Page 43 of The Truth of Us

Our breaths mingled as I moved up and down. We didn’t speak; he didn't offer his usual dirty talk. We alternated between kissing and watching each other.

It was like nothing I had experienced with him before, nothing I had experienced with anyone ever, if I was being honest. The surge of emotion within me was so intense that I had to force back the tears. This… this wasn’t sex, this was…

Much later, I sat on the kitchen island as Elliot stood between my legs, eating takeout directly from the containers. He wore only his boxer briefs, and I'd stolen one of his dress shirts.

The cake sat beside us, half-destroyed. Which felt like a successful birthday.

"You know," I said around a bite of chocolate cake, "for someone who doesn't celebrate birthdays, you seem pretty good at this."

Elliot looked down at the fork in his hand, then at me and smiled. My heart did that stupid flutter thing, and I realized this smile was becoming my favourite of his.

"Thank you. I don’t know if you will ever realize what this means to me."

The look he was giving me made my stomach drop, and suddenly I wasn't thinking about thirty days anymore. That should have been my first warning. I just didn't know it yet.

When he eventually scooped me up and carried me toward his bedroom, I didn't argue or mention the rules. I didn't remind either of us what this was supposed to be. I simply wrapped my arms around his neck, rested my head against his shoulder, and for the first time since this arrangement started, being in Elliot's arms felt less like pretending and far too much like home.

12

ELLIOT

It was the beginning of the end… okay, dramatic…. I know.

It was the start of our last week in this arrangement, and I had a problem, several actually. The first was Harper, the second was that I no longer wanted this to end, and the third was that I couldn't seem to think about either of those things without feeling completely unhinged. Which was ridiculous because it was ending.

The arrangement was ending, and I had not fucked Harper out of my system; if anything, she had somehow crawled under my skin and… stayed.

The end date was marked on my calendar, and the new contract sat on my desk. Yet somehow, every time I looked at either of them, I found myself changing things. Not because the terms needed changing, but because I wasn't ready for this to be over and I wanted the next contract to encompass what we were now. The realization should have alarmed me. Instead, I found myself printing a revised agreement on Tuesday afternoon. I took inspiration from Julian and Lucy, but added my flair. A one-year public engagement, with an option to renew. Every clause was carefully written; every contingency was covered. Everything was meticulously addressed, except for the one thing that actually mattered. Harper.

I stared at the pages spread across my desk, secretly hoping that this would be enough for her to stay, then immediately hated myself for how ridiculous that sounded. It wasn't as if she was disappearing; she was here with me. She showed up even when I tried to push her away, and I was literally creating a plan designed to keep her around.

I made deals and dealt with people as the CEO daily, and I never got nervous about a deal. The problem was that Harper wasn't a merger or an acquisition, and somewhere along the way I'd started wanting things that couldn't be written into a contract. Which felt suspiciously like a terrible life choice, considering my experience with emotional relationships.

"You're smiling at paper."

I looked up and Caleb stood in my office doorway, holding a coffee. I groaned, and he laughed.

“That got anything to do with a beautiful blonde woman?” He asked, pointing to my desk.

"Absolutely not."

I flipped the contract face down, and Caleb's eyes narrowed.

"That bad?" he asked with a chuckle.

"That obvious?" I countered.

"Painfully so, my old friend."

Fantastic, I hated having observant friends.

Caleb walked in and dropped into the chair across from my desk.

"Have you told her about whatever it is you are working up?"

"No," I huffed.

"Why?"