Chapter 5

5

ELLA

“Lily, I need help.”

She hands a full coffee tray to a woman. “What happened?” she asks when her hands are empty.

“I kissed Oliver,” I blurt out. She wasn’t home last night after I saw Oliver. Don’t know how to broach the subject. It’s easier to rush it all out and hope for the best.

I need help.

Need help figuring out what happened, and what I’m supposed to do now. My mind’s still scrambled hours later, and I don’t know what to do.

Lily’s eyes widen, and she rounds the counter and drags me to a table. “What happened?”

“I kissed him. Or we kissed each other. I don’t remember.”

“When? When did you even see him?”

“I went to his office to drop off his wallet and then he invited me out and we kissed and then his hands went places and I don’t know what to do!”

“Breathe.” Lily mimics inhaling slowly and I copy her, in and out, until I can talk normally and my hands aren’t as sweaty. “Okay. You kissed Oliver.”

“He invited me to join the company tonight at the rugby, but it was before everything happened and before a guy came into the room while I was unzipping his pants.” It’s a good thing her café is loud and no one’s paying attention to us.

Lily’s eyes bulge. “You were doing it at his office and someone saw you?”

“Kind of? We didn’t mean to.” My voice shakes. I hadn’t expected it to go so far, but when he had his hands on me and looked all flushed, I didn’t want to stop. He’s very good at taking direction.

“He invited you out, though?”

“To the rugby, but I still don’t have his number and he didn’t get mine.”

“Why not?” Lily’s brow creases.

My cheeks flush. “We were a little distracted.”

“There must be a way to contact him. He wouldn’t have asked if he didn’t want you there.”

I glance around the bustling café and avoid her eyes. “What if he got what he wanted? Then he’d have no reason to get my contact details.”

Someone yanks the chair out beside me and drops into it. “That’s bullshit.”

My eyebrows lift in surprise. “Maddy, what are you doing here?”

“Came to deliver this.” She drops an envelope on the table in front of me and a small cluster of pink flowers held together with the distinctive yellow ribbon from Daisy Chains at the top of the street. “Has the information for tonight and the bookings he made for you.”

“Who?” I don’t know who Maddy’s talking about. Besides crossing over during opening and closing hours, we don’t see each other much.

“Oliver.”

I freeze, pulling paper decorated in purple calligraphy from the envelope. “You know Oliver?”

“He’s my brother.”

My eyes fly to hers, and I drop the fancy paper.

“Who’s Oliver?” Lily asks sharply. “Is that the business guy who?—”

I kick her under the table. Just because I feel safe sharing information with Lily doesn’t mean I spread client information, let alone their names. Especially not to their family members. It’s private. Especially what Oliver likes done.

“You’re siblings?” I croak out.

“Yep.”

“For how long!” They both turn to me with alarmed expressions, and okay, that was a dumb question.

“My whole life?” Maddy says, but her voice tilts up as if it’s a question.

“And you know he comes to my store for…”

She rolls her eyes. “Yes, I know he comes to your store for things. Half the time he comes to me first for a pep talk.”

“Why would he need a pep talk?”

“To talk to you,” she says, as if it’s an obvious answer.

“Why?”

Maddy turns to Lily and ignores my question. “Is she always like this?”

“She isn’t, actually.” Lily tilts her head and smirks. “I’m enjoying seeing her frazzled.”

“Traitor,” I say without any heat.

I brush a finger over the petals, pick up the paper with calligraphy on it, and read what it says. It’s a voucher for Velvet Varnish, the nail salon Isla owns down the street. She buys iced coffee from the café often, so I see her frequently. Don’t usually have time to visit her store, though.

“What’s this?” I ask. Maddy said the envelope was from him, which means it’s from Oliver. But why a voucher for nails?

“A voucher for nails.”

“I can see that. Why is there a voucher for nails?” I dig out more paper from the envelope. “And a phone number?”

