When the Billionaire Begs novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Five Percent

The stairwell door banged somewhere below us, and Stellan lifted his mouth from mine.

"Not here," he said, breathless. "A nurse will come through."

"Then where?"

"My place is eight blocks away."

"Too far."

"Claire." He laughed against my jaw. "The Fund's building. I live upstairs. It's four minutes in the Volvo."

"Drive faster than that."

He drove faster than that.

I kept my hand on his thigh the whole way.

He kept both of his on the wheel and swore at every red light.

His apartment was one long room over the foundation office.

Canvases stood stacked three deep along the wall, and the window was full of river.

He shut the door and put his back to it.

"If you want to stop," he said, "now is the time to say it."

"I'm not stopping."

"I'm saying it once, because I'm supposed to."

"You've said it." I took off my coat and let it drop. "Now stand there."

His eyes went dark.

I crossed the floor and unbuttoned his shirt, one button at a time, while he watched my hands.

He had paint under his nails and a scar on his left shoulder I had never seen.

I put my mouth on it.

He drew in a ragged breath and his fingers closed in my hair.

"Say what you want," he said roughly.

"I want you to stop being so careful."

"That's not a thing you want."

"It's the only thing I want."

He took me by the waist and turned me against the wall, and the whole length of him pressed up behind me.

His mouth found the back of my neck.

His hands slid under my sweater and up over my ribs.

He cupped my breasts, and I heard myself moan out loud.

"There," he said into my skin. "That's what I wanted to hear."

"Stellan."

"Again."

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