Chapter 4

4

OLIVER

“Ella’s heading your way,” Charlotte says over the intercom.

My body freezes, and I clear the tightness in my throat before I answer her. “Thanks, push all my meetings, please.”

“Already started. Good luck,” she sings and the phone clicks off, leaving silence and the faint sound of someone walking down the hallway. Towards me.

It’s Ella. Ella’s about to enter my office. To return my wallet, I assume.

Yes, I left it deliberately. Is it the same as asking her out? No. But it got her here and gave me time to think of a plan. Not that I’m much closer to finding the words, but it’s given me another opportunity to see her and attempt to ask her out. Now to figure out how to execute it.

She knocks on the door.

“Come in.”

Need to ask her out. It’s not hard. Say the words and—she opens the door, and I sit up straight. My mouth goes dry and my heart races. She’s wearing a tight red shirt, black jeans, and the top half of her hair is pulled into a tiny loop at the top of her head. I fix my eyes on her face, refusing to scan down to see if I can see her nipple piercings.

She enters the room slowly. Caramel eyes dart around the office and land on me.

“Hi,” she says while coming closer to me and digging a hand in her bag. “You left your wallet at the store yesterday.”

Must act surprised. As if I was looking for it and panicking about leaving it somewhere instead of hoping she would come here and return it to me.

“I looked for it everywhere. Thought I left it at home.” I stand to meet her and round the desk. She holds it out to me and I take it, the leather’s cool except where her fingers held it. I drop it on the desk.

“No worries. Didn’t want you to cancel your cards.”

“Thanks. I appreciate you coming out this way.” Hadn’t thought of that. It’s a half-hour drive from the beach to the city, not far, but hardly simple for her to drop it off. Damn it. Hopefully she was already coming this way and didn’t stress about getting me the wallet.

“Your business card doesn’t have a phone number on it.” She perches on the desk, and I stop myself from imagining her lying across it while I’m on my knees for her.

What was her question? “I hate phone calls. Especially with people I don’t know.”

“People don’t need to reach you by phone?” She glances around the large office. “I thought a place like this would network and need your phone number.”

She’s not wrong. It’s easier to call people, but I don’t like giving my number out. “No one’s entitled to my time or my contact number. When we’re in talks of a deal, then they get my number.”

Ella raises her brow and tilts her head. “Only then?”

My throat’s dry and I shove my hands in my pockets to cover the nervous shaking. How have I only realised that if my number was on the card she could’ve called or texted me? And then I’d have her number and wouldn’t need to ask for it. Goddamn boundaries I put in place biting me in the ass.

“Depends on the person.” I rock back on my heels and try to stop my fidgeting. So far, this isn’t going terribly.

Silence falls between us.

Or maybe it is, and I don’t understand her social cues.

“Have you been there?” She nods at the pictures decorating the wall. Photos of London, Florence, and Vienna in different seasons.

A sigh escapes me. Travel I can talk about. “Not yet. Too busy with this, not much time left for travel. One day, I’ll make it there.” One day, I’ll leave this office and do something interesting with my life. Something with work-life balance. With her by my side. Unless she doesn’t want to travel.

“You don’t travel for your job?” She glances around the room again, taking in the hospital-white walls and files scattered on my desk.

“Don’t need to. When I figure out what to do with my life next, I’ll leave this place and travel around.”

“You don’t like working here?” She scoots back on the desk so her legs swing above the floor and shifts files out of the way. Ella pats the spot she’s cleared beside her and gestures to me.

I swallow hard and sit beside her on the desk, my thigh pressing against her, my arm against her shoulder, her head barely level with my neck. Never been so close to her.

Well. She’s been close to me, but only to put metal in my body. I’ve never been so close to her, touching her, inhaling her floral scent.

And I’ve never sat on my desk before. The hardness of it on my ass distracts me from wrapping an arm around Ella and hauling her close.

“It’s long hours. When we started the business, I didn’t imagine it would become so big.”

She tilts her head up. “This is your company?” I nod. She stares at me with wide eyes and blinks. “So you’re not only the CEO, but you created the company?”

I fight to keep my confusion from showing. Why is she so surprised? “With my best friend, but it’s no different from what you do.”

“No different? I shove holes in people for a living. This is entirely different.” She twists her body to face mine, and her knee presses against my thigh.

“You run your own business. How is it different?”

“A small business, not all this.” She flings a hand behind her at the glass panelling.

“Just because it’s small doesn’t mean it’s less of a business. Don’t minimise what you do.”

“I’m not, but I don’t have offices and?—”

I cut her off. “And what? Your business doesn’t need it. At the moment, anyway. You could if you wanted to expand.”

