So I kept my mouth shut. Smiled when I needed to, laughed at the right times, and stayed cool.
Fuck me.
And the worst part was I liked him.
He was exactly my type.
Older, confident, controlled.
He had that quiet kind of power that felt amazing pinning me down.
Damn it.
The smart thing to do would be to hush up, let it go, and bury the whole thing deep. Keep it between us and never breathe a word of it again.
But inside? I wondered.
I wondered if there might be a possibility of keeping this alive.
Quiet, sure.
Hidden, of course.
Something thrilling and forbidden that only existed behind closed doors. A secret I could taste but never name.
But I guess I’ll never know.
Because Mr. S was avoiding me at the launch party like the damn plague.
“So.”
Orim leaned close, her breath tickling my ear as I watched Marlon. “Not only is he your dad’s business partner, he’s also his friend? Girl. How the hell did you miss that?”
I sighed and took another sip of the new wine they were launching. “I don’t know. I know the name, but not the face. He never comes around.”
Orim arched her brow.
“Well, it’s not that surprising. My dad says Marlon Sinclair’s a social shut-in. He barely makes public appearances. I’m shocked he’s even here.”
“Apparently, my dad begged him,” I muttered. “For this launch, Daddy said Marlon curated the whole thing. Like, handpicked every bottle, every label, every flower on the damn tables. I think I remember him showing me, but I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Mm-hmm,” Orim smirked, swirling her drink. “Bet you wish you’d paid attention now.”
I mimicked her voice under my breath and rolled my eyes. “Shut up.”
She snickered, unbothered yet amused.
I scanned the crowd again, pulse hitching when I found him near the stage. He was dressed in a sharp black suit, tailored to perfection, his posture straight, but his face unreadable.
Our eyes met, barely. His gaze brushed mine for half a second before sliding away, facing a man and engaging in a conversation like nothing.
The man who had me on his sheets, coaxing orgasm after orgasm less than twenty-four hours ago now couldn’t stand to look at me.
I bit the inside of my cheek, heat crawling up my neck.
It stung more than I wanted to admit.
That man put me in a hog tie and fucked me so hard I thought I’d go blind from all that eye rolling. Now he wants to act like it never happened?
