CEO Daddy Read online

  “Round two could have been on the bed.”

  He grinned and set me down on the huge mattress. “I want to make this amazing for you. I’m an overachiever.”

  Oh, Lord. I wouldn’t make it through this if he made it any better.

  My gaze fastened to his hands as he lowered his zipper and peeled back the pinstriped charcoal wool to the jet black boxers underneath.

  I swallowed thickly. That was a lot of man in there. A whole lot.

  He stepped out of his pants and tossed them on the chair near the bed. Socks went with it before he climbed back up between my legs again. “We’ll figure this out together. The first time for both of us.”

  I reached up to stroke back the little lock of hair that fell forward to mar his perfect face. “As long as both of us aren’t acting like virgins.”

  He laughed. “Definitely not.” He covered my mouth with his and lightly stroked his way down my torso to between my thighs. His sweet kiss turned heated, then grew wilder as he groaned. “So wet for me,” he said against my mouth.

  “So ready.”

  “I’ll let you know when you’re ready.”

  Up close, I could see the little flecks of gold in his hazel eyes. Almost predatory. I shivered, but not with fear. I’d been holding onto my virginity for so long, it had seemed as if I’d never know what it felt like to be with someone, let alone a man like Asher.

  I didn’t even know his last name.

  Maybe that was better. There was nothing outside this little snow globe we’d created. No baggage, no family, no burdens.

  A space of time that was only about us.

  My hips lifted as he slowly stroked one then two fingers inside of me. He took his time to learn my body. Even when I tried to urge him on, to go faster, he stayed the course.

  He had his own plan for how this was going to go.

  I was so impatient to reach the finish line. To just get him inside of me to feel part of something—someone. But Asher had his own agenda.

  And that included death by endless orgasm.

  Each time I got close, he backed off and slowed his tender movements. Added a kiss to my shoulder, my neck, even my collarbone. But he only touched me between my legs.

  I arched up to get that deliciously soft hair of his chest against my skin, but he shifted so it was only about me and his fingers.

  “Relax, Hannah. Just let me inside.”

  “That’s the freaking object of this and yet…”

  The rumble in his chest ended in a low chuckle. “We have all night and only two condoms.”

  He was right, but I was so restless and lost. I didn’t have any choice but to follow him.

  I turned my face to meet his mouth and wrapped my arms around his neck. He gasped into the kiss and the long, strong hardness of his shaft dragged along my inner thigh. “Yes,” I said against his mouth. “Closer.”

  He tore his lips away from mine and inched down to my hips. “Is that the way you want to play it?”

  I sat up on my elbows. “I don’t want to play anything but you inside me. Fill me up, Asher. Please.”

  His eyes were wild, but his determination was overriding everything.

  I fell back on the pillows. I didn’t know this man, but I knew one thing. I was on his timetable.

  He yanked me down then hooked my knee over his shoulder and all his teasing double-timed until I was writhing on the bed.

  Fingers, tongue, even his breath was focused on the very center of me. I tried to grab onto his shoulder, but I swear my brains were leaking out my ears. I pushed pillows out of the way and grasped the headboard as he feasted on me.

  There was truly no other word for it.

  My thighs shook as he slipped two fingers inside me and lapped at me. I arched up as the crackling fire, the dim light, even the howling wind outside fell away and there was simply nothing but my own harsh breathing and my heartbeat throbbing under his tongue and reverberating in my head.

  “Fuck, Hannah.” He bit down on my inner thigh as he thrust inside me again and again with his fingers.

  I couldn’t take it. The pleasure mowed me down and left absolute destruction in its wake.

  Then he was gone and I couldn’t articulate what I needed. Something. Even while I basked in the ruins of what he’d done with me, there was something missing.

  In an instant, he was back. The was no space between us this time. Just him ranging over me before he parted my sticky thighs and slid forward.

  Finally.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered in my ear, but I was already too far gone.

  Too far past the point of no return.

  I accepted him inside me as if I was made for him. A twinge of discomfort, then a fullness I’d never dreamed possible.

  He curled his arms under my back and enveloped me from chest to waist as we joined in every single way. He cradled the back of my head, his fingers tangling in my hair as he held me still. And watched me as he broke down every defense I’d ever thought I had.

  I could deny him nothing.

  Even if I’d wanted to, he wouldn’t allow it.

  He stretched me out, wrung me out, and demanded more. Sweat poured between us thanks to the roaring fire beside the bed, but I didn’t care.

  I wrapped my arms and legs around him. Maybe even my heart.

  The friction of our bodies, and the seeds of my orgasm, grew until his name was a chant against his mouth, his neck, even his shoulder as I tried not to scream the roof down.

  My name was a plea, then an oath as he finally released his rigid control and drove into me. I chased him, the fire, the edges of insanity, and a moment before he did, I broke.

  Fully and inexorably.

  He filled me in more ways than should have been possible. This stranger shouldn’t have been able to touch me so deeply, so completely.

  Yet somehow he’d left only the ashes of Hannah Jacobs in this big, beautiful bed.

  What I’d become next, I just didn’t know.

