Page 92 of Tender Offer
“Don’t ‘Puff’ me!”
The marble floor of the lobby absorbs the blow of my heels on their short path to the elevators. Somewhere between the bar and the foyer, my strut went from Olivia Pope to Annalise Keating real fast. The day is finally catching up with me.
It’s then I notice my missing clutch with the key card to my room.Great. I stomp my ass back to the bar, fried from the photo shoot and this conversation.
“Leave something?” The question comes from the phone I peel away from my ear. I didn’t drinkthatmuch damn champagne, not enough to bend the laws of physics.
Preston is here.
With my black clutch and a smile, he says, “Hello, Puff.”
Chapter 45
Madison
Only a man who ignored me for over a week would cross an ocean to play in my face.
My grip on my phone is the only reason Preston isn’t modeling an imprint of it on his forehead. His audacity is tempting me to test my luck with an assault charge.
The nerve of him to stand hereandsmell good.
Preston’s smile falls, taking the dimples I love with it. He’s smart enough to know I wouldn’t welcome him with open arms and an invitation to fuck me through a headboard.
I snatch my clutch from his hand and sneak another glance at the frown knitting his thick brows, the teeth sinking into soft lips. The goatee that prickles my thigh.
Another second, and I’ll ride him first and ask questions later.
Reroute.
I stab the elevator button and say a quick prayer of thanks when the doors open immediately. Nine more floors until a warm shower and a soft bed soothe my resentment for the night.
“I’m sorry, baby,” Preston says to my back. The buttery murmur coaxes the hairs on my neck to stand at attention. Hesteps into the elevator and stuffs his hands into his jeans with a sigh. “You didn’t answer any of my calls or texts. What did you expect me to do?”
I shrug. “Not ignore me in the first place.”
Is it a petty response? Of course.
Do I care? Absolutely not.
The elevator music is no match for my heartbeat, which is pounding under Preston’s stare. He’s silent, his head tilted to track my every move. Anyone who faces off with him in the boardroom must have a superpower. He swapped out his suit for a cable-knit sweater pushed up to his forearms and relaxed-fit jeans over toffee brown high-top sneakers.
It’s his eyes that have me sucking in a gasp. The haunting cognac gaze is daring me to keep it up.
So I do.
Liquid courage.
“Are you sleeping with her?” If he is, he can keep his tender offer and whatever feelings he has for Bellamy.
The look he aims my way traps me in a silent eternity. “How could you ask me that? I love you, Madison. I want only you, and I’m not pursuing or sleeping with anyone else—KD included.” Hurt laces his voice, as if I offended him. Maybe I did, but what am I supposed to think when Bellamy has gone out of her way to stake her claim?
“How do you not see it? She’s in love with you, Preston.”
“I’ve never felt the same way.”
“But that doesn’t stop someone from loving you!” I toss up my hands.Duh!“It takes a special kind of pressed to seek me out. Did she tell you she saw us at Ravenous?Watchedus?”
That gets his attention. “What?” He frowns.
