As soon as Conor is sleeping soundly, I untangle myself from his warm body and slide out of bed. Grabbing my underwear and Shane’s t-shirt from the floor, I get dressed quietly, careful not to disturb him. I turn and look at him before I slip out of the door. He looks so peaceful and content, and I’m overwhelmed by a rush of pure love for him.
I close his door softly behind me and make my way down the hall to Shane’s office and find him as I always used to in here. Head bent low over his computer and a slight frown on his handsome face.
“Has anyone ever told you, you work too hard?” I say as I walk into the room and sit opposite him.
He looks up with a devilish grin on his face that makes my insides melt like chocolate. “How else am I supposed to distract myself, Hacker? If I didn’t have my work to keep me busy, you would never leave my bed.”
I smile at the thought of being a permanent resident of his bed. Shane Ryan and his brothers make me constantly horny. I shake my head. I am not here for that. Not right now, anyway. “I thought that maybe now Liam’s no longer on bed rest, I could…” I chew on my lip because Shane Ryan makes me nervous as hell, but for all the right reasons.
He closes his laptop and leans forward in his seat, narrowing his eyes at me. “Thought you could what?” he asks in that low gravelly voice that vibrates through my bones.
“Maybe I could pull my weight a little more around here. Help you out with those contracts you’re working on. Or anything really? I’d like to get more involved in the business, if that’s okay?” I whisper.
He sucks in a breath and sits back in his chair. “You want to be more involved in the family business?” He arches an eyebrow at me.
“Yes.”
“Why?” He frowns and suddenly I get the sense that this is some sort of test.
“Well, it kind of makes sense, seeing as we’re…” I swallow hard.
He reaches across his desk and takes hold of my hand, brushing his fingertips across my palm and sending skitters of electricity shooting up my forearm. “We’re your family too?” he finishes my sentence for me.
I lift my gaze to meet his, for a second worrying that I have made an assumption that I shouldn’t have and overstepped. But his eyes are burning into mine, full of emotion and longing, and I realize he needs assurance about what we are, just as much as I do. “Yes,” I whisper.
I’m rewarded with one of his genuine, killer smiles before he lifts my fingers to his lips and kisses the tips softly. It’s such a tender act from him that I am completely blindsided. I rarely see this side of him, and I realize how privileged I am to be allowed to, when he is vulnerable and laid bare for me. The electricity in the room is palpable now. My breath catches in my throat as he continues pressing soft kisses against my fingers that send jolts of warmth and pleasure coursing through my body. The familiar wet heat is beginning to build in my core and I shift in my seat, squeezing my thighs together to quell the growing need. He reads me so well, as though he has known me forever. Gently placing my hand back on his desk, he leans back in his chair. “We’d better get to work, Hacker. Because if you keep looking at me like that, we won’t get anything done.”
“Why not?” I purr as I lean forward, closing the distance between us again, even though I know exactly what he means because whenever we are in a room together, the air is supercharged with sexual electricity.
He leans back in too, until he is so close that I can smell his incredible scent — cologne, sex and masculinity. “Because I will have you naked and bent over my desk in about ten seconds flat. So, stop with the flirting. Pull your chair around and fire up the desktop. We’ve got lots of business to catch up on.”
The wicked twinkle in his eyes makes me laugh softly. “You’re so bossy,” I say, pushing myself up from the chair and wheeling it around to his side of the desk. I place it next to his, so it’s close but not touching and sit back down. Flexing my fingers and my shoulders, I switch on the desktop just as Shane grabs hold of my chair and pulls it toward his, until they are flush together. I smile at the screen as I resist the urge to turn and look at him, but I can see him watching me from the corner of my eye.
“Don’t be distracting me now. I have lots of work to do,” I say as I continue staring at the screen.
He laughs softly. “I’m distracting you, Hacker? You’re the one walking around here in just your underwear and my shirt. How the fuck am I supposed to concentrate?”
“Would you like me to go get changed?” I breathe, still refusing to look him in the eye.
“Fuck, no,” he growls. “Now get to work.”
