Page 69 of His Temptation
We take our food over to his table, which is near a window that overlooks Central Park. Being at the top of the building of One57 in the penthouse is wild. They call this area Billionaires’ Row. Some of the wealthiest people in the world have their NYC apartments here. And I’m having dinner in the penthouse of one of those buildings.
“It’s so nice to sit here,” he says as he slides back his seat.
The table is white with gold legs and heavy wooden chairs that match it. I take my own seat and run my hand over my armrest.
“Is your seat okay?” he asks me curiously.
“Yeah,” I reply as I lean over to inspect the legs, wondering if there’s the possibility that they are made of real gold. “Just wondering if this chair is worth more than every piece of furniture combined in my apartment.”
“Does my money bother you?” he asks seriously as he takes a bite of his pasta.
“What? No. Of course not,” I reply defensively.
“You don’t have to lie about it. I’d rather you be honest.” A suggestion of annoyance hovers in his eyes.
I exhale a heavy breath. “Fine. It’s not that it bothers me. It’s just so different from my world. It’s hard not to make comparisons.”
“But you don’t look down at me for the money I have?”
I can see in his eyes that this means a lot to him. I know it bothers him that people use him for his money, but I didn’t know his insecurities about it ran deeper than that.
“No, Lincoln, I don’t look down at you. I would never.”
His shoulders seem to relax, but before he takes a bite of his food, he adds, “You know, I give to a lot of charities and help where I can. I’m aware of what I have and my responsibility to help. Many people at work think I’m a dick, but I take my role seriously. We employ over a hundred thousand workers. I’m not just clocking in and clocking out. People’s livelihoods depend on me making sure our company thrives.”
I never thought about it like that. Suddenly, I feel like such a fool.
“That’s a lot for one person to put on their shoulders,” I reply.
I’m at a loss for words. All the times I cursed this man under my breath for being demanding, he was trying to make sure all of us had jobs to come back to for the rest of our careers. I realize how easy it is to judge someone when you don’t know anything about them.
He shrugs it off like it’s nothing. “It’s part of the job. I have my ways of dealing with the pressure.”
“How?” I ask.
“I work out a lot. There’s a nice gym here in my building.” His eyes move down my chest, then to my eyes. “There are other ways.”
I swallow hard. I’m thinking I know the other ways he’s implying. Fucking. I think of the two times we’ve done it, how gentle and slow he’s been for me. But I want to be the release he really wants. I want to be the reason he can barely catch his breath as he pounds harder and harder into me.
After dinner, we clean up our dishes. My phone buzzes in the other room. I scurry into his bedroom, then reach into my purse to stop the timer. I walk into his bathroom, unzip my makeup bag, and pull out my pills, then push the small, round pill out of the foil.
“What’s that?” he asks, leaning against the doorframe.
I place the pill on my tongue and turn on the sink, leaning under the faucet to gather enough water in my mouth to swallow it. “My birth control pill,” I tell him after I swallow and turn off the water.
He studies me for a moment. “Did you just start on them because of us?”
I shake my head. “No, I’ve been on them for a while. Cramps. Although I had to get them through Planned Parenthood because I didn’t have insurance before.”
“I’ve never slept exclusively with someone before,” he admits.
The city lights surround us as we stand on the marble floor, which match the marble beams and countertops. There’s a bathtub sitting on its own right in front of one of the windows. I can imagine what it’s like to take a warm bath while looking outat the view. The shower has tall glass walls and seems like it’s long enough to fit twenty people in it. I bet I could do a cartwheel in there.
“Are you … regretting it?” I ask, not sure why he’s bringing it up.
He steps closer to me. “Of course not. I just thought …” he starts but shakes his head.
“What?”
