RISK(34)

Chapter 22


Nolan




J'ai envie de t'embrasser.

The words themselves weren't meant to impress Ellie. I wrote them on her palm because I have yet to meet a woman who wasn't enamored with the fact that I can speak rudimentary French.

I had to learn the basics of the language when I went to Paris after my sophomore year in college so I could f*ck around France with Crew. His family has an estate there, and when he invited me, I packed one bag and renewed my passport.

I'm not fluent, but I know enough to get by, including how to tell a woman I would like to kiss her. When I wrote it on Ellie's palm, I fully expected her to ask me what it meant. I didn't expect her to press her gorgeous lips to mine in response.

She knows French. She also now knows that my family loves to sail.

Loved to sail.

It's been years since I've been on the water, but when I looked at that picture, the memories rushed back. It was taken on a day I'd waited weeks for and promised myself I'd never forget. The image is about more than a particular moment in time. It's a capture of the last time we were all together.

It hangs here now, in this apartment, the frame collecting dust, the pure beauty of that scene unappreciated. No one sees it. I rarely look at it, but I keep it hung on the wall because I've kept every promise I ever made to my grandfather.

I want to ask Ellie where she learned French, but that treads on ground I don't have a place on. I have no right to ask her anything when I have something to tell her that could alter her entire perception of me.

I have to savor tonight. I need her again. The first time I held back, trying desperately to get her off not once, but twice, before I let the thirst that was burning inside me take control. I f*cked her recklessly on a leather couch. It's not what I envisioned when I planned tonight, but when she kissed me with those full lips and I felt the heat radiating from her body, I was gone.

Lost in her.

Drowning in a need that consumed every part of me.

"Nolan?"

I hear her hushed voice from the other side of the bedroom door. I'd pushed it almost shut when I entered the room so I could make a quick call. Then I toed off my shoes, removed my socks and my shirt and stood by the open window hoping to catch a breeze that would cool me down. It didn't happen.

My phone rings. I try to ignore it. I want to ignore it, but I can't.

I tug it out of the front pocket of my pants.

I pull open the door as the phone continues to ring.

"I need to take this, Ellie." I look down at her. Her lips are plumped and bruised from the roughness of my kiss. Her skin is glowing from the rush of her orgasm. She looks ready for another round, but first, I need to tell someone to f*ck the hell off.

"I'll wait." She stands in place, her eyes skimming over my bare chest.

I nod, inching around her to cross the hall to the home office. I flick the switch and the overhead light flickers on.

"Nolan Black," I say into my phone. "It's late. Start talking and make it quick."

The man on the other end of the call delivers bad news. My gaze is still locked on Ellie and where she's now standing at the entrance to the office. I don't turn my back or shoo her away. I don't give a f*ck if she overhears this conversation. I just want to stare into her eyes.

She breaks the connection when her gaze travels around the room.

"The shipment is already overdue." I even my tone, cutting the man I'm speaking to off mid-sentence. "Unless it's delivered by noon tomorrow, you'll be facing a hefty fine per our original contract."

I listen half-heartedly as he tries to excuse away the delay. Ellie smiles before she turns her attention to a calendar hung on the wall. The image on display is familiar to me, but judging by the way Ellie's staring at it, she's never seen anything like it before.

It's a beach in Hawaii. Maui, I believe. I picked the calendar up from a youth group. They were selling them in the parking lot at the airport in Honolulu. I had just finished a business trip in Lahaina and when a guy approached wearing board shorts and a ripped T-shirt with a message summoning for a change in the world, I handed over a twenty dollar bill and shoved the calendar into my carry-on. I hung it up when I got home as a reminder of the tranquility of the islands.

"I'm putting this on my bucket list," Ellie murmurs before she snaps a picture with her phone of the calendar. "I'm going to Hawaii before I die."

I tuck my phone next to my chest, blocking my voice from the guy who is now telling me that they lost track of the truck carrying the first shipment of our new products. That's a quarter of a million dollars worth of missing lipstick, eye shadow, and mascara. "If you pack that bikini you were wearing last night, I'll go with you."

She looks as surprised as I feel by my words. Why the f*ck would I invite myself along on a future trip to Hawaii with her?

I bring the phone back up and catch the tail end of the guy explaining that they are sending out several men to track the truck down since the driver isn't picking up when they call. I don't give a shit if they send out a full-on search party. The product needs to be at our warehouse when promised. Simple.

"Find him and call Crew Benton," I grumble. "Do not call me back. Your contact is Crew for the rest of the night. Not me."