“I know I don’t need it. Or want it, really. It’s hard sometimes…thinking of myself as a business owner while not in a traditional business.” She averts her gaze and bites her lip.

I frown and duck my head, trying to catch her eye. What does she mean not in a traditional business? She owns a store. Can’t get more traditional than that.

“Ella, what’s the matter?” She still doesn’t look at me. Her hands are fisted, nails digging into her flesh.

“I should go.” She lurches off the desk without looking at me.

Fuck that. I’m not letting her leave. Especially not thinking she doesn’t have a ‘real’ business and feeling bad about herself. No way. The anxiety of having her here, and attempting to figure out conversation, evaporates. Instead, panic that she’ll leave fills me.

My hands snap out and snag around her waist, and she lets out a small scream when I yank her onto my lap. Her legs sprawl across me, knees on either side of my hips, body taunt, and arms crossed over her chest.

“What’s the matter?” I demand.

“Nothing,” she squeaks. “I came to drop off your wallet and I have. I shouldn’t take up more of your time.”

“Take up my time. All of it. I don’t care. I’ve already told Charlotte to move my meetings.”

“What?” Her hands drop from her chest and brush my stomach, which sends sparks of sensation through my body.

“Tell me what’s wrong.”

She sighs and her cheeks flush. “Nothing, but it’s weird being in a traditional business.” I take a breath to correct her, but she continues in a rush. “It’s not that I’m not proud of what I’ve achieved, but seeing this and comparing it to what I do, it’s…”

She can’t find the words to explain what she’s feeling. I glance around the office and notice details that are second nature to me. Comparing it to her store, yes, they are different. But one isn’t better than the other.

“Ella, we’re in completely different businesses. We do completely different jobs. And you’re young, your business will grow. Besides, I’d leave if I could.” My comment causes her to lift her head and look at me for the first time since I dragged her onto my lap.

Her eyes are tight and filled with an emotion I can’t name. But she’s on my lap, looking up at me, and all I want is to erase her doubts and kiss her. Ignore the age difference, drag her home and keep her there. Apparently, all I needed to get over myself was to see her vulnerable and force her onto my lap.

“You would?” Her brow furrows. “Why?”

“Because all I do is work. And I’m not saying you don’t work long hours, but I don’t enjoy what I do. You love your clients. I don’t want my whole life to be in these four walls. I want to see the world.” I nod to the photos. “Travel it with someone and build a life together.”

Ella leans back on my lap. “Oh, I’ll?—”

Now that she’s here, I’m not letting her go. My arm loops around her, low on her back, and I haul her close until our chests press together. Pull her until her hands land on my shoulders. “Say you’re a businesswoman.”

“I’m not going to say it.”

“Say it.”

“No! I?—”

I cup her jaw and my thumb lands on her chin. “Say, I’m a badass businesswoman.”

She rolls her eyes and huffs. “I’m a badass businesswoman.”

“Good. You are. Don’t compare yourself to other people. As long as you’re reaching your goals, that’s what matters.” My thumb sweeps back and forth on her chin, getting closer and closer to her bottom lip.

She bites her lip, and I bite my cheek to stop myself from freeing it with my mouth.

“Sometimes I feel like all I do is shove needles in people.”

“That is what you do.” I glare at her when she rolls her eyes again. “You do it to people who want decoration. You decorate people and give them a way to express themselves. And you wouldn’t be in business if there wasn’t a market for it and you weren’t good at it, Ella.”

Her lip has gone red from her teeth, and her frown slowly softens as she thinks through what I said.

“You think I’d get my dick pierced by you if I thought you were shit?” I would because it’s her, but she doesn’t need to know that.

“No. You’re right,” she says with a stunned and then determined expression. “I’m good at what I do. And I have a great jewellery selection.” She drags her hand down until it presses against my pierced nipple. Blood rushes to my cock, and heat coils in my stomach. God, the sensation of her touching me, touching what’s hers, turns my mind to mush.

She grins at me and presses a kiss to my cheek, balancing herself on my lap with her hand covering the nipple piercing she put a dinosaur barbell through.

“Come with me to the rugby tomorrow,” I blurt out. I clear my throat and ignore the heat creeping across my cheeks. “I mean, would you like to come to the rugby with me tomorrow? The company’s going and?—”

“Yes!” She shuffles forward until there’s no space between us and puts more of her weight on my lap. Her breath brushes my mouth, and I lick my lips. “Yes, I’ll come.”

“You will?” I sag into her and tighten my hold around her, limbs weak and trembling.

Sounding surprised probably doesn’t help the mood, but I’ve been living off hope and delusion this girl could actually want me. Would want to go out with me. The older guy who shows up at her shop, asking for her and her jewellery. And no one else.

But she said yes. She agreed to go out with me.

