"I have no idea what you're talking about." It comes out more strangled than I’d like it to. I clear my throat. “I’ve just got a meeting. Like you,” I add, hoping she’ll remember her conference call and take off.
Her hand drops away from my arm. I’m both relieved and disappointed all at once. “I was going to suggest dinner,” she says smoothly, although I think I hear a hint of that hitch in her voice still, that slight edge to it. “There’s a lot to go over, still, when it comes to the financial obligations between our interests and yours. I thought it might be less tedious with a drink in both of our hands.”
The thought of dinner with her sounds like the sweetest form of torture I can imagine. It also is, I know, a terrible idea.
I need to spend as little time as I can manage around Annie. I need, desperately, to find some way to get her off my mind. Sitting in a restaurant, under dim lights, sipping wine, is the worst possible idea I can imagine. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I manage. “I don’t want to do anything that might make Ronan think I’m betraying his trust”
Her eyebrows rise abruptly. "Who said anything about betraying trust?" She lets out a small laugh, but it doesn’t sound entirely convincing to my ears. "I'm suggesting dinner, Elio. Not running away to Vegas."
"Dinner."
Annie nods. "Mmm. Tomorrow night. We need to go over the financial obligations between the families anyway—all those boring contracts and profit-sharing agreements. Might as well do it somewhere with good food." Her smile is entrancing. I look at her mouth, and the abrupt throb of my cock and fresh arousal dripping down my length is a quick reminder of how close I am to losing control without ever having touched myself. This last hour has felt like I’ve been fucking edged, and all Annie has done is stand close to me and smile at me.
It's a reasonable suggestion. Professional, even. I’m the one who is making this about something it isn’t. Something that she hasn’t given me any inclination to think that she wants.
“I—” I let out a breath. “I might have plans.”
Annie’s eyebrow twitches. “You don’t know if you have plans tomorrow or not?” She taps her fingers against the folio in her arms. “I’m putting it on the calendar, Elio. Dinner. I’ll text you the details. It’s a business meeting,” she adds, as if I need to be reminded of that. Clearly, I do, and she’s picked up on it.
My neck heats, but my erection doesn’t give a shit how humiliating this is. I’m so aroused that I feel dizzy. Like any second now, I’m going to make the worst fucking decision of my life and pin Ronan O’Malley’s sister up against the wall fifteen feet from his office.
I should say no. I should come up with some fake fucking plans that I have tomorrow night and tell her that we’ll discuss finances at the next meeting. I should walk away right now, go see my realtor, and pretend this conversation never happened. Annie O'Malley is trouble wrapped in a package designed specifically to drive me insane, and getting involved with her in any capacity is asking for complications I can't afford.
But God help me, I want to say yes. I want to take her to dinner and watch her face in candlelight. I want to hear her laugh, see her smile, find out who she's become in the years I'vebeen away. I want to know if she still gets that little line between her eyebrows when she's concentrating, if she still hums under her breath when she's happy. I want to find out if she still tastes like strawberries and if her moans still sound like music.
I can’t have what I want. But I can spend an evening with her, just business, and find out a few of those things. And even if it is torture, even if I’m going to want her every second of that dinner and walk away feeling like I’m dying with need, I can’t bring myself to care enough to say no.
"One dinner," I hear myself saying. "Business."
She smiles. “Of course. I’ll bring the files you should look at. We’ll have a good meal and some wine and go over it all. It’ll be much more fun that way.”
Fun. I remember fun with Annie O’Malley. I remember sunshine and warm grass and the smell of it crushed under her as our lips met. Arousal sweeps through me again, hot and urgent, and I swallow hard.
“Text me a time and where you want to meet. I—” I swallow again, or try to, but my mouth is too dry. “I need to go.”
“As do I. See you tomorrow night.”
She disappears around the corner before I can respond, leaving me standing alone in the hallway with my heart pounding and my control in tatters.
Fuck.
I stride down the hall, yanking open the first door I see that looks as if it might lead to a bathroom. It leads to a small powder room with a long counter and a gilded oval mirror, a lounge seat along one wall, and I shut the door hard behind me, flipping the lock as I yank my zipper down without bothering to undo my belt.
The moment my cock is in my hand, I let out a gasp of relief. My shaft is slick with arousal, the tip so sensitive that I haveto grit my teeth to avoid letting out a strained cry of pleasure mingled with pain.
There’s nothing slow about what I do next. Nothing careful or sensual. I jerk my fist along my length with the frantic need of a man who’s been on the verge of exploding for the last hour, and there’s no point in trying to keep myself from picturing Annie. The images flash across my mind—my hand cupping her cheek, my thumb against her lower lip, slipping into her mouth as I draw her close to me. Annie sinking down onto her knees, her eyes alight with mischief as her hands go to my belt. My fist wrapped around my cock, feeding it between her plush lips as I feel the hot wetness of her tongue along?—
That’s as far as I make it. I barely manage to grab a fistful of tissues from the counter to keep from making a mess of my clothes, spurting into the crumpled up handful as my knees threaten to give out on me. The orgasm is hard and messy and violent, my entire body shuddering with spasms as I grind my teeth together to keep from making a sound.
I can’t live like this, I think dimly as I throw the mess of tissues into the trash and tuck my softening cock away, my entire body pulsing from the force of my release. I’ll go insane. I have to find some way to get Annie out of my head, and that can’t be by fucking Annie. It has to be something else.Someoneelse, more than likely, even if that thought feels abhorrent to me right now.
I make it back to my car without running into anyone else, which is probably for the best, given my current state of mind. The drive to the realtor’s office gives me time to get my head on straight, to remind myself of all the reasons why getting involved with Annie O'Malley is a terrible idea.
She's Ronan's sister. She's off-limits. She's a distraction I can't afford. She's…
She's exactly the same as she was when we were seventeen, only now she's grown into her beauty. She’s everything I knewshe would be—intelligent, witty, capable. And I don’t think she realizes how I still feel about her. I don’t even know if she’s being affected the same way.
More than likely, she’s forgotten all about what we used to be to each other. She’s probably moved on. Meanwhile, I’m still panting over her like the lovesick puppy I used to be.
