Force of Forever (All In #0.5)

Matt groaned. Pia’s fingers slapped to her mouth as the ladies trotted off the elevator without a backward glance. The doors began to slide closed, but she didn’t move. She just stared at him, wild-eyed. “Oh my God, they heard us this morning!”

Pia let out a string of curses that rivaled the moment Odette had referenced. He couldn’t help laughing. Matt fucking adored the fact that he could make Pia come so hard she forgot where and who she was. She was not a woman who cursed. He could still feel the gouges in his pecs from when she’d shattered as she rode him. He hoped her nails left scars.

Matt pulled her into a hug. She wasn’t too stunned to hug him back. He loved their bodies together. Her smell. Her warmth. Her blushes and curses. “Ma belle, you’re never going to see them again. I have no regrets. None. Do you?”

She sighed. “No. Not really.”

He kissed the top of her head and pushed the button to open the doors.

“Here we go,” she muttered, circling an arm around his waist. “Let’s get the rest of this walk of shame over with.”

He chuckled, a smile that didn’t waver until he spotted Célia waiting at the curb.

His steps slowed. Pia was leaving France. Their bright spot of connection would fade. He’d go back to legacy, back to life. Back to a world built of nothing but work.

She snatched her pumps from the backseat and held his hand for balance while she slid them on. Célia sent him a curious look from the driver’s seat. While Pia squeezed his hand, Matt tried to ignore the tightness spreading through his stomach. “Better,” she said, straightening. With a smile that nearly split his heart in two, Pia tugged on the lapels of his suit jacket to pull him closer. Her three inches gained put her that much closer to lip level.

He knew what she wanted.

Matt delved in for a brief kiss that he instantly regretted as fire spread through his body. The look she sent him through her lashes said he’d burned her, too.

She opened her bow-shaped lips, but closed them with a sigh.

“Yesterday, you told me you don’t do things like this,” Matt said, to fill the silence that was starting to ache. “I don’t either. I need you to know that. I don’t bring women to my home. I don’t make it my mission to make strangers happy. I don’t connect easily.” He wrapped his arms tighter around her. “But with you, all of it felt right.”

Pia smiled, her cheek dimpling. “Can I have your number?”

Matt laughed out loud, surprised by the sweet, simple question. “Of course. Hand over your phone.” He input his number into her older model smartphone. “Get in touch with me if you’re ever in Paris again and need…anything.”

She nodded. “And you get in touch with me if you ever need to get out of Victory’s clean desert air and into L.A. smog and traffic.”

Chuckling, Matt kissed her forehead. Words tore at his gut, his throat, aching to escape. He kept them inside.

“I’ve got to go,” she whispered, hugging him tightly around his middle. “I just…thank you.”

He couldn’t stop touching her beautiful face or her silky skin. He wanted this one-night stand to continue into tomorrow, next week. Beyond.

But they couldn’t continue, for a dozen different reasons.

Breaking away gently, he guided her into the car and placed her bag on the seat. “Thank you for getting her to the airport, Célia.” He turned his gaze to Pia, overrun by a sadness that should have been out of place. “And thank you, Pia, for every leap of faith you made with me.”

Her smile wobbled and Matt had to shut the door.

He watched them until his Mercedes disappeared into midday traffic. Sighing, he turned to trek toward his office, but his phone buzzed in his pocket.

It’s my pleasure, Matt.

12

Leaving Paris, leaving Matt, hurt. Pia had felt slightly ill the entire flight back. Five weeks later, she still felt slightly ill.

Had she texted? No. And neither had he. What would be the point?

She hadn’t been back to Paris. She’d been moved to the London route. Matt, apparently, had not felt the need to venture into L.A. from the desert. If he was even out there yet for his new company.

Pia hoped he was doing well. She hoped he thought about her as often as she thought about him.

Sighing, she wrapped the blanket tighter around herself and kept flipping through movie options. Nothing sounded good. She was not in the mood for rom-coms, her typical go-to when feeling a bit off. Action movies had too many muscles. Buddy comedies? Boo.