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  “So fucking beautiful,” he growled before giving her another lick. “The prettiest pink pussy I’ve ever seen.”

  A shudder ran through her as he gripped her bottom and pulled her down to him, fastening his mouth over as much of her pussy as he could. Then he sucked hard and her toes curled into the carpet. His tongue seemed to be everywhere, licking along her outer lips, probing the tight entrance of her sheath, teasing the hood of her clit. Around and around his tongue circled, stroking the sides of that tight nub until she tried to shift her hips so his tongue would stroke her where she needed it the most.

  He nipped the tip of her clit and she shrieked at the pleasure and pain that rocketed through her. His low growl vibrated through her and he began to nibble harder, biting her labia and then soothing it with a sweep of his tongue, only to bite again on the other side. He’d never been this rough, this primal with her before and she absolutely loved it. His grip on her bottom grew harder and she vaguely wondered if she’d have bruises tomorrow. Not that she cared, he could do anything he wanted to her right now and she’d gladly let him as long as he didn’t stop.

  The coil in her belly wound tighter until every lick, every nibble seemed to push her closer to the edge of her orgasm. When he pushed her back she cried out in protest, her thighs shaking with need.

  “I want you to ride my face, my tongue. I want you to fuck yourself on me until you come.”

  Her head sagged as the pure eroticism of his words crashed through her. He lay back and she looked down between her arms as his tongue rested against her clit, not moving. Needing no further encouragement she rocked her hips, getting a feel for how he would respond, clenching as she pressed harder onto his tongue. Over and over she raked her clit over his mouth, a sheen of sweat breaking out over her skin as her orgasm crept closer and closer. He encouraged her, giving her every ounce of his considerable skill until she truly ground her pussy on his mouth, biting her lip to keep from screaming as he sucked directly on her clit.

  When he gently bit the base of the tiny bundle of nerves she couldn’t hold back the orgasm if she’d tried. Her whole body stiffened and for one excruciating moment the pleasure became so intense the entire world disappeared and she floated in darkness. Reality returned with a rush of sensation, her hips snapping against his face with each contraction. He followed her, not letting her pull away from him, licking and sucking up every drop of pleasure she had to offer.

  It became too much and she tried to roll off him, but he held her fast and gentled his licks, making them long and soothing strokes that kept pulling soft moans from her. A shiver racked her body and he gently eased her off him, laughing when she collapsed into a boneless pile on the carpet. Aftershocks of her orgasm blasted along her nerves and her pussy felt swollen and tender.

  His lips gently traced over hers, the smell of her arousal on his breath as she returned his kiss with a lazy abandon, softly cocooned in an amazing rush of endorphins that had her grinning at him when he pulled back.

  He brushed her hair from her cheek and the dimple in his chin deepened as he smiled at her. “Well, I think it’s safe to say you enjoyed that.”

  She could only nod and stretch, enjoying the way his gaze heated as he stared at her breasts and then lower to her pussy. Remembering his words as to how beautiful he thought she was she spread her legs, letting him look his fill. “Thank you. That was…just wow.”

  His smile turned smug and he traced the small indent of her naval. “I love pleasing you, Megan. I love it when you surrender yourself to me, that you trust me enough to give you pleasure. I know how hard it is for you to let down your guard with anyone.”

  She closed her eyes, unable to face the intimacy of his gaze. “I’m sorry you have such an emotional nutcase for a wife.”

  “Don’t you ever say that.” The anger in his words surprised her and she looked at him, captured by the intensity of his gaze. “Having emotions doesn’t make you crazy, it makes you human. I’m sorry your robot parents didn’t understand that.”

  Immideatly the need to defend her family put her on the offensive but before she could say anything he put his hand over her mouth, scowling when she bit his palm. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. Your parents loved you in their own way, but you are such a gentle and sensitive woman. I hate that they made you feel ashamed of loving, that they set impossibly high standards for any child to meet in order to earn their love.”

  The bliss of her orgasm quickly receded and she pushed away from him, grabbing the throw off the back of the couch and wrapping it around her. “Just because my parents weren’t the hippy-dippy-free-love space heads that your parents are doesn’t make them bad people. Some of us have to work for a living.” As soon as she said that she wished she could take it back, but the words were out and the hurt done.

  Jason’s cheeks flooded with red and he pushed away from her. “Well at least my hippy parents had their priorities straight. I had a mom and dad who tucked me into bed every night.” He clenched his fists and sat forward. “How about you? Oh wait, I know, your father had important business to do.”

  Hot anger flushed through her until her ears rang. “You forgot to mention that your power and water got shut off every other month because your pot-smoking parents didn’t pay the bills. It would have cramped their style to have to sacrifice for their family like I do. You think I like being away from you and the boys? You think I like not being there to go to their games, to cuddle them at night, to be the one they run to when they skin their knee?”

  A muscle in the side of his neck jumped. “If it was that important you would stay home and tell your boss you need more time with your family. But you don’t, do you, Megan? They say jump and you ask how high.”

  “I have to! You know how hard I’ve worked to get where I am. I can’t throw it away now.”

