Chapter 25
After Beth has eaten the finest meal to ever touch her tongue, and they’ve emptied a bottle of wine and refused a second, Adrian settles the bill and they rise to leave.
She’d put a smile on through the rest of their dinner, even though Adrian’s comment lingered like a nagging, dull toothache. But the whole thing seems ridiculous anyway. It’s too soon to be talking about anything serious between her and Adrian. That she wants to be with him now doesn’t mean she’s willing to settle down with him.
She just needs some time to think about this. But now isn’t that time.
Adrian presses his palm on the small of her back as he leads her out of the restaurant. A fiery trail travels through her spine, and she inadvertently tenses. By the time they board the empty elevator, she’s clutching her purse with strained fingers. Adrian, on the other hand, looks as calm as ever, leaning against the elevator wall on the opposite side.
Just being alone with him in such close proximity still makes her nervous even though they’ve been in much more intimate situations. Or maybe it’s excitement. She’s finding it easier and easier to forget this man is her employer.
She turns her eyes to the digital display and counts down the floors, hoping the gesture will tame her frantic hormones.
Outside on solid ground, the night air is welcoming and cool as they make their way to the car. Adrian reaches for the door of the limo and pops it open, gliding his palm along her back again as she slides inside. Heat leaps to the surface of her skin, burning her cheeks, flushing her neck and chest.
She marvels at how easily he makes her body hum by raking her with the briefest touch. She clambers inside, straightening her hair and her dress in one nervous gesture after the other. He climbs in beside her, at a respectable distance. His aftershave has long faded, but the crisp fragrance of his laundry soap combined with his pheromones mingles in her senses. She focuses on the landscape whizzing by the window.
She hears an intake of breath and turns in anticipation. He takes her hand and kisses her knuckles. “Come back to my place. For a drink?”
Her heart practically sings at the thought but she decides to tease him. “Aren’t you sick of me yet?”
His face falls. “No. Are you sick of me?”
She squeezes his hand. “Not at all. And I’d love to come back to your place.” She pauses. “Does that mean…”
He smirks. “Yes. I want you to stay with me tonight.”
Oh. My.
After a few minutes, the limo stops in front of what looks like a high-rise palace. Adrian gets out first, offering her his hand. She takes it, shivering a bit as his long fingers graze her bare flesh. Adrian lives in a fancy building overlooking the waterfront, with a doorman and security desk.
Of course.
The elevator arrives on the fourteenth floor and opened directly into a huge foyer. A large, round marble table greets them as they walk in. She looks around. The apartment is enormous, decorated with sculptures and artwork. To the right, there’s a sleek, modern stainless steel kitchen, and straight ahead, a few steps down is a sunken living room with a full wall of floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the water. She walks straight to the glass to admire the view.
She feels him watching her as she wanders in awe under the twenty-plus-foot ceilings. The night-time glow of the downtown lights sparkles in from the windows which stretch from ceiling to floor, facing all directions. There’s a wide wall with even more expensive paintings behind an opulent fireplace and a cream-colored chaise longue in the open foyer. The panoramic view alone pumps her heart with adrenaline. She’s convinced this view would always take her breath away no matter how many times she sees it.
“You’ve been here before.”
To think that was just a few months ago. When she spent between six and seven days a week in a windowless part of her office at 'Buzz', working unpaid overtime every day in order to complete her superiors’ assignments, It’s crazy how much her life has changed. “Yeah. I guess I didn’t really get a good look. I mean considering I wasn’t exactly in the best frame of mind.”
“That makes sense.” He loosens his tie and shrugs out of his suit jacket. Following his lead, she kicks off her heels, placing them neatly in a corner. “Meet me on the terrace,” he says, nodding toward a glass door. “I’ll pour us something to drink.”
She floats out onto the terrace, lost in thought.
“Enjoying the view?”
She turns to find Adrian holding two glasses of red wine as he comes out to join her. He looks so good even in a dishevelled state; his suit jacket discarded, his tie loosened around his neck and his shirt sleeves rolled up halfway. There’s no looking at him without wanting him. Plain and simple.
“How could I not?” she asks, nodding her thanks when he hands her a glass. “Do you ever come out here?”
“Yeah. I’m out here often. Generally when I can’t sleep.”
“So, you come out here in your velvet robe with a glass of Scotch and gaze out at Gotham like Bruce Wayne?” she asks, grinning.
He smirks. “More like a pair of sweatpants, a book, and a glass of water.”
“Mm. That’s an even sexier image,” she says as he gives her a low, sexy, kind of tired laugh.
“Come here.” He comes up behind her and snakes his arms around her waist.
She turns in his arms and wraps her arms around his neck. Something about being here with him, seeing him with no shoes, all laid back and chill, compels her to snuggle into his chest and close her eyes. They remain quiet for a moment, just breathing against each other, both of them exhausted, but neither sleepy. Adrian is the first to break the silence.
“Come on. Let me show you around.”
They walk down a long hall. He opens each door as they pass and points from the doorway, but doesn’t go inside.
“Office.”
“Library.”
“Guest bedroom.”
“Bathroom.”
But when they get to the last door on the left, he opens it and takes her hand to lead her inside what is obviously the master bedroom. The room has the same big floor-to-ceiling windows, a beautiful fireplace to one side, and a king-size bed in the centre. Unlike the rest of the apartment, it’s pretty stark in decoration, but what is here is beautiful and of high quality.
Adrian walks to the bed and sits down, pulling her onto his lap.
Beth lifts one leg to straddle him and moves her face close enough that their noses were touching. “Better?”
He grips the back of her neck and speaks with his lips pressed to hers. “Perfect.”
They make out like two horny teenagers after that. When their kiss breaks, he tugs her hair to expose her throat and buries his face in her neck. He kisses and licks and bites his way up to her ear. His lips touch one of her breasts, as his hand circles the other. Her fingers clench convulsively in his thick hair, holding his head to her breast, then glides over the bunched muscles of his shoulders and arms.
"I don’t think I could ever get over how good you feel," he whispers hoarsely looking at her in a way he hasn’t before.
Something is different. And that something makes her heart race. His hoarse words of passion inflame her, and his whispered endearments stir her to her soul. Each touch of his seeking fingers, each brush of his lips and tongue send her soaring higher and higher into a universe where nothing exists except his wild beauty.
They spend the next two hours making love. He uses his cock and mouth and hands to prove just how bad he wants her. The fierce hunger of his deep strokes, the urgency of each thrust, sends waves of shivering ecstasy shooting through her. As that ecstasy finally explodes with a force that tears a low scream from her throat, Beth realizes that there’s no denying it anymore.
She has fallen.
Hard.
She doesn’t feel anything close to secure about it, but it’s happening, and try as she might, she can’t stop it anymore.