16
We walked out to the penthouse reception area. Before we stepped into the elevator, I looked at my reflection in the glossy black of the marble walls, and tried to put myself together so I didn’t look like a girl who’d had crazy, wild sex.
I probably looked alright, but to my mind at that moment, anybody who saw me would instantly know. Like there was a blinking neon sign over my head: Just Had Sex On Boardroom Floor.
Oh God, I was going to have to do the Walk of Shame in front of Stanley, and it wasn’t even morning.
I sighed and got in the elevator with Connor.
“Still freaking out?” he grinned.
“Yes.”
“Let me see if I can take your mind off it.”
Then he raked his fingers down ever single button for ever single floor. They all lit up.
Not exactly what I was expecting.
“What did you do that for?!” I cried out.
“So I’d have a little more time for this.”
When they say ‘sweep a girl off her feet,’ I always thought it was an expression. I mean, it is an expression.
Except when it happens literally.
Which it did in that elevator.
He pulled me into his arms and leaned me back and kissed me – soft and slow at first, then more and more passionately.
As far as taking my mind off things, he succeeded.
I barely even heard most of the dings as the doors opened and closed in the empty building.
I wasn’t entirely sure if the butterflies in my stomach were caused by the kiss, or by the stop and go of the elevator – because even when the elevator was stationary, I felt giddy and off-balance.
Finally I realized that the door was going to open on the main lobby, and we were going to be in the middle of a lip-lock. I broke it off and pushed him away.
“We have five more floors,” he growled, and came in for another kiss.
I yielded – because I really, really wanted another kiss – but then I struggled out of his arms, giggling as I went, and straightened my clothes.
Just in time.
The door opened, and the empty lobby stretched out in front of us. I walked out fast, head held high, not looking back at Connor.
“Hi, Stanley,” I called out nervously – from across the cavernous lobby.
Nice. Way to play it cool, Lily.
Stanley looked up, puzzled, from behind his desk. He lifted one hand hesitantly.
Connor walked up beside me, a huge grin on his face. “Very slick. Very under the radar,” he teased me under his breath.
“Oh, shut up,” I whispered back, then turned towards the elevators that led to the parking deck.
“I’m this way,” Connor said, and gestured towards the front doors of the building.
“You didn’t park in the garage?”
“No.”
“But… there’s no street parking out front after seven,” I said, suddenly frightened for him – and imagining myself in the same situation. “They might have towed your car!”
“I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”
“But – ”
“Lily. Calm down. Just walk out with me.”
I got a hold of myself, nodded, and we proceeded to walk across the lobby. As we went, Connor pulled out his smart phone.
My heart skipped a beat. Maybe this was where he was going to ask for my number?
But that was bad – not in front of Stanley! –
…and then he tapped out a text on the screen, sent it, and popped the cell back in his pocket.
So much for him getting my number.
My heart sank.
“Night, Stan,” Connor said as we walked by.
Stanley smiled and raised his hand again.
Then we walked out of the lobby doors and onto the street.
17
Downtown Los Angeles is a ghost town at night. During the day, it’s a bustling metropolis with people walking through the canyons of glass and steel. Once the sun sets, though, it’s like all the pedestrians are afraid of vampires, and they mostly just vanish. (Not the cars, though. Cars are omnipresent in Los Angeles, no matter where you go.)
We stood out on the almost-deserted street. I looked in both directions, but the towing people had apparently worked their evil magic.
“Oh no, your car!” I cried out, scanning past the rush of traffic to the empty curbs.
“Quit worrying about it. I have a question to ask you.”
“But – ”
“Lily. Focus,” he said, and touched his fingers to my chin so that I had to look at him.
I suppose I should have been worried about Stanley seeing Connor make such an intimate gesture, but the warmth of his touch – and the memory of what he had done to me earlier – made me go all limp inside. I stared into his crystal blue eyes.
“Did you mean what you said earlier about this being the best night of your life?” he asked.
Oh God.
Lie, Lily – he’s just looking to inflate his ego – LIE, dammit –
“Yes,” I whispered.
He leaned forward and kissed me.
I flinched for a split second – Stanley’s going to see! I’m going to get fired! – and then I thought, Screw it. This is probably the last time I’m going to see this guy.
I want to savor every last second.
So I kissed him back.
It was soft, sweet… and romantic. The whole world fell away, leaving only the two of us.
He pulled away first. As I gradually opened my eyes again, I became aware of a shape moving off to my side. A car pulling up to the curb beside us.
“Come with me,” Connor said.
“What?” I asked, still dreamy from the kiss.
“You said this was the best night of your life. So let’s keep it going. Maybe even make it the best weekend of your life. Come with me.”
Two different emotions wrestled inside me: panic… and elation.
“I… I can’t… what are you talking about?!” I asked, confused. My head was spinning.
He took both my hands in his, his skin warm against mine.
“Come with me,” he repeated, more urgently this time.
“But – the reports – ”
“Are crap. A fake test Klaus didn’t pass anyway. Forget them. Come with me.”
This is crazy! I wanted to protest, but I was slowly drowning in his sparkling blue eyes.
“The office – I left everything on – ”
“Who cares? Leave it and come with me.”
I couldn’t.
I was already going to be fired for unbecoming conduct, or whatever you call it when you have wild sex on the boardroom floor.
If I didn’t get those reports to Klaus, I might as well leave a letter of resignation on his desk.
I had to finish those reports.
Those reports on a fake account…
…for a boss who belittled and hated me, and went out of his way to make me miserable…
…while the most gorgeous man I’d ever been with was pleading with me to join him.
To do what he asked, I’d have to risk throwing away my job.
A job I hated, true, but the only one I had.
And for what?
To be blissfully, incredibly happy –
For what, another hour?
Another night?
Maybe another two?
“Take a chance,” Connor whispered. “Be that woman I made love to just now. Come with me.”
I shivered when he said ‘made love.’ I thought of us up there in the boardroom, his lips on mine, his body inside me.
The pleasure he had given me.
The amazing connection we had shared.
I could feel that again…
…or I could give it up and be miserable tonight and the rest of the weekend, lose my job anyway, and wonder what I’d missed out on for the rest of my life.
“Screw it,” I breathed. “Let’s go.”
Connor burst into an enormous grin.
He turned to the car by the curb and opened the rear door.
I had thought it was a taxi, or – actually, no, I hadn’t been thinking about it at all. I’d been too wrapped up in kissing Connor, and then in worrying about whether I should go with him or not.
So when I saw a black Bentley – apparently some sort of limo, since it was shorter than a stretch, but longer than a regular sedan – I was a little bit thrown, to say the least.
I looked over at Connor. He seemed incredibly pleased with himself as he opened the back door for me.
“What the hell is this?” I asked in shock.
“Just get in.”
This guy wasn’t just some mid-level executive at a consulting firm. Mid-level executives didn’t normally tool around in Bentley limos.
Who is he?
A stranger. A man I hardly knew.
I could feel the fear rise in me… but then I remembered his touch up in the penthouse. The way he had kissed me.
And the fear dissolved.
Who is he, though?
I didn’t know… but more than anything, I wanted to find out.
And I wanted what we’d shared up in the penthouse.
Again and again, as much as I could get, in whatever time we had left.
I stepped into the car, Connor got in after me, and he closed the door behind us.