  He made a cutting noise of dissent. “Excuses, excuses.”

  She snarled at him. “Not that you would understand. All you have to do is sit at home all day and play with the kids.”

  His fists clenched and he moved farther away from her. “Sit at home all day? Is that really what you think I do? Oh wait, you have no idea what I do because you don’t give a shit. Same Megan, it’s always about you.” She started to speak but he raised his voice, cutting her off. “I’ve been very, very patient with you. For the past eight years I’ve put aside my ambitions, my dreams to stay home and raise our kids so you could go chase yours. I keep hoping that you’ll finally grab your brass ring and come home, but you never do.”

  “So what, you want me to quit my job so you can go out and work?” She snorted. “Yeah, there is a big job market for philosophy majors right now.”

  He slammed his hands on the coffee table, the sound blasting through the room like a gunshot. “God damn it! Would you listen to me for once? I’m sick of this, Megan, sick of it. I want my wife back. I miss you so damn much. Even when you’re home you’re not really here. You’re always thinking about the next client, the next meeting, what you need to do to win your dad’s, oh I’m sorry I mean your boss’s approval. Is that what it is? Your Dad dies so you’ve switch your irrational need to please him to your boss?”

  Hurt welled up inside her, mixing with her anger until the toxic combination churned in her stomach like burning acid. “If you’re so miserable why don’t you leave!”

  He surged up from the couch and stalked over to her. “Because I’m not giving up on us. I wish I could say the same thing for you.” He went to touch her but she jerked back and he closed his eyes. “When is it ever going to be enough? When are you going to put your family first?”

  “I—”

  “You know what, save your breath. I’m tired of hearing the same lame excuses, tired of lying to my children that their mom will be working less ‘soon’, that they have to be patient.” His words dropped to a whisper that pained her even more than his shouts. “Remember when we were first married and you swore you’d never be like your dad
, swore that you’d never disappoint your kids the way he disappointed you with every missed birthday and Christmas?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she lied and avoided his gaze. Memories of sitting beneath a tree stacked with presents in her parents’ mansion filled her head, times when it was her and her mother, and maybe a couple maids opening the brightly wrapped packages. How her father would promise next year he’d be home, next year he’d go on vacation with them, next year he’d make it to her graduation.

  He sighed and turned his back on her. “That self-centered bastard couldn’t even make it to see his first grandchild in the hospital. He had to leave for a business trip and he couldn’t even stop by the hospital before he left. It hurt you so much and I wanted to wring his neck for tainting what should have been one of the happiest days of our lives because there was some banking crisis in Singapore that he had to attend.”

  His shoulders tensed but he didn’t look back at her. “I hated him for that. Hated him for hurting you, hated him for hurting your mother. Most of all I hated that you still held out hope that maybe, just maybe this once he would choose you over his work.” A breeze blew through the trees outside, their rustle filling the room. “I don’t want our kids to hate you like that, and I won’t let them hate me for allowing you to put our family at the bottom of your priority list.”

  Tears choked her throat and she had to swallow a couple times before she could speak. “I love our boys more than anything in this world.”

  His shoulders sagged and he began to walk out of the room. “Yeah, I know you do.” He paused at the archway of the living room and looked over his shoulder at her, his gaze filled with sorrow. “I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”

  The world spun around her and she stumbled to the couch, falling into an ungraceful heap when her legs would no longer support her. “You’re leaving me?”

  He turned away and shook his head. “No, Megan, I’m not leaving you. I think you’re leaving me and I’ve been too dumb to realize it.”

  She tried to speak, tried to deny his words, but her throat closed up as tears spilled down her face. He left her there, alone on the couch that still held the musk of their lovemaking. She grabbed a pillow and held it to her face, muffling her sobs as a hole big enough to swallow the universe opened up in her heart.

  Chapter Four

  “And with the closure of the McAdams hacking case that brings us to a grand total of 4,893 satisfied clients in ten years.” Murray, Megan’s boss, looked over the small but luxurious conference room facing the Atlantic Ocean and smiled. “Not too shabby for a bunch of computer geeks and tech nerds.”

  Megan forced out a laugh and joined her coworkers in applauding Murray as he took an exaggerated bow. Outside the wide bay window families enjoyed a beautiful Megan day on the beaches of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. They were actually in Murray’s enormous beach house, a twenty-bedroom mansion complete with two kitchens, servant’s quarters and the conference room they currently occupied. It was more like a luxury resort than a home, but Megan found herself unable to enjoy much of anything.

  She leaned back from the conference table, exchanging small talk until the room emptied except for her and Murray. In his late sixties with a full head of silver hair, Murray looked more like a Jimmy Buffet fan with his loud Hawaiian shirt and deep tan than one of the richest men in America. With a low hum the projection screen rolled up into its niche in the ceiling, revealing a priceless collection of Impressionist art Murray and his wife had collected over the years.

  The scent of coconut tanning oil filled the air as he pulled out the plush leather chair next to hers at the gleaming walnut conference table. They didn’t say anything for a few moments, each looking out the window and watching kids play in the surf. Quite a few of the employees had brought their families with them to the beach and a stab of guilt went through her that she hadn’t even considered bringing along Jason and the boys. She was such a shitty wife and mother.

