“We should finish what we started in your office,” she said, arching herself so that her chest brushed mine. My fingertips curled into the wall.
“No.”
Disappointment flashed across her face. “Why not?”
“Your sweet and understanding husband is here.”
She crumpled slightly.
“I heard you were getting a divorce, but it seems like that’s not really the priority.”
Her eyes sharpened to gemstones, practically drawing blood as they whipped across my face. “This is a delicate departure. I thought maybe you could appreciate that, at least. I can’t just serve him papers and be on my merry way. I need to have a fucking plan.”
“And your plan is to fuck around with Axel Fairchild until we get caught?” I laughed snidely. “No thanks.”
“Then go.”
I clenched my teeth. What a delightful way to call me on my bullshit. When I didn’t leave, her smile spread like a wine stain on white cloth.
“You shouldn’t be back here with me,” she whispered huskily, arching her body toward me again.
But her words were pure posturing.
She just wanted to push my buttons. And I was the dumb sap who wanted her to push them.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CORA
I knew this was wrong.
Everything I was doing—luring Axel to a back hallway, stoking this passion while Eli and my father were so close by—was wronger than wrong.
But hell if I could stop.
My desperation knew no limits. Every time I committed to tamping things down, here I went again.
It was just…I needed to taste him again. To feel his hands on my body. I needed his cock buried so deep inside me that I wouldn’t be able to walk the next day. I needed to remember what it felt like to be desired. To be with someone who knew the depths of my soul and didn’t tell me to fix something. That had been Axel, before I’d detonated everything.
Axel was the only person in my life who’d seen my softest and most-scarred parts and didn’t ask me to hide them.
I needed Axel Fairchild in every conceivable way and then some.
“Don’t look if you can’t handle the show,” I told him. My heart raced so fast I thought I might pass out. Why wouldn’t he touch me? I was seconds away from throwing myself on him. I rolled the diamond pendant between my fingers, the only way to calm and control myself.
“What show?” he growled.
“The show I’m putting on with Eli,” I told him.
“You guys looked pretty fucking content,” Axel said, and he pushed away from me. My arms shot out to grab him by the waist. He couldn’t leave now. Not when we were so close to a breakthrough. To somethingmore.
“I told you, it’s delicate.” I swallowed a knot in my throat. “I’m biding my time and getting things ready until I have everything in order. We’ve been living apart for the past few months, but he still doesn’t get how serious I am.”
Axel’s sky blue gaze focused in again, his pupils widening. “Living apart?”
“I’ve been in our condo at Central Park.” I swallowed hard, wondering how many details I could share before I ruined the vibe altogether. “He’s stayed at our brownstone on the Upper West Side.”
“Fine. So what do you want?”