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Maureen texted me when I was at happy hour.
Courier arrived with a package. Contract(?). Sent Lily to your place with it. It’ll be on your desk.
“Something the matter?” Landon asked astutely, seeing the expression on my face change.
“Nothing.” I shoved my phone back in my pocket and picked up my beer. I tried to listen to whatever Dominic was saying, but my mind was warped by the image of Lily in my space. I had to keep my muscles tensed to keep them from springing into action and carrying me home to intercept her. It would be very, very stupid to try.
I downed my beer.
Or maybe I needed to go home and make sure she understood in no uncertain terms that she was never to come back. I didn’t care if God himself ordered her to drop something off at my place, she had better leave it with the fucking concierge.
And then I remembered pulling up her Instagram page on my home computer a few nights ago. Fuck. Had I ever closed it out? Was there any chance at all that she would look at my computer? My home one wasn’t password protected. An oversight I would correct immediately.
“I have to go,” I said suddenly, breaking into Dominic’s story. The odds of Lily waking up my computer and her Instagram profile still being up on the screen were about as slim as the anorexic model selling lipstick on the billboard across the street, but I still couldn’t take the risk.
Dominic nodded goodbye and launched right back into his story. Not much could stop Dominic when he was on a roll. The others said quick goodbyes and went back to listening—all except Landon, who gave me an inscrutable look.
“What?” I asked, signaling the bartender for my check.
“You’re in a hurry all of a sudden.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
He shrugged, like he was waiting for me to answer that question. He knew it had something to do with Lily. Landon seemed to always know shit like that. It was why he was such a good security expert. He could get inside people’s heads.
I didn’t want him in my head though, not now. There were things in there I couldn’t even let my best friends see.
“Some of us have to hustle for a living,” I deflected. “A big contract just came in, and I have to get it squared away before the actress thinks of anything else to ask for.”
“So it’s a demanding woman?” Landon asked, knowing full well I was bullshitting him. I had over explained myself, a mistake he always caught onto.
“Exactly.” I signed the credit card slip and left before Landon could continue his line of questioning.
I got back to my place in record time. When I got there, my eyes swept the lobby warily for any sign of Lily. Had I missed her? Was she on her way out? How would I deliver the message that I had for her in public? What was the socially acceptable way to say stay the fuck out before I do something we’ll both regret?
I didn’t have to worry about it. She wasn’t in the lobby, nor was she in the elevator when it arrived. That meant she could either teleport, or she was still in my penthouse. The thought of her in my space stirred emotions I didn’t want to bother identifying. Not until I was back in the shower anyway.
When I stepped out of the elevator on the top floor, I knew she was in there. I could sense her. I moved through the penthouse silently. No sign of her in the living room or the kitchen. Then I saw her. I almost wasn’t surprised when I found her in the last place she should be, stepping out of my bedroom, her movements quick and furtive. Not quick enough though.
When she saw me, she dropped the knob like it was evidence.
“I–I was just looking for the bathroom,” she stammered.
She was a beautiful liar and sneak. Guilt made her cheeks flush and her eyes wide. Her chest was rising and falling distractingly.
I stepped forward, deliberately crowding her back. Then I opened the door myself and looked in. Not a thing was out of place, but she’d disturbed it all the same. She’d disturbed me.
“I came back here to tell you to stay the fuck out of my space,” I said, almost to myself.
“I was curious,” Lily whispered, abandoning the pretense.
My hand tightened on the knob. “You should have stayed away, Lily. You really should have.”
“I couldn’t.”
Giving up the pretense, she touched my arm, carefully, lightly. Weeks of pent-up frustration were coursing through my veins. I couldn’t hold myself back anymore. I wanted her more than I’d ever wanted any other woman in my life, and she was giving me permission. Fuck all the rest.
