Owned (Office Intrigue Book 8) by Nicole Edwards (year 2 reading books TXT) 📗

created his own world that revolved around him, but still managed to be separate. I was scared to say something that might push him away.

Talon’s hand lifted, his thumb brushing over my cheek. The torch light bounced off his copper skin, and I got lost for a minute, my heart swelling until I thought it would break right through my sternum.

“I love you, Braelyn.”

I lost all feeling in my limbs. Absolute pleasure consumed me, making me numb to everything except for the warmth that filled me.

“It might seem too soon to say,” he continued, clearly not realizing I was dizzy from happiness.

“No,” I said in a hoarse whisper. “Not…” I shook my head.

He took my glass, set it aside with his. “I’m sorry, Braelyn. I didn’t—”

I shut him up by plastering my mouth to his then crawling over him.

“I love you, too,” I mouthed against his lips.

I felt the shift in him, the way his arms tightened around me as though he’d needed to hear it. For the first time in my life, I felt completely whole. As though my heart had only been formed halfway and now it was complete.

“I’ve loved you from the first time I laid eyes on you,” he whispered, rolling so that I was on my back, his enormous body hovering over me.

I touched his face, felt the tears forming. “Happy tears,” I explained.

He smiled and it was like sunshine in my veins.

“Let me love you, Braelyn.”

I would never tire of him saying such lovely words. Certainly never tire of the way he caressed me as though I was the most important thing in the world. It didn’t take long before the few clothes we had on were discarded, tossed aside so heat could meld with heat.

Skin to skin, heart to heart, I held on to Talon when he filled me, not only with his body but with his love. It was everything I’d ever imagined the fairy tale to be and more. So much better, actually. Nothing in my life had ever felt as good as this man’s love for me. I didn’t question it, because Talon was a man of action. He didn’t talk to hear himself talk. When he spoke, it had meaning.

His hand brushed stray tendrils of hair back from my face as he leaned over me, his eyes locked with mine as he rocked his hips.

“Sweet girl,” he whispered as he made love to me in the most exquisite way. “You’re all I’ve ever wanted, more than I deserve.”

I cupped his face, let the sensations overwhelm me.

“Come for me, baby. Let me feel you.”

That was all it took, his sweetly spoken words—a request this time, not a command—sending me spiraling, my body clenching around his as I came, the electric sparks shooting out through my extremities.

I wasn’t sure another orgasm could ever compare to that whole-body experience, but I wouldn’t mind if we spent the rest of our lives trying to achieve the impossible.

FORTY-FOUR

One month later

Friday, February 26, 2021

TALON

February brought with it a lot of organization and some significant improvements within Owned, Incorporated thanks to my new employees.

It was almost as though they’d taken over, which, in a surprising twist, did not bother me in the least.

Of course, with every responsibility that was taken off my plate, I would replace it with another. After all, onward and upward were the only directions I was programmed with. Seemed Ransom and Braelyn were much the same in that regard.

“This is the new library,” Ransom presented to the group following close behind him, of which I was a part of.

Braelyn and Ransom, along with a horde of people they’d wrangled to help out, had been hard at work for the past month. Extremely long days had been spent installing and updating, remodeling and redecorating. They’d even opted to bypass the suggested Owners’ Retreat when a brilliant idea had come to Braelyn. Because I would give her the moon and stars, I had indulged her, giving her and Ransom carte blanche to do as they pleased. Helped that I trusted them to keep me in the loop, which they had at every step.

It had been Braelyn’s idea to bring Memphis and Tiegan back to the island, along with one of their assistants and another member of their team, to take a grand tour of the almost finished resort, which had even earned a new name. The objective was to give them an idea, as well as get their input, on the improvements thus far and a few that were still pending. What had once been structured with a business feel in mind had received a kinky overhaul.

Again, Braelyn’s idea.

“Wow,” Tiegan said when she stepped inside the newly designed library.

I watched her, wondering if she was gearing up to shoot them down. Although Memphis had informed me they’d settled their differences and were actually smoothing things out rather nicely, I never knew with Tiegan. We had yet to talk since I reassigned her, and I knew she still held me responsible. I couldn’t really blame her.

“This is nice, Ransom,” she said approvingly.

And by nice, I assumed she meant lascivious, perhaps even salacious, because nice wasn’t even close.

The space had doubled, now close to two thousand square feet with forty-foot-tall ceilings. The lighting came from the two chandeliers—both fifteen feet in diameter—hanging on each end of the room.

The only things that technically made this a library were the books contained within. Even the shelves holding them had changed. Gone was the traditional dark wood. That had been replaced by white, weathered brick, which now lined all four walls from floor to ceiling. Mounted to the brick walls were two-inch-thick, stainless-steel-wrapped shelves, which supported the books throughout. Because they were different lengths and mounted at various heights, there was no uniformity to the shelves, or to much of anything else, for that matter. The ductwork and pipes overhead had been exposed to raise the ceiling as well as add to the industrial feel Braelyn had been