CHAPTER TWENTY
Balor
I stroll toward Ella who’s watching a wall-mounted television on the opposite side of the lobby. Away from all the food. Away from me.
I can’t stop thinking about her. Or whacking off in my shower to the memory of her mouth every damn morning. Because every morning, she wakes me up as part of her job and then leaves the bedroom.
It’s time to be honest with myself. She’s the real reason we’re still in this town. My brother’s helicopter pilot has enough skills and could have made the trip. The idea of being snowed in like this, pushing the world and my responsibilities aside for another night alone with Ella pulses through me, my cock aching for her.
Every time I set eyes on Ella, my axis shifts. There’s something there. Something hidden, drawing us together, and I don’t know what it is.
But I’m her boss and pursuing this obsession with her might turn into a nightmare HR lawsuit. For all the precautions my brothers take to stay off law enforcement’s radar, to shatter the carefully constructed veil we live behind for sex is something I’ll never live down.
But, Christ, look at her. I’m shockingly aware, with the snow falling, trapping us in this moment, my busy world can stop. Maybe I can get out of my own way and take what I want if Ella is willing to submit to me for one more night.
A dark chuckle tickles my chest. One night. Yeah, right.
The idea of taking her in the dark with only the glittering, reflective glow of snowflakes has my cock so hard, I’m making deals with the devil on my shoulder to get what I want .
I don’t know where any of this is coming from. No woman paid to suck my cock and go away has made me look back a second time. Yet Ella’s dazzling smile every morning waking me up and her soft laugh as we talk over breakfast have me questioning my reality.
Did that plane fly into a chemtrail and rearrange my soul?
But another honest point I need to reconcile is that her father has stopped me from crossing the line with her. That man has darkness behind his eyes, and it’s shocking Ella doesn’t see it.
That’s her dad, I get it. It took me years to see my father for the monster he really is.
Fuck, I can’t push this away anymore.
Ella looks so lovely sitting there. Her rich, mahogany hair and dark brown eyes sing to me. And for all that strikes me about her, she’s utterly ordinary. She doesn’t stand out, and that suits me just fine. The glam look of an expensive whore lost its luster. I want real. And Ella fits that bill.
She fits me.
As if she’s attuned to me, she lifts those beautiful eyes when I get close. She drinks me in, and her smile lights me up like no other woman.
Paid or not.
“What’s up?” she asks, batting her eyelashes.
Without thinking, I grasp her tiny wrist, the pulse beneath the butterfly tattoo dancing against my fingers.
“Can I talk to you?”
She hesitates for a moment but then nods. “Sure.”
I help her out of the seat and steer her down a quiet hallway that leads to the pool.
“Is everything okay?” Ella’s eyes look tired, a little red, and her makeup is smudged.
Fuck, it’s almost nine o’clock at night. Her obvious exhaustion gives me pause because I’m revved up and ready to launch. Is this a mistake?
“Depends.” My gaze lowers to her body.
That cute short skirt and tight sweater caught my eye this morning, and I feel like shit for asking if she’s wearing the same clothes over and over.
That scumbag making her run off and leave everything behind stirs an irrational deadly fire in me that I see in my brothers’ gazes every day.
Bloodlust I thought I was immune from. Now I see I just needed a woman of my own to light the fuse.
“Depends on what?” Ella responds coyly.
“How do you feel if I sleep in your room tonight?” I can’t bottle up what I feel for her anymore.
I’m tired of dreaming of her every night, reliving our hours lost in pleasure in that L.A. hotel room. I’ve had enough of walking around rock hard, aching in frustration with every pulse of my cock for her.
“You know there’s only one bed.” She swallows, her throat working.
“I know.” My sight goes hazy for a moment, picturing her swallowing my cum one more time.
“If we’re in the same bed, I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep.” She sucks in a breath. “And I thought we shouldn’t... You’re my boss now. It’s...wrong, right?”
“What if I take the choice away from you?” The need to kiss her again is almost unbearable.
Cute white teeth sink into her lower lip. With bright pink cheeks, she says softly, “I... I didn’t want to be alone tonight.”
Fuck, all the time I’ve wasted worrying about this and I could have stripped that short skirt off those luscious thighs and buried my head between them sooner.
“Come on.” I take her hand and lead her toward the elevators .
“Where’s Trace?”
“Having a beer with a wounded warrior,” I mumble.
“He seems like a good man.” She visibly tenses. “Even if he is a little terrifying.”
“Trace is deadly. But I trust him.”
“So do I,” she says with a smile.
The elevator arrives, but to my bitter chagrin, we don’t have the car all to ourselves. Families with kids who’d been in the pool pile in, wrapped in towels, dripping on the vinyl floor.
I never felt the need to breed, which allowed me to sink into the lazy habit of paying for sex. No one to explain a three-day work bender to fix a technical problem.
Ella wants to go back to her teaching job. All my brothers’ wives work in some capacity.
When a mom catches my eye, she says softly, “The pool tires them out.”
“I’ll bet,” I say and bury my face into Ella’s hair. “I know what will tire me out. Wet and dripping is part of my plan, too. In bed, with you moaning beneath me.”
At our floor, the hallway lights flicker. Spending the night in a hotel far away from Astoria on short notice is one thing. Losing power is something else. No Wi-Fi and no way to charge my phone is like rubbing my skin with steel wool.
Ella squeezes my hand, and if anything can get me the hell away from my phone for several hours, it’s her.
She makes me feel alive. The air moves differently when I’m with her, and it terrifies me. Because she’s not someone I can pay to get on her knees to suck me off and fuck me.
She can leave me, for good. She can’t be controlled with money.
“Good thing I’ll be here with you tonight.” I open her door and steer her inside. “If the power goes out, the electronic locks won’t work.
Wryly, she flips the deadbolt. “Old school, right here.”
“Clever girl,” I growl.
The darkness makes her gasp, and it looks like they’re reserving power. “Wow.”
“Hang on.” I fire up my phone’s flashlight.
I bang out a text to Trace.
Me: If you have an extra piece with you, please drop it off to Ella’s room. The door locks might stop working.
Trace: 10-4
The deadbolts offer a decent amount of security, but nothing beats the cold steel barrel of a Glock should every other protection measure fail. Choking up, I see Ella’s ex being that maniac who would kick in a door.
Ella opens the drapes and a glow from the auxiliary lights outside floods the room. Snow reflects off the glass and drenches the room in soft shadows.
“There’s a balcony.” She pulls open the door and spins in the falling snowflakes, sticking her tongue out.
Christ, she’s beautiful.
“Too bad all the patio furniture is covered in snow.” She adorably twirls again.
I join her outside, the snow catching in our hair. “Then I need to get you hot and naked out here.”
“I can make snow angels and melt all the snow, you get me so hot, Balor.” She grips me and kisses me so hard, it’s like two electrical charges firing off.
I’m the one who can melt steel.
“Now, show me the highway and I’ll clear the roads!” she says coyly.
“No. You’re mine tonight.” I press my lips to hers.
“Wow, this is happening.”
“It is. If you don’t want me, then—”
I don’t get another word out when I’m pulled down and our mouths collide in a ferocious, greedy kiss .
I had her in the shower, completely naked and dripping wet. I’ve been losing my mind ever since.
“You know I don’t have pajamas with me,” she says, lust in her sweet voice.
“Neither do I.” I start unbuttoning her sweater. “And if you did, you wouldn’t be wearing them. Not with me.”