I’m baiting him, and I know it.

I just can’t help myself.

I meant it when I said I needed to keep things professional when we were working on this project—this devastating project—but being so close to Levi makes it impossible to follow through. At least, impossible to follow through completely. I know I shouldn’t bring up last Saturday. I know I shouldn’t make it seem like my entire life hinged on meeting him.

But in this moment, it does. It really does.

Levi looks at me with narrowed eyes. “That’s a highly unprofessional thing to say, Ruby.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Are you?”

I’m ignoring the bulge in the front of his pants. “Very sorry.” I look down at my watch. “We should move on to the next room.” I raise my chin, holding my head high, and move toward the door.

Levi catches me by the elbow. “You’re not keeping up your end of the bargain.”

“What’s my end of the bargain?”

“Professionalism. That’s what you wanted—isn’t it?”

He’s so sexy with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his jacket abandoned on the seat of the car, his pants so finely tailored that I can’t help but notice the muscled strength of his legs underneath the fabric.

“Yes. I need it.” There’s a flash of guilt in my gut. “I’m—I’m sorry, Levi. You’ve been keeping your word, and I’ve been—”

“You’ve been a cocktease.”

It’s the least professional thing he could have said, but the word—so filthy—is a dark mirror of the need that’s been expanding in my core since we got out of the car. I came twice on his fingers and I already want more of him. I want more of him so badly that I’m willing to go back on the thing I begged him to do in the car—to treat me like a client. 

His hand is firm on my elbow, but it doesn’t hurt in the least. I can tell he’s using every ounce of restraint right now. If I had to guess, it’s not that he can’t stop himself from using a strong grip. It’s that we’re right on the line between a hot fuck and a cool assessment of another room’s worth of pieces.

“I have been.” 

My admission is all it takes.

Levi breathes in deep, his shoulders rising and falling, his eyes never leaving mine, glinting silver in the fading sunlight coming through the bedroom window. “We’re done here.”

My stomach does a slow turn, and I can feel the blood draining out of my face. “Permanently?”

Levi allows himself one touch—one stroke of his knuckles against my cheek. “No, Ruby. For tonight.” Then he’s striding toward the door without another backward glance. “For tonight? We’re leaving.”

I follow him out to the town car. He’s walking so fast that it’s a stretch for me to keep up with him in my high heels. It doesn’t seem to matter that I have home field advantage. 

Even Phillip is surprised. He’s leaning against the passenger side door of the town car when we come out, and at the sound of the front door shutting with a bang he leaps up.

“Everything okay?” There’s real concern in his voice.

“Everything’s fine. In the car, in the car. The penthouse.” Levi crosses the driveway and yanks the back door open, beckoning for me to get in. I can’t slide across the seat fast enough. He can’t climb in and shut the door fast enough, but as soon as it clicks shut, the town car is moving. 

I can’t take my eyes off him. His entire body is tensed, making the muscles of his shoulders and arms stand out in sharp relief. The view would be even more exhilarating if he had his shirt off, but I’m not going to say a word about it. Levi is in charge here. That much is clear.

We’re back on the main highway when he finally turns his gaze back to me. There’s something animal in his eyes. I press one hand against the seat, ready to be pressed back against the door, ready to be ravished.

“Do you want this?”

The phrase that falls from his mouth is so loaded with meaning that I can’t decide which layer to answer first. In this moment, I want all of this. All of it, even the difficult parts. 

“Yes.”

“Do you even know what I’m asking?”

“I have an idea.”

He moves closer, and the silver of his eyes overwhelms everything else. “I’m not leaving this to chance. Tell me right now if you want this from me, Ruby. Tell me right now if you want to be taken. If you want to be claimed. If you want to be mine.”

It’s an effort to get air into my lungs, because all of it has been sucked out of the back of the town car. “This has nothing to do with the auction?” I have to ask the question.

“Nothing. This is about you and me. This is after-hours. But if you don’t want that, tell me right now. Right now, Ruby.”

I open my mouth to answer him, but the right words refuse to come out. I can’t describe how much I want this from him. I can’t describe the depth of my certainty that being with Levi like this—unbound by any obligations to my family, away from the looming heartbreak of the auction, nothing but the two of us, together—will change everything. It’s going to change everything. There are just no words that seem adequate to tell him that beneath all my doubts, something at my core is crying out for him. Constantly. 

“I want it. I want you.”

Then Levi’s hand is underneath my chin, his fingers wrapping around my jaw, tilting my head back so that my throat is exposed to him, so that I have no other choice but to look him in his eyes. His gaze smolders, and the very last of my doubts burst into flame. “Beg me.”

The word takes on a different meaning entirely, but my muscles respond immediately, relaxing into Levi’s control. Who the hell have I become? Have I always wanted this?

Yes. Yes, I have. Even if I didn’t realize it.

“Please.” My voice rings low. “Please, Levi. Make me yours.”