Chapter 23 #2
No one was there when we left his place, the hour early and the weather awful even for the paparazzi and there are so many things to figure out while I do my best not to overthink.
For now, our plan is to just take this day by day and see where it leads us.
No pressure. No strain. No expectations.
Except the moment I step out of my bedroom, I know I’m already in trouble.
His head turns over his shoulder and his gaze glues itself to me, eyes going just the slightest bit wide. I’m wearing a curve-hugging emerald-green sweater dress that doesn’t reveal an inch of skin, but you’d think I was wearing the sexiest, skimpiest lingerie by the look in his eyes.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more stunning woman in my life,” he whispers, his voice so low I’m not sure the words were meant for me to hear.
But I did hear them, and they make my heart jump in my chest.
“The way the color of your dress makes your skin glow.”
Please stop , I want to beg. He was a man who finger fucked me without kissing me, telling me such a thing would never happen again. We’ve been at each other’s throats for weeks. And now it’s this. Him finding out who I am seems to have changed everything and I’m… scared. It’s all moving so fast.
Rising off the couch, he walks to me as if his body is responding without conscious thought. His hands dive into my hair and his lips fuse with mine in a startlingly passionate and possessive kiss.
“You’re a goddess,” he breathes into me, his tongue plunging inside, desperate for a taste.
I think this is what you call unable to keep your hands off each other as my hands tear at his scrub top, pulling at it so I can touch what’s beneath.
“All I want to do is strip you down and lick every inch of you. Bury myself inside you over and over.”
I whimper, his teeth snagging on my lips, scraping the sensitive tissue until he’s forced to release me. Foreheads pressed, he stares into my eyes.
He has surgery in an hour and likely needs to already be at the hospital.
But it seems we’re breaking all the rules right now.
I’m fucking my boss. A man eleven years older than me.
A man I knew when I was a teenager who was best friends with my older stepbrother.
Someone I know he considered one of his brothers.
“I’m going to be hard all day thinking about how you look.”
“So then I shouldn’t show you these, right?” I step out of his arms and lift up my dress, revealing the tiny scrap of green barely covering my pussy.
He growls, reaching around and smacking my ass. “Jesus, B. You’re going to kill a man with that.”
“B?”
His smile makes him look even more boyish than he typically does. “Bunny. Bianca. B.”
“Oh no. I get it. I just didn’t take you for the nickname sort of man.”
“Your entire name is a nickname,” he retorts.
“But you didn’t know that. Hell, I wonder if Ellis even knows that.”
Ellis. Right.
As if this thought dawns on him too, he says, “We should tell your brother.”
I laugh, grabbing my purse and computer bag, then opening the door so we can leave. I throw him a look over my shoulder. “Go for it. Ellis actually mentioned he had a friend in Boston who would look out for me. Make sure I’m taken care of.”
He winces and I roll my eyes as I lock up.
“Oh please. You all think I’m so weak and helpless.
I don’t need to be babied. I’m a grown woman and Ellis has never exactly been the overbearing, no one can touch my sister type.
If you want to tell him we’re seeing each other, then do it.
If he has a problem with that, that’s on him.
He didn’t consult me when he started fooling around with Amira and she was my high school lit teacher. ”
Besides, Ellis is the least of my concerns. I haven’t heard back again from my mom or my aunt about Ava. Not that I expect to so soon, but having her out there, angry, broken, blaming me, and knowing about Kaplan has me on edge.
Despite all the exhaustive acrobatics of last night, I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned and even tried texting her, asking where she was and if she was okay. No response, not that I was surprised. But still… she has power right now and me being around Kaplan could be dangerous for him.
We step out into the rain, and he opens his umbrella, wrapping his free hand around my shoulders and tucking me into his side so I don’t get soaked as we run for his car.
He opens the door for me, and I quickly scramble in.
Shutting the door behind him, he gets in, tossing his umbrella on the floor in the back and shaking out his hair.
This is awful.
“Does it ever stop precipitating here? Ugh.” I wipe at the water soaking the hem of my dress.
“This hasn’t been the best start to spring. Hopefully this is the last nor’easter of the season.”
“Hope so. March shouldn’t be this wet or icy.”
We drive to the hospital, the heat on full blast, drying us off.
I’m quiet as we enter the elevator in the parking garage, my already flayed nerves sparking with an edginess.
I can feel his eyes all over me, but I can’t quite force myself to meet them.
Wordlessly he takes my hand, gliding his thumb over my knuckles.
“I’ve got you.” That’s all he says and my heart, that crazy, blood-saturated organ in my chest that has been beating strangely since, well, since I jumped on the hood of a car and locked onto the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen gives a lurch.
The kind that makes it feel like it’s attempting to beat its way out of my chest and into his.
Glancing up, I meet his steadfast gaze, his expression intense, introspective, and I wonder if he’s struggling as I am.
Stupid to wonder.
He may agree to be exclusive, and he’s obviously attracted to me, but I’d be a fool to consider what we’re doing anything more than sex. We’re too complicated and messy for this. It was easier when I hated him and he didn’t know who I was.
The doors part and we step off, his hand still holding mine until we reach the point where I go left and he goes right. His gaze is fixed on our locked hands when he says, “This was almost easier when I was trying to get rid of you.”
It’s as if he’s reading my mind, but his words still hit me wrong.
Stormy green eyes meet mine before he releases me and walks away, leaving me to frown after him. He sounds as tormented as I feel. With a sigh, I realize if we’re not careful, this thing between us could turn really ugly.