She practically snarled at me. “I’m not being a bitch because I enjoy it. I’m doing this, whether you choose to believe it or not, because what you two are doing is going to hurt everyone involved. Are you really willing to tank your career and loose your family over what God only knows has to be admittedly pretty d
amn good sex?”
I gritted my teeth. Those words were my own, the ones that echoed in my head every goddamn day since I’d discovered Sin’s Darling was Elena. Yet hearing them voiced with such vitriol made me defensive. Her darkness brought to light all the wonderful things I had experienced with him. We were so much more than the (admittedly damn good) sex.
“I’m not willing to loose anything, including Sinclair. If you’re his guard dog, shouldn’t you consider the fact that I make him happy?”
“Are you so sure that you do?”
Okay, that arrow found its mark.
She grinned like a viper, her small teeth shining, poison-slicked weapons. “I’m asking you as nicely as I know how – back the fuck off. You don’t have the balls to see this through to the end. If you don’t care about ruining your own life, what about his?”
I shivered at her icy tone. She didn’t understand that it wasn’t just my choice not to follow through on my attraction to Sinclair. He was just as reluctant to fuck up his life as she was.
“If you talked to him, you’d realize he doesn’t want anything more. It’s over now, anyway,” I said.
She snorted. “If you knew him, you would realize that Sin is about the things he doesn’t say.”
My brow tangled before I could mask the expression from her. She was right but it didn’t sit well with me. Had I been focusing too much on his uttered protests and not enough on the sweet touches and longing kisses? The fact that he still couldn’t get enough of me.
My heart fluttered like a hummingbird between one extreme and the next. I broke out in a confused sweat and blinked up at Margot without malice.
She sighed heavily and dropped her arms. “You’re a nice girl, Elle. So do the right thing.”
I turned away from her as she left. My paintings lay carefully propped and concealed against the wall. I ran my fingers over them lovingly, taking comfort from my art while my emotions rolled on ten-foot waves of indecision within my gut.
“Giselle?”
I startled at the sound of his voice even though I caught a whiff of his smoky scent seconds before he spoke. When I didn’t respond, he came to stand behind me. Goose bumps broke out over my skin as he gathered my hair and moved it over one shoulder. He wasn’t touching me but his lips hovered close to my neck, his hot breath like a kiss.
“I thought you’d run away.”
I huffed. “Apparently, I can’t stay away.”
“I don’t want you to.”
“Sinclair…”
“Giselle…” I could hear his amusement. “Stop worrying, stop hiding. Come out and let me introduce you to some of my team upstairs. I have at least another hour of work to do before we go back to my place but I’ll leave you with Candy, she would love the distraction.”
I turned around, tipping my head back to look up at his phenomenal face. “Okay.”
“Okay? I was expecting you to protest.”
I shrugged. “I want to meet the people you work with. I don’t know much about what you do.”
“I’m a property developer and you have actually met most of my core team. Duncan Wright is my CFO, Richard Denman is one of our chief architects, Candy is my right hand woman and Robert Corbett is head of our construction division.”
“Do they all work in the building?”
“No, most of the time they are out on location working on projects but Duncan should be here. Would you like to say hello?”
“Would that be okay?” I asked, unsure about the etiquette.
He shook his head and took my hand to lead me out of the back room. “Haven’t you realized by now that I can’t deny you anything?”
I was tempted for a moment to test his words by asking him to leave Elena for me. Happily, Rossi found us a moment later and the opportunity was lost.