by Eden Summers
To maintain her determination she broke eye contact and realized they weren’t alone. Another woman sat in one of the vacant chairs in front of his desk, her hands politely clasped on her lap while she stared over her shoulder.
Beth’s hand slipped from the door handle and she retreated a step as she recognized the woman’s features. Dean had been with her Friday night at the dock.
“I…” Words escaped her. They floundered and jumbled in her mind. “I had a problem with my pay and wanted to discuss it with you.” She glanced back at Dean, still struggling to think straight. “But it doesn’t matter now. I didn’t realize you were busy.”
She glanced between him and the stranger. Something wasn’t right. Apart from the obvious realization that he’d gotten over his inability to spend more than one night with the same woman, something kept niggling at her.
He moved around the desk, his hands coming up in a placating gesture. With each step he took forward, she took one back, needing to maintain the distance between them. The dark depths of his eyes hypnotized her, so she glanced away, looking back to the woman, who had the same hypnotizing eyes.
Oh, God.
“Beth, wait.” His expression was tense, the lines of his face pained.
The lady turned her body around farther in the seat, showing the small mound of her belly through the tight material of her maternity top.
Megan.
The face Beth couldn’t look away from was Dean’s sister; she just knew it. Her face was an older version of the young girl in the photo at Dean’s apartment.
At this closer view, the resemblance between brother and sister seemed uncanny. Both of them had the same face shape, dark eyes, and hair color. Both wore matching expressions of concern, as if she were a startled deer ready to flee.
She had made a major mistake in judging him the night at the dock. It seemed every decision she made through this entire unemployed and heartbroken situation revolved around immature actions.
If she hadn’t been drinking the afternoon Max propositioned her, she wouldn’t have taken the ride home with Dean. She wouldn’t have blurted inappropriate comments. They would never have slept together.
And even more recently, she made the blunder of denying him, the chance to explain, all because she jumped to conclusions about the woman he had shared a meal with—his sister.
She shook her head at the juvenile behavior. She didn’t deserve an explanation. If she couldn’t allow him the chance to explain, to defend himself when she first judged his actions, did she really deserve him? Vindicated or not?
“I-I’m sorry.” She spared them both a soft smile and retreated into the hall. In long strides, she fled to the reception area, berating herself with each step.
She was entirely childish. A hypocrite, too. All this time she’d been thinking of herself. Her feelings. Her betrayal.
Not once had she allowed him to explain.
He left town to be with his grieving sister and all Beth had done was make his situation worse. He’d only asked for a few minutes and she had continued to knock him back at every opportunity.
She felt entirely humiliated at her toxic behavior.
She wasn’t usually spiteful or quick to lash out. She wasn’t entirely untrusting either. But those reactions had come in abundance where Dean was concerned.
This person she’d become didn’t deserve him. She didn’t even want to face him knowing how badly she’d acted.
It was best if they forgot each other.
“Beth.” Dean raised his voice not caring how loud the noise reverberated through the office. He didn’t know why she was here, but he wouldn’t let her go this time.
She didn’t stop at his call. She continued through the front office doors, not even acknowledging him after she reached the elevator and pressed the button.
He stalked after her, pausing at the doors in an attempt not to crowd her. She stood defeated, her shoulders slumped, her head drooped forward, and still she didn’t turn.
He wished like hell he could simply walk over and hold her in his arms. What he wouldn’t give to know what she was thinking. Her eyes had widened at the sight of Megan’s round belly and he was sure she thought the baby was his.
“We need to talk.” Her back expanded with a deep breath as he stepped toward her.
“No.” She uttered the word and shook her head. “I just want you to know I’m sorry.”
He frowned, inching closer. Their entire situation was a mess of misunderstandings and confusion. He currently wallowed in the latter, unsure why she needed to apologize.
His actions were the reason for her getting fired. His relationship with his father was the problem all along. Along with his opinion of commitment and women, too.
If only he’d recognized what he truly wanted the first time they kissed. If only he’d set his determination on having her all those months ago, maybe things would have been different.
The elevator dinged its arrival and she rushed to get inside.
“Wait.” He closed the distance between him and the elevator while she stood before the operations panel, frantically tapping buttons. His blood pounded as the doors began to close, and she still wouldn’t make eye contact. “Stop.”
He thrust his arm between the doors and cursed when they smashed into him. “Goddamn it. Please just give me the chance to explain.”
He wrenched the doors apart and stepped inside to finally have those somber defeated eyes look back at him. All he could do was stare, drinking in the alluring sight while the doors closed with a clunk behind him. Over a week had passed without seeing her. A week where he had missed her like crazy.
“She’s my sister,” he murmured, thinking it was as good a place as any to start this train-wreck of a conversation.
One side of her lips tilted in a half-hearted attempt at a smile. “I know.”
He moved toward her, close, so they were almost toe to toe. He couldn’t stay away, he didn’t know how. He ached to feel her, to escape in her.
“If you know, then why—”
Her soft fingers came up to rest over his lips. “I’m sorry. Let’s leave it at that and move on.”