  The chair next to hers creaked as Murray leaned back and put his feet up on the table, the bright-yellow-and-green flip-flops he wore a stark contrast to the businesslike stacks of papers and laptops. “What’s on your mind, Megan? You’ve been awfully quiet this week.”

  She darted a quick glance at him and hoped he didn’t notice her blinking back tears. “Sorry, just some stuff going on at home.”

  Murray didn’t say anything, just laced his fingers over the small paunch of his belly and examined her. She fiddled with her wedding band and took a deep breath, terrified of what she was about to say. “Murray, I was wondering if…” Her throat closed up and a stinging sweat broke out over her body.

  “Yes?”

  Her voice held a tremor as she said, “Would it be possible, temporarily, to cut back on my work load?” The last words came out in a shamed whisper and she clenched her nails into her palms, willing the tears away with the pain. She couldn’t look at him, couldn’t face the disappointment in his gaze, the unsaid words of her being a quitter, a failure.

  “Absolutely.”

  The happiness in his voice caught her off-guard and she looked up at him. The surprise must have showed on her face because he sighed and leaned forward to pat her shoulder, Murray’s version of a hug. “Don’t be so shocked. I’ve been worried about you and I’ve been trying to figure out a way to tell you to take it easy without you taking it as a personal attack.”

  She blinked at him and tried to school her features back into something other than gaping. “I wouldn’t have taken it as a personal attack.”

  He snorted and raised his thick eyebrows. “Really? How about the time I suggested you give the South Cape account to Carl and you proceeded to work fifty hours of overtime for the next two months in order to get it done by yourself? Or how about when I brought your intern Eric in and you spent the next week looking at me like I’d kicked a puppy.”

  She swallowed and avoided his knowing gaze. “I’m sorry.”

  “Megan, while I appreciate your hard work and your dedication to the company, I also see how you and Jason have been drifting apart. You two used to be inseparable at our parties, making eyes at each other and holding hands. Now you barely look at each other. I hope you’ll forgive me for saying this, but I’ve known you and Jason for ten years now and I’d hate to see you kids separate.”

  His words echoed Jason’s so much that the wall she’d been holding her emotions behind cracked. Her voice came out thick with tears as she said, “I know. We’re so broken and I don’t know how to fix it.” She spun her chair around and furiously wiped at the tears now streaming down her face, not wanting Murray to see her weakness. “Forgive me, I didn’t mean to dump this on you.”

  “Hey now, it’s okay.” He patted her shoulder again and handed her a handful of tissues from the box in the center of the table. “I’m sure you still have a chance to make it right.”

  “But I don’t know how,” she said in a furious whisper.

  He spun her chair back around to face him and took his seat again. “It’s going to take time.” His gaze went distant and he laced his hands together again. “Many, many years ago Carol and I went through a rough spot. You know, me spending too much time at work, her being cooped up with the kids all day. By the time I got home we were both so worn out that neither of us made much of an effort to take care of each other.”

  She nodded, his words echoing her own situation. “But you and Carol have a great relationship. How did you fix it?”

  “Megan, you can’t fix people.” He gave her a gentle smile. “Did you know I did a flowchart of how to make Carol happy?” She laughed and he nodded. “Yeah, I know. Oddly enough her reactions didn’t follow my plan and I had to learn the hard way that while her feelings may have seemed irrational and illogical to me, they were very real to her. I had to learn how to see the world through her eyes and to put her and the kids first.”

  She gave him a narrow-eyed look. “Have you been talkin
g to Jason?”

  He laughed and shook his head. “Nope, but oddly enough I’ve had a great many friends and employees in the technology business get a little bit career obsessed. Working with logical computer systems is a lot easier than working with sticky human beings.”

  A grin twitched on her lips as she thought about all of her socially awkward coworkers. “Yeah, I can see that. So what should I do?”

  He didn’t answer right away, instead standing and moving to the window. “Well, first thing you need to do is get your work in order and take a vacation. You do know that you get six weeks a year off, right?”

  She wadded up the tissue in her fist and nodded. “But what about the Simperson case? And I need to go to the Trojan virus conference in two weeks, and—”

  “As invaluable as you are to this company, we have people to cover you. Let the rest of your team handle the Simperson case and I think you should send Eric to the conference.”

  Her muscles tensed up. “I don’t know, Eric is awfully young.” Murray turned around and gave her a pointed look, making her wince. “Okay, okay. I think I need to go to rehab for being a control freak.”

  Murray’s cell phone rang and he frowned as he looked at the caller. “One second, I need to address something with the staff about dinner tonight.”

  He stepped out of the room, leaving Megan to wipe away the rest of her tears and take in a deep, shuddering breath. All week she’d been dreading this conversation, dreading disappointing Murray and now she felt as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She checked her cell phone, her heart sinking when there was still no message from Jason. He’d been avoiding her calls all week and when she did get through he’d give the phone to one of the kids before telling her a curt goodbye. She couldn’t concentrate and all she could think about was how badly she’d messed up.