Page 2 of One More Kiss

Someone cleared their throat. It was Winston subtly letting me know my customer service veneer was slipping. Realizing I was sneering at my computer screen, I blanked my face and forced a smile. “I’m perfectly fine now. Thank you for your concern.”

If you were so worried, you should have called me. Or come to my room to check with your own eyes that I was okay.

I wanted to throw those words at him, but I couldn’t with my boss, three staff members, and half a dozen guests standing nearby. Nibbling on the inside of my cheek, I wondered if what I was feeling was because of my pregnancy or if I was just tired of being his secret. Our relationship had been a growing sore spot for me long before he’d left on the latest business trip with my father.

“Come up to my office.”

“I apologize for the inconvenience, but I’m busy at the moment.” If he was watching me on the security feed—which I had no doubt he was—he would know I wasn’t lying. But two weeks ago, I would have dropped everything and run to him if he’d so much as raised his brows at me. We needed to talk, now more than ever, but I wasn’t ready. “If this is an emergency, I am sure Winston will be able to better assist you.”

“Whatever you are doing can wait. I have been traveling for more than twenty-four hours. Get your ass into my office.”

Shivering at the command in his tone, I tightened my fingers around the receiver. Suddenly, I wanted to be very, very dirty in all the yummy ways. But the length of his travel day reinforced my theory that he hadn’t returned because of me. He had been in the air long before I’d gotten sick the previous day. “Of course, sir. I understand. Give me five minutes to finish up, and I will—”

“Now, Lily!” Nash barked and slammed the phone down, making me flinch.

Replacing the receiver, I continued typing.

Winston grunted behind me. I looked up into his grumpy face and gave him another smile. There was just something about his sternness that made me want to squish his weathered brown cheeks together, even when I felt like crap and wanted to cause physical harm to the man I loved.

“I will handle LEX tonight,” he told me as I printed off a few things. “If you insist, you can handle the tournament, but only until evening shift clocks in. Other than that, I want you to take it easy. Maybe sneak in a nap.”

“Maybe,” I hummed noncommittally. Picking up the stack of files that was my six-page to-do list, I grabbed a keycard that would give me access to any room on any level. “Call if you need me for anything. I will be starting on all this after I have a chat with Mr. Phoenix.”

“Text me if you need reinforcements.”

CHAPTER TWO

delilah

It was barely after six, but Nash’s personal assistant was behind his desk clicking away on his computer when I stepped off the elevator.

He unlocked Nash’s office door with a quick flick of the button on his desk without lifting his gaze from the screen. “Delilah.”

“Heath,” I greeted as I passed.

“Good luck,” he muttered, and I almost smiled.

A lethal, golden lion stood behind Nash’s desk when I entered the executive office. His thickly corded muscles were tense beneath his wrinkled dress shirt as he stood by the window, glaring down at the Strip, the bored, angry god of all he surveyed.

I doubted he’d gone to his suite when he arrived in the early hours of the morning. From the amount of stubble on his chiseled jaw, he hadn’t shaved in a few days. His short blond hair was mussed. He must have been running his fingers through the slightly curly locks.

My heels sank soundlessly into the carpet as I crossed to his desk. Dropping my phone, stack of papers, and my access key on the corner, I folded my hands in front of me and waited.

Turning, he raked his true hazel eyes over me, the starburst of golden brown in the center of each iris glowing. My body reacted at the first caress of that beautiful gaze stroking over me. Goose bumps popped up along my arms, my nipples tightening into painful points against the satin half cups of my bra. My panties had been a mess from the moment I’d heard his voice on the phone earlier. It was a struggle not to rub my thighs together at his heated appraisal.

His shirt was half unbuttoned, showing off deliciously golden skin accented by curls of blond hair. I bit into the inside of my cheek to stop myself from whimpering at the sight of the tattoo of a lion’s head that took up the left side of his chest. I loved all his ink, but my favorite was the phoenix that was spread across his entire back.

A hoarse sound left his throat, drawing my gaze back to his face. Tenderness lightened his eyes, making the mix of blue and green around the golden starburst brighter. Until Nash, I had never understood the whole concept of drowning in someone’s eyes. Then I’d truly gotten lost in his and had the breath stolen from my lungs. I’d been willingly sinking deeper and deeper ever since.

I was starting to feel the suffocating effect from a lack of air. With each additional day of having to live in the shadows, never allowed to so much as smile at him in public while other women openly flirted with him in front of me, I wasn’t just drowning. His demand that we stay secret was like a boulder tied to my feet, sinking me faster.

“You have dark circles under your eyes,” Nash grated out. “Have you not been sleeping?”

“It’s been a long two weeks,” I told him with a shrug, struggling to keep my face neutral. Until he’d begun slipping into my bed almost eight months ago, I’d never slept beside another person in my life. But now, it seemed I couldn’t rest unless I was wrapped around his hard body.

Other than his rumpled shirt, he showed no other outward signs that he had suffered the same insomnia that plagued me when he was away. Another red flag I had ignored since the beginning of our…affair? I wasn’t sure that was the correct word. Relationship wasn’t right either.

Nash fucked me. Sometimes in his office. Every night he was home, he was in my bed. But we never went anywhere together as a couple. Work events were different. There were times when I had to represent the Royal side of the hotel, while he was the face of the Phoenix.

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