  The rage of our own personal snowstorm eventually abated. The sweat cooled and our wild breathing slowed. Still, his heart beat a steady tattoo against mine while I traced a never-ending circular pattern on his back.

  There were no words between us. None that could really convey just what that had been.

  Finally, he slid away and sat on the side of the bed to dispose of the condom he’d luckily remembered to put on. My brain had been in a very dangerous place where I wouldn’t have questioned it.

  That in itself was damn scary.

  I sat up and gathered the sheets over me.

  “Don’t think you’re going anywhere. We have all night.”

  I gave a nervous laugh. “Even if I wanted to, the snow says no anyway.”

  He turned toward me. “Do you want to?”

  I lifted a shoulder. “No. But this can only be for tonight.”

  Everyone knew fairy tales ended, and I wanted to take control of mine. I knew better than most that nothing good lasted forever.

  He narrowed his eyes and his gaze flitted to my hand.

  “Hello, remember that pesky virginity thing?”

  “Right.” He stood and the firelight bronzed his perfect skin. And mercy, all the rest of him too.

  I rubbed my legs together. I could still feel him there, like a permanent imprint.

  Emotions and desire had coalesced into something hazy and feverish. Something I’d drag out on the lonely nights to remember when I’d done something just for myself.

  I snuggled down into the blankets as he walked around the bed and into the small bathroom before returning.

  “Enjoying the show?”

  I grinned and pulled a pillow in front of me to hug it tight. Maybe then I wouldn’t lunge for him and embarrass myself. “Maybe.”

  He lifted the edge of the blankets and crawled back into bed with me before taking the pillow away and tucking it behind his head. “If you’re looking, I get to as well.”

  I burrowed deeper
into the covers.

  “Now you’re going to play shy?”

  I shrugged. “Orgasmic haze has left the room.”

  “I should fix that then.” He pulled the covers over both our heads and dragged me closer.

  The kisses were filled with laughter. I didn’t realize I had that in me after all the intensity of before. And to be honest, I didn’t know Asher had that side of him. There was a touch of charm in his reactions to me at dinner, but for the most part, there had been an aching loneliness that I’d recognized and been drawn to.

  This part of him made things warm and expand in my chest. Things that I had no business feeling for a man who was a one-night stand.

  By choice. I’d rather this be one perfect, happy memory than for it to turn into something tinged with regret.

  That wasn’t for tonight.

  Instead, we found ticklish spots on one another and new screams filled the room. There was only laughter and the rich rumble of his teasing voice as he covered my entire body with stubble burn.

  It was so worth it. And when we came together a second time, it was soft and dreamy, the exact opposite of the wild storm we’d made between us the first time.

  If I’d been a more fanciful woman, I would have called it something more.

  Wished it could be.

  When he turned me so he could curl around my back, the firelight shimmered with more than just the gasps of my pleasure.

  I felt more cherished by a stranger than anyone in my life since I’d lost my parents. When he slipped inside of me, stretching me so perfectly, I laced my fingers with his across my middle. We moved together in a rhythm of heartbeats and the snap of fire while the wind howled outside.

  I reached back with my other hand to grasp the back of his neck as he buried his face in my neck. His low, throaty groan was the loveliest end to our evening.

  We slept in a tangle of legs and arms. No fighting for pillows or deciding which side of the bed we’d sleep on. There was no side. Just us in the center with no space in between.

  I woke with the dawn as was my habit, no matter how many hours of sleep I’d gotten—or not gotten.

  There definitely hadn’t been many with Asher.

  I laid there for a few moments, appreciating the weight of a man behind me for the first time in my life.

  It had all been so brief.

  My chest ached as I slipped out of his arms and tucked a pillow beside him when he reached for me.

  I moved to the window and saw the streets were already plowed. A snowstorm was no match for the cleanup crews in central New York. I dressed in silence then crouched beside the bed for a moment to watch him sleep. His hair was mussed and the harsher lines around his eyes had eased in slumber.

  So beautiful. And he’d made me feel exactly the same. Beautiful and whole and strong.

  I just had to be strong enough not to make it more than it was.

  My bestie Gabriela had a phrase for this.

  Fuck and run. Split before reality intervened.

  Because really, what could we have in common outside of bed? He’d been all about work before he stopped by my table, and I wasn’t ridiculous enough to think I could compete with his likely high-powered job.

  Nor did I want to try.

  Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. He went from sound asleep to wakefulness in a blink. Sadness filled his gaze before his expression became steady and blank.

  “Were you going to say goodbye?”

  I brushed the back of my hand along his bearded cheek before he jerked away from my touch. Sighing, I stood. “You knew what this was. We knew what this was. Would it be better to do this after breakfast?”

  His jaw tightened. “Guess we won’t find out.” He rolled to the opposite side of the bed before he swung his feet to the floor. I got one more flash of his spectacular butt before he firmly shut the bathroom door.

  Part of me wanted to go to the door and knock. To talk to him and tell him just how amazing last night had been. Maybe even find out more about him. A last name and a number.

  But that wasn’t how this ended.

