Chapter 17: Hayes's Office

Brody's POV

I told her I was going to meet Hayes without her, because I had promised never to go behind her back again.

It was Sunday night, in my apartment on the fifty-second floor, with the lights off and the park black below the glass.

Maddie sat on the end of my bed in my old college sweatshirt, with her bare feet tucked under her.

"Say it again," she said.

"Tomorrow, before the board, I'm going to see Hayes. Without you. At five."

"Without me."

"If you're there, he gets to be a gentleman for you. If it's only me, he'll say what he actually wants."

She chewed the inside of her cheek.

"You'd have gone without telling me."

"A week ago I would have."

"And now?"

"Now I'm telling you, and you're allowed to hate it."

She looked at me for a while.

Then she pulled the sweatshirt over her head and dropped it on the floor.

"I hate it," she said. "Come here."

I crossed the room in the dark and took her face in both hands.

She tasted like the tea she'd been drinking, and mint, and Maddie.

I laid her back on the bed and kissed down her throat, her breasts, the soft line of her stomach, and she arched into every one.

"Tell me what you want," I said against her hip.

"You. Inside me. Now."

"Not yet."

"Brody."

"I've been thinking about this for fourteen days." I put my mouth on her inner thigh, and felt her shake. "I'm going to take my time."

She swore, and a hand dropped into my hair.

I took my time.

I used my mouth and then my fingers until she was wet and open and saying my name in a voice I hadn't heard before.

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