Twenty-Three
Jenner
“The client is requesting that you fly to Miami tomorrow,” my assistant said as I held the phone up to my ear, looking out the backseat window of my SUV.
Miami.
I felt movement in my chest as I took a breath, and I knew it wasn’t just from the air that was filling it. “Tomorrow, Val?” I inquired. “Is it possible to accommodate that request?”
“Well, you’re booked solid for the next ten days with barely even an opening for lunch. I suppose I could move things around, like I’ve done in the past, but it won’t be pretty.”
Miami didn’t hold the same significance as it had the last several months.
That was because she wasn’t there.
She was here.
And I still hadn’t fucking seen her.
All I’d seen were pictures.
One of what I assumed to be the balcony outside her apartment, a high-rise I was quite familiar with—I’d helped my client build it.
Another one on the beach in Malibu.
A dinner at Nobu.
She was leaving breadcrumbs, and I was gobbling up every goddamn one.
“Fit them in when you can, but don’t move anything around,” I told her and hung up, keeping the phone in my hand to check the emails that had recently come in.
I felt the SUV come to a stop just as my driver said, “We’re here, Mr. Dalton. I’ll be parked along the side of the building until you’re ready to leave.”
I glanced out the opposite window, the twenty-story corporate office for Spade Hotels directly outside. “Thank you, Steven.” He went to get out to open my door, and I added, “There’s too much traffic today. I’ve got it.”
I climbed out, holding my briefcase, and walked into the lobby. “Jenner Dalton here to see Walter Spade,” I told the receptionist.
“Good to see you, Mr. Dalton,” she replied. “You can head on up.”
I went to the bank of elevators, waiting for one of the four to arrive. Once one did, I walked inside and hit the button for the top floor.
The door was almost closed when I heard, “Can you hold the elevator, please?”
I stuck my hand in the doorway, stopping it from shutting, and just as it began to slide open, my jaw practically fucking dropped as Jo stepped through the entrance.
“Thanks for holding it,” she said, her breath hitching the moment our eyes connected and she realized it was me inside.
My dick instantly hardened. My hands were grasping air, so I didn’t reach for her.
She halted a few steps in, almost teetering on her sky-high red heels. “Jenner … hi.” Her voice was almost like a gasp.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. She worked here now; of course she would be in the building.
But I was.
Maybe it was seeing the business side of her that shocked me so much.
Dressed in a black suit that hugged those lean legs and curvy waist, a skintight red tank underneath her open jacket that showed the dip of those perfect tits. Nipples that were just turning hard, begging to be sucked and bitten.
Fuck, she looked hot.
“Jo …” I replied.
She held a coffee in her hand and moved to the far wall. “This is a coincidence, I promise.” She faced the front, giving me her profile. “I didn’t know you were coming in today.” She hit a different button than the one I’d pressed, a lower floor, where I assumed her office was located.
“I have a meeting with your father.”
She finally glanced at me again, the sensation in my chest pounding even harder now. “I know you’re not here to see me.”
And then she looked away, leaving me with a fucking ache as the elevator began to rise.
The emergency button was only inches from my hand. Pulling it would stop the elevator from moving.
I was so fucking tempted.
To back her up against the wall and punish her with my tongue.
Ravage her.
To show her how much I missed her.
But I didn’t.
I stared at the numbers as we climbed, each floor lighting up as we passed it. And seconds before we reached hers, I couldn’t avoid her any longer. I took in that beautiful profile, feeling my breath leave my body as I exhaled, wishing that air was hitting her skin while my nose grazed across her.
I could almost taste her.