Chapter Twelve
“Eli.” Simon greeted him at his office door. “You’re looking well rested. How was Tibet? I wanted to contact you, but Ginny said you needed some time away from everything to…”
“Fuck Tibet.” Eli pushed his way past his former friend and business partner and threw a folder down on his desk. It had been burning a hole through his hands ever since Ginny gave it to him, about an hour after he’d gotten her text message. His next move was a terse call to Simon, asking to meet him at Momentum, well past business hours, when no one else was around to eavesdrop on what was sure to be an unpleasant conversation. And that was putting it mildly. “What the hell is this?”
Simon followed Eli into the room and took a seat in the high-backed leather chair behind his equally impressive mahogany desk. Unlike Eli’s office, which was all sleek glass and polished steel, Simon had gone for rich leather and dark wood, giving the room a traditional, sophisticated feel. He flipped the folder open, his face blanching as he leafed through the contents.
“I don’t understand.” He ran a hand through his close-cropped blond hair.
“That makes two of us.” Eli sat in one of the two only slightly smaller, less imposing guest chairs.
Simon pinched the bridge of his nose. “How did you get these?”
“That’s not important.” Eli wasn’t about to get sidetracked. He reached across the desk and jabbed a finger at the picture on top of the pile, which showed Krystal, the eager, young, and, not coincidentally, attractive PA Simon had hired not six months ago, sitting with Noel Dupree at what looked like a Starbucks. An eight by ten manila envelope, fat with papers, sat on the table between them. “Why is your PA meeting with our biggest competitor, the man who beat us to the punch on our last four projects?”
Simon slammed the folder shut and slumped in his chair, his face now drawn as well as pale. “I have no idea.”
Eli leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “You seriously expect me to believe you had nothing to do with this? I’ve suspected you were working with Dupree since we lost the East Harlem building. You and I were the only ones who knew about that project.”
Simon’s hands went limp. “And that’s why you took off for Tibet?”
“I wasn’t in Tibet.” Eli didn’t elaborate, just sat with his jaw clenched and his hands folded in his lap until Simon broke the silence.
“Momentum is mine, too. We built it together. Why would I do anything to jeopardize that?”
“I don’t know.” Eli fixed him with a hard, piercing glare. “You tell me.”
Simon’s jaw was set, his tone insistent. “I wouldn’t. Not intentionally.”
“What do you mean, ‘not intentionally’?” Eli scoffed.
“I might have let something slip to Krystal.” Simon buried his head in his hands. His voice was muffled and small. “In bed.”
“You’re fucking her?” Eli swore under his breath. How could his partner be so stupid? “I thought we agreed. No dipping our wicks in the company ink.”
“Was. She dumped me last week.” Simon lifted his head. He looked at bad as Eli felt. The dilated pupils. The sweaty palms. The labored breathing. Either the guy was having a heart attack, or he was telling the truth about Krystal. “Not my finest moment, I know. I let my dick do the thinking, and I’m sorry.”
“Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt and wore it out.” Eli let out a short, scornful laugh. But his words were flat, devoid of anger. Instead, looking at Simon, he felt nothing but pity and a strange sense of understanding. Hadn’t he had sex with Brooke hours after meeting her? Of course, their relationship had progressed way past a casual hookup, but he had no way of knowing where they were headed when he screwed her sideways on a futon in the back room of a dive bar. He steepled his fingers over his chest and refocused on the reason for his visit. “But I’m not here to talk about your love life. Or mine. I’m here to find out what the fuck your assistant’s doing with Dupree.”
“I told you, I didn’t have anything to do with that.” Simon sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s as much a surprise to me as it is to you.”
Eli tilted his head. “Give me one reason why I should believe you.”
“I can’t.” Simon seemed to sink farther into his chair, his posture screaming defeat. “Except that I have as much invested in Momentum as you do. Selling out to Dupree would be entirely against my self-interest.”
He had a point there, one that hadn’t escaped Eli. But that left one huge, unanswered question. “Why would Krystal do this on her own?”
“I don’t know.” Simon’s eyebrows pulled together. “But now that I think of it, she has been a little off lately.”
Eli smirked, remembering the last time he’d seen his partner’s assistant, sitting at her desk, filing her nails. She hadn’t even bothered to look up at him when he’d asked to see Simon. “With her, how can you tell?”
Simon reopened the folder and flipped through the pictures. “These are good. How did you get them?”
“I’ve had a PI following Dupree for a few weeks.”
“Smart move.” Simon picked up a pen and twirled it between his fingers. “But we’re going to need more evidence to prove Krystal violated her non-disclosure agreement.”
Eli leaned back in his chair and crossed an ankle over one knee. “What do you mean ‘we’?”
“I have no right to ask you this, but I’m going to anyway. Give me two weeks.” Simon stood and came around to sit on the corner of his desk. “I’ll get what we need to nab Krystal. I promise. And in the meantime, I’ll make sure she doesn’t have access to any more sensitive information.”
“How are you going to do that?” Eli asked.
“Plant a dummy file. Then when Dupree starts sniffing around, we’ll know exactly where his information came from.”