Maddy sighs and straightens in the chair. “Oliver’s very excited about tonight and wants you to come, and thought you might like a girls’ day before the event. There’s a voucher for you and a friend and his phone number. He’ll pick you up from Chic at five.” She recites the information as if Oliver made her run through it before coming here.

“He wants to see me?” My fingers brush the edges of the envelope, and I wince when it catches under my nail.

“He would like nothing more.” Her voice is soft, but her shoulders are tight.

I blink at Lily while she considers Maddy. What’s happening right now? Yesterday, the stress was crawling over my skin after seeing him. After touching him and feeling him. And now… He has a sister and we see each other almost daily? And she’s playing messenger because we didn’t exchange numbers and he still wants to see me after yesterday.

He still wants to see me.

Maddy rises and turns to the door but spins back to me quickly. “I hope you show up. He’s excited to see you.” It’s the most sincere she’s sounded since appearing from nowhere. “And don’t let Daniel drink too much. He gets sappy when he’s drunk.” And then she stalks out of the café, mission accomplished.

“Who’s Daniel?” Lily asks.

“No idea.” Maybe it’s the guy who walked in on us? God, I hope not. Haven’t considered the fact it’s a business event rather than just us, but I’ll take what I can get.

Lily snags the paper and reads through it.

I bite my lip. “Do you think he really wants to see me?”

Lily chokes. “By the amount of money he dropped on this voucher, I’d say yes. It’s like he thought you’d bring every girl you know.” She glances at me and drops the paper. “Ella, he sent his sister to make sure you’d be there tonight.”

“I hope so.” I stare at my half-chewed cuticles. At least if they’re painted I’ll stop ruining them. I inhale slowly and blow out my doubts. “Got time to get your nails done?”

“Let me tell Gemma I’m taking lunch and then we’ll find Isla.”

I guess I’m seeing Oliver tonight. A wave of excitement rushes through me.

It’s finally happening.

I smooth my black satin top straight and check my phone. He’ll be here any minute.

I’m sitting in the back room waiting for him to arrive, waiting for Immy to send him back here when he shows up. Don’t think I’ve ever dressed so fancy in my store before. Not that dark jeans and a silky top are fancy, but pair it with red lipstick and bright red nails and I feel fancy. Special.

Isla convinced me to choose red. Something about confidence. I’m not sure it’s working, unless churning in my stomach is confidence?

She told me to trust her and Lily encouraged it, so I figured why not? Red is timeless. Or so I was told, numerous times, between their teasing. Like Isla can talk about having a long-time crush on someone.

I flex my fingers. Maybe I should have done something more natural? Or a blue, maybe. Red is quite…bright. But I have to admit, it looks good against the black. Hopefully, he likes it.

The door opens and my eyes jerk to the man walking through it and snicking it shut behind him.

“You’re gorgeous,” he says, eyes scanning me up and down and settling on my face with a small smile.

“Thank you.” My mouth’s dry, and my hands are damp. He’s wearing a suit—because apparently he doesn’t own anything else—and looks delicious. His blue eyes pop against the white shirt. “You look beautiful.” His eyes crinkle. “I mean pretty—no, handsome! You look handsome.” I close my eyes, mortified, and hope the makeup covers my blush.

Add red cheeks to the rest of my outfit.

Arms wrap around me and tug me into a hug. My face against his chest, the fabric cool on my hot cheeks, and I’m praying I don’t get makeup on it.

Oliver ducks his head to reach my ear. “Thank you, honey. I’m glad you like the suit.”

“I like you,” I mumble into his chest. My cheeks have cooled enough for me to lift my head and face him. “You always look good, but it’s you I like.”

“Good,” he whispers. “Did you have a good day?”

“I did. Thank you for the flowers.” I glance at the cup holding them in the middle of the table. “And for the nails. I hope you like red.” I lift my hand to show him, and he grasps my fingers and brushes a thumb across the colour.

“I do.” His eyes flick to my lips. “A lot.”

I swallow and imagine my red lipstick decorating his face.

“I have something for you.” He pulls away and reaches into his pocket, hand reappearing with a jewellery box.

