Chapter 207: Get On Your Knees

Holly's POV

By the time we’d covered a whole section of the open floor, I stretched and felt that delicious satisfied soreness that says you’ve actually accomplished something. “We should probably eat,” I said, wincing in a mock-royal way.

“You look tired.” He slipped my jacket back onto me, helping my arms through the sleeves with a small, nice-old-man tenderness that made my ears go warm.

I dusted myself off, and he helped me put my jacket on, his fingers lingering on my shoulders for a moment longer than necessary. He picked up my bag, and I teased him. “Still carrying my bag so I don’t use what’s inside on you?”

He grinned. “I don’t mind if you use the cuffs on me.”

We both laughed, a carefree, easy sound. “It’s never happening,” I said, shaking my head. “ And like I said, if you want it so badly, you can commit a crime so you get arrested.”

His laughter filled the air as we walked out of the building. After he locked up the office, we got into his car and drove off, and only then did I pull out my phone again.

I had put it on Do Not Disturb earlier, knowing full well they would be calling me non-stop because Mr. Griffin must have threatened non-stop to pull out of the deal. I was betting on it.

If he had and they begged me well enough, I would swoop in and help them get the contract back, making it impossible for David to dispose of me easily. A faint chime sounded inside my bag, and I reached into the small compartment. It was the secret phone. Candy’s secret phone.

A wicked smile spread across my face even before I brought it out. I read the message, my heart hammering with a savage thrill. My dear David was so frustrated with things at work that he needed a release.

He was literally begging me to come and see him, telling me to stop punishing him. But it couldn’t end like this. He had to beg for it. Not just with words. He would kneel and beg for me to ride him.

“Is everything alright?” Tyler asked, pulling me from my thoughts. He had noticed my silence.

“Everything’s fine,” I murmured, stuffing the phone back into the bag. I listened with giddy excitement as he talked about his company's plans.

We arrived at the diner, and Tyler insisted on opening the car door for me like it was still 1952, and I let him. It was a small, lovely thing.

He took my bag, carrying it as we walked to the door. It was such a sweet gesture that I didn’t know how to react to it.

The bell chimed as we stepped inside, and he helped me take off my jacket, holding it in his elbow as he led me to the table he reserved.

He rushed and pulled out a chair for me, but before I could sit, a hand gripped my arm, twirling me around to face whoever it was. The electricity that exploded in my belly told me exactly who it was.

“Of all the places,” he said, and his voice had that dangerous mix of velvet and snapping wire. Up close he was more than the postcard I’d been keeping in the back of my mind since the past two weeks that I haven't seen him. He filled the space, the light catching the edge of his jaw like it had been made to photograph well.

David. My man.

Heat slid along my spine, not the clumsy heat of lust alone but the complicated, layered kind that tastes of history and thrills and very dangerous promises.

Tyler’s hand on the back of my chair tightened in a way that read: I am not a push-over. His face was a private comedy…equal parts polite, wary, and ready to attack if needed.

David smiled…a small, contained thing…and for the first time that morning, something like the dream and the present braided together into a sharp, sexy, immediate now.

“Holly,” he said, and his voice did that thing where the syllables are less important than the way he announces that the room just tilted.

“Fancy seeing you here, Mr David,” Tyler said, smooth as ever. He gestured like he was opening a window so the breeze could sweep away awkwardness, and hopefully, David too.

David leaned in, polite and predatory in the same breath. “Nice to see you too, Tyler,” he answered in response. Then he turned to me, “I wasn’t expecting to find you with the new branding czar.”

“You weren’t expecting to find me anywhere,” I said, and it came out lighter than I felt. But I was smiling…maybe because the world felt cropped into a frame with him in it, maybe because there was an electric current in the air I had no intention of shorting out.

If it weren’t for the self-control class Kayla insisted I take on weekends drilling restraint into me, I’d have collapsed in a puddle of arousal at the way his hand still claimed my arm.

But I stayed composed, biting my inner cheeks to keep my mind alert and guarded.

For a beat, it seemed like the three of us were frozen in time. No one moved to break the silence.

Then, Tyler cleared his throat and suggested that we all sit first. David’s eyes lingered on my lips for a split second and something feral softened there, like the corner of a map where the ink smudged.

Wait… is he actually thinking about kissing me? Here? Now? Oh my God, what do I do? Do I lean in? Do I close my eyes? Do my lips even look kissable right now?

“Hold on,” I said, snapping myself out of my delusions. “You both know each other?” I asked, only realizing now that they referred to each other with their names despite the fact that I hadn't introduced them yet.

“I should talk to you. In private,” David said ignoring my outburst, and there was a tension under the surface, like a rubber band stretched and humming.

“About?” I asked defiantly. The question was light, but I could feel the weight behind it.

He hesitated. “About everything,” he said finally. “About how… we seem to keep colliding.”

There it was. The simple phrase that carried all the things we’d avoided saying…grudges, apologies tangled with pride.

Tyler gave me a look that said ‘do you want me to handle this douche bag or would you rather do it?’

I tapped his arm, leaning closer and whispering that he should give me a minute.

“Okay,” I said slowly, turning back to David. “Let’s talk.”

David walked me to another part of the diner, but unlike Tyler, he didn't pull out the chair for me. Instead, he dropped into the chair like a complete douche bag, folding himself into the booth like someone who always knew the layout of my life.

Wait, why am I comparing Tyler to him? Maybe my body just needs a reminder.

I met David’s eyes and let a small, knowing smile tilt my lips. “Talk.” My voice was soft but steady. “And make it quick. Tyler is waiting.”

He smiled back, slow and unreadable. “I need you to come back,” he muttered so low that I wouldn't have heard it if he didn't have all my attention.

There it was. But of course, I had to keep a little pride…I can’t just leap at the offer.

“If you want me back,” I whispered, my fingers drumming against the arm of the chair, “you’re going to have to get on your knees. And beg.”

The look he gave me could have set the room on fire…but I didn’t flinch. I only tilted my head, smiling at his anger.

He wasn’t pleased, sure. But guess what? Neither the hell was I.