It was all the encouragement Knox needed to slide his arms about her waist and hold her tightly against him as he deepened the kiss.
Ellie rested her hands on his shoulders and lost herself in the pleasure of that kiss.
By the time Knox raised his head, they were both breathing hard, and his cheeks were as flushed as Ellie’s felt warm.
He cupped her heated cheeks as he looked deeply into her eyes. “Tomorrow.” He made that single word sound like a promise.
“Yes,” she confirmed.
He dropped his hands to his sides and took a step back as the elevator arrived and the doors quietly opened. “I’m starting to regret not seeing you again until tomorrow.”
Ellie chuckled. “My parents always told me that anticipation is half the pleasure.”
“Yes, but they were probably talking about birthdays and Christmas,” he dismissed. “This is so much bigger than either of those.”
Her eyes widened. “It is?”
“Oh yes,” he said with certainty.
Ellie stepped into the elevator before the doors could close and it disappeared to another floor. “Enjoy the rest of your day.”
“Shall I book a table for seven thirty tomorrow evening? That way, I can come to your apartment to pick you up about seven?” he suggested softly.
She gave a shy smile. “That sounds perfect.”
He nodded. “Please don’t change your mind between now and then, or you’ll break my heart,” he told her as the doors began to close.
Ellie smiled all the way up to the fifth floor, along the hallway to her apartment, and while she unlocked the door to go inside.
That smile instantly faded the moment she saw the chaos of furniture having been upended, all the kitchen cabinets having been emptied onto the kitchen floor, and her personal items in the lounge strewn across the carpet.
Her face paled when she saw the man sitting in one of the chairs in the chaos of that room.
Knox checked his messages during the cab ride back to his office. There was one from Linus, but after seeing the title in the Subject box was Ellie’s name, he decided to wait to read it until he was seated behind his marble desk. He saved the two attachments for last.
As usual, Linus had gone above and beyond, providing Knox with far more information than he had asked for.
There was the bare bones of Ellie’s life, parents, education, boyfriends—there had only been two, very brief but not intimate relationships, before Day.
There was far more information on Andrew Day. His deliberate estrangement from his own family. His financial dependence on Ellie, both during and since their relationship ended. Because he had taken half the value of everything Ellie owned. The report also detailed his womanizing and gambling during the relationship.
The latter had been while Ellie continued to share his life in total ignorance of his infidelity and betrayal.
Linus’s last comment was a warning to Knox, before he looked at the attachments: Remember, revenge is a dish best served cold.
Once Knox had read those attachments, he was fully able to appreciate the warning.
Knox was usually clearheaded and logical in his thinking, rarely allowing his emotions to guide his actions. He certainly didn’t allow his temper to rule his emotions. But the two attachments were both hospital reports for one Eleanor Hall.
The first one was dated almost six months ago, after she had arrived at the hospital in great pain and unable to move her left arm. An X-ray had revealed that both her wrist and the two bones at the bottom of her arm were broken.
Also included in that visit was a negative STD test.
Because that bastard Hall hadn’t cared who he stuck his dick into while continuing to stick it into Ellie!
The second report, from just two months ago, was for Ellie having arrived at the hospital complaining she was having difficulty breathing. The doctor, after examining her and taking more X-rays, had put this down to the extensive bruising on her abdomen and two broken ribs.
Knox had broken three ribs years ago, and even now, he remembered that difficulty breathing and that they had hurt like the devil for the weeks it had taken for them to heal. They still twinged occasionally.