“If you want to come watch me work, then you can. I would think it would be pretty boring,” she said, closing the lid on her water bottle and walking back into the empty office.

“My time with you is never boring. Are you at home?” he asked.

“Oh, about that…” Liz said.

“What?”

“My roommate came back into town. She was in London—I won’t even try to explain why—but I don’t have the house to myself anymore,” she explained.

“So, you should get picked up somewhere else?” he asked dryly.

“Oh my God, you can’t come watch me work,” Liz said, shaking her head.

“I’m not coming to watch you work. I’m coming to fuck you,” he nearly growled at her through the phone.

His voice sent shivers down her spine as she thought about their sex life. They were having sex more each week in stolen secret moments than she’d had when she had been dating her last boyfriend. And she had been practically living with her boyfriend at the time. It was exhilarating and incredible each time she was with Brady.

Plus, she couldn’t deny that she enjoyed getting to know him on a more personal level when they met. Some of his walls had started falling the more time he spent with her. After the incident with his sister, he had told her all about his family—his father, the politician; his mother, the professor; his younger brother, Clay, the law student; and his younger sister, Savannah, who would be attending UNC in the fall. She had even learned that Savannah was planning to major in journalism. Liz sure as hell hoped that she didn’t try to get on the paper.

She needed to make a decision. She stared at her open Word document and then exhaled softly. She knew that she had work to do, but she wasn’t really making all that much progress with it anyway. It might be better to look at it fresh tomorrow. And anyway, she really wanted to see Brady.

“I’m at the office.”

“In the Union?” Brady asked.

“Yeah. Do you know where the paper is?”

“Ten minutes,” he said before the line went dead.

Almost exactly ten minutes later, Liz heard the door to the newspaper office open. She peeked her head around the corner of Hayden’s office and couldn’t help but let a big grin spread across her face. Brady Maxwell was in her office. He was on her turf. And he looked really fucking hot.

He looked as if he had come straight from the office in black dress slacks and a tucked-in blue button-down. His jacket had clearly been discarded in the car. It was too hot for pants and a long-sleeved shirt, but she knew that he wouldn’t have gone into work in anything else. His dark eyes caught hers across the room, and she smiled. Her whole body ignited in that one look. How did he do that?

She opened her mouth to say something. Greet him, maybe? She couldn’t even remember. Because as soon as he reached her, he grabbed her around the middle, pushed them into the office, and crushed their lips together. Liz tilted her head back, reveling in his kisses. She heard him kick the door closed, but all she could think about was his lips, his hands, his body.

Liz couldn’t get enough of him. He was sucking the breath right out of her. It had only been three days. Three days didn’t normally feel like such an eternity, but now, standing there in his arms, she had no idea how she had been able to go the interminable amount of time without him.

When he broke away, it took her a bit to regain control of herself.

“Baby, it’s really good to see you,” he groaned against her mouth.

Liz nodded her head. She didn’t even have words. With him standing in front of her now, she couldn’t even remember what she was doing before he arrived.

“I can’t tell if you’re happy I’m here,” he said sarcastically, with a knowing look on his handsome face.

Arrogant son of a… she thought.

“I can’t believe you’re at my office. That’s basically public territory, Brady,” Liz said, sliding her hands up around his neck.

“It’s the middle of the night. That’s hardly public,” he corrected.

“As close as it’s been since we were at the Jefferson-Jackson gala,” she whispered. She hoped she didn’t sound as if she were complaining. She liked her time with Brady. Some days it didn’t feel like enough, and she wished for more. But not now, not when she was in his arms.

“And probably as close as its going to get,” he said, setting clear boundaries.

She knew that all along. They couldn’t meet in public. That would defeat the whole purpose of what they were doing.

“As long as I get to be close to you, then I don’t care,” Liz said, gripping the collar of his shirt in her hands and tugging him back down. “And anyway, maybe I like the secret,” she murmured seductively against his mouth. Her tongue darted out and licked across his bottom lip.

His hands gripped her sides and then his mouth claimed her once more. She saw where this was heading fast.

“I like this,” he said, his hands running to the hem of her cotton sundress. He slid them up the other side of the material across her thighs. Liz sucked in quickly at the sudden contact.

“My dress?” she asked as he walked her back slowly toward the very cluttered desk.

“Your body,” he muttered, his fingers finding the lacy edge of her thong. Liz shivered at his touch. She hit the edge of the desk.

“Brady,” she said when he tried to help her onto it.

“Don’t,” he said, not stopping.

“This is my boss’s desk.”

Brady smirked as if she had made the decision for him. He reached behind her and pushed all of her neatly stacked papers onto the floor. Her mouth fell open as she watched her assignment scatter.

“I’m taking you on this desk,” he said, picking her up and placing her on the now-empty surface. “Don’t act like you don’t want me to.”

She would deal with the article later. At this moment, she could care less.

“Don’t move,” he said, pointing at her. Liz watched him walk across the small room and turn the lock in the door. “We don’t want any unannounced visitors.”

“Taking all the fun out of being in public.”

“Don’t get mouthy with me.”

Liz bit her lip and looked down. “I’d never.”

Her eyes slowly traveled up to his face, and he shook his head. “Only when I ask you to.”

“Come here,” she said, crooking her finger. She was getting impatient. He was dangling himself in front of her and then retreating once he got her hot and forced her onto the desk. She thought he might protest that she was giving her own commands, but he smiled and walked toward her.

She grabbed him by his belt and wrenched him in close. His hands landed on the tops of her thighs, and he moved one down between her legs. She unbuckled his belt as quickly as she could manage with his fingers dipping under her thong. She popped the button and slid the zipper to the base before hooking her fingers into his expensive dress pants and sending them over his narrow hips to the ground.

Liz stroked him a few times through his boxer briefs, but he was already ready for her. She slid her hand under the elastic, and wrapped her fingers around his dick. He grunted and leaned forward.

“Yeah. I need you. Right now,” he groaned, as she ran her hand up to the head and back. He bent forward and kissed her as hard as he could. Her hand stilled as she lost her train of thought, and he took that moment to scoot her ass forward so she was sitting on the edge of the desk.

He broke the kiss, dropped his boxers, and yanked her thong to the ground. Liz eagerly pulled her dress over her head and unclasped her bra. She knew she was as ready for him as he was standing before her. She could feel her pulse against her throat and her breathing quicken. Her senses seemed to intensify every time he touched her. The heat and electric chemistry between them superheated the close quarters, and a flush rose to her cheeks.

She had never felt so comfortable naked before a man. This was Brady. He never judged her, was never condescending, and never once demeaned her or made her feel bad for the choices she made. She rarely if ever told him no in the bedroom because of these things. And it was liberating to just feel. Because when she was with Brady, she didn’t let herself do much else.