“You didn’t need to get me anything. You already got me flowers and paid for the nails,” I say, despite my heart jumping into my throat knowing he was thinking of me. Like I was while Isla swiped colour on my nails.

“I wanted to.” He opens the box and tugs out a necklace that glints in the light.

“It’s lovely. Thank you.” I reach for it, but he holds it out of reach.

“Can I put it on you?”

I nod and turn for him. A shiver runs through me when the cool metal touches my heated skin, and his hands brush my throat. His hands ruffle my hair as he clasps it, and he rubs his hands down my shoulders and arms when he’s finished, leaving goosebumps behind.

“Your jewellery’s decorating me. I want some of mine to decorate you,” he whispers in my ear, his breath sending another shiver through me.

He’s right. I have a secret claim on him no one knows about, and he’s put his not-so-secret claim on me.

I love it.

“How long is this thing?”

He grasps my hand and leads me to the door and says, “The sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave.”

Makes sense to me.

The drive to the stadium takes a while, but I don’t care because I’m in his car, inhaling his cologne, chatting about anything and everything. It’s perfect. We talk about places we’ve both travelled to, and what’s top on our list next. I forgot we were meeting other people until he pulls into a fancy car park at the stadium.

He helps me out of the car and bypasses the crowd of people at the doors and heads to a smaller door with one person in front of it.

“Shouldn’t we go through there?” Where everyone else is? Not the fancy side entrance no one ever goes through.

“No, we’re going to the corporate suite.”

I stumble. The what now?

He turns when I stop moving and tugs my hand. “You coming?”

“Yes, yep. Definitely. Didn’t realise it was a corporate suite.” I choke on the last words. I know he’s CEO of his company, but this is a whole different game. His company has a corporate suite. What the fuck. Why am I here? All I do is pierce people, and he’s taking me up there, and why am I in jeans?—

“Ella, you okay?”

“Yeah, fine.”

He wraps an arm around my waist and ducks his head so we’re eye-to-eye. “We don’t need to go in if you don’t want to. We can do something else.”

“No, I want to. I just wasn’t expecting something so fancy. I’m in jeans,” I mumble.

“And you look fantastic in them. Most of the team will dress casual.” He walks me through the door with a nod to the doorman and towards a lift.

I smooth a hand down his suit jacket. “You mean this is for me?”

He shrugs. “Wanted to look my best for you.”

I press to my toes and kiss the underside of his jaw. “Oh, I got lipstick on you, let me?—”

“Leave it.”

“You don’t want me to wipe it off?”

“Nope. Now everyone knows who I belong to.”

My stomach swoops, and I grin at him. Now I have a public claim on him too. His necklace on my throat, and my red lipstick on his jaw.

The lift doors open, and he takes me left with his arm around my waist. I hope he doesn’t move. He’s warm, and I love the sensation of being surrounded by him. I can hear the crowd but can’t see many people; the hallway we’re walking down is quiet except for the lone worker who greets Oliver by name.

Finally, he stops at a door and opens it. The crowd gets louder as we step into the room.

The room’s large, with a table in the middle of it. To the right there’s food, the left has drinks, and it opens out to a balcony overlooking the stadium.

There are less people in the room than I expected, only a few people milling around—and yes, they are more casual than Oliver—including a stadium employee.

Oliver greets people by name and guides us to the balcony. It’s louder out here and you can see people filtering into the stands below us.

“Ollie and Ella! You made it.”

I turn at the voice and freeze.

Well, shit. It’s the guy who walked in on us. Standing in the corner of the balcony holding beer, he leaves whoever he was talking to and strides in our direction.

“Ella, this is Daniel.”

Double shit, it’s the guy Maddy mentioned is a sappy drunk. I eye his beer cautiously, wondering how many he’s already drunk.

“It’s nice to meet you.” I shake his hand.

“Likewise. I finally get to meet the Ella. Tell me, what’s it like piercing people for a living?”

I glance at Oliver who rolls his eyes at Daniel.

This is going to be an interesting night.