“Someone must have accidentally locked the door,” a woman’s voice said.
“Let me see if I can find an employee,” another replied.
“We have to go,” I whispered, the last syllable turning into a quiet moan.
Eli’s lips curled into a devious smirk as he held his hand up over my mouth and all I could do was pant against his fingers.
With his free hand, he pulled me flush against him and began thrusting mercilessly from below. From this slight change in position, my anguished cry fell against his hand as his length slid against the most sensitive part of me.
The blacks of Eli’s eyes grew as his hand fell to the point where our bodies joined. His fingers worked unforgiving circles.
“That’s it, that’s it, that’s it,” he chanted in my ear as a warm tension began to build in my belly. “Good girl.”
The phrase didn’t feel like an insult in the same way it had when Brody had told his business adviser that I was a good girl and that I would understand why he had to fire me. I wasn’t good in a self-sacrificing way or because I picked up the slack for everyone around me. I was good because I was chasing my own pleasure. My own want. And Eli praised me for it.
Footsteps sounded down the hallway, but I couldn’t stop myself long enough to concentrate on them.
And then I fell apart, my teeth biting down on his palm as he continued to thrust, our bodies dovetailing together like the answer to a riddle or when the chorus meets the bridge.
“That’s it,” he whispered again. Then, with a grunt that broke into a silent moan, his throat a flash of red and veins pressing against skin, Eli rode out his release. Warmth filled me, leaking out and onto my inner thighs, coating the point at which we were joined.
Lazily, he thrust in once and then twice more before hugging my limp body to his.
The footsteps in the hallway continued in the opposite direction and I sighed into his neck.
We stayed like that for longer than we should have, his cock still inside of me as his taut muscles began to ease.
One wide, careful palm smoothed over my hair while the other held my left hand to his lips, kissing my palms and fingertips and the gold band on my ring finger before pressing both our hands over his heart.
My forehead rested against his, satisfaction thrumming through my veins. “We should go.”
“Only so I can get you back to that hotel room,” he said.
“I might need some room service fries first,” I said, my postcoital appetite growing.
“I will buy you every fry in this fucking city.”
After another moment, he let me stand up, and I made the game-time decision to remove my underwear. They were soaked with both of our releases. Tess had always said she liked going to important meetings commando in a skirt because it was an adrenaline rush. I wasn’t sure I needed that sort of rush, but I was willing to chance the experience for the length of a cab ride.
After a quick visit to the attached bathroom, I found Eli stuffing my underwear into the pocket of his suit jacket draped over his arm.
“I hope you know you’re not getting these back,” he said with a devilish grin as he held his arm out for me to make our escape.
“You’re a sick fuck,” I told him.
“Yes, love, I know. Have you seen my anatomically correct cakes?”
INT. COMMUNITY THEATER—NIGHT
She watches him in a show his friend is directing. He forgets his line and looks to her. She mouths it.
Chapter Forty-Six
The next morning, the only acknowledgment I received from Ruby was a barely audible hello.
Right before we boarded, Hollis patted my shoulder and said, “Give her time. She’s got a short fuse, but that means she burns out just as fast as she catches.”
Eli and I weren’t as forthright with our affections in front of Ruby and Hollis, but it was hard not to chalk that up to the thick tension between me and my grandmother.