Her touch burned his mouth, the sensation sinking through to his throat, his chest. He encased her wrist in a gentle grip and, kissed those gorgeous fingers. “I’m not moving anywhere until we work this out.”
He reached for the operations panel and pressed the Stop button. The elevator groaned in protest, coming to an abrupt halt as alarm bells rang outside the enclosure.
She darted her gaze around the elevator, her hand falling to her side, her eyes wide, her mouth gaping. “What are you doing?”
Staring. Salivating.
The alarm shut off, leaving them alone in the ear-ringing silence.
“We need to talk.” They needed to do much more than that, but it was a start.
Her throat worked over a heavy swallow, then finally she nodded. “I know, and I’m sorry. I should have given you the chance to explain earlier, but…”
She broke eye contact, her tongue darting out to moisten her lower lip.
“But?”
She sighed, her shoulders sagging with the exhale. “But this has become a huge mess. I’m embarrassed at how I’ve acted.”
He traced his fingers down the side of her face and became mesmerized by the exquisite softness of her skin. She closed her eyes, letting out a barely audible whimper, and he wanted to groan in appreciation.
“I love you, Beth.” The truth escaped without thought. For a split second, he wanted to retract the comment. Fear and impending humiliation had his chest restricting.
But the more he stared at her, the more he touched her beautiful skin and breathed in her sweet scent, the more he didn’t care about the consequences of his admission.
He did love her and he didn’t care if she shot him down in flames; he needed her to know the extent of his craziness for her.
“Don’t.” Her eyes squeezed tighter,
her palm moving to rest on his chest in a punishing attempt to push him away.
“Let me explain,” he whispered. “Please.”
She opened her eyes. “I don’t deserve an explanation. Last Saturday meant everything to me. You gave me a glimpse of the real you. I got to see a side of Dean Sutherland that I never knew existed. And God, it made me happy. But then Monday came and I was blindsided by—”
“I know, and—”
She placed her hand over his mouth and smiled. “Let me finish.”
He raised a brow, impressed and slightly turned on at her sassy demand.
“Dean, I was blindsided by a note that Steve wrote about us. Knowing you’d told him intimate details about our time together really hurt me. Then the things your father said made it worse. I couldn’t think past the betrayal to give you the chance to explain. But I shouldn’t have been so quick to judge you after the weekend we shared. And I’m sorry for that. I not only made the situation worse for you while you were out of town helping your sister, but now I look like a childish brat.”
He smiled under the weight of her palm. No other woman would apologize for giving him the cold shoulder after what she’d been through. Not under those circumstances.
He kissed her palm and grasped her hand, moving it away from his mouth. “Brat or not, I kinda like the way you look.”
She gave a halfhearted chuckle and the flicker of warmth in her eyes spread through their connection, up his arm, into his chest. “You ‘kinda like’ a lot of things.”
He couldn’t help smirking at the memory of the hysteria on her face the first time he’d said those words to her. “Only with y—”
A loud bang sounded from the elevator shaft above, making them both jump.
“This is building management,” a man’s voice boomed from overhead. “Is everything all right in there?”
Damn it.
All Dean needed was five more fucking minutes.
He tilted his head toward the ceiling, so he didn’t shout in Beth’s face. “Yeah, we’re fine. Just give us a sec.”
“I’m sorry, sir, but unless there’s an emergency, I’m going to need you to return to the lobby. We’ve had technical difficulties with the other elevator and this is the only one available. We have a large group of people trying to get back to work after the lunch break.”
“Yeah, okay.” He bit back a growl. “No problem.”
He returned his attention to Beth, ignoring the building manager’s request. He couldn’t risk her leaving without hearing him out and he still had a mass of things to explain. “I need you to understand the situation with my father. You have to realize I didn’t sleep with you to get back at him. His proposition only spurred me to do what I should’ve done a long time ago.”
Her brow furrowed, her gaze narrowing with the slightest skepticism. “What does that mean?”
“It means I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since the first day we met. You were everything I made myself believe didn’t exist—honest, passionate, loyal, dedicated.”
He stepped into her, joining their bodies thigh to thigh as he stared down at her. “I could go on for an eternity listing your attributes and still not convince you of everything I admire. But the main point you need to understand is that I always thought you were too good to be true.”
She balked and he loved the innocence of her response.
“I always thought you weren’t entirely real,” he admitted. “At the very least, you were too pure and sweet for a guy with my reputation. Then we kissed at Onyx and everything changed. From the instant our lips met, I needed more. But you left without a word and acted as though you regretted every moment.”
“No.” She shook her head. “It wasn’t like that.”
He moved close, their mouths a breath apart as he clucked his tongue. “Now it’s my turn to explain. Okay?”
He kissed her, a slow, soft swipe of connection. “After Onyx I was gutted. Your rejection cut deep and for once I lacked the confidence to go after what I wanted. It wasn’t until my dad set you in his sights that I knew I had to do something. But it wasn’t a father-son rivalry. Not exactly. I’ve never seen you date. Not even once. So, the thought of losing you to anyone was my motivation.”
