Page 20 of The Powerful Boss She Craves

Ella’s hand gripped his and she squeezed his fingers. The hiss of pain jerked him back to the present. ‘Come back from wherever you are, Micah. It’s not a good place for you to be,’ Ella told him in a fierce voice.

It was where he should be, Micah thought. He deserved, like Brianna, to be in no man’s land. He looked down and away, cursing fate that Bri wasn’t living her life out in the world, laughing and loving. She could be married by now, with a family. But she was stuck in that weird half-life and, to an extent, so was he.

He worked, looked after his family and worked some more. He exercised. He didn’t have a personal life. He wasn’t worthy of having one... What the hell was he doing here, spending time with Ella, chatting to her over dinner and a drink, as if this had the potential to go somewhere?

Sex was necessary, a great way to relieve stress, and he treated the woman he slept with well, but he never emotionally engaged with them. He didn’t kiss them on balconies, tell them anything about his past and hold them tight, enjoying their softness and their femininity, feeling for the first time in years at peace in someone’s arms.

He pushed back his chair with such force that it skidded across the floor. He pulled cash out of his wallet, tossed the notes onto the table and, without a word, walked away. He caught the confusion on Ella’s face and knew he was behaving badly, but he needed air, he needed quiet and he needed to get away from her...

She saw too much, and worse—much worse—made him feel far too much. She was dangerous and he needed to remember that.

CHAPTER SIX

ELLALOOKEDDOWNat the money on the table and stared at Micah’s retreating back, noticing the tension in his neck and shoulders. He looked as if he was carrying the world on his shoulders.

What on earth had she said? What had triggered his switch from being a charming dinner companion to a man who looked like she’d kicked him in the solar plexus and then stamped on his heart?

Ella caught the eye of the waitress, pointed at the cash on the table—far more than what their meals cost—and pushed back her chair. Walking slowly, she stepped into the still hot, fragrant summer night and looked up at the sky. Because this was mostly a rural area, the stars hung low in the sky, like sparkly little apples ready to be plucked off an intergalactic tree with wide branches.

The moon was a sliver in the sky and she remembered her mum describing it as ‘God’s thumbnail’. It was at times like these—times of change and uncertainty—that she missed her mum the most. She’d do anything to be able to call her up and ask for advice or to simply step into her arms for a long ‘I’ve got you’ hug.

Her mum had given the best hugs and, until this morning, she hadn’t had a decent hug since she’d been sixteen years old. Her previous lovers hadn’t been the ‘cuddle her close’ types.

Ella ignored the burn of tears in her eyes and rapidly blinked them away. Her dad didn’t engage with her. Why did she keep thinking about him? Why couldn’t she forget him—he obviously wanted her to—and move on with her life?

Because he was her dad, the only person she could call her own... Ella walked past the reception to the hotel and stepped onto the path that would take her to the attractive building that housed Micah’s and her adjoining rooms. Their rooms shared a veranda and looked onto the rolling lawn that ended at a pretty pond. In the pale light on the veranda, she saw Micah leaning against the door to his room, arms folded and head bowed.

The world thought he was this charming, carefree character; sexy, successful and sophisticated. Oh, he was all those things, but also so much more. Underneath the sharp clothes and the designer stubble, the fancy watch and the smart car, was a man of unexplored depths, someone who had demons running after him with pitchforks.

Ella stopped on the path a little way from him, wondering what to say or how to act. Should she pretend that nothing had happened inside the bar, ignore his flash of deep unhappiness, his burst of temper? After what happened with Pillay, she thought she’d be scared to be alone with any man, but she was convinced Micah would rather cut out his kidney than hurt her or any other woman, child or animal.

No, whatever had happened had nothing to do with her. His anger had been self-directed, and she knew he was doing some intense self-flagellation. Words wouldn’t help, Ella decided. Nothing she could say could bring him back from that dark place he was currently visiting. She could stand beside him and wait for him to return to her on his own, but who knew how long that would take? Or she could try and reach him another way...

Ella walked up the shallow steps to the veranda, stepped in front of him and gently pulled his arms apart so that she could wrap her arms around his waist and place her cheek on his thumping heart. He needed comfort, so she plastered her body to his, wanting to give him her heat and something to hang on to as he surfed those cold, dark winds.

He didn’t touch her. His arms hung at his sides but after a minute, maybe more, she felt some of the tension leave his body and heard his deep sigh. She knew that he was coming back to her when he placed his big hands on her hips and when he turned his head to rest his lips in her hair. Knowing he needed more, that she needed more, she pulled back and placed her mouth on his, encouraging him to step out of the darkness and back into the light.

He tensed again so she probed the seam of his mouth with her tongue and, when he opened his mouth, she kissed him gently, silently telling him to concentrate on her, on how she made him feel.

Ella felt a long shudder run through him then his hand slid across her lower back and he pulled her into him. She felt his hard erection, the proof she needed that he was back with her, in the moment. He took control of their kiss and, with one swipe of his tongue, he pulled her into an alternative world, one where only he existed.

She didn’t care that he was her boss, temporarily or otherwise, and that this might be awkward in the morning. All she knew for sure was that she wanted him.

And that maybe, just for tonight, he wanted andneededher. That was enough. Thathadto be enough.

Ella wrenched her mouth from his, pulled back and shoved her hand into the pocket of her jeans to pull out her electronic room key. She stepped around Micah, jammed her key into the slot and cursed when the room remained locked. She repeated the action, the door opened and she reached back to grab a handful of Micah’s shirt to pull him into the room. As soon as he was inside, she wound her arms around his neck, found his mouth again and tried to tell him, in the only way she knew how, how much she wanted to see him naked, to know what it felt like to have his body on hers, in hers.

Micah groaned, pulled her closer and kissed her thoroughly, intensely, his hand in her hair to keep her mouth plastered to his.

She needed him in a way that felt both foreign and wonderful, scary and delightful. She was riding the world’s most dangerous roller coaster, stowing away on a rocket ship, diving to dangerous depths without a mask...

And she was loving every second of it.

Micah gripped a handful of her hair, gently pulled her head back and, despite the darkness, she saw the look of intensity on his face, the heat in his eyes. ‘Are we doing this, Ella? Having sex?’

Given her recent history, she understood that he wanted—needed—her verbal consent and she was happy to give it. It might be a mistake, but she’d face those consequences tomorrow. ‘Yes, if you’d like to.’

His answer to that statement was to take her hand and place it on his erection. She sighed at how hard he was, how big. ‘I’d like.’

---