Ruthless In A Suit(31)

“That was…” I begin.

“…intense,” he finishes. We both manage to laugh.

He helps me off the table and places the strap of my dress back on my shoulder as I tug down the skirt. I can hardly look at him but when I do, for just a quick moment, it feels warm and sweet.

“I just want to say, for the record, that I have never done anything like that in my life,” I tell him, once I’ve gotten myself dressed and back in my chair. I let my hair fall in my face, unable to look at him. “That was just…crazy.”

Jackson reaches over and tucks my hair behind my ear. He lifts my chin so that I’ll look at him. “You’re beautiful,” he says, and something in his eyes and the tone of his voice makes me feel like it’s more than just a line he’s using on me.

But then again, maybe that’s why he’s so seductive—he makes everything seem real, convincing, believable.

Does he mean any of it?

He walks back over to the door. He puts his fingers to his lips. “Shhh…”

I can’t help but grin as he unlocks the door then hustles back to the table like a naughty schoolboy trying not to get caught. Moments later the door opens and Rocco and another waiter arrive to clear away our dishes and present us with dessert. We all act like nothing out of the ordinary happened.

And it was so incredible, so unbelievable, I could almost convince myself that I made it all up, that I blacked out from the wine and had an intense, erotic dream. But then Jackson reaches under the table and clasps my hand and I realize—it’s real. I didn’t even have to dream it.





Jackson





That was not how I intended the night to go.

That was bad.

Well, it was fucking amazing. The hottest sexual experience I’ve ever had in my life. But it’s bad because now I’m hooked on Emily Brown and I don’t like to be addicted to anything.

I need my wits about me now more than ever, and all Emily does is make me lose my mind.

Is it possible that she’s everything you never knew you wanted?

The question hangs in my mind for a brief moment before I shake it off.

No. I can’t allow myself to become weak, thinking that way. My father taught me all too well that emotions make you irrational and easy to beat.

Still. Maybe she is a good candidate to help me get what I want with the business. At first, I was convinced that she would just be an itch to scratch, but now I’m wondering if I can have my cake and eat it too.

Scratch that itch again and again, while also satisfying the ridiculous stipulation my father inserted in his will. Dad’s final, cruel joke, has forced me and my brothers into yet another competition over what I know is rightfully mine.

But now I have to get my head back in the game because I have some briefs to go over before the video conference call with my brothers tomorrow. They’re doing the exact same thing tonight in New York and Los Angeles, and I can’t let the sexiness of tonight’s dinner slow me down in my preparations for battle.

In fact, I shouldn’t have gone out tonight at all. I should have spent all evening in my study.

I can’t make this mistake again.

The thing is—it’s not just that Emily is sexy, although damn she is. It’s that she hooks into me in a way that no one ever has before. She’s got me second-guessing my watch, for Christ’s sake, which costs more than most people’s cars. It’s a classic.

Still, back at my brownstone I smile as I take it off and toss the watch into the velvet-lined drawer with all my others. I think of her fingers touching my skin, and how she felt when I held her tiny wrist.

How she tasted…like honey, only sweeter.

The way her legs were open, the way she smelled, the shivering of her skin as I touched it. And just like that, I’m rock hard once more.

I look at my phone, her number already secured in it, thanks to Sandra’s quick administrative skills.

Maybe I could call her, find some excuse to see her again. I could send a car to bring her here right now and we could finish what we started in the restaurant.

I shake my head. This is exactly the problem. When I should be working, I’m thinking about how I can get Emily here next to me.

I undress and change into flannel pants and a cotton shirt. In my office on the second floor, I open up my computer and start reviewing the agenda for the meeting and try to suss out what Rex and Miles will each fight me on, because there is always a fight. Our father called it competition but really it’s all-out war.

Dear old Dad loved nothing more than pitting brother against brother, even when it came to dinner. He’d purposely have the cook set out too few pieces of meat or not enough of our favorite sides just so he could watch us fight over it.