Page 30 of The Truth of Us

“You like it.” I replied, fighting against the need to turn my face ever so slightly and kiss him like we did that night.

When I turned myself, giving him my back, I infused as much confidence as I could. Brushing my hair over my shoulder, exposing where the hidden buttons were in this dress. I swallowed down the feelings I did not want to have right now and said, “Undo my dress, Elliot.”

I heard a groan that almost sounded like a growl from him. Then I felt his hands lift, felt them trail over the silk and pause at the edge of the fabric. Most of my back was exposed, with just a few hidden clips at the base of my spine to keep the dress at my lower back and then a haltered style high neck with pearl buttons in the same colour as the dress.

Elliot paused, and I felt his warm breath on my bare back. I felt a brush of his nose first before his lips gently met my skin. My whole body shivered in response, and goosebumps broke out over my skin.

“So responsive,” Elliot said to my skin, and it took everything in me not to spin around.

His fingers trailed across the threshold of the silk and trailed slowly up my spine. One touch and suddenly my brain stopped functioning like a capable adult woman with a successful career and started functioning like a hormone-driven idiot who read too many romance novels.

His lips, his fingers… just on my back had my mind spinning, and that was a problem.

This was exactly why I didn’t do things like this. Exactly why I avoided men like Elliot Vale.

Men who looked at you too intensely and made bad ideas sound fun. Men who promised the world only to pull it out from under you without notice.

Elliot's fingers made it to the pearl buttons at my neck, and I felt the silk loosen around me inch by inch until the dress started slipping down my body. His hands settled against my hips, steadying me as I stepped out of it, and the warmth of his palm felt far more intimate than it should have. The dress pooled at my feet, leaving me in a cream-coloured thong and my heels.

The city glittered beyond the windows, and I was standing mostly naked in Elliot Vale’s penthouse, trying not to think about how good he smelled.

I needed to take some control and make sure my heart knew the truth of what was going on here. I turned to face him and instantly regretted it. His shirt hung open now, exposing warm skin, sharp lines and a chest that looked unfairly good under the low lighting. His cufflinks were gone, his bowtie abandoned somewhere behind him, and his hair somehow looked even better messed up.

I stepped away from him and moved toward the island. Elliot’s eyes tracked the movement before slowly lifting back to my face, and there was something about the way he looked at me that made my stomach flip. Not like a hookup or an arrangement. Worse.

Like he was interested, like he wanted more than what he had propositioned me with.

Nope. Absolutely not. That was how women ended up crying on the bathroom floor.

I cleared my throat and forced my brain back online. “I’ll bring someone else onto the account.”

That seemed to surprise him enough to interrupt whatever terribly attractive thoughts he was having.

“What?”

“A junior manager. I’ll still manage Northwell directly, but someone else from the firm will be involved to manage anything to do directly with you.”

Elliot watched me carefully now. “Why?”

Because I was already dangerously close to blurring the lines.

Because I was trying very hard not to become another woman in Elliot Vale’s rotation.

Because I knew exactly how this looked.

I shrugged instead, saying, “I don’t want it looking like I’m being paid to sleep with you. I won’t be a whore for hire.”

Something shifted in his face, but it was gone almost instantly.

“That’s not what this is.” His voice had lost its teasing edge.

I looked at him carefully then, trying to decide if he believed that or if he just wanted me to.

“Then it shouldn’t matter.”

A beat passed before he nodded once. “Fine.”

That seemed to bother him. Why?