Page 35 of Sizzle

“That was insane,” he says.

“Crazy.”

“She thought I was going to fire her,” he says.

“The hell?”

“Yeah, I know. We had a come-to-Jesus talk this morning during our meeting,” says Elliot.

“Is she okay?” I’m kicking my own ass now for not getting her number. How could she think he’d fire her over something like that?

But if I put myself in her shoes for a minute… I can see how she got there. It’s not exactly an irrational idea. Poor baby girl. I want to hug her.

Haven’t yet worked out how I’m going to manage that, when I don’t even know if I’ll get to see her again.

“We worked it out,” says Elliot. Then he laughs again. “Which of course means she decided to start flirting with me.”

“Of course she did,” I say, because who wouldn’t? “She knows you want her. God knows she wants you.”

“You think?”

“Elliot. She got herself off while you watched. What part of that sounds like indifference to you?”

He’s holding the phone too close to his face, otherwise I’d never be able to hear his breathing get faster like this.

“I thought…”

“What?”

“Nothing, just… I thought maybe it was for you. She likes you, you know.”

I close my eyes. I did know that. But there’s a pretty big line between liking and doing anything about it.

“Who knows?” I say, pressing my cock into the palm of my hand. “Maybe she got off on us both being there.”

That causes Elliot’s breath to hitch.

“You think?”

“You tell me, Elliot,” I say slowly. “She wasn’t so sure about kissing me before you came back into the bar.”

“That’s not how it looked to me,” he said, his voice going rough. “She wanted it so much she was shaking. I could see it all the way across the room.”

She had been. Joelle had started trembling the instant she realized we were alone together.

I hear fabric rustling and sneak a peek out the window. Elliot’s holding the phone to his ear with one shoulder, his hands in his lap, and I damn near drop my own phone when I figure it out.

Jesus. Jesus bleeding Christ. He’s got his cock in his hand.

I grasp the arm of the chair as hard as I can, trapping the groan before it escapes.

“What else did you see, Elliot?” I ask. I scoot forward off the chair, careful so as not to disturb the curtains too much, kneeling on the floor so I can unzip my fly. “Did you see the way her tits shook as she bounced on me?”

“God, yes,” he breathed. “I wanted to yank that shirt over her head.”

“So did I,” I say, palming my cock. “Tell me what else you saw.”

Elliot obeys immediately, like he always does. Not for the first time, I wonder if he knows what it could mean between us.