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He wasn’t going to argue with her about that either, but this time he said nothing.
* * *
Excited nerves mixedwith a feeling of dread in Skylar’s stomach as she rode in the Uber toward Julian’s penthouse.
The reason for her excitement was obvious.
He’d called her yesterday, telling her he’d be working from home all day but asking if she could come over at seven p.m. She’d teased him by asking him why she should, and he preceded to tell her in explicit detail that soon had her knees trembling and her core throbbing.
But as excited as she was, the dread was still there. For whatever reason, Julian enthralled her— body, mind, and spirit, and she’d begun to wonder if she’d made a mistake agreeing to keep seeing him. It would only make leaving him harder in the end.
Even so, she didn’t tell the Uber driver to turn around.
They were almost to his penthouse when she reread the last text message he’d sent her.
I can’t wait to touch you. Smell you. Taste you. Fuck you. Don’t be late.
She bit back a giggle. Little did he know that not only would she not be late, she’d be arriving early. A whole hour early. Wearing her trench coat with only her silk stockings held in place by a black lace garter belt underneath it. And her high heels, of course.
It wasn’t spreading herself out on a table and placing sushi on her body so he could eat it off her, but it was something.
When she arrived, a grizzled doorman greeted her with a polite bow. He took one look at her in her trench coat and raised his eyebrow.
“Um . . . hi. I’m Skylar. Skylar McKenzie. I believe Mr. Bauer will have given you my name as his guest.”
Sure enough, the elderly man checked his list, grunted, then led her into the ornate building and to the penthouse elevator. Using his keycard, he illuminated the button that would take her to Julian. The doorman was just about to step out of the elevator when he stopped, hesitated, then turned back to her.
“Excuse my nosiness, Ms. McKenzie, but I’ve been with Mr. Bauer for years, and I’ve seen you here with him several times. I suspect you’re why he’s been a little happier of late?”
Happier?
She didn’t really think of Julian as being happy and certainly not happier since he’d met her, but then she remembered the times they’d teased and laughed. She was happier when she was with him, so maybe he was, too.
She smiled. “I’m not sure about that, but I appreciate the thought.”
“You’re his girlfriend?”
She felt a flush burning her cheeks. “No!” The last thing she needed was this man telling Julian she’d said she was his girlfriend. “No, I’m not his girlfriend.”
“Ah,” he said, nodding. “My mistake. It’s just he’s never brought a woman to his penthouse, so you can see why I thought that.”
He might as well have slapped Skylar, she was so surprised. “He’s never . . . how can you know that? Surely you’re not here all the time?”
“No, but I asked him once. A few years ago, I asked him if he was the Sex God of Manhattan, how come I never saw him with a woman in this building, and do you know what he said? Because I’ll never forget.”
“What?”
“He said the day he brought a woman here was the day he was no longer a sex god but the man he should have been all along.”
Skylar staggered back until her back hit the elevator wall.
It doesn’t mean anything. It means nothing. That was years ago. Before he even knew you.
The doorman looked at her for a moment, his eyes softening, then he stepped out of the elevator. “Have a good night, Ms. McKenzie.”
* * *
When she entered the penthouse,she immediately heard the shower running. She walked to the couch and sank into it, her knees weak, still thinking about what the doorman had said. When she heard a soft whump like something hitting the floor, she looked down, saw a large manila envelope, distractedly picked it up, then put it back on the couch cushion beside her.