He paused, trying to judge her reaction. Her expression gave nothing away. No belief. No skepticism. She held herself in check, perfectly composed.
“I would never use you.” He marked his words with another brief kiss. “I would never disrespect you.”
“Then why did you brag to Steve about us?” she whispered against his lips.
Shit. That stupid note.
“I didn’t give him intimate details.” He broke eye contact to nuzzle his face into her neck. “I merely told him we were together, and I did it for two reasons. The first, I admit is childish. I couldn’t keep the news to myself. I needed to tell someone, and Steve has known how I’ve felt about you for a long time.”
She wriggled in his arms, attempting to break free, but he held her tight.
“The second reason—the main reason—was because I wanted him to take care of you while I was gone. I told him about my father and how you would be uncomfortable coming to work on Monday. I needed to make sure I was kept in the loop if anything happened. It was the only way I could drag myself out of town when I knew Megan needed me.”
Her body sagged into his and he took it as a sign of acceptance. He caressed her cheek with the tip of his nose, moving his mouth down to place a kiss on the sensitive flesh below her ear. “There haven’t been any other women. There’s only you.”
“I want to believe you.”
“Believe me, Beth.” He closed his eyes and slid a hand under her camisole, his fingers lightly gliding over the skin of her lower back. “I’m drowning in you.”
Dean’s hand slid through her hair, his large palm cupping her head while his mouth returned to hover over hers. The beat of his heart thumped against her fingers as those dark brown eyes devoured her.
And he thought he was the one drowning?
She swallowed to alleviate her parched throat and the compulsion to lick her lips was undeniable.
His mouth inched closer. The rush of eager anticipation flowed through her ears, making her oblivious to anything else but him. A faint noise skittered into her subconscious, the interruption not resonating. The touch of his hands demanded all her attention with their delicious stroking.
His lips brushed hers, a delicate sweep of perfection.
“Sorry to ruin the moment—” She jumped at the loud voice booming from above them. “—But if you don’t start the elevator now, I’m going to have to call the police.”
Her eyes widened in a mix of embarrassment and amusement while Dean grinned down at her.
The noise now came from right above the door. The building manager must have located the level they were stuck between and came closer to investigate.
“We better go.”
Dean shook his head. “Just a few more minutes.”
His lips moved over hers before she could protest. The brush was delicate over her building smile, before he pressed further for a deeper kiss. She sank into his chest, a moan leaving her throat while a gentle tongue stroked hers.
“Come on, guys,” the man pleaded. “The lobby is like a mosh pit.”
She chuckled, overwhelmed with a sudden sense of happiness. Dean didn’t let her go. He moved a hard thigh between hers, stepping forward to rest her against the wall. With seductive force, he tasted her, his tongue thrusting, his thigh grinding, his hand gripping her hair.
Every inch of her tingled. Throbbed. She ran her hands along his chest, around his neck, wanting more, just the slightest bit to sate her insatiable need.
His fingers along her scalp made her tingle. Each stroke, each thrust, each lick made her delirious.
“You do realize we have a camera in the elevator,” the man shouted. “As we speak, my assistant is in the control room watching the two of you.�
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Oh, God.
She’d made another bad decision—coming to her old job, approaching Dean, making out in a stopped elevator while being recorded... But this time her punishment didn’t come in the form of heartache. Her eyes burned with happiness. Her stomach tumbled with rapidly amassing butterflies.
Dean snapped to attention, his heated glare fixing on the small dome camera in the back corner. With a growl he slammed two knuckles against the lobby button.
She had to press her lips tight to hold in hysterical laughter, at least until the elevator lurched into movement, making her gasp.
“It’s okay.” Dean grabbed her hand, his thumb stroking back and forth against her skin as they descended.
When the doors opened on the ground floor her cheeks burned hot. People were banked up five deep around the door. Some of them frowned, shooting her filthy looks, while others held cheesy grins as if they pictured what sort of triple-X action had been going on in the elevator.
Dean led her through the crowd, out into the open space of the lobby before he stopped and turned to face her. Those dark eyes read her, the gentle tweak of his lips increasing her euphoria as he leaned in to curl her toes with a sweet kiss.
She grinned against his mouth, not caring they had an audience—until he pulled back and lowered to one knee at her feet. Her stomach descended with him, leaving her body and falling straight to the floor. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t be proposing.
She scanned the room, frantically searching for a distraction, a lifeline, anybody or anything to stop another train wreck.
“Beth, I’ve missed you. I can’t stand waking up—”
“Dean,” she warned, still searching for someone she knew in the crowd of people who were now turned in curiosity, eager to watch the unfolding disaster.
“—and not seeing your face at work every day. I want to get to know you better—”
“Dean,” she pleaded, her hand pulling at his in an effort to make him stand. She began to rub her neck with her free hand, trying to ease the tension so she didn’t hyperventilate.