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‘You?’ she blurts, her eyes narrowed and shooting daggers.
‘Me?’ Cait says, her frown all the more severe and directed wholly at Eliza now.
‘So you’re the reason he’s not returning my calls.’
Cait looks from Eliza to me and back again. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about, but don’t you think it’s polite to knock and wait to be invited in before you barge into someone’s private office?’
Eliza laughs. ‘Oh, girl, I don’t wait for anyone.’
Cait doesn’t even flinch and I love her for it. I love how her spine straightens and her chin lifts. Doesn’t matter that she’s all green and white elf, she has all the poise of Eliza in her designer trench coat and polished air. ‘No, I don’t suppose someone like you would.’
Eliza scowls before looking at me. ‘We need to talk. Alone.’
She looks pointedly at Cait before coming back to me and I’m torn. I don’t want Cait to feel outdone, but neither do I want her to bear witness to whatever Eliza has come to say.
I stand and take Cait’s hand, a gesture that Eliza’s beady gaze clocks but I don’t care.
‘Go upstairs, Cait, and wait for me.’ I squeeze her fingers gently.
She sends another look between Eliza and me but nods. ‘Okay.’
I watch her go, my entire body hooked on the appeal of her. My heart too.
The second the door closes I round on Eliza. ‘What is it now?’ My voice vibrates with anger and she gives a high-pitched laugh.
‘Calm down, Jackson. You can have your little plaything later, if you find you still want her after what I have to offer you.’
‘Want her?’
‘Yes.’ She smiles. ‘I never was the jealous type. I can share. And I have a business proposition for you, one that means you and I can work and play together again.’
‘You’re deluded, Eliza.’
‘I’m deluded? Seems to me you’re the one who’s deluded if you think that silly little package can keep you happy.’
‘You have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘Don’t I?’ she purrs, strutting towards me, and I know what’s coming, I know that look of old and I turn away to head for my desk, sensing the scowl she gives me as she stills. ‘Don’t turn away from me, Jackson.’
A laugh erupts out of me, stalling my hand as I reach for my whisky. I shake my head and look back at her, not because she asked it of me, no fucking way, but to glare at her. ‘Do you honestly think you get to tell me what to do, Eliza?’
Her smile is cold. ‘There was a time when you did everything I told you. In fact, you’d plead for your next instruction. You remember those days, those nights, don’t you?’
I swallow back the bile that rises.
‘I wish to God I didn’t.’
She laughs. ‘You’re lying to yourself, Jackson. The things we did, the things you let me do, my sweet, you don’t grow out of wanting them.’
I shudder, the words thrumming out of me. ‘Get the fuck out, Eliza. Now!’
Her brows quirk, her eyes widen, but whatever’s going through her head has her expression changing, colour rising in her cheeks. ‘Oh, I get it, it’s role reversal. That’s wh
y you like the candy cane. She lets you do to her the things I used to do to you.’
My gut rolls. Pins and needles fizz all over the surface of my skin and I can’t move, I can’t breathe. The wedding night comes back to me, the odd night since—the power dynamic, the control.
‘But Jackson... I can be just as docile, baby.’
