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He finally kisses me, crashing his mouth down onto mine, stealing the remnants of my pleasure for himself.“Fucking beautiful,” he rasps, his voice strained. “Black and gold, all over again,Mi Cielo. You’re blinding sunshine. You’remysunshine.”
That’s when it hits me. His hotel.Helios.It’s the Greek word for sun. His décor is black and gold, like the colors he professes we are.
Gold for the light he says I bring to his life.
Black for the darkness he brings to mine.
He made sure I was a constant, even when he pushed me away.
I open my mouth to confront him about it, but he’s already glancing at the skyline. I sense that cold abyss widening between us again.
No, Edier. Stay with me. Stay with us. Don’t you dare leave.
But his expression is shuttered. His jaw, clenched. It’s as if I’m not even standing there, naked from the waist down, with the orgasm that he just wrung out of me so callously seeping down the inside of my thighs.
“Get dressed,” he orders, winching his belt together with unnecessary force, stinging me all over again with his Jekyll and Hyde behavior as he heads for the door. “I have work to do, and so do you.”
20
ELLA
To add insult to injury,he leaves me stranded on the top floor, stealing the waiting carriage for himself while I’m still dressing, and then forcing me to wait ages for a second.
The doors were closing as I exited his new office, and now he’s probably downstairs in his black Ferrari, smirking to himself about how easily I fell apart for him…again.
God, I’m so mad at myself it’s unreal.
Slipping into my chair like an emotional stowaway, I’m debating whether to drown my sorrows in my second Pumpkin Spice Latte of the day when Rob shoots out of the meeting room and clicks his fingers at Ivy and me.
“In here you two.”
We share a brief look of “what the fuck now?” because there’s nothing scarier than an unscheduled meeting with the boss when the company’s just been taken over.
We file in, one after the other, and he closes the door behind us. “Okay ladies, this is me officially telling you to drop theHeliossuicide story. Seems our new overlords would prefer us to focus on the political arena, content-wise.”
“Are you kidding me? This is bullshit!” Ivy’s white-faced and furious while I’m silently cursing out Edier for the hundredth time today.
At least I know why he bought the paper now.
“Listen, I know this is hard,” says Rob, perching on the edge of the table, and folding his arms over his huge stomach. He’s quietly ditched the jacket and tie, so he doesn’t look quite so much like a corporate stooge anymore. “But if you know anything about me, you’ll know there’s a reason why I just used the word ‘officially’.”
I glance up to find a wicked gleam in his eye.
“You want us to continue anyway?” whispers Ivy.
He nods and grins. “Yes, honey, and then I want you to blow it sky-high. I find that when someone gives me an order like that, it sends me in the opposite direction. We need to be smart about this, though. Keep off the usual channels. No business emails or calls in this building when we’re discussing the story in case they’re being monitored. Any developments, we meet at my favorite deli across the street… You’ve gone very quiet, Miller. Still considering quitting?”
“Not at all,” I say, forcing some of my old breeziness back into my voice. “I was just wondering if breaking the rules will get me a raise?”
Rob chuckles as I dodge a loaded look from Ivy. It tells me she’s figured out who’s bought the paper already, which means it’s only a matter of time before she makes the connection between the acquisition and theHeliosstory.
Then there’s the whole conflict of interest thing, which I was doing a great job of ignoring until now. No one wants to figure out Edier’s secrets more than I do, but to the detriment of the people who loved and raised me…?
I warned him he was in the fight of his life earlier, but I’m also in the fight of my own. This must have been how my mother felt when she was exposing criminals on the front page and falling for my father on the side. I’m straddling two worlds, losing my balance, and there’s nothing but jagged rocks and alligators waiting for me down below.
Rob picks up his mug and takes a thoughtful sip. “Tell me what else you’ve got.”
“My hunch is it’s narc related.” Ivy flicks through her pad for her notes as my stomach lurches unpleasantly. “Another source confirmed that the streets are being flooded with a product that has the same logo as the tattoo. He also said online shops in the city have started selling voodoo paraphernalia, again, all with this same logo, which makes more sense with the inverted pentagram being a symbol of black magic.”
