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 bangin
g 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.”