Page 17 of Chic Steel

“You’re gorgeous,” he says, eyes scanning me up and down and settling on my face with a small smile.

“Thank you.” My mouth’s dry, and my hands are damp. He’s wearing a suit—because apparently he doesn’t own anything else—and looks delicious. His blue eyes pop against the white shirt. “You look beautiful.” His eyes crinkle. “I mean pretty—no, handsome! You look handsome.” I close my eyes, mortified, and hope the makeup covers my blush.

Add red cheeks to the rest of my outfit.

Arms wrap around me and tug me into a hug. My face against his chest, the fabric cool on my hot cheeks, and I’m praying I don’t get makeup on it.

Oliver ducks his head to reach my ear. “Thank you, honey. I’m glad you like the suit.”

“I like you,” I mumble into his chest. My cheeks have cooled enough for me to lift my head and face him. “You always look good, but it’s you I like.”

“Good,” he whispers. “Did you have a good day?”

“I did. Thank you for the flowers.” I glance at the cup holding them in the middle of the table. “And for the nails. I hope you like red.” I lift my hand to show him, and he grasps my fingers and brushes a thumb across the colour.

“I do.” His eyes flick to my lips. “A lot.”

I swallow and imagine my red lipstick decorating his face.

“I have something for you.” He pulls away and reaches into his pocket, hand reappearing with a jewellery box.

“You didn’t need to get me anything. You already got me flowers and paid for the nails,” I say, despite my heart jumpinginto my throat knowing he was thinking of me. Like I was while Isla swiped colour on my nails.

“I wanted to.” He opens the box and tugs out a necklace that glints in the light.

“It’s lovely. Thank you.” I reach for it, but he holds it out of reach.

“Can I put it on you?”

I nod and turn for him. A shiver runs through me when the cool metal touches my heated skin, and his hands brush my throat. His hands ruffle my hair as he clasps it, and he rubs his hands down my shoulders and arms when he’s finished, leaving goosebumps behind.

“Your jewellery’s decorating me. I want some of mine to decorate you,” he whispers in my ear, his breath sending another shiver through me.

He’s right. I have a secret claim on him no one knows about, and he’s put his not-so-secret claim on me.

I love it.

“How long is this thing?”

He grasps my hand and leads me to the door and says, “The sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave.”

Makes sense to me.

The drive to the stadium takes a while, but I don’t care because I’m in his car, inhaling his cologne, chatting about anything and everything. It’s perfect. We talk about places we’ve both travelled to, and what’s top on our list next. I forgot we were meeting other people until he pulls into a fancy car park at the stadium.

He helps me out of the car and bypasses the crowd of people at the doors and heads to a smaller door with one person in front of it.

“Shouldn’t we go through there?” Where everyone else is? Not the fancy side entrance no one ever goes through.

“No, we’re going to the corporate suite.”

I stumble. The what now?

He turns when I stop moving and tugs my hand. “You coming?”

“Yes, yep. Definitely. Didn’t realise it was a corporate suite.” I choke on the last words. I know he’s CEO of his company, but this is a whole different game. His company has a corporate suite. What the fuck. Why am Ihere?All I do is pierce people, and he’s taking me up there, and why am I in jeans?—

“Ella, you okay?”

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