Owning Violet (The Fowler Sisters #1)(31)
I press my lips together, remembering that Rose had been referring to my lips. “I like those words.”
“I do, too.” His gaze drops to my mouth and lingers there. “Glossy, vivid, colorful perfection. Those are the words we tossed around a few days ago as we cultivated these particular images out of the hundreds we’d gathered.”
“Hundreds?”
“This project is important to you, right? And to Fleur. We’re taking it very seriously,” he says, his tone full of reassurance. “We want your new line to have the right message, to capture the right audience. Don’t you agree?”
“Of course I agree. And I like the direction you’re taking. I can see me taking these images to marketing.” I flip open the file again and thumb through each photo, my gaze snagging again on the final image. The way the man’s hand grips the woman’s backside so tightly, his fingers are making indents through the fabric of her skirt. And the fabric is gathered between his fingers, exposing her thigh.
My heartbeat slows and a throb starts low in my body, vibrating just beneath my skin. He’s exposing her. Possessing her but willing to put her on display, and there’s something so inherently sexy in the image, I can’t help but wonder what it would feel like. To have a man touch me like that.
To have the man I’m sitting across from touch me like that.
“I’m glad you like it.” At his low spoken words I jerk my gaze up to his. “Perhaps we should leave?”
“Oh.” I swallow hard, trying my best to ignore the disappointment that rings through me. This was a business dinner, you ninny. Of course he doesn’t want to continue this further. It doesn’t matter that he told you to use him. He was just testing you. And you fell for it. “All right.”
I say nothing else. Just grab my purse and follow Ryder out of the room, into the mostly empty restaurant. His long-legged stride takes him far ahead of me and I admire his walk, the broad expanse of his shoulders and back, the way he carries himself. I can’t help but compare him to Zachary, who was always moving briskly, ever eager to get to the next thing.
Ryder moves with such an easy grace, it’s almost … lazy. As if he has all the time in the world, yet he still moves just as fast, just like Zachary. There’s an urgency beneath Zachary that’s almost frantic at times. Ryder isn’t like that at all. There’s nothing frantic about the man.
Well, there is the frantic sensation he gives me every time he’s near …
He waits for me by the double doors as I approach him, sucking in a sharp breath when he touches my lower back and guides me outside. The car is waiting for us, as if he snapped his fingers and it magically appeared, and he opens the door for me, giving me a gentle push to help me slide inside. I do as he silently bids, my imagination running wild as I watch him enter the car behind me.
What would it be like to be possessed by him? Was he serious in his offer to let me … use him? That entire conversation on the drive over had been strange. Stranger still was the normal way we interacted at dinner. He confuses me. Sends mixed messages, when he would be the last person I’d think would do something like that.
The car pulls away from the curb and into slow-moving traffic. Ryder says nothing and neither do I, but I’m achingly aware of his nearness. I study his hands, which are braced on his knees. The wide sprawl of his long fingers, the way he flexes them every few seconds, then grips his knees once more. He seems tense. I can practically feel the emotion roll off his body. I don’t know what to say, what to do, how to act …
“Violet.” His quiet murmur of my name allows me to look at him straight in the eyes and see his solemn expression. “I want to apologize.”
I frown. “For what?”
“For making you uncomfortable. For offering myself up to be—used by you.” He chuckles and shakes his head. “Ridiculous, right? And extremely unprofessional of me. I should’ve never said those things to you.”
For whatever reason, I can’t form words. And there’s a huge lump in my throat, making it impossible to swallow.
“Our relationship depends on this project. I can’t go f*cking it up by propositioning you,” he continues, tossing out the profanity like it’s no big deal. I’m just … not used to it. Zachary watched what he said around me. Father isn’t one to curse. Lily can trash talk with the best of them, but she rarely does it around me. “And I probably shouldn’t have used that particular word, right?”
Still I say nothing. I can’t. It’s as if my tongue is stuck. My thoughts. My words. My … oh God, my everything is just stalled. I recognize what I’m feeling and though I want to deny it, I need to deny it, I can’t.
I’m disappointed. Disappointed that he’s being a gentleman. Disappointed that he doesn’t want me to use him. What’s wrong with me? Why should I be disappointed? I should be glad he took back the offer. Thankful he’s trying to be a decent man.
Instead I feel let down that I’ve somehow lost the chance to be possessed by this man. Owned by him …
“I hope you understand that I got caught up in my—dislike for your ex,” Ryder continues, oblivious to my tumultuous thoughts. “In my blind need for seeking revenge against him, I offered myself up to you in the process, and that’s just not … right.”