“Hey,” he whispers, his blue eyes twinkling with delight and naughty thoughts.
“Hey.” Everything inside me relaxes, just knowing that he’s here. Everything that I’ve been through in the past week or so feels that much easier to bear.
“I’m so sorry about your aunt, Harlow.”
I nod, a huge lump forming once again in my throat. Will losing her ever get easier, or will I forever picture her laying in that hospital bed in her last minutes?
“I’ve been here almost every day trying to see you, trying to tell you how sorry I am. I should have pushed harder. I’m sorry.”
“N-no, it’s okay. I didn’t want… I couldn’t…” I sigh, not able to find the right words to express how I’ve felt the past few days.
“It’s okay. I get it.”
Knowing he’s lost people he cared about, I tell myself that he really does. He must, or he’d still be angry at me. I shut him out, ignored him, yet here he is, with his arm wrapped around me and looking into my eyes like I remember.
Sucking in a deep breath, I prepare the words I need to say to him.
“My family.” He nods to tell me he’s listening. “My dad… he owned vineyards. A lot of them, actually. He’d taken a step back from running the business when my sister and I were babies. He said it took too much of his time and we were more important. So he brought in a team to manage the business and he just oversaw it.
“When they died, all of that fell to me. It was put into trust until I was twenty-one, thank fuck, but then everything was mine.”
“Fucking hell,” he mutters, his eyes not leaving mine for even a second.
“I don’t want anything to do with it. I can’t. It reminds me too much of them, of everything I’ve lost. But that doesn’t stop the money coming in. I don’t need it. I certainly don’t earn it. But it’s mine nonetheless.
“I donate a lot of it, and until my current job, I’ve only taken voluntary positions. But I couldn’t turn down the chance of helping out those boys. I know how hard it is. I’ve been them. I spent years being pushed from house to house, from group home to group home. The project Teddy and Rylee run is just incredible, and I’ll do anything I can to help.”
“You do more than they’re aware of, don’t you?” he asks, narrowing his eyes at me.
“I might, yeah.” I think of my wages every month being wired straight back into the charity and the prizes I’ve organized for the gala. “Fuck. The gala.”
“It’s okay, Rylee has it under control,” he soothes, cupping my cheek in his hand and brushing his thumb over my skin.
“I need to call her, make sure everything is okay.”
“Everything is okay. Just chill.”
I nod at him, although I do anything but relax, and I’ve no doubt he can sense it.
“Just focus on you. Everything else is totally under control.”
He leans forward, his lips gently brushing mine.
“For now, just let me look after you. Let me do what I’ve been desperate to do, to make up for screwing this up.”
“Corey, I—”
“No, Harlow. It’s my turn. I’m so fucking sorry. I was an idiot. But I need you. I need you so fucking much.” He leans over me, pressing me into the mattress as his lips capture mine.
I want to hesitate, morning breath and all that, but the second his tongue teases to get inside, my lips part, allowing him in.
His hand squeezes my hip before running up my body until he is palming my breast. It’s only then that I realize I’m still wearing yesterday’s dress.
He kisses me so deeply, so passionately that it brings tears to my eyes.
“Oh God, Corey,” I moan when he leaves my lips in favor of my neck.
“I’ve got you, baby.”
He pulls the straps from my shoulder before sitting at my legs and pulling the fabric of my dress down my body.
“Fuck, you’re so beautiful,” he mutters, taking in my nude strapless bra and matching panties. “I’ve missed you so fucking much.”
I want to return the sentiment, but I can’t. I’m too lost.
His lips land on my collarbone and he licks and nips his way down to the swell of my breasts.
“Please,” I moan, arching my back so he can release them.
They’re swollen, tender, extra sensitive and so desperate for his touch.
He follows my demand and slips his hand behind my back so he can release the fabric. In seconds it’s free of my body, and I sigh when he pulls it away from me.
“I-I need you.” I arch again, offering myself up to him.
“My little vixen,” he mutters before reaching behind him, pulling his t-shirt off and diving for my breasts.
“Oh God, oh God,” I chant as he takes a nipple in his mouth and sucks until I almost combust beneath him. So fucking sensitive. “Keep going.” My fingers thread in his hair to hold him in place. I’m so close already. His scent, his touch, his tongue as he flicks it over my tight bud.
He switches sides, his eyes meeting mine as he does so.
“More, Corey. I need more.”
He nods, sucking the other side deep into his mouth. I cry out, but it’s nothing compared to when his fingers slip inside of my panties and he finds my already swollen clit.
“Oh God, yes. Yes,” I cry as he teases me to perfection.
His mouth continues as his fingers push inside me. I writhe as my release gets within touching distance.
“Corey, Corey. Fuck, I need… I need. Fuuuuuck.” He bites down on one of my nipples and I lose all control.
“You need what, Vixen?”
I nod, my breathing too erratic to even think about forming words as my body floats back down to Earth.
Settling himself between my legs, he pops the button on his pants and pushes them and his boxers down his thighs, too impatient to remove them completely.
He palms his
