Page 104 of By His Rule

Did I lead him on tonight? Was that reaction my fault?

My breath catches when he steps closer as if he’s going to knock. As if he knows I’m here watching him. But then he changes his mind.

It takes him long minutes, but eventually, with one final long look at my front door, he disappears.

My chest constricts as he walks away with his head bowed. He doesn’t even take the elevator; he opts for the stairs instead.

“Fuck,” I breathe, my head spinning with the events of the day.

I never in a million years would have predicted that he’d turn up here and take me out. It’s happened and still, I’m struggling to get my head around it all.

Stepping back from the door, the coldness makes itself known once again, and after abandoning my purse and toeing off my shoes, I make my way through to my bedroom.

I abandon my cell on the bed until I’ve showered and dealt with my hair. After grabbing a bottle of water, I slip between my sheets and finally check my notifications.

I start with the messages from Wilder and Hendrix, smiling to myself as I read their words. They’re just checking in, but it means everything to me that they’ve taken a few minutes of their day to do so.

Tatum’s comes next, and I follow orders and fill her in on the rest of my night with Kian— although I keep those final moments to myself. I don’t understand them, so how the hell am I meant to explain what happened over texts?

And finally, I open the message from Ryder.

I ignored the one he sent earlier today. It didn’t feel right messaging him while hanging out with Kian.

Ryde my dick: Have you had a good day?

I tap the side of my cell as I contemplate my answer.

Have I had a good day?

Honest answer… yes. I’ve had a really good day.

I hate that I have. That I enjoyed spending time with Kian. Sure, he’s still demanding and overbearing, and everything I hate. But I’m beginning to see glimpses of another side to him.

Take him away from Callahan Enterprises and he’s actually a half-decent person. It is not what I wanted to discover about my boss.

Keeping the wall up between us, that he seems determined to knock down, would be so much easier if he kept the mask in place and continued to show me that he’s a cold, uncaring asshole.

Lori: Yeah, I have. You?

Ryde my dick: Had a quiet one. Mostly just waiting for you to reply and bring me some excitement.

Lori: Oh yeah? What kind of excitement did you have in mind?

It’s wrong. I shouldn’t engage. Not when my head is full of the man I’ve just turned down and slammed the door on. But also…it’s the perfect distraction from the man who needs to get out of my thoughts.

Nothing good can come from him getting up in my head and featuring in my dirty thoughts.

Nothing good at all.

25

LORELEI

If I didn’t have very, very vivid memories of Sunday, then I’d be questioning if it really happened.

I turned up at work on Monday morning and it was business as usual.

Kian had reverted back to the hard businessman I’ve always known him to be.

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