Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
“Never. This is my pussy—you better make her purr for me, baby.”
Delaney sobbed her way through another orgasm, the precipice cresting without warning when Lucas’ hips slammed even harder into her from behind. She could feel the way her body tried to milk him; how every ripple of pleasure cascaded into steady clenching of her inner muscles wrapped around him.
That hot rush came fast between her thighs again.
Lucas’ pleased chuckles said he felt it, and while his pace never faltered, the wet smacking between their bodies became louder. “Yes, soak me, Delaney. You fucking ruined me.”
No way.
That was definitely him.
There would be no after him for Delaney—no other human, and certainly not another man, would come close to changing her the way Lucas Dalton had.
*
Delaney kept expecting a knock on the apartment door to interrupt her afternoon with Lucas—after a point, she wouldn’t even have blamed Malachi for making the trip across the yard to do it, either—but it didn’t come.
So, they didn’t leave the bed.
Lucas seemed content to use Delaney’s naked lower half as a pillow while she played Nintendo and ignored the remaining boxes she had yet to unpack in the corner of the small bedroom.
“I’m surprised how much of the apartment you got set up yesterday,” he noted when Delaney got Mario onto the top of the pole at the end of the level.
She tossed the remote to the bed, her thumbs aching from a good thirty minutes of game play. “Gracen helped. Malachi hung some things.”
“Can I help, too?” Lucas asked.
Delaney grinned. “I can certainly put you to work. I have a bookshelf that needs to be assembled, and a picture or two to hang.”
“Good, I hate feeling useless.”
Delaney frowned. “I’d never say that to you.”
“No, but—”
She didn’t let him get out whatever self-deprecating thing was about to leave his lips before she curled down to catch his lips in a kiss when she lifted his head to meet her eyes before their mouths touched. One sweep of her lips made his answer back. Another had them crawling closer together so he laid higher on her body, their chests rising and falling together.
“Not useless to me,” she whispered against his lips.
Lucas let out a hard breath. “Yeah, okay.”
When his head found her chest, his face nestled between the valley of her breasts, Delaney drew circles through his dark, short-cropped hair until he relaxed against her.
“I didn’t want to tell you until I got here, but I had a couple of job offers come my way last week,” Lucas murmured against her skin.
Delaney’s breath hitched. “Oh?”
“Executive management for the sugar plant in Saint John. The money’s good, as far as that goes. I wouldn’t have to change much except the time I rolled into work, I guess.”
“Is that up your alley? Executive management?”
Lucas let out a heavy breath. “Close enough.”
Why didn’t it sound like something he wanted to do, then?
In fact, he didn’t seem interested at all.
“Huh,” she muttered.
“Another one was for a rival brewery—which could be a problem if my father wanted to try and make it one, but I’m not that interested in it, anyway.”
“Why not?”
“I’d have to relocate. To Ontario. By next month.”
Delaney’s chest deflated as she repeated dully, “Oh.”
“I said no to both,” Lucas told her.
“I want to hate that knowing you said no makes me happy,” she whispered.
He kissed the side of her breast, making Delaney shiver. “But?”
How selfish was she, really?
Delaney had a damn good idea. “You know, my best friend once moved an unemployed, basically homeless guy into her house, and it worked out okay for her. I’m just saying … I’m sure we could figure things out.”
Lucas’ boisterous laugh rocked them both on the bed, but his arms only squeezed her tighter when his amusement quickly sobered. “To be fair, because I’m not sure what their situation was—your friends, I mean—but I don’t think money is going to be a problem for me.”
“I mean, I know you’re doing okay financially, but—”
“No, because my father made an offer on my shares that I’m not going to refuse—that I can’t refuse,” he corrected.
Delaney’s fingers froze in their circle of his scalp. “Didn’t you tell me that you wouldn’t sell the shares to him?”
“For a half of a million a share I will.”
She blinked. “What?”
“A half of a million a share,” Lucas repeated, every word skipping over her pebbling skin as he spoke. “And while the twenty-five percent would remain owned by the company …”
“You’re father,” she said when he trailed off.
Lucas shrugged. “Right. However, the profit of the earnings will be split half and half between a share that’s evenly distributed once a year to employees as a bonus, and the rest, to Ronald. I think he did it on purpose.”
“I’m sorry?”
“The offer,” Lucas explained in a sigh as he scrubbed a hand down his face. “I think he made it on purpose. Something he knew I wouldn’t refuse because it’s an option that helps people. Yeah, it’s less than the shares are worth, by a lot, but the end result is what matters to me, and I’m sure he knows it, too. It’s not just about him. The company benefits. The employees really benefit, and … Anyway, do you know what the interest is on thirteen or fourteen million dollars in a year?”