Determination grew like a lit flare inside me. I would take the next few days off as planned, but when I got back to the office things were going to change. I was going to change them. “We’ll go to bat for whatever he pitches. We can take it. I’ll speak to you later.”
Neil didn’t sound convinced by my plan, but he agreed before we hung up. I sipped my coffee, wondering what was up with the old man now and what havoc he was causing because of it.
Absently, I started pulling out a pan to make breakfast and chopping up some fruit. I couldn’t cook for shit, but I wanted to make Stephanie breakfast and thought I could manage the basics.
Cooking was supposed to be therapeutic for some, I’d heard. I was surprised to find that just chopping up fruit and other simple things calmed me after my conversation with Neil, focused my mind. People might be onto something with this cooking thing.
Stephanie walked into the kitchen when I was almost done, looking edible herself in my T-shirt from the night before and pretty much nothing else. Her nipples strained against the fabric, and since the shirt was white, I could just make out the outline of those buds I couldn’t stop teasing.
I stalked toward her, pushing Neil and Williams Inc. out of my mind. I wasn’t going to tell Stephanie about the call because she would only be worried and that was the last thing I wanted her to be this morning.
“Good morning,” I said as I wrapped my arms around her, dipping my head immediately to nuzzle her neck.
I felt her shiver in my arms, melting against my chest. I loved the way she reacted to me. She brushed a kiss to the side of my jaw. “Good morning.”
With her in my arms, smelling like sleep and lust and me, her nipples hard against my chest and her soft body pressed up against me, I lost my appetite for food and decided I wanted her for breakfast instead.
She laughed when she felt my hand travel up her side to cup one of her heavy breasts and pushed me away with a hand to my chest, shaking her head. “No can do, Jer. I need to be fed first. I’m not one of those women who pretends she never gets hungry.”
Taking a deep breath, I stepped away from her and dragged my hand over my face, turning to grab her coffee so I could adjust myself without having her see. “I know, that’s one of the many reasons why you’re my girlfriend.”
She arched a brow. “Because I eat? Everyone eats, some just don’t like to admit that they do.”
“Not because you eat, because you’re real. You don’t pretend to be anyone or anything you’re not.”
“There goes that silver tongue again.” She walked to the island where I chopped the fruit and snagged a strawberry from the pile, popping it into her mouth. “Wow, that’s good. So sweet.”
“I can’t make anything fancy, but there’s yogurt in the fridge, and I think I can manage eggs,” I said, crossing to the stove.
She came up behind me, putting her arms around my waist and pressing a soft kiss between my shoulder blades. “Let me make the eggs. I could even make omelets if you want. I’ve learned a thing or two from Tiana.”
“I’ll get back to the fruit salad.” We fell into an easy routine. Steph pulled ingredients from my fridge I didn’t know were in there and made fluffy, delicious omelets.
We devoured my fruit salad and had more coffee. When we were done with breakfast, we cleaned up as a team who’d been doing it together for years. Then she told me she wanted to help me with the rest of the apartment.
She asked about my sound system and put on some god awful pop music to listen to while we cleaned up. I would’ve argued about her choices, but then she started dancing along to tunes she obviously knew, and I let it go. It made her happy, and it had the added bonus of giving me a great view of her moving her hips around. Couldn’t argue with that.
Stephanie stuck a spray bottle and a cloth in my hand and told me to make myself useful. Whatever was in the bottle smelled lemony. I tried telling her my housekeeper would do it all, but she wouldn’t hear it. Then she made all kinds of naughty promises to get me to cooperate.
“All done,” Stephanie announced, proudly surveying our handiwork. She was standing in front of the windows in my living room, morning light streaming in around her. Hands on her hips, she squinted her eyes and scanned the room, nodding when she was satisfied with how it looked.
She was still wearing my T-shirt, but she’d put her hair up in a messy bun before we started cleaning. Face clear of makeup with a satisfied grin and a spray bottle of her own in one hand and plastic gloves in the other, she looked like a domestic goddess.
Mydomestic goddess.
“Is it time to do what I want to do yet?”
Laughing, she nodded and crossed the room to loop her arms around my neck, pushing up on her toes to give me a chaste kiss. “What did you have in mind?”
Instead of answering her, I hooked my arms around her thighs and picked her up in a fireman’s carry over my shoulder. “You’ll see.”
I carried her all the way into the shower without stopping to take off clothes. After flipping on the water, I backed her up until her back hit the wall, caged her in with my arms at the sides of her head and claimed her mouth with mine.
Stephanie responded immediately, her tongue eagerly matching every touch and stroke of mine. I swallowed the moans she emitted as my hands came up to massage her breasts and tweak her nipples.
My cock was fully erect and throbbing by the time I broke our kiss and slid to my knees in front of her, nudging her legs open so I fit between them. Her pussy was swollen and glistening, completely bare except for a thin strip of hair on her mound.
Grinning up at her, I trailed my fingers along her thighs before leaning forward and giving her one long lick. I would clean my apartment every day if it meant ending here with her. “I plan on cashing in on some of those promises now.”
Her fingers wound into my hair as her neck arched and she pushed her head back against the stone tiles, droplets of water clinging to her smooth skin. “Oh god, yes. Please, Jeremiah!”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” I murmured against her skin before I lost myself in her slick wetness, all thoughts about what could be happening with my father at Williams Inc. long forgotten. This, and a variety of other things just like it, was exactly what I needed and planned to do with the rest of my day.