I feel the need to push her away, while I hope it will never stop.
My chest heaves up and down as her tongue enters my mouth, and the kiss transforms into something feral. Longing. Consuming.
I cannot get lost in her like that.
I grab her by the throat, push her back in her seat and roll my back my shoulders.
She does not look at me but out the window, fighting a grin. She knows exactly what she did. I can only stare at her.
“So, where are we heading?” she asks after a moment, casually as if nothing had happened.
“A hotel,” I say.
“A hotel,” she repeats in a tone that calls for caution. “How…efficient.”
I smirk as I answer. “It’s neutral ground. In case it isn’t what we expect.”
She eyes me, and I know I impressed her. She didn’t expect me to be considerate, and I am not. But I prefer not to have anyone in my house whom I don’t know well—something she doesn’t need to be aware of. Until we establish all the other rules, it’ll be a hotel.
“I hope it’s not the Ritz,” she says, and I laugh.
“Wouldn’t that be amusing?” I ask sardonically.
“It would also violate several clauses of the contract,” she says dryly, calling me out on my own cheek. Somehow, it feels so lightweight with her, and I find myself enjoying it a little too much. Everything else seems distant; all the pressing problems are tucked away in the back of my mind, out of reach—even if I wished to access them.
We arrive at the hotel.
“Lil,” says Doug. “I’d rather keep it down, if you please.”
Of course, he couldn’t keep himself from commenting. I growlin confirmation, and Ella smirks—so much about being paid for silence.
“Miss Larsen,” continues Doug, “To avoid any further exposure, you act as an assistant on anything official, is that something you can do?”
Ella considers him for a moment, and I watch her closely.
“I don’t like pretending,” she says, eyeing me. “But as I was offered a job anyway, it’s just a bend of the truth, am I right?”
I like her better with every minute passing.
Ella gets more uncomfortable the closer we get to the room. While I like to play with my food, I also know when someone needs reassurance, and she does.
I lean against the door after it closes as Doug does his check. Ella stands in front of me in the middle of the suite, nervously glancing around with her arms crossed. I stare at her neck; her pulse is racing.
“Let’s make a rule for tonight,” I tell her, and she looks at me with big eyes. “Nothing happens unless you explicitly tell me to.”
She nods carefully. Doug tells me, with one look and a tilt of his head, that everything is alright, and he’ll be in the room to my left.
After all these years, I don’t care much about what hotel room I’m in. I don’t care how it’s furnished or where it’s located. What matters is practicability. In other words, clean surfaces, no clutter, industrial clean. This here is the complete opposite. The suite is warm and inviting, and I can’t help but suspect Doug chose it not for me, but for Ella.
Meddler, I curse him in my mind, because the clutter in the room distracts me.
“What do you want to drink?” I ask her as I get to the hotel phone to order drinks.
“A water, maybe?” she says, and I roll my eyes.
“You’re drinking champagne with me,” I say, and order a bottle. When I put the phone down, I lean onto the sideboard it sits on.
“Sit down,” I tell her, and watch her do so hesitantly. I wait until she has settled down before I ask her everything I wish to know.
