Chapter 12
Mara gritted her teeth as the elevator stopped once again. The five upper floors had their own elevator, and each floor had only five residences. Normally the fact that she had twenty-four other households that used this elevator wasn’t a problem. There was rarely anyone else on the elevator.
Except for tonight.
Tonight, she was frustrated and exhausted and still trembling with anxiety and nerves after the buyout meeting. She’d done a good job, though the deal was far from done.
All she wanted to do was to get to her condo, change out of her extremely powerful but uncomfortable outfit, and order some food.
So tonight was, of course, the night that there were five other people waiting for the same upper-floor elevator.
She should get a house. Fuck sharing a building. She could hire people to replace all of the building amenities that had been her deciding factor to purchase a 2500 square-foot condo as opposed to a 2500 square-foot single-family house.
Having her dry cleaning and groceries magically appear in her closet and kitchen was not worth the extra five minutes of waiting she had to do tonight as the elevator doors opened to let people off on lower floors.
Then again, maybe she was being a little bit unreasonable.
Finally, she was the only one left, and after going up just one more floor, Mara was out of the elevator.
A man was waiting for her.
She recognized him before she realized she recognized him.
Cole leaned against the wall the same way he had that night when he waited for her.
He was waiting for her again.
“Cole?”
He glanced up and smirked, his muscles flexing as he stood straight.
He once again wore a polo and cargo pants.
The logo on the polo was for his engineering company.
Given that she’d known his full name, she hadn’t been able to stop herself from googling him.
He didn’t build homes; he built and repaired freeways.
In L.A., that was not only important but lucrative.
She’d even paid to read an article about him written in some inland empire newspaper.
Cole had grown up working construction jobs, been arrested multiple times for fights and vandalism when he was young, but eventually taken over one of the small construction companies he worked for.
He hadn’t been able to afford college until later, and got degrees in both engineering and urban planning, using that to pivot the small company into a powerhouse engineering firm with a plethora of Caltrans contracts.
He was famous for being hands-on, even now. There had been multiple pictures with the article of him standing on rebar with some sort of tool in his hand.
That explained the heavy calluses.
What she didn’t have an explanation for was his presence here.
He studied her, smirk melting into a frown. “You look exhausted, Brown Eyes.”
“Apparently my setting spray wasn’t enough to keep the makeup on all day.”
“Nope. Your face is gorgeous. It’s the way you’re holding your shoulders. The way you’re walking. You’re tired.” He smiled softly. “I should go.”
“Don’t.”
They stared at one another, neither knowing what to say next.
“I’m not just tired,” she said eventually. “I’m frustrated, and a little strung out.”
“What a coincidence. Me too. That’s why I came to find you.”
“You think I can help you with that?”
“I know you can.”
Mara met him at the door, her thumb hovering over the keypad.
“I need to fuck you,” he said simply. “I need you sloppy, wet, gagging, and moaning. I need every one of your holes.”
Mara leaned her head against his chest. He smelled like dust and sweat and expensive cologne. It was wonderful.
He gripped the back of her neck. “If you need that too, open the door. Otherwise, I’ll walk away and see you in a couple months.”
Mara opened the door.