Chapter 14: Separate Rooms

The penthouse door shut behind us, and Anson locked it and leaned his back against it.

The board had let us go at four. The officers had let us go too, for now.

Neither of us had said a word in the elevator.

"My accounts are frozen," I said. "I have eleven dollars in my coat pocket."

"You have me."

"I have terms."

"I know." His voice was low and rough. "Term two. Separate rooms."

"You told a boardroom you wanted to bend me over a table."

"I did."

"In front of reporters, Anson."

"Yes."

"Term four was no love talk."

"That wasn't love talk." He pushed off the door and took one step toward me. "That was a plain description of what I want to do to you."

My pulse had been going since the boardroom, and it climbed higher.

"Tell me to go to the guest room," he said. "There isn't one. Tell me to take the couch."

"You sold the couch."

"Then tell me to leave and I'll sleep in the hall."

I put my coat on the floor.

"Separate rooms," I said, "is for people who can afford more than one."

He looked at me for a very long moment.

"Careful, accountant."

"You said you weren't on the balance sheet."

His jaw went tight.

"I'm putting you on it," I said. "Right now. Debit me."

He crossed the floor in two strides.

His hand went into my hair, and he kissed me hard enough to bend my head back.

I grabbed his shirt in both fists and kissed him back.

His mouth was hot and angry and it tasted like the coffee he'd never finished.

I made a sound against his lip that I had never made in my life.

He broke away just long enough to say, "A week."

"A week," I agreed, and pulled him in by his tie.

He walked me backward through the dark apartment with his mouth on my jaw and my throat.

My shoulder blades hit the bedroom doorframe.

He tore my blouse open, and two buttons rang off the floor.

"I liked that blouse," I said.

"I'll buy you forty."

"You can't afford forty."

"Then I'll buy you one a week and I'll rip every one."

I laughed, and it turned into a gasp when his mouth closed on my breast through my bra.

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