Page 61 of Heartless
She looks at me with a look of concern, and something more blazes in her eyes. We hold eye contact for several seconds, and I feel as if there’s so much that we’re not saying at this moment.
I break the stare as the waiter approaches us. I turn to order our food. After I’ve finished ordering, we change the subject to something much more comfortable, spreadsheets, budgets, and proposals until we return to the hotel.
Once we’re back inside, we go our separate ways. I’m lost in data on my computer when I hear a knock at my door. Setting my laptop aside, I go to the door and peer out the peephole.
“Hey,” I greet Sharla as I open the door wider for her to enter my room. “What’s up?” I ask when she turns to face me.
She follows me inside as I head to the bar and prepare a drink.
“I just wanted to thank you for believing in me enough to not only put me in charge of convening a team but to bring me on this trip with you.”
“I know that it’s only been a little over two months since you’ve been on staff, but you genuinely earned it. Executive leadership is impressed with your progress.”
“I’m glad. I also want to tell you that I enjoy our lunchtimes together. I think that I’d started taking them for granted until we came out here. I’ve seldom seen you since we’ve been in Vegas, and that downstairs...” she says, jabbing her finger at the floor. “Brought it all back, and how much I appreciate it. I know you could be doing a million other things, but I wanted you to know that it means a lot to me.”
“So do I, Shar. You have no idea how refreshing it is to have open conversations the way that we do again. Someone to bounce my ideas off, and you don’t think that I’m going overboard.”
“Well, you accept a lot of my suggestions, too, so that feels good. Not to be taken for granted. Thanks,” she says, reaching out to take my hand and squeeze it.
Rather than squeezing her hand back or letting it go, I stand still as she steps closer to me. I take the drink from Sharla’s other hand as her hands go to my chest, and she stares up at me openly.
“Please,” she whispers.
“Shar,” I groan.
“Onyx, I missed you,” she says huskily.
She tips up and presses her lips against mine. Softly brushing them, when I stiffen, she says, “Shh...just feel.”
“Just be in the moment?” I ask, repeating something she often said to me when we were together all those years ago. Whenever I would get busy planning or too deep in my head, she would tell me to relax and be in the moment.
“Mm-hmm,” she purrs softly against my lips.
My arms wrap around her waist, and I pull her hard against me, my erection growing as she opens her mouth to let me in.
The kiss is smooth, sultry, and all tongues and moans.
When we pull apart, I groan, “Fuck,” resting my forehead against hers. “I’m sorry, Shar. I shouldn’t have.”
“It’s okay. You did nothing but what we’ve both wanted for a while now.”
Staring into her eyes, I say, “I have no right.”
“Maybe not. I think...it was only a matter of time. We never got closure, Nyx. Never had a chance to sit down and talk about what happened between us. What we lost.”
“I can’t sit and have that conversation with you. I’m married now, and going down that road is trouble.”
“Obviously, not going down that road is troublesome too.”
“We have to stop this game we’ve been playing. Acting like we haven’t been dangerously flirting with fire every time we...”
“I know,” she says softly, with tears framing her eyes. “It’s just so hard for me not to want you. To touch you.”
“For me, too.”
“I didn’t mean to come up here and try to take advantage of you,” Sharla says teasingly.
I smirk and shake my head. “I think you’d better head back to your room before I do something that I might regret.”