Chapter 37
thirty-seven
that’s a shame
W hen Ryan called on Saturday, Elissa meant to tell him. Just a temporary pause on things until she talked to Mr. Samuels. A day or two, max.
But he’d been so happy to talk to her. Wanted to know everything about her new duties. She couldn’t bring herself to tell him anything to ruin his mood.
Fine, this was fine. She’d walk into Mr. Samuels’s office first thing on Monday and have him assign DeMarco Property Management to someone else.
She didn’t have to tell him about her entire relationship with Ryan, merely hit the main points and recuse herself and apologize for not mentioning it before.
Blame the shock of the moment, or…something.
Mr. Samuels, I’m sorry, but I met this great guy and he works at DPM. Bailey would be the perfect fit for the account.
Mr. Samuels, the DeMarco account needs to go to someone else. I’d rather date the office manager than handle the taxes for the company.
Mr. Samuels, how did you meet your husband? Because, funny story…
Option one, definitely.
Elissa put on her big girl britches and faced Mr. Samuels in his office at eight thirty Monday morning.
“Hi, Elissa. Ready for the big leagues?”
“Um, yes, about that?—”
The phone rang, and he held up a finger. “Can this wait?”
“Sure, I’ll check in a bit later.” Elissa slunk back to her office.
Later didn’t happen that day. Too many files, too many calls, too many doubts.
It was fine. This was fine. She could tell Mr. Samuels tomorrow.
Or the day after, if tomorrow went anything like today.
In the meantime, she would distance herself from Ryan.
Keep it to phone calls and texts. No dinners. No heated glances. No sex.
How was she to know “in the meantime” would turn into two weeks?
There was always so much to do. The twelve-hour days didn’t stop, and the last thing Elissa wanted was to bungle any of her accounts. She ate, slept, and breathed her work. Part of her knew she had to in order to keep up with the load. Part of her was doing it to avoid some hard truths.
Ryan called or texted nearly every day, and he was the only bright spot in her life right now. He was there , in a way no one other than Jules had ever been.
A funny meme. A dirty joke. A soft voice listening to her work woes and sharing his own. The best part of her day.
But whenever he tried to ask her to do something, go somewhere, or up the spice of their phone calls, she backed off. He invited her to go to a party his cousin was throwing. She said she was too tired. Not a lie, but she could’ve shown up for a bit.
He mentioned the Renaissance Festival. She had to work the weekend.
He suggested a movie. She had plans with her family.
Elissa refused to say the words, to demand time for this whole situation to settle.
It was her fault. She should’ve told Karina that Friday after Ryan helped take Leo to the hospital.
She should’ve told Mr. Samuels as soon as he assigned her Karina’s clients.
But she didn’t, and now she was doing everything she could to compartmentalize, which meant keeping at least a little physical and emotional distance between them.
The weeks passed in a blur. She sat at her kitchen table, staring into nothingness. Her brain hurt. She was exhausted. And all she could think about was Ryan. She missed him so damn much.
Elissa cleared the table and went through the stack of mail that had been piling up. At the bottom was Ryan’s business plan. She’d been meaning to fill in the missing market research data, but she had no bandwidth to manage one more thing.
Wait, she may not have the bandwidth, but she had a friend who did this kind of thing for a living. She could email him, see what tips and tricks he might have.
She composed the message, giving as many details as she could, and scheduled the email for Tuesday. No need to send a non-urgent email on Monday.
The good news was the DeMarco Property Management taxes were prepared and the files had been digitized. Bailey was double-checking them before Mr. Samuels signed off, but the physical files were ready to be returned. She called DPM.
“DeMarco Properties. Ryan speaking. How may I help you?”
Calm washed over her, and a frisson of desire shimmied down her spine. She’d talked to him yesterday, and yet his voice still had this effect on her.
“Hi, it’s Elissa.”
She could hear the smile replace the cool professionalism in his voice.
“Hey! I wasn’t expecting you to call me here. What’s up?”
“This is business, unfortunately. I have two file boxes with your name on them.”
“My favorite kind of file boxes. When do you want to drop them off? And can I convince you to do it at the end of the day so I can take you out to dinner after?”
Guilt struck a dart in her heart. She owed him an explanation for why she’d been so unavailable. But Karina would be in next week. A few more days and she wouldn’t have to tell him anything. A blip in their relationship that time and attention of the sexy kind would mend.
“I wish I could, but things are hectic here. Does Thursday mid-morning work?”
“Yeah.” He sounded disappointed. Of course, he sounded disappointed. A few more days and she could stop disappointing him. Stop disappointing everyone. “Looking forward to it.”
* * *
When Elissa walked into DeMarco Property Management on Thursday, Ryan’s face lit up like a kid’s on Christmas morning. Like they hadn’t been apart for almost three weeks. Relief flooded through her. She hadn’t screwed up with Ryan, at least.
“Well, good afternoon, Ms. Wright. Welcome back to DeMarco Property Management. Can I help you with the files?”
No one should have the right to look this hot. His hair curled gently across his forehead and staring into his warm brown eyes was like coming home to a roaring fire and a cup of tea.
“I would greatly appreciate your assistance, Mr. DeMarco.”
He stood and looked over the cubicle behind him. “Yo, Trin, watch the front for me for a few minutes?”
A hand appeared with perfectly manicured nails in a lovely shade of bright pink and waved.
Ryan grabbed her cart, and they walked to the file room.
He unlocked the room and wheeled the cart inside.
Standing inside the door, he made a show of pulling the keys out of the lock and sliding them into his pocket.
“Well, that’s a shame. You distracted me so well last time,” Elissa said with a little pout.
The words were out before her better self could stop them, and she wished she could take them back.
Flirting at the office was a bad idea now that she knew what Ryan DeMarco was like in bed.
