“I’m jealous that this little red dress you’re wearing tonight was for him and not for me.”
He takes another step toward me, and I take another step back. Like some sort of practice dance that gets rudely interrupted when my shoulders hit the cold marble wall.
A breath hitches in my throat. “I didn’t go on a date to make you jealous.”
“Well, you made me jealous anyway.”
Emmett’s big body crowds me in the corner of the elevator, tattooed hands meeting the wall on either side of my head. AndGod, he looks downright feral as he looms over me like this. Like a predator who has finally cornered their prey.
“So why did you go?” His voice is pure gravel.
“I don’t know.”
He shakes his head in disapproval, bending his neck so his lips are just a whisper above my own. “Why’d you go, Reese?”
His attention dips to my mouth. Maybe waiting for my answer. Maybe waiting for me to lean up and fill the space between us. Maybe waiting for me to give him permission. I’m not entirely sure.
“Tell me.”
I swallow hard, not breaking eye contact. “Because I was trying to forget about you.”
There’s the quickest flash of relief on his face, and I can practically feel the race of his heart pick up from here, even with the couple of inches of space still between us.
His brows furrow, pleading eyes locked on mine. “Did it work?”
“Not even a little bit.”
He closes his eyes, standing to his full height and gathering himself. He takes a moment, before he turns his hat around, brim to the back.
“Good,” he exhales, craning over me again, the skin of his lips brushing my own when his mouth moves to whisper, “Tell me I can kiss you.”
It’s part dare, part command.
And yet still a fully frantic plea because we both know if one of us is going to give permission to cross the line, it’s going to have to be me.
I slightly shake my head against his. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
“Reese.”
“Emmett, you work for me.”
He hesitates for a moment, but there’s no mistaking the conviction or desperation in his next words.
“Fire me.”
18
Emmett
She seems to have no retort, words sticking in her throat.
There’s a heavy, heady silence in the air, only the rhythmic beep of the floors we’re passing echoing through the elevator. A countdown of sorts, reminding me that this moment is almost over.
Reminding me that we’re potentially crossing a line and I couldn’t care less about the consequences right now.
God, I just want her to kiss me. I’m desperate for her to make the first move because there’s a complicated power dynamic between us, and I need Reese to give me the green light here.
Unfortunately, she doesn’t.
