Page 48 of Sizzle
It’s twice as hard tonight—hah! Don’t I wish?—because he’s switched on. I’ve never seen him so lit up. Just… juiced. He’s ready to take on the whole damn world and it shows. He’s practically vibrating with it and everybody in the room can feel it. They watch him as he walks by, like there’s some invisible force drawing the eyes of everyone around him. It’s compelling.
This Elliot is dangerous. This Elliot makes me want things I’m not sure I can have—things I can’t stop thinking about ever since Alex put the thought in my head.
Triad.
Alex didn’t use that term but as my curiosity grew stronger, I couldn’t resist looking it up. If I understood him right, he wants us to be together, all three of us. Me and Alex. Me and Elliot.
Elliot and Alex.
Two months ago, I think I would have been at the very least confused if the man I was dating expressed interest in another man, but with these two… it’s all I can think about, and confusion is not what I’m feeling.
I swear to God, I’ve never masturbated so much in my life.
The office door clicks shut behind me and I come close to slapping myself across the face. These are not appropriate thoughts to be having at work. Especially when this morning’s fantasy featured the very desk Elliot’s sitting at.
“Why are you blushing?” he asks, studying my face. I get the impression he’s been looking at me like that for some time, and the heat in my face rises to inferno levels.
“Just overwarm from the kitchen,” I say, striving for casual and missing by a zip code or three. “What’s up?”
Elliot leans back in his office chair, the thick muscles of his thighs displayed perfectly by the position. The impulse to climb on and give him the ride of my life is intense, but given that there’s a window in the door and about two hundred people in the building beyond it, I manage to keep my hands to myself.
Elliot’s smirking at me.
“I just wanted to thank you properly for all the work you’ve put in on this the last few weeks,” he says. “Really, you’ve gone above and beyond anything I expected. So thank you.”
“I’m glad I could help, but really, it was nothing.”
“Not to me.” Elliot leans forward, taking my hand in his. “I want you to know I appreciate everything you’ve done for Duckbill.”
Holy shit. My stomach bottoms out.
“Are you firing me?”
“What?” His grip on my hand tightens. “No. For Christ’s sake, Joelle. I’m just saying thank you. No matter what else happens, I owe you for this.”
My stomach slowly rights itself, but I’m still not buying his explanation.
“What else might happen, Elliot?”
He turns that smirk back on me again.
“You tell me, sunshine.” That’s what Alex calls me. Elliot’s only used that word a couple of times before, and those moments were among the most erotic of my life. It’s distracting, but not enough to put me off from asking him again.
“What else might happen to the restaurant, Elliot?”
He releases my hand and sits back, breaking eye contact with me.
“It didn’t work, did it?” I say. “Duckbill is still going to have to close.”
He doesn’t answer me, but the tightening of his mouth does.
“Oh, honey.” I step forward and kneel down beside him. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” My breasts brush against his arm, and that gets his attention, to put it mildly.
“You looking to take my mind off things, sunshine?” he asks, that sizzling energy of his switching back on. “Because it’s working.”
“Good,” I whisper. There’s so much heat in his eyes I can’t stand it. He never lets me see this part of him, not since that day.
“How’s Alex?” he says, when the silence between us goes too still.