The Grand Pact (The Grand Men #1)(46)

“A look?”

“Yes. You wanted my hands on you just as much as I did. I’ve always seen the way you look at me. I’m surprised we lasted as long as we did before breaking in that restroom.”

Before breaking. Is that what we did? We broke? I look to my lap and inhale a shaky breath before lifting my eyes to him. “It’s your turn.”

He watches me deep in thought, his gaze penetrating past any boundary I could put between us, but it doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable. His eyes on me make me feel safe to be the most sacred version of myself.

“How would you feel if I told you that was a lie?”

“It was?” I try to hide the dejection in my voice.

“Hmm,” he groans as he settles back in bed further, a tic in his sharp jaw. “I’ve done way worse, but I don’t think you’d look at me the same way if I told you.”

I roll my lips. “Was that your question?”

“No.”

“Yes, it was.” I decide.

“It’s my game, and I make the rules,” he tells me. “I have a good one anyway, and it’s important.”

“Okay…” Nerves clutch at my stomach, the unknown in his possible questioning messing with my temporary calm.

“Did Miller make you come?”

My shoulders drop. Of course, that’s what he wants to know. “Why is that so important to you?”

“Is that a trick question?”

I pause, gnawing at my bottom lip.

“Surely you would answer if he had. You said you’d be honest.”

“No.”

“No?”

I bulldoze right over his curiosity and think on my feet. “Who was with you the night I called? You told me you had imagined me while she sucked you off. Who was it?”

He rubs his hand over his mouth, shaking his head. “Harriet,” he grits out.

I got what I asked for.

It’s not his fault that I don’t like the answer.

“She gets how I am, Luce. It’s the only reason we do what we do. She knows what I need in a relationship.”

“Which is?”

“Sex. I run a multimillion-pound company; I don’t have time for anything else.”

His bluntness doesn’t come from a place of malice, but that doesn’t stop it from burning through my thin skin and scorching my chest.

“She wasn’t enough for you, though?” I ask, feeling ballsy and wanting something to cling onto.

“Nothing’s been enough.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, the minute I watched you come apart all over my fingers, I’ve been fucked for any other woman.”

“But you’ve tried?” I frown, rolling my lips.

“You make it sound like I’m out on the prowl.” He gives me a hard stare, and a fucked-up part of me loves it. “Right now, I’m on the phone with you, and I have absolutely no desire to go out and mess around. Don’t ask me to tell you what that means.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah. Okay.” I watch him watch me, wanting to reach out and touch him, roll into his arms and sleep into the night. “Your turn.”

“Tell me what you were just thinking about.”

Easy. “I was thinking how much I wish I was there with you.”

“Yeah?”

“I miss having someone to snuggle up to. I feel like I lost Miller and then came straight here to New York. I don’t know… It feels weird being on my own so completely.”

“You miss big spooning me?”

“I’ll never enjoy that.” I chuckle. “You’re lucky you’re warm. It’s the only reason you get the big spoon from me.”

“You’re lying.”

“Not many men would admit to enjoying being the little spoon, you know.”

“Anyone who knows me knows I don’t have good bed etiquette. It’s common knowledge. Give me dessert, and I’ll eat it without the fucking spoon.”

“How have you gone from spooning to eating dessert?”

He goes to smile but gets caught out by a yawn that he tries to stifle. “Ell, you need to go to bed.”

“What will you do if I hang up?”

I look around the room, racking my brains for something I can use as an excuse. My eyes land on one of the many arrangements of flowers, and I instantly think of Ralph. I check the time on my phone. “I’m going to go for a walk.”

“Isn’t it getting dark there?”

“Not yet. Well, just.”

“Can you text me when you’re home?”

I can’t help my smile. “Of course.”

“We can carry on our questions tomorrow. It’s my turn, by the way.”

“No, it isn’t. You asked me what I was thinking.”

“That wasn’t a question.”

I give him a bored look. “Seriously? You want me to school you right now?”

“Don’t get smart with me, princess. Does things to me.” He runs his hand through his hair, and I get a little bit lost in all that is Elliot. “It wasn’t something I wanted to know; it was something I needed to know. There’s a difference.”