His pupils dilated as he grabbed her waist and pulled her in, kicking the door.
His lips were on hers as soon as the door snicked shut.
Tasting her, devouring her, worshipping her.
She pushed aside her better self and melted into him, her tongue sliding between his lips.
A low moan escaped him, and he pressed her into the door.
Of its own accord, her leg wrapped around his thigh. The kitten heel of her pumps pressed into the muscle, driving his hard-on into her belly. Oh, fuck, she had too many clothes on. He had too many clothes on. There were just…too many clothes.
Her fingers scrabbled against the crisp cotton of his shirt, tugging it out of his pants. She slid her hands against his smooth skin.
“God, what you do to me, Elissa.”
He grabbed her wrist and brought her hand to his cock.
She squeezed it through his pants, and he trailed kisses along her jawline and down her neck.
With expert finesse, he undid two buttons before she realized what he was up to.
His finger slid under her bra and found her nipple.
He teased her, and she squeezed his cock harder.
He drove into her hand before taking her mouth once more.
Laughter in the hall splashed cold water over her ardor. They weren’t alone. Not by a long shot. Fuck!
She went still in his arms and broke the kiss, thunking her head lightly against the door.
“Stop.”
Though the word was barely intelligible, he did. Immediately. She dropped her hands to her sides and breathed deeply.
“We can’t,” she said. “This is…it’s beyond inappropriate.”
He sighed and withdrew his finger from under her bra and slowly rebuttoned her shirt. He brushed a light kiss against her forehead.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I miss you. It’s been so long, too long.” Ryan tucked his shirt in, but his pants were still tented. He ran a hand down his face.
“It takes two. I shouldn’t have teased you.”
The guilt struck deep in her belly. She should know better.
Hell, she did know better. And yet, this man drove all reason from her mind.
All she longed to do was lose herself in his sparkling brown eyes, in the feel of his skin beneath her fingers, in the sound of her name on his lips.
She had it bad. Bad enough she’d made out with a guy. At work. Twice!
“Tell me I can come over this weekend.” He stroked her cheek.
“If you keep touching me like that, we’re going to do something beyond inappropriate.”
“Promises, promises.”
But he stopped. Thank god. She missed him too, but this was neither the time nor the place.
“With Karina back on Monday, I need the weekend to prep everything so I can bring her up to date on all the accounts.”
“Dammit.”
He stepped away and ran his hand through his hair, tousling it even more than usual. It was sexy. Too sexy. She looked at his shoes. The most unsexy part of him. Except they were motorcycle boots, not dress shoes. And motorcycle boots were, by definition, sexy.
Fuck me.
“I now owe the swear jar at least five dollars. Can we put a pin in this?”
“Yes, but only if you promise two things.”
She rolled her eyes but smiled as their gazes locked. His eyes twinkled with impish delight.
“Fine. What are they?”
“First, you leave the office no later than six on Friday.”
She could do that. “Agreed. And?”
“And you call me on Saturday. I want to talk to you.”
“About?”
“Anything. Nothing.” His finger grazed her cheek again. “I just want to hear your voice for longer than five minutes.”
“Okay. I will leave the office by six on Friday and call you on Saturday. Now, let’s put these files away.”
“No, I’ll do it. You get going, do what you have to so I can finally have you all to myself.”
He kissed her nose and slid to the side. The tent in his pants was gone. Part of her was relieved. And the other part wanted it back. Now.
Elissa straightened her skirt, retucked her shirt, and smoothed her hand over her hair.
“Is my makeup completely ruined?”
“Maybe a quick trip to the bathroom before you head out.”
Oh God. Her expression must have told him exactly what she was thinking.
“Oh, oh no. I don’t think it’s bad, but I was paying exactly zero attention to your makeup. Other things were on my mind.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to you in a couple days.”
“You better, or I’m telling Jules.”
“Jules is my friend.”
“Yes, and she would be the first to tell you to slow down. Take five minutes for yourself.”
He was right. In fact, Jules had said something to that effect last night.
“No fair.”
“If you won’t listen to me, at least listen to the woman who has known you for twenty years, gorgeous.”
“Fine. If you insist.”
“I do. Now go.”
Elissa cracked the door. No one was in the hall.
She glanced back. Ryan was filing, but he looked up and grinned.
He angled his head toward the door, and she dashed to the ladies’ room.
Her makeup was…fine. Nothing anyone standing further than three feet would notice. She spent two minutes touching up.
Trinity wiggled her fingers as Elissa passed the front desk. “Need anything else?”
Crap! She resisted the urge to slap her own forehead.
“Actually, yeah. Karina returns on Monday. She wants an appointment for the following week to go over the returns and recommendations for next year. Totally forgot to ask Ryan.”
“Mm-hmm.” She smiled knowingly. Hell, what did she know? Had Ryan been blabbing? He didn’t seem the type. Trinity flipped through the calendar on Ryan’s desk. “Looks like Uncle Sandro, Aunt Giselle, and my mom will all have availability in two weeks, at one thirty. Will that work?”
“It should. Pencil us in, and if anything changes, we’ll call.”
“Great. See you soon.”
Elissa turned to go.
“Hey, Elissa?” A bright pink finger beckoned her closer.
“Yeah?” She took a few steps toward the desk.
“Be careful,” Trinity whispered, her voice barely carrying the foot or two between them. “He’s more vulnerable than he seems, okay?”
Elissa froze. Crap, she knew. Or at least strongly suspected. She could continue to deny or appease the familial bond. Once more, guilt tore through her. This was a bad idea, but it was also the best thing to ever happen to her.
She answered in a voice just as quiet. “I will.”
Before Trinity could say anything more, Elissa wheeled around and left. This was future-Elissa’s problem. Today’s Elissa needed to get back to work. Future-Elissa had enough on her plate.