Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 140874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
CHAPTER SIX
The next day, Neil went back to Elwood & Stern. Officially, that is. He’d been logging major hours from home on both Porteras and Auto Watch since November, despite his doctor’s instructions to take it easy and give himself time. He was itching to get back to work.
His alarm woke me at six-thirty, but I stayed stubbornly cuddled under the duvet until I heard him emerge from the bathroom after his shower. The master bath in the New York apartment was so cool. It was accessible only through a dressing room, a bigger, more organized version of a walk-in closet, with floor level heaters.
Seriously, how did I ever live without special vents to heat my feet in the mornings?
I scooped up the shirt I’d sort of—okay, totally—ripped off Neil the night before, and slipped my arms into it. It was going to need a lot of new buttons, so I closed it by wrapping my arms around myself. I went to the dressing room, leaned against the doorjamb, and looked in. Neil was buttoning the cuffs of his blinding white button down shirt. His gray hair was mussed and sparkled damply in the overhead can lighting. He caught sight of me. “I’m sorry, did I wake you?”
“I can always go back to bed.” Squinting through my just-woke-up haze, I noticed there was something different about him. It took me a groggy minute to realize what it was. “You shaved the beard off.”
With great concentration, he picked out a navy blue tie with white pin dots. “It made me look middle-aged.”
“The fact that you’re about to be fifty in March makes you look middle-aged.” I flipped my bed hair to one side of my head and yawned.
He looked up with his half-smile. He really did appear younger without the facial hair. “Shut that smart mouth and come help me with my tie. I have an assignment for you today.”
My tummy fluttered. “An assignment? Is this some naughty student, hot professor role-play? Because I have to say, I’m kind of down with that.”
He placed me in front of the big, built-in trifold mirror.
“Hands to your sides please, you’re obstructing my view.” He lifted my hair to lay the tie over the back of my neck. “Stand up straight.”
I put my shoulders back, and the shirt parted, revealing a long swath of my nude body beneath. He stood just a little too close behind me, the silky fabric of his navy trousers brushing the backs of my thighs. When he reached around me, I fought the urge to rub my face against his sleeve; I hadn’t taken my makeup off before tumbling into bed the night before, and I didn’t want to mark his shirt.
“What are your plans for today?” he asked, his hands moving smoothly beneath my chin, looping the tie around itself. He didn’t need my help at all, he just wanted physical proximity.
I met his eyes in the mirror as he cinched the knot loosely around my neck. “I’m going to have lunch with Holli today. And Deja, so make sure Rudy gives her a lunch break at noon, okay?”
“Darling, I am returning to my company after a year away. I may be unable to devote time to micromanaging lunch breaks at Porteras.” He leaned down and sniffed the hair behind my ear. “I love the way you smell in the morning. Like sweat and sex and hot skin.”
“Mmm,” I said, wriggling away. “And morning breath, so don’t get too close. Come on, tell me what my assignment is. What’s this all about?”
He went to the wing chair beside his ridiculously overblown—and this is coming from someone who worked in the fashion industry—shoe collection. He took a pair of gleaming, mahogany-colored crocodile loafers down, as well as a pair of Berluti leather ankle boots.
“Whoa, whoa,” I said, holding out two fingers in the shape of a cross. “You can’t wear those. You made one of your magazines go cruelty free, remember?”
“Valerie made the magazine go cruelty free. I was just along for the ride. Do you want your assignment or not?” he asked, slipping his foot into a navy sock.
“Fine.” I leaned against the wall and yawned.
“Since you’ll be going out for lunch, I’ll have to revise my plan. I was going to ask you to edge fifteen times, then come by my office and give me your sopping wet panties and let me get you off. But I don’t want to intrude on your lunch with Holli. So, why don’t you come back from lunch, edge fifteen times, and then call me so I can give you permission to come?”
He might have phrased it as a question, but he spoke in my Sir’s tone of voice. It was a command, and it thrilled me to my toes.
“Yes, Sir!” I bounced on the balls of my feet, coming fully awake. There was no chance I’d get back to sleep now. “How do you want me to do it?”