18. Harper #2
I wait until I hear the door to the bathroom close before I stretch, letting out a pained groan at the thought of an entire day where the only thing I have to occupy my time is an overactive mind, since my dog refuses to help me out by playing fetch.
I briefly think about the pool on the roof that I’ve yet to investigate.
Ev locks the door to it during the day, but maybe I’ll ask if I can take a swim tonight.
It’ll give me something to look forward to that doesn’t involve him looking gorgeous as he comes home.
With Ev in the shower, I get out of bed and grab my robe, stopping to pet Watson before I leave the room in desperate need of some caffeine.
In what is feeling more and more like a regular morning routine, I have Ev’s mug of coffee ready and waiting when he comes into the kitchen, freshly showered and dressed in another one of his nice suits.
Without a word, I scoot the butterscotch creamer closer to him while I stir my second mug of the morning.
After he pours in a sizable amount to his own coffee, he sets my phone on the counter and says, “Your boss is threatening to fire you if you don’t come in for a meeting with him today.”
“What?” I ask. “Arthur said that?”
“He did. How serious do you think he is? Do you think he’d settle for a phone call?”
“I doubt it. I’m honestly surprised he waited this long. Not showing up like this is very out of character for me.”
“Jace is also texting and saying if you don’t come in today, he’s showing up at your apartment after work and he’s not leaving until you let him in.”
I meet Ev’s stare. “How do you want to handle this? I really don’t want to lose my job.
I love working for Arthur. He’s a mentor to me and a father figure, and I really hate that I’ve had to lie like this to him, and Jace isn’t lying.
He will bang on my door until he’s either let in or my neighbors call the cops. ”
We both take a drink while we think about how best to handle this.
As much as I’d like to pretend my life here with Ev is normal, we both know it’s anything but.
One thing hasn’t changed, though. I still want Sasha’s story.
I want the inside info Ev’s been feeding me, and I want to be the one who gets to keep writing about it, especially if he’s freed and it turns out the cops buried evidence.
This story isn’t about Ev, so I don’t feel torn about my desire to be the journalist who gets to break this wide open.
“Would you believe me if I said I wouldn’t say anything?” I ask him.
He sets his mug down, making one of his expensive silver watches peek out from the cuff of his shirt. “Why should I believe you?”
“Because I don’t want to lose my source, Ev. If I start telling everyone you’ve been keeping me here, you’ll never talk to me again, obviously, and I’ll lose my chance to cover Sasha’s story.”
“Well, we can’t have that,” he says, and his tone is a little stiffer than it was a few minutes ago. “God forbid you lose your source.”
“I thought you’d be happy. I’m trying to tell you that you don’t need to worry today, that I can go and talk to my boss and Jace, and that I’ll come back when I’m done and everything will be fine.”
“If I don’t need to worry like you keep telling me, then why come back?”
“What do you mean?”
He walks around me to set his empty mug in the sink, and then he readjusts his tie while he says, “If I can trust you not to talk, then why do you need to stay here?”
“You can’t be serious,” I say, trying to figure out what in the hell he’s up to. “After all this, you’re just going to let me leave before your cousin is even out of jail?”
He steps closer to me, cupping my face and tilting my chin up so I can meet his eyes.
He searches my face, an unreadable look on his as those familiar blue-green eyes look me over.
When he drags his thumb along my bottom lip, I let out a soft breath as my heart starts to race at the feel of his touch.
“If you want to stay with me, Harper, all you have to do is ask.”
I open my mouth to speak, but he slides his thumb in before I can get a word out. The pad of his thumb brushes along my tongue while his eyes stay locked on mine.
“Before you try to tell me that you don’t want to, I’d like to know what your body has to say about it.”
Sliding his thumb in more, he keeps his fingers splayed out along my cheek while his other hand slides down to the tie on my robe.
Without breaking eye contact, he undoes the loose knot I’d made so the robe falls open.
His eyes briefly break away from mine so he can sweep them down the length of my naked body.