As much as he didn’t want to, Eli had to admit it wasn’t a half bad idea. And one a guilty person would never have suggested in a million years. “You really didn’t put Krystal up to this, did you?”
“No.” Simon jutted out his chin. “I didn’t.”
Eli studied his friend for a long minute before speaking. When he did, he weighed his words carefully. “I can help create the fake file.”
“Does that mean you’re coming back to work? Ginny’s done a great job covering for you, but I miss my partner.” Simon’s voice broke, and he stared down at his hands. “I miss my friend.”
Eli swallowed a lump in his throat. He hadn’t expected to feel sympathy for Simon. When he’d walked through the door to his partner’s office, he’d come in with guns blazing, his only thought retribution, his only emotion white-hot anger.
But that anger had quickly dissipated. What was the point in being mad at someone who was so clearly miserable? Besides, if it weren’t for Simon shooting his mouth off to Krystal and torpedoing the East Harlem deal, Eli would never have met Brooke. That didn’t mean Eli was ready to forgive him. But maybe he could forget long enough for them to catch Krystal.
“Not yet.” Possibly not ever. Even if he managed to look past his best friend’s lapse in judgment for the sake of smoking out their mole, Eli wasn’t sure he could ever trust Simon again. And trust was essential in a business partnership. “I’ve got some things to wrap up in Brooklyn.”
“Brooklyn?” Simon blinked. “So that’s where you’ve been hiding.”
Eli ignored his comment and stood. “We can collaborate remotely, through our private emails. And Ginny. I tell her everything.”
“Everything?” Simon’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down in his throat.
“Don’t worry,” Eli assured him. “I won’t say anything about you and Krystal. Your private life is just that. Private.”
Simon let out a relieved sigh. “I appreciate that.”
“I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it for Ginny. For some strange reason, she thinks you walk on water. I’d hate to see her disillusioned.” Eli moved toward the door. There wasn’t anything left to be said between them, not tonight. Now he wanted to get back to Brooklyn. Back to Brooke.
“I appreciate it anyway.” Simon rose and followed him. “Will you be at the silent auction on Saturday?”
Damn. With all the shit going on in his fucked-up life, the Geek Girls benefit kept slipping his mind. He made a mental note to have Ginny send him a day-of reminder. If he was smart, he’d head into the city on Friday and spend a couple of nights at the penthouse. Although that meant two long, lonely nights in his California king without Brooke. “Of course. Paige would have my head on a platter if I missed it.”
“As a board member, I was planning on attending, but if you’d rather I not…”
“It’s fine,” Eli said, cutting him off. “I’m good with it if you are.”
“Thanks.” They reached the door. Simon opened it and stuck out his hand awkwardly. “For not being half the asshole I would have been if our positions were reversed.”
Eli probably would have been twice the asshole if it weren’t for Brooke. It was hard to be pissed about losing something when you’d gained so much more.
Still, he wasn’t ready to bury the hatchet just yet. “There’s still plenty of time for that.” He ignored his friend’s hand and stepped past him into the corridor, his feet pointed automatically toward the elevator bank at the end of the hall. “First, we’ve got a huge-ass fire to put out.”
…
Brooke was halfway to dreamland, images of her and Eli in a variety of increasingly interesting sexual positions flickering behind her closed eyes like a hard-core porn highlight reel, when a knock so soft she almost didn’t hear it interrupted the movie in her mind. She sat up and listened again.
Three knocks. Louder this time.
She threw off her blankets, padded across the loft in her thick, fuzzy socks, and peered through the peephole. Eli stood on the other side, wearing the same clothes he’d rushed off in hours earlier.
“So now you knock?” she joked, opening the door and stepping back to let him in.
“See?” He wrapped one arm around her waist and lifted her off her feet, simultaneously kicking the door shut and bringing her mouth level with his. “They were wrong. You can teach an old dog new tricks.”
She breathed in the scent of him, warm and soapy, with a hint of his citrusy cologne. Her fingers tangled in the silky, dark hair at the nape of his neck. “Is everything okay?”
“It is now.” He crushed his lips to hers and took possession, his free hand coming up to hold her head in place for a deep, brutal kiss. She was sinking, drowning in him. Seemingly of their own volition, her legs circled his waist, pulling him imperceptibly closer.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked, her voice husky with lust when he finally let her up for air.
“Talk about what?”
“Whatever you’re avoiding talking about by kissing me.”
“Can’t I kiss you for the sake of kissing you?” As if to prove his point, he lowered his mouth to the hollow where her neck met the curve of her shoulder, leaving a trail of hot, wet kisses along her collarbone.
“Of course.” She arched away from him, and he lifted his head to meet her gaze. “But I can tell the difference between a kiss for the sake of kissing and a kiss for the sake of avoiding.”
“We’ll talk later.” His eyes drifted downward, lingering on her vintage Rainbow Brite T-shirt and hot-pink flannel pajama pants. “First I want to get you out of these and under me.”
“You don’t approve of my taste in sleepwear?”
“You could be wearing a gunnysack and granny panties, and I’d still want you.”
