Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 95311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
"Hello," she breathed into her phone, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Hey baby," her mother's voice said cheerfully. "I didn't think you were gonna pick up. You're all out of breath."
Hannah squinted, her hand covering her face. "Yeah, I had to run to get the phone."
"Oh okay. I just wanted to call and check in. You didn't sound great this weekend. I just want to make sure you're doing okay."
"Yeah," Hannah said, her voice unconvincing even to her own ears. "Yeah, Mom, I'm fine. Don't worry. But hey, I'm still at work. I have to finish up a few things so I can get out of here. I'll call you on my way home."
Her mother's voice sounded concerned, and Hannah could practically see her eyebrows furrowed in concern. "Promise?"
"Yes, I promise."
"Okay. I love you."
"I love you too. Bye."
Hannah ended the call, realizing too soon that she should have kept her mother on the phone. Elliott was still sitting on the couch, his breath steady again. Why hadn't he left? He couldn't possibly think she was going to go back over and finish what they had started. Could he? Why had she let that happen? She should have turned away. She should have started talking about work instead of standing there like an idiot looking at him. She certainly shouldn't have wantonly melted into him.
She was just an easy target. He had obviously had a long, hard day at court and he was tired and frustrated. And he had walked in on her and saw no rejection in her eyes. Men like him, powerful men with little free time, always reached for what was closest. She was yet another personal assistant to be reached for in a time of need.
How the hell were they ever going to go back to a normal employee-employer relationship after having tasted each other's kiss and felt one another's desire? They couldn't. Well, she couldn't. And she doubted he had any respect left for her now. He wouldn't trust her in the way he had before. She knew better. She had always known better. She never so much as got involved with a coworker, let alone a boss.
Elliott could just sense the wheels turning in her head. He had sat there, watching her back as she talked to her mother and her breathing slowed. Her hair was still mussed from rolling around on the couch and from his hands. He could hear the confusion in her voice, sense the disappointment in herself. She wasn't the kind of woman he was used to. She wasn't yet another in the line of assistants who had thrown themselves at him, dressed provocatively to draw him in, flirt with him, stand too close. She wasn't the kind of girl to get involved with her boss. And she certainly wasn't the kind of woman who got rolled around on office furniture.
He cursed himself for putting her in that kind of situation. He had manipulated her desire and her obvious innocence of it. She wasn't even aware she was attracted to him, for chrissakes. Just because he saw it didn't mean he should use it against her to satisfy his own frustration.
He had wanted her since she snapped back at him at her job interview. He couldn't count the amount of times he imagined grabbing her and taking her right on his desk in the middle of a work day. The fact that he had a hard day in court, wanting nothing less than to throttle Dan and her lawyers, the countless amount of work he had missed out on for being out of the office and out of reach had caused an insurmountable amount of frustration and anger. He felt more on edge than usual and it had caused his usual rigid self-control to abandon him. When he walked into her office and she turned and looked up at him with those big gray eyes that slowly filled with something he recognized as attraction, what little tethers that held him back snapped.
And her inviting mouth, her soft body pressing into his, her soft moaning against his lips had driven him so mad that he couldn't pull himself back. When her hips rose to meet his erection, he had to fight every desire to pull her pants off and bury himself deeply inside her.
Then the phone rang. He both cursed and thanked it in equal terms. If he took her right there in the office, there would be no coming back from it. He would probably never see her again. But, God, it might have been worth it. He felt her desire which she must have kept taut as a chord thrumming from her. If he had taken her, she would have been like an explosion.
She had hung up for well over a minute and she still stood facing away from him, her hands on her desk making her back hunch slightly. Her head was down. She was waiting for him to leave, to act like nothing happened so they could go back to pretending there was nothing between them.