Page 11 of Chic Steel

My body freezes, and I clear the tightness in my throat before I answer her. “Thanks, push all my meetings, please.”

“Already started. Good luck,” she sings and the phone clicks off, leaving silence and the faint sound of someone walking down the hallway. Towards me.

It’s Ella. Ella’s about to enter my office. To return my wallet, I assume.

Yes, I left it deliberately. Is it the same as asking her out? No. But it got her here and gave me time to think of a plan. Not that I’m much closer to finding the words, but it’s given me another opportunity to see her and attempt to ask her out. Now to figure out how to execute it.

She knocks on the door.

“Come in.”

Need to ask her out. It’s not hard. Say the words and—she opens the door, and I sit up straight. My mouth goes dry and my heart races. She’s wearing a tight red shirt, black jeans, and the top half of her hair is pulled into a tiny loop at the top of her head. I fix my eyes on her face, refusing to scan down to see if I can see her nipple piercings.

She enters the room slowly. Caramel eyes dart around the office and land on me.

“Hi,” she says while coming closer to me and digging a hand in her bag. “You left your wallet at the store yesterday.”

Must act surprised. As if I was looking for it and panicking about leaving it somewhere instead of hoping she would come here and return it to me.

“I looked for it everywhere. Thought I left it at home.” I stand to meet her and round the desk. She holds it out to me and I take it, the leather’s cool except where her fingers held it. I drop it on the desk.

“No worries. Didn’t want you to cancel your cards.”

“Thanks. I appreciate you coming out this way.” Hadn’t thought of that. It’s a half-hour drive from the beach to the city, not far, but hardly simple for her to drop it off. Damn it. Hopefully she was already coming this way and didn’t stress about getting me the wallet.

“Your business card doesn’t have a phone number on it.” She perches on the desk, and I stop myself from imagining her lying across it while I’m on my knees for her.

What was her question? “I hate phone calls. Especially with people I don’t know.”

“People don’t need to reach you by phone?” She glances around the large office. “I thought a place like this would network and need your phone number.”

She’s not wrong. It’s easier to call people, but I don’t like giving my number out. “No one’s entitled to my time or my contact number. When we’re in talks of a deal, then they get my number.”

Ella raises her brow and tilts her head. “Only then?”

My throat’s dry and I shove my hands in my pockets to cover the nervous shaking. How have I only realised that if my number was on the card she could’ve called or texted me?And then I’d have her number and wouldn’t need to ask for it. Goddamn boundaries I put in place biting me in the ass.

“Depends on the person.” I rock back on my heels and try to stop my fidgeting. So far, this isn’t going terribly.

Silence falls between us.

Or maybe it is, and I don’t understand her social cues.

“Have you been there?” She nods at the pictures decorating the wall. Photos of London, Florence, and Vienna in different seasons.

A sigh escapes me. Travel I can talk about. “Not yet. Too busy with this, not much time left for travel. One day, I’ll make it there.” One day, I’ll leave this office and do something interesting with my life. Something with work-life balance. With her by my side. Unless she doesn’t want to travel.

“You don’t travel for your job?” She glances around the room again, taking in the hospital-white walls and files scattered on my desk.

“Don’t need to. When I figure out what to do with my life next, I’ll leave this place and travel around.”

“You don’t like working here?” She scoots back on the desk so her legs swing above the floor and shifts files out of the way. Ella pats the spot she’s cleared beside her and gestures to me.

I swallow hard and sit beside her on the desk, my thigh pressing against her, my arm against her shoulder, her head barely level with my neck. Never been so close to her.

Well. She’s been close to me, but only to put metal in my body. I’ve never been so close to her, touching her, inhaling her floral scent.

And I’ve never sat on my desk before. The hardness of it on my ass distracts me from wrapping an arm around Ella and hauling her close.

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