She wraps her arms around my shoulders and tucks her head in the crook of my neck. My arm mimics her and urges her closer, and her whisper brushes my skin. “Thank you for making me feel better.”

I tilt my head until my forehead presses against her hair. “Anytime.”

She lifts her head and our lips brush. She sucks in a breath and sits upright. Our eyes lock, and I’m sure she’s about to get up and leave me here, chest tight and lips tingling, but she doesn’t.

She leans forward slowly and presses her lips to mine. Soft, peppering kisses, until she nips my bottom lip. I groan, and my hand tightens on her hip.

One of her hands settles at the base of my neck and sifts through my hair, while the other drags down my chest to my nipple. She finds the piercing and brushes it, then presses slightly, sending electricity through my chest straight to my balls. I pull away and suck in a breath.

“Too sensitive?” she asks, panting.

I shake my head and grind her down on my lap. “Didn’t know it would feel like that.”

“No one’s ever touched it during?”

I shake my head a little and drag her into another kiss before she asks more questions. She makes circles with her hips, and I can’t stop myself from thrusting up to meet her, searching for friction and the little gasp of surprise she makes in response.

Her hand finds the metal again and shifts it as she licks into my mouth and sucks on my tongue. Every time she nudges it or brushes a finger across it, I grow harder and it sends heat through me. Blood pounds in my ears, our panting harsh in the office as we grind against each other and return again and again for drugging kisses.

My hands shift from her shoulders and hip, to press my thumbs into the soft flesh of her inner thighs, and I skate over the seam of her jeans. I hold my thumb on it, and she whimpers and grinds faster. Red splashes across her cheeks, and her hair’s mussed.

“Oliver.”

“What do you need?”

“Don’t stop. Keep doing exactly what you’re doing.” The words are broken with gasps.

I don’t move. I hold my thumb exactly where she wants it and duck my head to kiss her neck, nibbling on the flesh and leaving red marks behind.

Hands grasp both sides of my face and yank my head up. Ella kisses me between gasps, and when I suck her lip she falls over the edge. Her eyes squeeze shut, and she bites the lip I had in my mouth. Her hips make little circles and I keep my hand there until she stills, nudges my hand away, and puts her full weight on me.

She catches her breath with her head resting on my shoulder. It brushes my throat again and again and I shift slightly.

I’m pressing against her, and with her full weight on top of my cock it’s hard to focus on anything when all I want is her hand tight on me, stroking over the metal she put in me.

She notices my fidgeting and sits upright again. Lips swollen and shining with our saliva in the light. I bite my cheek hard.

She grins. “It’s your turn now.”

“Oh, fuck,” I exhale.

Her hands start at my nipples, dragging gentle nails over them before moving down. Down to my stomach and then to my hips. Her hand covers me over my trousers and squeezes. I groan and thrust into her and fist a hand in her shirt. She unzips my trousers with a smirk and?—

The door crashes against the wall, and a loud voice says, “Ol, I need your signature.”

Ella gasps and scrambles off me to stand beside the desk, and my head falls when I see who it is.

Daniel looks up from the stack of paper in his hands and scans the room. “Oh, you must be Ella. Sorry to interrupt.” He shoots me a shocked look with zero subtlety. “Just need your signature, and then I’ll leave you two alone.” He stands in the doorway, waiting for the okay to enter.

Ella’s panicked eyes stare at me, cheeks flushed, hair sticking out in different directions. She tears her gaze from me and snags her bag from the floor. “I’ll leave you to it.” She bolts through the door without looking back.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Ella,” I yell after her. She agreed, and I won’t let her change her mind. She doesn’t respond, but it doesn’t faze me. Not after what happened. She’s not getting away now. “Daniel, what the fuck?”

“I honest to God Almighty didn’t notice. I wouldn’t have come in if I did.” He grimaces and glances towards to lift. “Sorry.” He looks at me and fixes his eyes on the ceiling. “You might wanna…” He points at my crotch.

I scrunch my nose. My trousers are wide open, and my boxers aren’t doing much to contain my erection. Fast abating without Ella in sight.

“How did you not notice? There’s glass across half the office.” Which I’d forgotten until now. It’s frosted, but you can still see shadows. Shit, I hope Ella’s okay. Wouldn’t have done any of that if I’d remembered. Good thing my office is at the back.

He blinks at me. “Wasn’t expecting it. I’m just gonna leave this here.” He leaves the stack of paper on the floor beside the door and leaves.

The floor’s already covered in paper from my desk that must have fallen while… Nope, can’t relive it when my trousers are still unzipped.

I leave the paper on the floor, zip up, and collapse in my chair.

No way is she getting out of seeing me tomorrow. I grab my phone and wait while it rings.

By the time she answers, I have a plan.

“Maddy, I need your help.”