Extraction (2)

The financial reports lay forgotten on the desk as Rose and I lost ourselves in each other. What had started as teasing had evolved into something far more intense, our kisses becoming deeper, more urgent. Her hands had moved from my shoulders to tangle in my hair, while mine had found the small of her back, pulling her closer against me.

"Arthur," she breathed against my lips, her voice carrying a note I rarely heard from the composed businesswoman. There was something vulnerable in the way she said my name, something that made my chest tighten with emotions I wasn't entirely ready to examine.

I responded by trailing kisses along her jawline, enjoying the way she shivered at the contact. Her carefully styled auburn hair was becoming increasingly disheveled, and I found I preferred it this way—less perfect, more real, more her.