I see the tic in his jaw and feel the way his fingers tighten on my cheek as his thumb slides down my tongue.
When he brings his eyes back to mine, the hunger in them is unmistakable.
I gasp around his thumb when he cups my pussy and drags a finger along my slit before sliding in easily. The triumphant grin he gives has my inner walls clenching while I give his thumb a suck. He closes his eyes and groans.
Keeping both fingers inside me, he leans in so our lips are almost touching. “Your body is begging to stay here with me.”
His thumb keeps me from talking as he slowly pulls his thick finger out of me. I give a soft whimper of protest that has the corner of his mouth lifting up again.
“I’ve never gone into work with the taste of a woman on my tongue, but today I want to walk into my office smelling and tasting of you.”
He doesn’t give me a chance to answer. Dragging his thumb from my mouth, he drops to his knees and grabs onto my thighs. In seconds, he’s lifting one, giving himself enough space to bury his head between my legs and latch onto me.
I grip the island I’m pressed up against while Ev eats me out like a ravenous, half-starved man.
Beneath all the pleasure he’s giving me lies the truth that I hadn’t been willing to say.
I want to stay here with him, and my main reason isn’t because he’s giving me insider information.
It’s because the thought of not seeing him again hurts worse than anything I’ve ever felt.
When I start to come, I reach down and run my fingers through his thick hair, holding him tightly against me while I moan his name and fall a little more in love with him.
While my body softly quivers with aftershocks, he gently kisses and licks me clean before standing and carefully tying my robe closed again. I reach up and fix his hair from where I’d tousled it and then I grab onto his tie to pull him closer.
Kissing his jaw, I slowly work my way to his lips. “You do taste like me,” I whisper, making him smile.
“It’s just going to make me crave you all the more while I’m gone.” He notices my surprise and gives my hair a gentle tug. “You sure you’re not going to make your great escape?”
“I’m not,” I promise him. “Just going to make sure I still have a job and to convince everyone that I’m alive and well. You going to have me followed?”
“I’d be an idiot not to,” he says.
“You’re a lot of things, Ev, but you’re not an idiot.”
He makes a noncommittal noise while I fix his tie and then drop my eyes to his very obvious arousal.
“You going to waltz into your office like that?” I ask him. Reaching down, I palm him through his pants, smiling when that one touch pulls a deep groan from him.
“I’m hoping it’ll go away on the drive over,” he says.
“Need any help?”
“I really want to say yes to that, but I don’t have time.
I’m late enough as is, but I couldn’t not eat that pretty pussy of yours, especially when I saw how needy and wet you were for me.
Five-star accommodations, remember?” he asks with a playful glint in his eyes.
“I can’t have you walking around unsatisfied. ”
“To be continued then,” I say, giving his dick one last squeeze before he steps away to grab his briefcase.
He looks back at me and gives me a wink. “Thanks for breakfast, Harper.” He sets my cell phone down on the counter.
“I’m guessing that phone is being heavily monitored,” I say while I reach over to grab it.
“Like you said, I’m not an idiot.”
He tosses my car keys to me, and when I catch them, he gives me another wink before taking the stairs down.
I watch until he’s no longer visible, and then I listen to the carriage door open and then the deep purr of his engine.
After he’s gone, I lean against the counter, staring at my phone and wondering what in the hell I should do.
There’s no way Ev didn’t get his hacker cousin to trace everything I do on this thing, and even though I’m not planning on saying anything today, I still choose my words wisely when I send off a response to my boss and Jace, telling both of them that I’ll be in the office in an hour.
When I get out of the shower twenty minutes later, Watson is still curled up on the bed.
I have to bribe him with treats to get his big bony butt to move, and then after I’ve taken him outside to use the bathroom, I make sure he’s comfortable before grabbing the remote to find his favorite background noise cartoon.
He perks up a bit when he hears Shaggy’s voice. I kiss his head and promise him I’ll be back as soon as I can. I hope Ev is watching because the proof that I’m planning on coming back is going to be lounging on his plush couch all day long, binging Scooby-Doo in between naps.