Chapter 20: The Rooftop

The text from Hayes's agent sat unanswered in my pocket all day. "I have the contract. Tonight."

By evening I had stopped pretending I wasn't counting the hours.

"Later," Brody said, when I showed him. "Tonight we're not afraid of anyone."

The roof of the Kincaid Meridian has a pool nobody swims in and eight white cabanas nobody books.

Brody had the key.

"You're not allowed up here," I said, as the elevator opened on a wall of rain.

"It's my hotel."

"It's closed."

"I'm the CEO. I reopen it." He took my hand. "Come on."

We ran across the wet deck with the city lit up on every side, and ducked into the last cabana as the sky opened.

Inside, there was a low white daybed, a stack of towels and the roar of rain on canvas.

He shut the flap and pressed me up against the center pole and kissed me.

It wasn't as hungry as the stairwell.

It was long and deep and unhurried, and nobody was watching.

"You were incredible this morning," he said into my mouth.

"You had the shares."

"You had the chairman's face." He pulled back, and his eyes were bright. "I'm Brody Jack Kincaid. Thirty-four. I don't like olives or small talk."

I laughed against his jaw.

"Madeline Rose Stanwood. Twenty-seven. I hate pineapple on pizza and I'm very good at seating charts."

"I know your last name now."

"Say it."

"Stanwood," he said, and I felt it in my knees.

He peeled my wet jacket off my shoulders and let it fall.

His hands slid under my blouse, and the buttons gave one by one. I got his tie off and his shirt open, and put my palms flat on his chest.

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