Page 25 of My Forbidden Boss

For now.

He might not throw me aside on purpose, but I’m a realist. It will happen.

Tension draws harsh lines across his face before his expression firms into determination. “We’re going out.”

“But what about…?” The day, your employees, my empty desk.

“One good thing about being the boss is that I can come and go as I please. And ask my employees to do the same.” David’s fingers curl around mine, trapping them.

I don’t pull away as he leads me out of his office and to my desk where he swings the coat he gave me across my shoulders — his daughter’s coat that I’ll return when all this is over — and walks me to the underground car park. He’s all gentle hands and care when he puts me into the passenger seat and I slip into the buttery leather and make the most of experiencing luxury like this.

This is a trap.

The ragged sharp metal teeth are covered by rabbit fur, but what’s underneath will tear me apart when the teeth snap through skin and bone. My foot is already on the plate and the levers are primed. There will be damage. I’ll lose a part of myself that can’t be seen and I’ll bear these scars for the rest of my life.

“Where are we going?” I ask as we pull into thick New York traffic. I’m used to my one street town that’s never known rush hour.

“I want to show you something,” David says.

It’s intimate sitting next to him in his car. A capsule that seals us off from the rest of the world. Max can’t touch me here and I relax. I can pretend things are different. That I’m different.

“What are you going to show me?” I ask.

A smile plays across his lips and tiny lines fan from the corner of his eyes. “It’s a secret.”

I smile back because I can’t help it. Lightness fills my heart. It doesn’t scrub the entirety of the darkness away because stains like that never come out, but I’m buoyed above the swirling mass of sludge.

David talks to me and I’m amazed at how normal I am by his conversation. There’s no talking down. No hidden agenda. It’s just me and him and by the time we draw up to a luxury home on the Southampton beach it’s been two hours and I’m relaxed.

“Is this your house?”

“This was my first building project when I first started Blue Sky. My friend Tristan wrangled a loan, and we both went out on a ledge together. I put together my first building crew and completely renovated the house. That was twenty years ago,” he says.

My life ago.

“It’s beautiful. You did a good job. I’m sure the people who bought it love to live in it,” I say.

My gaze runs over the immense size of the house taking in the pitched roof, and white trims, and the skill, vision and hard work needed to restore a house this size.

Blue Sky is as old as me, and I can see why it’s successful. David Chandler is extremely talented. He’s successful, driven, ambitious and I don’t understand why he’d be interested in someone twenty years his junior. I have nothing to offer in return.

My loose limbs tighten. He’s driven two hours when he could have shown me photos.

I’m pinned by his stare. He traces my chin with a touch that makes my eyes sting. He looks at me in a way I’ve seen no one other than Mom or Maddy look at me, but the mix of emotions I see is more than that. Part yearning. Part disbelief.

All heat.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask.

His gaze is liquid. Bottomless wells of dark water. He leans towards me, pressing his lips against mine. I can’t move. I don’t want to move. I want him to kiss me again like he did before. It’s all I can think about. All I need. This one next kiss and that will never be enough.

“Because you told me the house is beautiful, and that I did a good job instead of asking about the price of real estate; how much I bought and sold it for, how much profit I made. Other people don’t care that I laid bricks until my fingers bled, how I nailed and sealed and painted every part of that house when my contractor went home for the day. How I worked twenty-hour days for months to keep the project rolling along and didn’t take a wage in all that time. But you see all that. You don’t see me like I’m nothing more than the sum of my bank account and furnishings and I’m drawn to you like I’ve never been drawn to anyone in my life.”

He captures my mouth again with his and kisses me so deeply my hand drifts to his hair and I let my fingers slide through the silky strands. I tilt my head and kiss him back, losing myself so that when he pulls back, I’m dazed.

His breath mingles with mine. I’m dizzy. High. He’s the drug and I take it by choice.

He nails me in place with hard eyes and I’m breathless. “Don’t question my desire for you, Adeline. I would have taken you to my city condo and into my bed after that kiss this morning to show you how much, but I won’t do that. Not yet. I want to show you everything about myself so you can make an informed decision. No doubts. No secrets. I’m not going to hold anything back because when I take you, and I will take you, I want it to be all of you in return. No doubts. No double-thinking. I want a full commitment. I won’t accept anything less.”

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