He’s standing with his shirt looking crumpled, his hair wild, and his lips glistening from when he was between my thighs.
He’s still got my wetness on his lips like he doesn’t want to erase what we did, even if he says otherwise.
“That sounds good,” Silas replies stiffly.
“But I’ll understand if you don’t want to,” I say. “I mean, if you want to cancel, it’s fine. I won’t be mad.”
My words are rushing out, making me sound dorky. It’s like we’ve reverted back to who we were before that sudden infusion of lust before he feasted on my sex like it belonged to him.
And it does.
Always.
Except it can’t.
Ever.
The reason it can’t – Dad – claps. “Right then. Did you still want to have lunch, Lauren?”
“Definitely,” I say, way too eagerly, as if I’m making up for something.
Which I am.
“Want to join us, Silas?”
“No,” Silas says gruffly, not returning my gaze, his jaw tight. “I’ve got work to do.”
Dad shrugs, then raises his eyebrow at me. We leave the office together.
I ignore the instincts telling me to rush back and demand to know if he meant what he said or if he really wants to go forward with the tattooing.
But if we do, we both know what we’re doing.
We’re tempting each other to collapse into confusing heat again, to let go of rational thought and turn into hungry animals.
He doesn’t know how much it would mean to me truly being together. Maybe he just sees it as physical.
But no, he said…nothing happened.
He sees it asnothing.
* * *
“Maybe he’s annoyed about the conversation we had,” Dad says, stroking his close-cropped beard as we wait for our coffees.
I lean back in my seat, gripping my knees so hard it hurts. But it’s better to focus on that physical sensation than the one nestled deep inside of me, the one calling me back endlessly to what Silas and I did in his office.
Was it real?
I’m honestly starting to doubt it.
It seems so unlikely.
“Does he care that much about posting on social media?” I ask.
“He’s not wrong,” Dad replies. “Our brand is what has kept us going all these years. But this new deal creates financial instability, but our CEO is in constant danger or perceived danger. Silas knows what he’s doing…but not all shareholders understand that.”
I think of the videos I’ve watched of Silas leaping from planes or surging down mountainsides on his skis, the closeup shots of his face…he had that same look earlier, when he was behind me, the similar savage concentration as he held his manhood in his hand.