Big Dick Energy - Cindi Madsen Page 0,65

bottle teetering on the ledge next to me tipped over. I brought up my shoulder right before it hit me. “Okay, maybe that bottle could go,” I said with a soft laugh.

“It adds an element of danger that suits us. Will we strangle each other during one of our arguments? End up with split lips or twisted ankles? Or will we fuck our brains out?” Penelope lifted one leg and hooked it over my hip, opening herself wider as she brought my body back to hers. “It’s anyone’s guess—especially ours.”

“For the record, I will always vote for fucking our brains out.”

“Then get busy proving it,” she said, the siren I’d shared a stage with emerging to tempt me to get my rocks off. And I would, but not before she had one more orgasm.

I draped the arm I’d had pinned to the wall around my neck, giving her an anchor as I pumped into her. I switched up the depth, intensity, and angle until I found which combination caused a keening noise.

While we hadn’t known each other for very long, it felt like we’d been building up to this forever. Almost as though my body had known hers was out there, and once we came together with nothing else between us, it’d almost be too much for either one of us to handle.

The water had darkened her hair and brought out the waves, and her mascara was slightly smeared, her lips swollen and reddened from my kisses and scruff. She challenged me, turned me on, and frequented my thoughts so often that I could hardly remember what it was like not to obsess about Penelope Jones.

One by one, the threads on my self-control snapped, but I forced myself to hold onto that last one.

At her cry of release, I slammed into her one last time and emptied myself into her with a growl.

After I disposed of the condom, we took our time cleaning each other off, making use of all those bottles. The water was barely warm by the end, and as we stood in only towels in the bathroom, surveying the piles of clothes, it hit me that I needed to get going.

Slowly I stepped into my clothes. Before I put on my watch, I held it up to her. “It’s getting late.”

Penelope hugged her arms around her middle and nodded. “And you’ve got to head home to your little sister. Don’t worry. I get it.”

How did I say that I wished I didn’t have to leave without adding expectations I wasn’t sure I was ready for? “This was fun.” I nearly smacked myself in the head over my lame attempt to say goodbye in a way that didn’t suck. I finished securing my watch in place, strode over to Penelope, and pulled her into my arms for a heated kiss. “Fun doesn’t begin to describe tonight. It was incredible. And well worth the wait.”

A smile flitted across her lips. “Hey, we agree again.” She crinkled her forehead. “As someone who’s heard far too many of your wrong opinions, I’m starting to worry what that says about me.”

Her teasing sent warmth cascading through me. “It means you’ve fallen prey to my charms.”

Vulnerability flickered through her features. “That’s what I’m afraid of. All I want is to win the chance to design the complex, fair and square. Which is extra complicated now, because I don’t want you to have to lose.”

I cupped her cheek and enthused my voice with as much assurance as I could for a guy who didn’t like thinking too far into the future. “We’ll figure it out, okay? I don’t want you to hold back because of me.”

“I don’t want you to do that, either.”

“Then we compartmentalize. There’s you and me, the way we are right now. Then there’s us at work. We’ve got a week and a half till we see which set of blueprints the committee decides on. Until then, we don’t cross the streams, simple as that.”

It wasn’t until later that night, as I was tossing and turning and wondering why I couldn’t fall asleep, that I remembered the day that Penelope told me nothing about her was simple.

I wasn’t sure why it replayed through my head on an endless loop. Only that it meant I still wasn’t asleep by the time three am rolled around.

26

Penny

“I know this is a big ask, but can you bring it to me?”

I froze in place in front of Archer’s desk. He’d left work early to pick