Page 30 of The Powerful Boss She Craves

‘I do,’ Micah replied. ‘And it concerns you. Want to tell me why you stormed away earlier?’

‘No.’ It was a truthful answer because she didn’t want to tell him. Kiss him, make love to him, sure. Talk about her hang-ups? No, thank you.

‘Can I come in?’ Micah asked, looking over her shoulder into the emptiness beyond.

She didn’t want him to see her empty flat, to take in the bare, cold, white walls. Her flat was soulless, and she didn’t want him to think she was too.

Before she could find the words to answer his question, Micah cupped her face in his hands and gently kissed her mouth. It was a soft kiss, anI’ve got youkiss, a kiss that brought tears to her eyes. Because she’d had so little tenderness for so long, it had the ability to drop her to her knees.

Micah dropped his hands, gripped her waist and quickly, with no effort at all, picked her up and walked her into the flat, kicking the door closed with his foot. He put her back on her feet and looked around the open-plan lounge, diner and kitchen. When his eyes met hers, they were shot with steel.

‘You told me that you are emigrating, so I’m presuming that you’ve been selling your stuff?’

‘Yes.’

‘That explains the empty flat. But if you’ve been sleeping on a mattress, I will lose it,’ he warned her.

‘I still have my bed,’ Ella told him, trying to sound cool. God, he looked so big in this space, and he sucked up the air and energy.

He frowned at her and turned around in a slow circle before walking over to the fridge and yanking it open. Ella winced; it was mostly empty, as she’d planned to run down to the supermarket a block away to stock up on food for the weekend but hadn’t got round to doing it. Her small freezer held nothing but a couple of ice trays.

Micah opened a few more cupboards, growing considerably more tense. Slamming a door shut, he shook his head and, without saying anything to her, stomped across her flat to open the door to her bedroom and disappeared inside. Ella frowned and followed him.

When she got there, he was lifting her small suitcase—the one she’d used on their trip to Clarens—onto her bed.

‘What the hell are you doing, Micah?’

‘I’m taking you home to Hadleigh House.’

He was? This was news to her.

‘You don’t have any food in this house, no furniture...you don’t even have a TV for entertainment! You have a couch and a bed!’ he stated, his tone grim.

She knew that; she lived here. ‘I’m only buying what I need so I don’t have to throw anything away when I leave. And it’s only me, so a couch is more than adequate, and I have a laptop on which I can work or watch movies or listen to music,’ Ella replied, bemused by his annoyance at the way she was living. ‘I’m perfectly comfortable, Micah.’

‘Well, I’m not, Ella! I’m not comfortable with any of this!’ Micah stated, looking irritated. ‘I’m not comfortable with how much I want you, how much I hate seeing you live like this.’

She wasn’t living rough, for goodness’ sake.

Micah pushed both his hands through his hair. ‘And I’m sure as hell not comfortable with whatever it was that sent you flying away from Hadleigh like a bat out of hell.’ He pointed a finger at her. ‘And we are going to talk about that, by the way.’

God, she loved it when he sounded a little out of control, fractionally uncivilised.

‘Come back to my place with me, El. Come and lie by the pool, eat great food prepared by an excellent chef, watch movies in our media room. I need to work, as I have quite a bit to do, but I won’t get a damn thing done knowing you are here...’

Ella tipped her head to the side. He seemed genuinely stressed by her living here, surrounded by white walls and her few boxes. ‘I’m not on the verge of homelessness, Micah.’

A look of pure frustration crossed his face. ‘I know that; I’m not that much of a snob,’ he snapped. He held up his hands, annoyed and frustrated. ‘I want you with me, okay? I want to know that you are around, that I can find you when I’m done with work. I want us to spend time together.’

Aw...

‘And when we make love—and we will, often—I’d prefer to do it in my enormous bed, where we have space to move.’

Oh, that did sound amazing. Ella rubbed the back of her neck. But should she spend the rest of the weekend with him? She was tempted, of course she was—who wouldn’t want to spend time with Micah in his glorious house?—but, given that she was a conflicted mess of too-hard-to-handle emotions,shouldshe? It was one thing to have a one-night stand, another to spend hours with him, lounging around, eating his food, drinking his wine, swimming in his pool. Exploring his delicious body...

He’d already turned her world upside down. How would she be after spending concentrated time with him?

She was just making it harder to leave him, to say goodbye. But leave she would, so why not make a couple of memories she could hold on to? Decisions, decisions...

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