Okay, so he didn’t want to talk. Talking was overrated anyway, and they had all night for that.
In two long strides, he crossed the floor to the bed. All Brooke could do was hold on for dear life until he laid her down and stretched out beside her. His fingers latched onto the waistband of her sleep pants, and she instinctively lifted her hips so he could slide them off. Her shirt went next, landing next to her pants on the floor beside the bed.
She reached up to grab the lapels of his overcoat, which he hadn’t bothered to remove in his haste to get her in the sack. “Why don’t you take your coat off and stay a while?”
“Don’t mind if I do.”
He rolled away from her and stood, shedding not only his coat but the rest of his clothes and rejoining her on the bed before she had a chance to miss his warmth. He didn’t waste any time getting back to business, either, zeroing in on her breasts with his hands, teasing her nipples into hard little points.
Only when they were practically screaming for more did his mouth get in on the action. He latched on to one stiff peak and suckled, then licked, then bit, each new sensation made all the more delicious by the sensual scraping of his beard against her sensitive skin.
One hand snaked down to the wet, pulsing heat between her thighs. “Open.”
She obeyed—like there was really any question—and let her legs fall apart. One gentle probe with his finger told him she was slick and ready for him. Within seconds, he was inside her, the weight of him pressing her into the mattress, solid and good and right. There was nothing patient or gentle or careful about this pairing. It was raw, primal, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it sex. The universe narrowed to him, her, the place where their bodies were joined, and the heavenly friction between her thighs.
She spurred him on, her nails digging little half-moons in his shoulders and back. Her body was like a rocket on the launchpad, primed and ready to shoot off. It didn’t take much to send her into orbit. Waves of pleasure rippled through her, triggering Eli’s release.
He collapsed beside her, their bodies still fused together. They lay there in silence, satisfied and sweaty, the only noises the sound of their breathing and the distant rumble of cars and voices from the street below. Her thoughts spun in circles. Each time she and Eli were together was more powerfully mind-numbing than the last. Each time she gave a little more of herself. More of her trust. More of her heart. More of her soul.
Had she done the unimaginable? Had she given herself over completely to him?
She shifted, pulling them apart.
Eli looked down and his muscles tensed. The fingers of one hand clenched and unclenched spasmodically. “Shit.”
Her eyes followed his gaze to where they’d been joined. It wasn’t what she saw there but what she didn’t see that made her understand his strange reaction.
No condom.
“Shit,” he repeated. His hand balled into a fist, and he punched the mattress. “I can’t believe I forgot to suit up.”
“I can. You were like a man possessed.” He hit the mattress again, harder this time. She took his face in her hands, tilting it upward so he was forced to look her in the eyes, and smoothed a stray lock of hair off his brow. “It’s okay. We both got carried away. Besides, I’m on the pill. And I haven’t been with anyone else in… Well, let’s just say it’s been a while.”
The tension leaked from his body like air from a punctured tire. “Same here. I mean, I’m clean.”
“Then we’re good?” She drew back to study him.
His deep, masculine chuckle warmed her from her toes up. “Yeah, we’re good.”
He rolled onto his back and gathered her close, throwing one leg across her hips to make sure they stayed that way. “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”
The dreaded we-have-to-talk. Brooke’s heart squeezed into a knot, and her stomach plummeted what seemed like twenty stories. She fought to keep her tone light and her thoughts positive. “That sounds ominous. Do you have a wife and kids stashed somewhere? Are you on the FBI’s most wanted list?”
He laughed softly and kissed her nose. “Nothing that dire. I’ve got to go away for a couple of days. Business.”
“Is that all?” Relief coursed through her like a sugar rush. “We’re not joined at the hip, you know.”
“Could have fooled me.” His leg pressed into the small of her back, pulling her tight to him. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“How long will you be gone?”
“I’m leaving tomorrow, but I should be back sometime Sunday afternoon.”
“As luck would have it, I won’t be here this weekend, either.” She made a face. “Family stuff.”
“You don’t seem too excited.”
“I’m not.” Going to some hoity-toity fundraiser at the Worthington wasn’t exactly her idea of a rockin’ good time. “But I promised my sister I’d be there. I owe her for helping with the wedding.”
“Do you think you can manage two whole days without me?” His breath was hot against her ear, making her shiver.
“It’ll be hard, but I’ll try.”
He ground his hips against her, rubbing his already stiffening cock against her thigh. “Oh, it’ll be hard all right.”
Her traitorous body responded, her nipples hardening and a tingling sensation vibrating between her legs. “Is that all you think about?”
“When you’re lying in my arms naked?” He took one finger and drew a sensuous line from her neck to the valley between her breasts. “Hell, yes. It’s pretty much impossible to think about anything else.”
She couldn’t argue with that. She had the same problem where he was concerned.
“I’m flattered.” She shuddered as she sucked in a breath. “I think.”
“What do you say?” His wandering finger found her nipple. “One more round to tide us over until Sunday?”
She closed her eyes and surrendered to the waves of pleasure that took hold of her body whenever Eli touched her. “At least.”