Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 43239 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 216(@200wpm)___ 173(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43239 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 216(@200wpm)___ 173(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
“What’s wrong?”
“Something about Carrington Farms being added to the attendees list.” He picks up his phone, taps a few times, then shows me the screen. “Do you know this woman?”
My heart drops.
“Yeah…” I nod. “That’s Harper Sage, Jackson’s ex-girlfriend. Her family built a farm resort a few years ago, and they’ve gotten popular way faster than us.”
“Is your brother wrong to worry?”
“She’s had a personal vendetta against him ever since the breakup, so… no. I hate-follow her on social media. Her solo account has over a million followers compared to our farm’s fourteen thousand.”
“As long as you focus on what you’re doing and don’t get distracted by her, you’ll walk away from that conference with the highest number of deals.”
I nod, even though the surge of confidence I’ve been building doesn’t feel nearly enough to compete with someone like Harper Sage.
Harrison tucks his phone away and glances at the card on the counter—the audiobook title front and center. I brace myself.
“When’s the last time you had great sex?” he asks.
“What?” I feel the heat creep up my neck. “You can’t just ask me that.”
“I just did.” He flips the card over to reveal chapter titles I haven’t reached yet. “Tell me the last time you had great sex.”
“It was in college.”
“What made it great?”
“My boyfriend said it was—”
“I meant for you.”
“Oh. I guess… being that close to someone, feeling like I could be naked and intimate without judgment.”
“What about high school?”
“My brothers ran off any guy who got too close,” I say. “Lance more than Jackson. I didn’t even have the chance to think about sex until college.”
“When’s the last time you had any sex?”
“That’s none of your business.” I cross my arms. “It has nothing to do with everything.”
“It does.” His smile is slow. Dangerous. “Tell me.”
“No. I’ll finish the damn audiobook, okay?”
“Eliza…” He leans closer. “When’s the last time you had sex?”
I stand to walk away, but before I can take a step, he grabs my waist and lifts me effortlessly onto the bar.
“You don’t get to run from this.” His voice drops. “Not tonight.”
My breath catches as he steps between my knees, both hands firmly gripping my thighs. I brace for a joke or a sarcastic line—but there’s none. Only silence. Tension. Heat.
He pushes my hair behind my ear and leans in, his lips brushing my jawline. “Did you ever have an orgasm when you had sex?”
“Yes.” My voice is barely a whisper.
“What did it feel like?” His mouth is near mine now, his words dark and deliberate.
“I’m calling Jackson,” I say, weakly. “I’m telling him you’re being inappropriate.”
“Be sure to tell him you liked it.” He slides a finger up the inside of my thigh. “Did it feel like you never wanted it to stop?”
I don’t answer.
He kisses me—hard. One hand tangling in my hair, the other slipping beneath the hem of my shorts. I moan into his mouth, my fingers clawing at his chest.
He tears my panties to the side and presses his thumb against my clit—slow circles, steady rhythm, unwavering control.
“Oh my god…”
He bites my lip, just enough to sting. Then slides two fingers inside me, filling me deep and slow, like he’s mapping every inch of me.
“Ride my hand,” he growls. “Now.”
I hesitate.
“Ride it like you’d fuck me,” he says again, each word rougher than the last.
My hips move before my brain can stop them. I grind against his hand, my body rolling with his rhythm, chasing the edge like it’s the only thing keeping me alive.
Just when I’m there—seconds away—he pulls his hand out and steps back.
“What the—”
Before I can finish the sentence, he drops to his knees and yanks me to the edge of the counter.
Then his mouth is on me.
Hot. Demanding. Relentless.
His fingers finds the hidden tattoos between my thighs—a small yellow daisy—and he massages it in a way that makes my toes curl.
My head falls back and my hands clutch the counter as waves of ecstasy crash over me.
Higher. Higher. Shattering.
When I come, he keeps his mouth on me, drawing it out, holding me steady as my body trembles uncontrollably.
Then he stands, kisses the corner of my mouth, and whispers against my ear:
“Was it ever like that?”
Never… I’m too wrecked to speak.
“That’s the feeling you should be after when you’re trying to close a deal, Eliza,” he says, coolly. “It’s an ecstasy that’s as close to sex as you’ll ever feel.”
His phone buzzes.
He doesn’t look at me when he answers it.
“I have to take this.”
He glances back, dead calm.
“We’ll pick up where we left off tomorrow.”
TWENTY-SIX
ELIZA
“Tomorrow”
The rain is assaulting the balcony too hard for me to sleep, and all I want to do is storm into Harrison’s room and tell him that we should just fuck once and for all. That I’ll never tell my brother, and it might help ease the tension during my remaining weeks anyway.