Chapter 21

Owen

Even busy concentrating on the road, I still can’t get over the incessant urge to simply stop the car, ruin Mira’s dress further, and fuck her so hard that people on the streets will hear her come.

I think she knows it, too.

She keeps throwing flirtatious, suggestive glances my way, and she’s spent way too much of the drive over to her new office watching my fingers on the steering wheel.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out what she’s thinking about.

“Mira, can you button up my jacket, please?”

Mira looks down at herself. She did put my suit jacket on, as requested, but made absolutely no attempt to button it up to hide the destruction I rained down on her dress.

She smiles.

“Is my body distracting you, Owen?” she asks mischievously.

I swear to god, why does this woman have to be my niece, of all things?

“You know it’s distracting me. I’d rather not have an accident on the road, funnily enough.”

Mira throws me a very pointed look.

“So, pull over. I don’t mind a few onlookers,” she replies, glancing out the window at the scarce pedestrians on the street.

I sigh, shaking my head.

Mira Wilder will be the death of me, be that in the form of a tragic car accident or otherwise. It’s with blessed relief that I finally pull into my private space in the parking lot of Mira’s new offices.

When I turn the engine off, I rest my head against the steering wheel.

“Don’t even try it, Mira,” I say, not having to look at her to know that she’s about to make another irresistible move on me.

She pouts. “Fine. I’ll behave. For now.”

Mira follows those words up with a wicked grin that makes me wonder how long ‘for now’ is going to last.

Pulling together all of my self-control, I get out of my car and walk around to the passenger side, opening the door to let Mira out.

“Ever the gentleman when it suits you, Owen.”

I scoff.

“I’m always a gentleman. But even gentlemen have their limits, and you know just how to push them.”

“You can always push back if you want,” Mira laughs as I let her into the building.

We take the elevator up to her new offices in silence, but the air is fraught with tension.

All it would take is a look of permission from me, and Mira would slide her body against mine. I could stop the elevator and fuck her to my heart’s content.

There’s a twitch of longing from my cock, so I try desperately to think about something else. To my right, Mira laughs softly, as if she knows precisely what’s going on inside my head.

It’s the longest elevator ride I’ve ever experienced. Excruciatingly, inexorably long. It’s all I can do not to let out an audible sigh of relief when the elevator doors ping open, and I follow Mira out onto the floor of her shiny new offices.

Mira is stunned silent almost immediately, all thoughts of banging in the elevator momentarily forgotten.

“Owen, I can’t…this is too much.”

I rest a hand on her shoulder and smile. “It’s the very least you deserve.”

To be fair, the offices are fucking gorgeous, all glass-fronted with a river view, making full use of the afternoon sun when it hits the windows. The place is high-ceilinged, littered with skylights, which give off a natural, rather than artificial, glow.

The desks are all modern and curved, with state-of-the-art computers, and the sofas and chairs are all designer. There’s plant life everywhere, bringing in splashes of color in all corners of the room, and the kitchen is fully outfitted to accommodate even the most bizarre of lunch requests.

Of course, Mira heads straight for the floor-to-ceiling windows to gawk at the view. With the sunlight in her hair, her eyes, and shining on her lips, the thoughts from the elevator return in a flash, hitting me like a ton of bricks.

Mira stares at me.

“Are you sure, Owen? This place is…it’s so fucking gorgeous. It’s the prettiest office I’ve ever seen.”

I give her a smile. “Of course, I’m sure—”

But my words are interrupted as Mira flings her arms around my neck and kisses me.

I reciprocate—for a second—before pulling back. It fucking kills me to do it, too. My body certainly doesn’t fucking want to.

But I do it. Because I have to.

Then I look at her seriously. “Mira, in exchange for these offices—in exchange for a proper, healthy start to your company—you have to stop throwing yourself at me. For both of our sakes. Please. What happened earlier can never happen again.”

Mira holds my gaze for a long time. I can see a swath of conflicting emotions cross her face until, eventually, she grows serious.

She stares at the floor, downcast.

“I know. I understand. I understood before, but I just…I wish things didn’t have to be like this.”

“You know I feel the same,” I reply, taking her in my arms and embracing her one final time. “But make me proud, okay? Grow your business and become a fucking household name, Mira Wilder. I know you can do it.”

I let her go, and Mira gives me a beautiful smile, her eyes overly bright.

“You have no idea how much these offices mean to me, Owen. Thank you, truly.”

There’s a pause, and then I glance at my watch, feigning ignorance of the time.

“I have to get going, Mira. I’ll leave you here to get things set up. And I suggest—” I look at her dress, my suit jacket still left agonizingly unbuttoned over it “—that you call someone over to bring you new clothes.”

Mira laughs and nods. “I will. Goodbye, Owen.”

“Goodbye, Mira.”

I smash my hand against the mirrored wall of the elevator as soon as I’ve descended far enough from Mira to be sure she can’t hear me.

Why the hell can’t I have her?

It shouldn’t even matter that Mira is my new step-niece. We aren’t related by blood. The scandal would have been minimal if not for my fucking brother, Carl.

Just thinking about Carl causes me to mull over something that’s been bothering me all day.

Why did he give Mira those shitty offices in the first place? She’s his step-daughter, and he’s investing in her company. Surely, it’s in his best interests to give her the best start he possibly can?

And what the fuck was with all the locked doors? The deadbolts and the chains across the emergency exits? The place looked like a fucking fire hazard—not the offices of a lingerie company.

There’s something I’m missing—some vital piece of information that will shed light on the whole situation. And Mira deserves to know what’s going on.

I get in my car, resolved to uncover what it is that my brother is planning for her.

Even if it turns out he’s simply a worthless sack of shit that can’t be bothered with finding Mira good offices, looking into the matter will, at the very least, distract me.

From Mira.

From her shredded dress.

From the way she looked at me in the elevator.

From the way my suit jacket dwarfed her frame.

As I drive away from Mira and her new office, I know one thing for certain: I don’t think I’ll be able to get her off my mind for the rest of my life.