Check your email. You can thank me later.
Nathan:
Always taking care of me, huh?
Elise:
Someone has to.
Nathan:
You sure you’re not still my assistant?
Elise:
I’d need a raise if you want me to come back.
Nathan:
I’ll see you tonight and we’ll negotiate.
A slow, knowing heat unfurled in my chest. I was so caught up in our exchange, so consumed by the way his words sent warmth licking up my spine, that I didn’t glance up when someone else stepped onto the elevator.
Not until I heard his voice.
“Elise.”
Ice shot through my veins.
I looked up, my stomach twisting.
Jax.
For a split second, my brain short-circuited. He was the last person I expected to see here, but as my gaze raked over him, recognition slammed into me. The jumpsuit. The cart he’d been pushing downstairs.
The janitor.
My breath stuttered. I had seen him, but brushed off that flicker of unease like it was nothing. He hadn’t just been some stranger doing his job. He’d been watching me, waiting for the perfect opportunity to get me alone, and I just gave it to him.
I should’ve listened to Ryan.
His lips curled into a smirk, but his eyes burned with something dark. I gripped my phone tighter, pulse hammering against my ribs.
Jax looked different. There were a few more tattoos on his pale skin then the last time I saw him and his dirty blonde hair was shaved clean. His body was a little leaner and solid, but he was still the man who once knew exactly how to make me believe I was loved until he didn’t. And now he was standing here, too close, in the small, confined space of the elevator.
Jax cocked his head, his smirk never faltering. “You’re a hard woman to get alone, Elise. I’ve been waiting for you. I’ve been closer than you think. Watching. Waiting. You walked past me more than once and never even noticed.”
I froze, dread crawling like ice down my spine.
He leaned in, breath hot against my ear. “You’ve been so wrapped up in your billionaire boyfriend, you didn’t even realize I’ve been right here all along.”
My stomach curled with nausea. “What do you want, Jax?” I kept my voice even, refusing to show the fear creeping up my spine.
His smirk widened. “What do Iwant? That’s a loaded question. Maybe I just wanted to see you. Maybe I wanted to tell you…” He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “I forgive you.”
A slow, thick pulse of dread settled in my gut.
“You forgive me?” I echoed, forcing myself to stay still.
