I didn’t have to feel his arousal to know that we weren’t talking about the same thing.
“I mean with work. Not in…thatway.”
“I don’t need to tell you what to do because you already do what I need.”
A burst of pride bloomed through my chest.
“You keep bossing me around with your systems and color-coded calendars, and I’ll keep following because you’re good at your job. Outside of that, though?” His eyes darkened, the gray becoming gloomy. The warning of an impending storm that I didn’t want to hide from.
I wanted to get caught up in it.
So badly.
Especially when his low voice demanded, “You’ll do as I say while we explore this.”
Trepidation mixed with the arousal. It was a single drop in a barrel of need, but it was still there. “What if I don’t like something?”
“Then you tell me, and we’ll talk it through.”
That sounded… healthy.
It also sounded like a whole lot of talking because I was sure there would be a lot that I didn’t like.
Probably far too much to make any of it worthwhile.
I couldn’t force the refusal from my mouth, though.
Instead, I did what I did best. Compiled the information into an organized chart in my head.
Well, I tried to. But every time I put an item into my imaginaryconcategory, it floated over to theproside until only one remained.
I’m going to be so bad at this.
Tripp watched me for a long moment before his hold on my waist tightened. “At least give me tonight. You owe me that much.”
My eyes widened. “I owe you? For what?”
For a panicked moment, I thought he was going to say my salary—cheapening meandthe job I did.
I should’ve known better.
His smirk was devastatingly handsome and edged in a sharpness I didn’t expect. “The tracking app you installed.”
A warm flush and a cold sweat went across my flesh at being caught, causing goose bumps to spread. That didn’t stop me from hiding my embarrassment behind indignation. “You can’t use that as a bargaining chip. That’s sexual extortion.”
He gave a shameless shrug. “I use what I have at my disposal.”
I knew that I didn’t actually owe him. Okay, I might’ve owed him an apology for putting the app on his phone without permission and using it to track him when it wasn’t an emergency, but that was it.
But something about his words clicked into a part of my brain I didn’t know was there.
The idea that I didn’t have a choice was enough to send a surge of moisture between my thighs. It made it easy for me to agree.
Or easier, at least.
I swallowed hard. “One night,” I relented haltingly. It was a given that it was strictly physical. In the name of scientific research even. That didn’t stop me from holding up a finger to add another stipulation. “But no actual sex.”
I knew that was taking the coward’s way out, but I didn’t care. It gave me a taste of Gilded so I wouldn’t be left wondering what I’d missed out on. I would learn without a doubt that it wasn’t for me. That it was the carnal unknown that intrigued me and not an actual desire to be there.
