Entranced (The ROGUES Billionaire #1) - Tracie Delaney Page 0,40
I burrowed beneath her sweater and cupped her breast through a thin layer of lace. I brushed my thumb over her nipple, standing proud beneath the strip of fabric. She cried out, arching into me. The next second, she draped her legs around my waist and rubbed her core over my painfully hard dick.
I shrugged out of my coat, still kissing her, touching her. My breath came in shallow pants, a sheen of sweat breaking out over my skin. Pushing her sweater up around her neck, I tugged down the cup of her bra and sucked her nipple into my mouth.
“Ryker,” she breathed.
Her fingers fumbled with my belt. She ripped open my button fly and burrowed inside, her hand wrapping around my erection…
No!
I scrambled to my feet, hastily refastening my pants. I raked a hand through my hair.
“Fuck, I’m sorry. I can’t, Athena. We can’t.”
She came after me, her sweater falling back into place as she stood, cutting off the sight of her amazing breasts. I bemoaned the loss at the same time as being grateful for it.
She gripped my upper arms. “We can, Ryker. We’re adults. We can do whatever we want. I want you, and I know you want me.”
I shook my head, denial that I wanted her at all on the tip of my tongue. Except I couldn’t say the words, because they weren’t true. And Athena knew they weren’t true. Instead, I plumped for, “Elliot would forgive you, but he’d never forgive me. I’m so sorry. I wish things were different, but they’re not.”
I grazed my knuckles over her warm cheek, then leaned down and kissed her softly, briefly. And then I strode outside, jumped into my car, and drove away.
I didn’t look back.
13
Ryker
Brushing a few specs of dust off my suit jacket, I frowned into the mirror. Another ROGUES Christmas party. Another year almost gone. Another empty year looming.
Since walking out on Athena after our make-out session at the cabin, I’d decided to try to move on with my life. In a few weeks, I’d be twenty-nine. One year off thirty. Time was passing me by, and although I’d achieved enormously in the business world, my personal life sucked.
“So handsome.” Lissie smiled at our reflection in the mirror that hung over the fireplace in her living room. She linked her arm through mine. “We look good together, don’t we?”
I’d invited Lissie to accompany me tonight as part of the whole ‘moving on’ plan, but now the time had come to leave, I was having second thoughts. Lissie was a nice woman, and she deserved to be with a man who could commit. Not a man whose heart belonged to another.
Easing up my shirt sleeve, I checked my watch. “Time to go,” I said, ignoring her question. I didn’t want to give her false hope, especially as regret at inviting her at all began to sit heavily on my chest. I’d made her no promises, but that didn’t make me any less of an asshole.
I answered a few emails on the journey to the hotel where this year’s Christmas event was being held. Lissie happily chatted away, either unaware of my morose and self-pitying mood, or deciding to ignore it. Despite the sour taste in my mouth, the minute we entered the hotel, I had no choice but to play the congenial host. Our employees looked forward to the Christmas party each year, and they didn’t deserve to have their event spoiled by me. I stopped a couple of times on the way to the main reception room to share a word here and there, and to remind everyone to take advantage of the open bar, a comment met with broad smiles and lots of thank you’s. The ROGUES team worked damned hard. They should have a share in the spoils as much as—if not more than—the senior leadership team. Giving them a fabulous night to remember was the least we could do. We ran similar events at our other locations in the weeks running up to Christmas, and at least one of the board attended each party. We wanted our workforce to feel special no matter where they were situated, although as New York was our biggest office by far, most—if not all of us—usually made it to this event.
I ordered Lissie a glass of champagne, choosing a scotch over ice for myself, and rested my elbow on the bar, scanning the room. I couldn’t see Athena anywhere. Maybe she’d decided not to come.