ask how the visit went?

“Biochemistry major” Atlas smirked.

With an outstretched arm, he signaled for me, and when I moved closer, he grabbed my hip and pulled me into him.

“Belinda wanted her to take on a problem at the lab. The two of them have hit it off.”

“Everyone at the lab was sups cool” I took another sip from the bottle.

Mick held his hand up.

“I’m lost. I thought she was your Uber driver.”

If his boss knew he wasn’t really engaged, why did Atlas have his arm wrapped around me like we were playing couple?

“Yeah, she was my driver…”

“I’m done with that, though” I chipped in.

I hated Ubering, and if today had taught me anything, it was that it was time to stop wasting my life working jobs I hated.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do. Maybe I’ll try cleaning services. I really like cleaning” I shrugged. The man on the screen gaped at me, wide-eyed, so I continued. “I’m in the finding myself stage of life.”

“You’ll figure it out, babe” Atlas smiled and took the vitamin water from my hand. He winked, then brought the bottle to his mouth.

Why is he calling me babe now?

Atlas continued to watch me with a dopey grin on his face, but his boss and the rest of his team were gawking at us, wearing various  ‘what the hell? ʼ looks.

I shrugged and turned to the breakfast counter where a fruit tray, chicken pasta salad, and a mix of breads were spread out. Stomach growling, I grabbed a plate, ecstatic that he’d had room service bring up lunch. My phone vibrated on the counter, and I sighed at today’s inspirational quote from my mother.

Mom: Failure is an opportunity to start over more intelligently.

She must have heard about how I ran out of gas.

Meaning Sinclair faithfully told Viola and Vie being the Vie my sister is, blabbed to our mother.

Looked like this was my motherʼs way of hinting that I should stop Ubering. Quitting that job might be the only thing I could do right now to make my parents happy.

They hated that side gig.

After uncovering the food, I made Atlas a plate and placed it on the table next to his computer.

“Are you going to the meet and greet tonight?” Mick asked. “Might be a good idea to network with other companies in attendance.”

“Oh—Belinda invited us to a dinner party at her house tonight. I figured you’d be okay with me saying yes” I said and took a bite of the pasta salad.

Ooh, it is good.

Atlas smiled, and under the table, he put his warm palm on my thigh.

“You got a personal invite to Belinda Myers’ home?” Mick asked.

I didn’t understand why that was a big deal. Belinda said she’d invited a bunch of people over.

“Looks like my girl and I are going to the Myers’ for dinner” Atlas squeezed my leg again, and suddenly, I didn’t care so much about dinner.

I’d rather stay in the room. Especially since we only had a few more days together.