There’s an intensity in them. A desire that shouldn’t be there but that I feel equally as strong.
He’s off limits.
Every incredible inch of him.
“Thank you for your concern, but I can handle myself.”
“Noted, but I already knew that.” He takes a step back, his eyes dipping again, and his nostrils flaring in reaction. “Good night, Ellery.”
“You’re naked,” I shout after him in warning as he opens the door. And I realize my stupidity only seconds after I say it. The hotel is empty. There’s no one else out there. He’s not walking into a crowded hallway.
When he turns around, all I see is the smirk on his face and the amusement in his eyes. “So are you.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ford
The whole thing lasted seconds. Running into Ellery. Landing on top of her. Having proof of how goddamn perfectly our bodies fit together.
I groan.
It may have only been seconds, but it’s all that’s needed for a match to strike and flames to ignite.
And fuck did they ignite.
Desire. Need. Want. Greed. The four battled within me in those split seconds. Fuck decorum. Screw our partnership. The things that were going through my head were anything but partnership-amiable.
What I would have given to lean in and kiss her lips. To thread my fingers through her hair and knock her thighs apart with my knee and taste her there.
And I bet that taste would be as addictive as the feeling of sinking into her. Of hearing her moans as I did. As reveling in her slick heat as we drove each other to the brink.
Ellery naked.
Christ. I can’t get the image of her out of my head. The peaches and cream of her skin only accentuated the pink of her nipples and the gorgeous curve of her hips.
Curves are my kryptonite and damn, does she have them.
I shift again, the sheets falling off me as my dick hardens and thoughts run crazy.
She’s all I can think about.
A wall between us.
A bed away.
A closed door apart.
And I was tempted. God, how I was tempted with her body beneath mine—soft and warm and inviting—until I looked to the wrist my hand was pinning and was snapped back to reality.
To the tan line on her finger.
To the Daily Transcript article I read this morning and the picture accompanying it. One about Chandler Holcomb and his fiancée Ellery Sinclair as he accepted his award for Architect of the Year.
And that reminder was like a shock of cold water despite the heat between us.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Ford
Twelve Years Ago
I know he’s standing there. Even if I hadn’t heard the click of the front door or his even breathing, I would know he was there. My dad most definitely has a presence about him that owns any room he walks into.
Even my apartment.
“Who let you in?” I groan as I roll onto my back on the couch and cover my eyes with my arm.
“I own the building. Last thing I need to do is ask for access from anyone.”
The thought has never bugged me until right now. Until this moment when I simply want to wallow in my own sorrow and drink myself into oblivion without him being him.
“Invading my privacy doesn’t come with the landlord duties.”
“Then answer your phone, and I won’t have to show up here.”
I hear the motorized blinds moving open and already hate him for doing that. Besides the extended hangover I’ve been wallowing in, I don’t think I’ve seen sunlight for a few days.
“You can spare me the lecture. I already know what you’re going to say.” Get up. Don’t let a woman steal your worth. Fuck her if she doesn’t see your value.
Blah.
Blah.
Blah.
“I’m not here to give you a lecture, son.”
“Ha. That’s funny. Isn’t lecture your middle name?”
“That’s not exactly fair.” I hear him move about the room. I feel the dip of the couch’s cushion beneath his weight. “I like to think I offer more than that.”
Huh. There is a tinge of something in his voice. Did I just insult the great Maxton Sharpe and it affected him?
His sigh hangs in the stagnant air of my place. “It’s inevitable, you know.”
“What is?”
“Heartbreak.”
“Thanks for the brilliant observation. Can we skip to the good part where you leave?”
“Don’t be disrespectful.”
“Don’t enter a man’s apartment unannounced.”
“Ford.” He reaches his hand out to my shin and squeezes. “I’m sorry about Jennifer.”
“Yeah, well, you just said heartbreak is inevitable so—”
“Son.” He pauses for a beat. “You have this incredible ability to put yourself out there. For being you without holding back and not caring what anyone thinks. That’s admirable.”
What does that have to do with getting my heart broken? Is this another case of him just wanting to hear himself talk?
“It doesn’t feel very admirable,” I say and pull the pillow over my head.
Admirable is the last thing I feel. Hurt is first and foremost. Then disbelief followed by anger before returning right back to hurt again.
He’s silent, but his hand remains.
“She cheated on me. Cheated. After two years together . . .” The images are burned in my brain. Opening the front door to hear the unmistakable sound of moans. Following said sounds to find Jennifer straddling one of my fellow MBA classmates. Fuck.
“So your brothers told me.”
“With a classmate no less.”
“And how does that make you feel?” I cock an eyebrow at him. How does he think it made me feel? I don’t think I’ve ever heard those words come out of his mouth before. Since when is he a therapist? “I asked a question, Ford, and I expect an answer.”
“Pissed. Angry. Wanting to fuck someone random to get back at her.”
But there’s no way in hell I’d do that. Even after that. I’m not that guy. I’m far too loyal to purposely have a revenge fuck. All she had to do was break up with me for fuck’s sake. How hard would that have been?
Then again, she’s a cheater, so she’s probably too chickenshit to end things before moving on.
He purses his lips and nods. “Go ahead, but it’s not going to make you feel any better.”
“Then what will? Because it’s been days and it still fucking hurts as much now as it did when I saw it for my own eyes.”
“She doesn’t deserve you.”
“That’s supposed to help?”
“No. But it’s a fact.”
“More brilliant wisdom from the one and only.” I groan as I sit up, my head pounding and my eyes squinting. “Tell me something oh-knower-of-all-things. How exactly do you know this?”
“First, this will be the one and only time you will ever get away with speaking to me with such utter disrespect. Hurting, heartbroken, I don’t care. I taught you better than this so watch how far you push, Fordham.”
Then leave me to my own fucking peace. I fist my hands and fight back the need to be more of an asshole and take my frustration out on him.