“Shit!” she gasps. “I promise he can’t touch me like this.”
I press deeper, slower now, drawing every last tremor from her.
“No one but me?”
“Grant—” She begs.
“The clock’s ticking, baby.”
Not wanting to really give us away, I withdraw my fingers just as Darren strolls up, completely oblivious. He sets the drinks down with a laugh.
“You two looked like you were in a pretty heated debate.”
Eslin shifts in her seat, eyes down, cheeks flushed. She’s trying to breathe like she didn’t just fall apart under the table.
But then I hear it—a whisper, faint and fractured.“Nobody but you.”
I grin then whisper, “Good fucking girl.”
I look up and make eye contact with Darren, I swirl my glass, then dip the same two fingers I just pulled from Eslin into the Macallan.
I bring my gaze to Eslin, stir once, slow and deliberate, before bringing them to my mouth.
She watches, frozen.
I suck them clean.
“Eslin and I were just placing a little bet on the next match.”
Chapter thirty-six
Banquets & Blushes
Eslin
Ican’t believe he just did that.
Worse—I can’t believe what I let him do.
Every rational bone in my body was screamingno, and still, I sat there and took it.Lethim. Let his hands wander like they belonged there, likeIbelonged to him. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want more.
I am a stupid woman.
Weak-willed.
A common whoremonger!
Uggh!
Grant Mills is off-limits in every imaginable way. My best friend’s father. A man nearly twice my age. A man with the kind of control that makes smart womenforget their rules.
And yet here I am. Still craving the touch I should’ve pushed away. Still aching like I’m starving and he’s the only thing that’s ever fed me.
It’s like he’s built this secret garden around us—quiet, dark, and full of fruit I have no business touching. But the more I taste, the harder it is to stop going back for more.
We’re at the part of the evening where the party is winding down. The lights are low, the crowd thinning. Tatum’s off to the side finishing up interviews with the press that showed up uninvited. Marlow still hasn’t made an appearance, and part of me wonders if that was by design—like Grant and I were given one more moment we shouldn’t have had.
And even though he slipped out a half hour ago, I keep glancing around the room like I’ll find him in a dark corner, watching me. Like a ghost. My secret.