Page 86 of The Cask

I folded my arms across my chest and glared at him. “And I wonder how you thanked her for expediting your paperwork.”

“She helped me because she’s been wanting me to come back for years,” he continued, ignoring my outburst. “So, I can help her with our mother.”

I blinked rapidly. “Hm?”

“Olivia is my sister,” he clarified.

I just stood there in a stunned silence. I didn’t know what to say.

“I see you, Ebony.” He crossed the room and grabbed the blanket in my cozy corner. “And until you kill whatever idea of me you have in your head, nothing I say will ever get through to you and you’ll keep trying to push me away. Until you bury that shit, you won’t see how much I fucking like you.” He walked through my office door and then looked back at me. “I’m going to clear my head.”

He left me standing in the middle of my office, trying to wrap my head around everything.

Olivia was his sister.

His sister called in the middle of our date. When he said he had some business to take care of, he was talking about with his sister.

I pushed my chair back behind my desk and then went to the bathroom to clean myself up. When I felt fresh and clean, I stood in the hallway in just a sweater and I sighed.

I won.

My plan worked.

He missed and lacked preparation for meetings. He missed the finale of his own grand opening. His relationship with his GM was likely over for good. The whole Olivia thing was news to me, but the operation to subdue Luxe and stick it to the man who said The Cask was no match for Luxe was successful—wildly so.

But as I looked toward the well-lit wine cellar, I didn’t feel as good as I thought I would. Punish without impunity felt good and right when I said it a week ago. It felt like what I had to do. But something changed.

I knew I had a decision to make. I could go in my office and chill until it was time to escape. Or I could go to the wine cellar and talk it out with Omari. I looked down into the wine cellar and then I looked in my office. I gave one last, longing look toward the wine cellar and then I walked into my office.

Chapter Sixteen

I’d taken the key from the secret pocket sewn into my dress and tiptoed up the steps. I kept looking back to ensure Omari wasn’t coming because things would go from bad to worse if he found out. As quietly as possible, I unlocked the door and then crept back down the staircase. Slipping the key back into its hiding spot, I took a deep breath.

With the Amontillado in one hand and the wine glasses in the other, I left my office in search of Omari. I spotted him well before I reached him. He was sitting on a wooden pallet with the blanket wrapped around him. Wordlessly, I sat next to him. I poured a splash of wine in each glass and then I handed him one.

Breaking the silence, I cleared my throat and held my glass high. “To killing and burying the version of you I created in my head.”

“Yes,” he agreed, clinking his glass against mine. “For the love of God, yes.”

“It won’t leave this cellar,” I promised him.

We sipped from our glasses and went back to a comfortable silence. When my glass was empty, I turned to him. “I’m sorry.”

He licked his lips. “I accept your apology,” he whispered, opening the blanket. “Now get in here.”

We stayed in the cellar for ten minutes and then we went back to my office. We put the thicker blanket on the floor and covered up with a throw my mom knitted for me when she was into that. But with the door closed and the space heater on, we were warm and toasty.

And things would only get warmer.

“I could get used to this,” he murmured, kissing my neck.

With his semi-hard dick pressing against my ass, I snuggled closer to him. “We should turn the lamp off before we fall asleep.” I felt him growing against me.

“There’s something I need to see first.” He kissed my shoulder and then rolled me onto my back.

“What’s that?”

His lips brushed mine gently. “I need to see you come.”

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