CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Ella
“ E lla, baby, open your eyes. Deep breaths, baby. Deep breaths. You’re okay. I’m here.”
A smooth voice with a sexy Irish lilt floats into my ears and it feels like velvet rubbed on my brain.
“I love you. Please don’t leave me,” I murmur to the vision I’m dreaming about.
“What?”
The sharp question pops open my eyes.
Balor’s beautiful face fills my vision. His wide shoulders and outstretched arms hold me. My eyes skate down his chest. His bare chest.
Next to me, his leg is propped up. His naked leg. And he’s practically on top of me.
I sit up and press my lips to his mouth, a soft moaning escaping me.
His full, moist lips stay fastened against mine, but he doesn’t open for me, or...
Oh, God.
I pull back and focus better. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
“Hi...boss.”
Laughing, he says, “We’re well past that.”
“I’ll get her some juice,” a feminine voice says from behind me.
I jerk up to watch the sexy blonde in high heels and a tight dress with a killer hourglass figure sashay to the kitchen.
And Balor’s naked.
Pushing him away, I notice the blanket around his waist. “I’m sorry I interrupted.”
“Interrupted what? You passed out.”
“Your date with that... That woman. ”
“What woman?”
I get to my feet and point. “With that whore!”
“What?” the woman shrieks.
“That’s my brother’s wife, Jillian,” Balor whispers.
“Wife?” I immediately wish I could sink through the floor.
Just evaporate.
“Aye.” Balor pulls me against his chest, his bare chest. “Keep breathing. It’s just a misunderstanding.”
“God, I feel awful.” I still don’t know what’s going on.
That woman is someone’s wife, so I shut the fuck up before I make matters worse.
“My other brother is a doctor,” Balor says. “Do you want me to call him? You scared the fuck out of me.” He sounds so sincere and worried.
“I don’t need a doctor.” Maybe a shrink because I’m losing it over this man.
“Did you eat anything today?” Jillian asks me.
“No. I usually wait for...” I bite my lip. “Balor and I eat breakfast together.”
“Do you, now?” Jillian smirks at Balor over his shoulder.
“She’s my assistant .” He sounds guilty and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Part of her job is to come here in the morning and make me breakfast. And other stuff.”
It’d been working perfectly for a couple of weeks. Yet that woman looks at us like we’re crazy.
That woman...
I make eye contact with Jillian and mutter on a rough exhale, “I’m so sorry.”
“Why would you think I’m a whore?” she asks.
“Um.” My eyes stray to Balor who’s gone crimson.
“Just a misunderstanding.” He slides his gaze to me, covering my ass.
“A beautiful woman knocks on a...” I motion to his sister-in-law, who’s a mafia wife . “A powerful man’s door. I’m sorry.”
“Aw, you think I’m beautiful,” Jillian coos. “Thank you.”
“Okay, now let’s get you something to eat.” Balor helps me sit up.
Jillian crouches in front of me. “I poured you some juice.”
“Thank you.” She seems to like me now because I called her beautiful.
“Ella, Jillian is working on the weapons project for me,” Balor says. “She’s filing the patents.”
I close my eyes. “God, I’m so sorry.”
“I should have told you she was coming by,” Balor says regretfully. “The dates got mixed up.”
Shaking my head, I say, “This is your house. You don’t have to clear guests with me.”
“No. She was coming to meet me and you for business. I just...forgot.”
I tug on the blanket. “That’s why you need me.”
We stare and the world falls away. God, I want him to kiss me so badly.
“Balor, I’ll leave the applications on your dining room table. Let’s schedule a proper meeting to talk about them.”
I push to my feet. “No. Don’t reschedule for me.”
Balor stands up, clutching the blanket. “It’s not that urgent.”
“Why the fuck are you parading around half-dressed in front of my wife?” A man in an exquisite blue and gray herringbone suit sways toward us from the kitchen.
“Who... Who are you?” I ask.
“That’s one of my brothers.” Balor looks at the man, stepping in front of me. “Eoghan, calm down. I was in the bloody shower when these two birds locked themselves out on my front step. ”
Brother... One is more gorgeous than the next...
“Go put some fucking clothes on,” Eoghan barks.
“Eoghan, my love, your brother has a blanket around his...” Jillian slides her hands over his shoulders. “I don’t want to see anyone’s you-know-what but yours.”
To my shock, Eoghan takes her mouth with reckless abandon like we’re not in the room.
“Jesus Christ,” Balor grumbles, and pulls me away.
We climb the stairs with our hands linked. In his bedroom, he sits me gently on his bed. “Tell me the truth, how do you feel?”
“I got dizzy. I thought she was here to... Be with you. I saw you in a towel, I thought that meant you were waiting for her. My heart just went offline.” Tears clog my throat until I’m sobbing like a child.
What the hell is wrong with me?
“Oh, butterfly.” Balor holds me. “I’m sorry.”
“I thought that was payback for me spending so much on your credit card. I don’t plan to keep most of it. Especially the jewelry. I’ll return it all later today.”
When I stop crying, he wipes my eyes. “You’ll do no such thing. I told you to buy what you need and want .”
His shower-fresh skin smells so good and his warmth melts against my cheek.
God, this is embarrassing.
I bet if Balor had ordered an escort, she’d look exactly like the woman downstairs.
And I’m sitting here with no makeup, yoga pants, and I smell like a kale smoothie.
I gulp down the last of my pity tears. “I almost...outed you. Your tastes.”
He exhales. “I think Eoghan knows what I’m into.”
Am into . Present.
“Have you...since we—”
“No. ”
“Why?”
We lock eyes, and his stare holds so much weight that it makes my lids heavy.
“Never mind.” I break away. “I need the bathroom. I need... Holy shit, where’s my shirt?”
“It had something green on it, I took it off you.” He runs the fabric of my cami between his fingers. “I noticed it was an old shirt. Same as these stretch pants. Why aren’t you wearing your new clothes?”
The box left at my door earlier flashes before my eyes. I have so few clothes that weren’t in that box. But that will open a conversation about how much I spent on clothes he technically bought for me. Clothes I really don’t want. But I also don’t want a wardrobe from my past.
What do I want?
“I don’t need anything fancy to work. I’m just waking you up and cooking breakfast,” I say to get out of my head. “I’ll let you finish getting dressed.”
Balor’s fist tightens the blanket slung around his waist. His face turns hard as granite, his gaze straying to the bedroom door. “As you wish, Ella.”
I stand up and look at the closet. “Your clothes are hanging up on the back of the door.”
He steers me to his bedroom door, but his eyes widen when the sounds of moaning fill the hallway. “Fuck,” he mutters. “Use my bathroom. Please.”
“Why?” I ask, but the image forming in my head is a clue.
“They’re having sex on my couch.”