Beautiful Boss (Beautiful #9) - Christina Lauren Page 0,29

then the weight of her head on my shoulder as she rested against me, hand warm against my bare stomach as she dozed off.

It was late when we finally arrived at the B&B and checked in, skipping further conversation and tripping as quietly as we could down the hall to our room.

The room was drafty and smelled of wet cut grass. Outside, crickets chirped and the wind creaked through tree limbs beside the window. It was truly nothing like our apartment in Manhattan. And then Hanna met my eyes, and smiled.

The whole world cracked open.

I pulled her clothes off with shaking hands, tossed her onto the creaky bed. Her mouth curled in a laugh, pale limbs spread across the blankets, beckoning.

The smell of her, the taste of her skin on my lips.

I turned on the lamp to see her better, to watch the flush crawl up her neck when I pressed my face between her breasts, groaning.

The muscles in her stomach jerked under my mouth as I kissed down her body, sucking and tasting her until she was pulling me up by my hair, over her, shoving my clothes off with grabby, impatient hands.

It was fast, and, fuck, it was probably a little too rough, but I loved the way her tits moved when I pinned her hands over her head and fucked her as hard and fast as I could.

I wasn’t sure what got into me.

A switch had been flipped, some ancient trigger pulled. She’d been gone. I needed to remind her, remind my hands and mouth and cock that this was default: us. The setting didn’t fucking matter.

She came, but just after I did. I don’t know how I managed to actually get her there and not collapse on her. She’d scratched my collarbone when she was close, drawing blood and making me see stars.

I fell over her, heavy, and managed to keep from crushing her with my elbows planted in the mattress near her head.

“Were we loud?” she asked, breathless.

“I don’t have enough energy left to care.”

She giggled beneath me. “Awkward group breakfast at the B&B.”

I rolled off her, dragging my hand across her sweaty torso as I went. “You think I’m letting you out of this room?”

She draped her body over mine, kissing the scratch she’d left on my skin. “Darling husband?”

My blood vibrated at her words. “Hmm?”

“Are we okay?”

Now this—this made me laugh.

“Plum.” I stretched to kiss her. “Never mind what we just did in this tiny bed, we’re always okay.”

Standing, Hanna walked over to the door and grabbed a notebook from her bag, shuffling back to me.

“Roll over,” she said, nudging my shoulder.

I rolled to my stomach and rested my face on my bent arm. The notebook was cool against my back, causing me to startle a little. “What are we doing?”

“I need to make a list of what Caltech needs to bring to the table to beat Harvard.”

I turned my head, barely able to see her over my shoulder. I liked seeing that she could admit that, most likely, every school would want her. But I also didn’t want her to get brokenhearted if she didn’t get an offer from her first choice.

I wondered if I’d pushed too hard for her to rank her preferences, to assume she had her pick.

“When do you expect to hear back from Harvard?”

She grinned, stretching to kiss my cheek. “I heard back from them today.”

Six

Hanna

I knew it was wrong to call Will quite so late, but I hadn’t been able to call him until now, and I absolutely didn’t want to wait until morning. The phone rang only once before he picked up.

“Hey, Plum.”

“Hey, you.”

“This is becoming sort of a habit,” he said, followed by the sounds of the bed creaking.

“I know, we have scripted lines and everything.”

“How was your day?” he asked, voice scratchy and deep. We’d been in a good place when I left for Caltech, so I imagined he’d probably been actually sleeping, not just trying to. I glanced at the clock and felt even guiltier for calling so late.

“It was pretty great,” I said, and noted the pause on the other end of the line. I’d always suspected this particular topic of conversation made Will anxious, but it was only now—since our big blowup—that I knew exactly how anxious, and why.

Looking back, I could admit to having some measure of tunnel vision about my job search. I’d had a list of possible candidates, and I’d checked them off, one by one, not attempting