“I thought I’d return this…” she says as she offers the scarf to me. “Sir.”
Sir? What’s with the sudden formality?
Then I see the lack of warmth in her eyes. Is she mad at me? I’m not sure, but I am sure that I don’t see any glimmer of concern in her expression. And here I thought she’d be worried about me since I haven’t come out of my room. But she’s just here to return the scarf.
I go back to the couch feeling annoyed. “You can just put it on the bed.”
Stella enters the room and does that. I sit down and pour myself another glass. I’m about to bring it to my lips but realize she’s still standing there by the bed. She’s just standing there with an expression of awe on her face. Or is it disgust? Is she appalled by the sight of the nearly empty bottle of Scotch in front of me, the plate of grilled cheese sandwiches that someone delivered to my room but which I couldn’t muster any appetite to eat, or the fact that I haven’t changed since she last saw me? I’m still in that same pale blue button-down shirt, albeit unbuttoned.
“What?” I ask her when five seconds pass and she still hasn’t said a word.
“Nothing,” Stella answers, even though she obviously has something on her mind.
She starts to march back towards the door but stops halfway. Slowly, she turns to look at me.
“Are you alright?”
“What do you think?” I throw the question back at her before lifting my glass to my lips.
“I heard about what happened,” she says.
Did she? And yet she isn’t worried about me? She didn’t come to see me until now?
“Mr. Ryker told me. I’ve been helping him with a few things.”
Instead of helping me.
“Isn’t that Miller’s job?” I ask her. “Or are you his assistant now?”
“No. He and Miller needed help getting more information about Odermatt Corp. and other companies in the area.”
I stare at the bronze liquid in my glass.
So Ryker has already started planning for the worst-case scenario. Is he trying to see if Odermatt Corp. can still be of use to us, if there are other Swiss companies with similar technology that are worth looking into?
Stella tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “I decided to help them since I didn’t have anything better to do, since you didn’t have anything for me to do.”
So is that why she’s acting like this? Because she thinks I’ve been ignoring her? Is she disappointed that we didn’t get to finish what we started last night?
Come to think of it, I am, too.
I set my glass down. “Well, now I do have something for you to do.”
I pat the cushion beside me.
“Sit.”
Stella sits down more than a foot away from me and doesn’t say anything.
“Aren’t you going to come closer?” I ask her.
No answer.
“Didn’t you miss me? I’m offended.”
“You’re drunk,” she says without looking at me.
What’s this? Is she playing hard to get? Well, it is sort of cute.
“So?” I move closer to her and brush my fingers against her shoulder. “I can still fuck.”
She looks at me with narrowed eyes. “Is sex all you ever think about?”
“When I’m with you? Yes.”
I grasp her chin and capture her lips. She gives a muffled groan. Then she places her hands on my shoulders and tries to push me away.
She’s… fighting me?
“Stop,” she says as she tries to pull her lips away from mine.
I move my hand to her cheek to keep her face in place as I trap her lower lip.
She’s tried to resist before. Just last time, in the restroom, she tried to push me away, too, but she ended up giving in. I just have to keep going.
I stroke her cheek as I place my other hand on her thigh. I stick my tongue out and try to slip it between her lips. She keeps them sealed.
I’m being rejected? For real?
“Ethan, stop,” Stella tells me again as she tries to move my hand away. “I don’t want – ”
I grab her hand and push my tongue inside her mouth. The rest of her sentence turns into a muffled sound. I rub my tongue against hers. In the past, when I did this, her defenses start to melt. But this time, there’s no sign of that happening.
Does she really want me to stop?
I pull away. She gets off the couch and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand.
“I don’t want to have sex with you, Ethan,” she tells me plainly after she catches her breath.
“Why?” I ask her. “Because you think I’m a failure now?”
Her eyebrows crease. “I never said that.”
“But you’re thinking it. You think I’m not a good boss, not a reliable leader. You probably think Ryker is better than me now.”
“That’s not what I’m thinking.”