Page 36 of Hold On Me

Gritting my teeth, I press the emergency call button and sigh in relief when building maintenance answers. “Gabe, it’s Mr. Elias. Any idea how long we’ll be stuck in here?”

I catch the silent scoff from her when I don’t use my first name with Gabe, but I also don’t care. This is my building, my team, and I didn’t get where I am today by being familiar with my employees. There are a few exceptions to the rule obviously—her being one of them—but the majority of my staff have a professional relationship I like to maintain.

She glances at her watch and sighs. She’s obviously late to something. A date maybe? The idea pulls my brows together as I try to focus on what Gabe’s telling me. I manage to catch ‘could be an hour or so, could be sooner’ and watch the way her mouth gapes open and closes like a fish out of water. She must really want to make this date.

After signing off from Gabe, I fold my arms over my chest. She’s squinting at her phone and shaking it, clearly trying to get some sort of service in here. A small chuckle leaves my lips and she glares at me. Instead of backing down, I focus my gaze on her hazel eyes. “Looks like we have time now, Penelope.”

It takes a second for her to realise what I mean, and when the penny drops, she narrows her eyes. “You did this on purpose.” Her arms fold over her chest, the heavy winter coat draped over her arm flapping against her hip as she raises her brow, always challenging me.

“Don’t be ridiculous. You would’ve seen if I’d pressed anything. And why would I want us stuck in a lift together?”

I lean against the wall, feigning nonchalance, when in reality my heart’s beating faster than I’d care to admit. Being this close to her, I can smell her shampoo—green apples and vanilla. I want to bury my nose in her hair and inhale until I’ve had my fill, but I don’t think I’d ever have enough.

“A lift?” Her brows are raised so close to her hairline, I smirk.

“It’s what we Brits call this…” I motion to the small box we’re trapped in, sarcasm dripping from my voice as she frowns back.

“It’s an elevator, but that’s besides the point. Maybe you hit a button to stop us so you’d finally find out what happened at the school. You seem to be very interested in it after all. I take it signing NDAs to find information from your employees isn’t common practice?”

Her voice is shaky, it gives away the feigned confidence she’s trying to exude. It’s adorable. But I won’t tell her that. I don’t want to fight with her right now. I want to know what happened, and this is the perfect opportunity.

“You say potayto and I’ll say potahto. You’re right. It isn’t something I do for all employees, but I made an exception for you.” I let my gaze lock with hers to let her see I’m being genuine before I continue. “And I didn’t press anything. I promise.” I hold my pinky finger out for her and watch as the shock on her face takes over and then turns into amusement. She lifts her pinky and wraps it around mine, grinning at me. “So, spill.”

Disentangling myself from her, I place my hands in my pockets, not trusting I’ll keep my hands to myself if I don’t. The feel of her skin on mine, even though it was just her pinky, sent currents rushing through me.

She blows out a breath, lowers herself down to the floor and stretches her lean legs out in front of her. The hem of the knitted dress she’s wearing is riding high on her thighs, gliding over heropaque tights, but not high enough to show me any of the good stuff. And yet I still can’t force my eyes away from her. “May as well get comfy seeing as we’re gonna be here for a while.” She glances at her watch again and I lower myself next to her, mirroring her stance in the small confines.

“You keep looking at your watch.” It’s not a question, but I still raise my brow, expecting an answer.

She tilts her head to the side to look at me and raises her brow back. A smile tips my lips and I motion with my hand for her to continue speaking. I love the balls on this woman.Like. Ilikethe balls on her. Jeez what’s with me?

“I wanted to check on my dad before I went—um… attended my prior arrangement, and this situation is making me late.”

Hmmm… A prior arrangement my arse. That’s a polite way of saying she’s got a date. She probably wanted to go home and change beforehand. I take another quick glance at her legs. Even though the tights she’s wearing are thick, I can still make out the shape of them, and can still imagine how smooth they’d be. I let my gaze roll over her dress, a dark chocolate colour with a few buttons popped to show a sliver of her cleavage, and quickly look away when her eyes meet mine. She doesn’t need to change a damn thing. She looks pretty perfect to me already.

“And the NDA?” I clear my throat to rid some of the lust filling it and catch her smirk. I’m fucking gifting her the upperhand on a silver platter here.

“Why do you care so much?” The confidence oozes from her this time, and I kind of miss the apprehension she had in the beginning of this little situation.

“You seem like you need someone to talk to about it.” Honesty is the best policy, and I went with it. I left out the small tidbit of me needing to know because it’ll give me an edge over everyone else who knows her so well. She doesn’t need to know that.

“Wow, that was honest. I didn’t expect that.” She blows a puff of air from her lips and stares straight ahead to avoid my gaze, her back flush against the wall. “I was asked to leave quietly after a parent and my boss hit on me and I turned them down.”

It takes me a second to understand what she’s said as I’m struggling to understand why the vulnerable whisper of her voice activated a possessive gene that’s been dormant for most of my life. “You can’t be serious.”

Her head snaps around and her eyes meet mine, fire and humiliation blazing through them. “You think I’d lie about this?”

“I was hoping you were, but no, I don’t.” My voice cuts through the icy atmosphere, the anger clear with my clenched jaw.

She looks down at her hands wringing together in her lap, but not before I notice a tear fall down her cheek.

“Tell me exactly what the fuck happened and who the fuck it was. I’ll handle it.”

20

PENNY

Tell me what the fuck happened and who the fuck it was. I’ll handle it.

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