  I might be a virgin—scratch that, not anymore—but even I knew that the morning afters were never easy. What were we supposed to do? Shake hands or kiss? Go for one more condomless round? Yeah, that was smart.

  I heard the shower turn on and closed my eyes for a moment.

  No.

  A quick and clean break was best.

  I shook my hair back and straightened my shoulders. Big girl panties, Hannah. I swung my weekender and my purse over my shoulder before my gaze settled on the small vase on the table by the door.

  My secondhand tulips.

  I plucked them out of the vase and tucked them carefully in my purse. They were mine now. Just as last night was forever mine, no matter how it had ended.

  As soon as I stepped into the hall, I saw the champagne in a bucket beside the door. It was only then I glimpsed the do not disturb sign Asher must’ve hung when I wasn’t paying attention.

  I picked up the bottle of champagne and tucked that away too. Another reminder. I’d drink it and recall every detail of this perfect, unforgettable night.

  Then I looked back one last time.

  “Goodbye, Asher,” I said quietly to the room and closed the door behind me.

  Four

  Two months later

  A meeting at eleven. Another meeting at noon. Then lunch, followed by another meeting.

  Already my day was a shitstorm.

  My sales manager had quit with no warning, leaving me to meet with several of our biggest customers. I had little time to get up to speed on their accounts and even less time to consider if my long-term, trusted employee had taken off with all his sales contacts in tow. If so, whatever company he landed at next would benefit from all the relationships he’d built while being paid by Wainwright Publishing Industries.

  But I didn’t have time to dwell on the possible misuse of company resources. Not when my grandmother was on the phone, upending my life in her sweet, chaotic way.

  “When is this trip again?” I sorted through the piles of paper on my desk, desperately searching for my Day-Timer.

  Lately, that brown ring-bound book was my life raft. If I put the task in a little box with a time and date, then I could check it off when it was completed. All those checkmarks were in my win column. Examples of things I’d managed to address and handle in a timely fashion.

  Yes, my world might be spiraling out of control, but this was how I held everything together. I put it on the calendar and I dealt with each item at a time.

  “March eleventh through the seventeenth. It’s already in your Day-Timer. I put it there last month.”

  I stopped searching and smiled, amused as always at exactly how well she knew me. Then the dates finally sunk into my head.

  “Mid-March? I have the Free Papers Expo that week. Who is going to watch Lily if I’m out of town? Most of it is local, with only one overnight but—”

  “I’d suggest friends, but you’d have to stop working long enough to make some. I know it’s not the same for you since Billy died, but you have to stop hiding in work sometime, Snug.”

  The old nickname smoothed away the tickle of irritation. “You know, most people see me as a formidable man. Yet you call me that.”

  “You’ll always be my Snuggle Bunny even if you tower over me. Now stop stalling and tell me when you’re going to do something about this nanny situation.”

  I sighed. “I interviewed two of them. What more do you want?”

  “Did you hire either of them?”

  “Of course not. They weren’t right. I can’t leave Lily with just anyone.” I straightened my tie. “I’ll muddle through. Maybe Vincent can cover for me at the expo.”

  “Right, and then you’ll just take a week’s vacation because I’m traveling with my group of fuddy-duddies. We’re going south in August, so you better make time then too.”

  “August is a long time from
now.” And I wasn’t sure if I’d make it through this week, never mind five months away. “Let me handle the March vacation first, okay?”

  “That’s how you deal with everything. Mark it down as something to handle. Tell me this, do you ever enjoy anything anymore? Ever take a day or a night for yourself? Not since New Year’s Eve—”

  “Gran.” Her name was an admonition. I was not going there. I’d been doing my damn best to pretend that night had never existed.

  Not because it hadn’t been good. Far from it. Somehow that night with Hannah had been the best one of my life. And it couldn’t—wouldn’t—be repeated, so there was no point in dwelling on it.

  “I’m just saying. A healthy adult male needs certain activities to keep his equilibrium.”

  “Seriously?” I was not blushing. Absolutely not. I ran my finger along the inside of my collar. It was just warm in here.

  “Don’t play coy with me. I know you’re not making time for the important things in life. I was so happy you went out on New Year’s and came home with lipstick on your collar to boot. I was hoping we’d see more of that young lady around here, but I should’ve known you’d go right back to work as if nothing ever happened.”

  “You know the situation with the paper. If I let up for even a minute, we could lose everything.”

  “You’re not going to lose everything, but maybe you should.”

  Stunned, hurt, I sat back in my desk chair and stared sightlessly at the rows of projections in Excel on my computer screen. One of the many reasons I loved my grandmother was because she didn’t have a whit of interest in the family business. She didn’t care about money, unlike my mother who considered financial worth before she spoke to a person.

  Okay, she wasn’t quite that bad, but bad enough.

  But for my grandmother to openly say she hoped I failed? I’d always counted on her support, even if she didn’t quite get why maintaining what I saw as the family legacy was so crucial.

  “Snug,” she said a moment later, breaking the silence. “Don’t misunderstand me. I know how important the paper is to you. It does my heart good knowing how much you care about making your grandfather proud. He’s gone, but you’ll never forget him, will you?”