Page 15 of Christmas in Comets Valley
Hell, maybe if this worked out well, I’d give dating a try once I got back to Los Angeles after all. Or at the very least, make an attempt to find a friend with benefits to pass the time with.
Here’s the thing though, as much as I wanted this fling to become a reality, I wasn’t going to risk the potential of him turning me down for a second time today. But… I had no problem doing my part in making the proposition sound more appealing to him.
“You’re quiet over there.” Elliot perked his head up from the couch where he was lying with a half-eaten box of pizza resting on his torso.
“Yeah, I think I’m going to go upstairs for a while.” I yawned, stretching my arms over my head.
One of Elliot’s brows rose a fraction like he knew something was amiss, but I wasn’t going to let his keen eye derail me from my plan.
“Watch Mr. Whiskers for me while I take a nap?” I asked, getting up from my seat and doing a full body stretch this time before groggily ambling over to the staircase.
“You want me to put the lasagna in the oven? I can call you down when it’s ready.”
“Don’t bother,” I called down to him once I reached the top step.
Shutting the bedroom door behind me, a tiny smile of defiance unconsciously curved on my lips. Walking into the room, I fished my non-work tablet out of the depths of my un-broken suitcase and flopped back onto the bed.
I opened up a private browser and typed the name of the most well-known adult website into the search bar, then clicked one of the first videos that appeared on the home page. Meanwhile, turning up the volume to the highest level until high-pitched moans and animalistic grunts echoed off the walls.
Laying the tablet beside me on the bed, I sat back on the pillows with arms crossed and ears focused on the sounds beyond the door. It helped me that this house was tiny, so I had no doubts that Elliot could hear what was happening all the way down in the living room.
A few minutes passed, and almost as if on cue, heavy footsteps thundered up the stairs. My heart raced as I contemplated all the possibilities of what Elliot might say when he confronted me.
The way I saw it, there were two ways that this was going to play out. One, he wasreallygoing to think that I was the sex maniac he accused me of being earlier. Or two, his own desire would act as fuel to question the activities I was taking part in all by my lonesome.
Firm knocks struck against the door, and my mouth quirked with humor as I paused the video before taking my time getting out of bed. I paused for a minute and took a deep breath to hold down my amusement, and clutched the opening of my robe tighter to my chest. Twisting the knob, I stuck my head through the small opening in the doorway.
“Uh, can I help you?”
“What are you doing?”
Bingo, my second theory was correct. And now I had him exactly where I wanted him.
“Nothing.” It was a piss-poor lie, and we both knew it.
“Nothing?” Elliot echoed back to me with narrowed eyes.
“If you want to chit-chat, could we maybe do it… later?” I asked, looking back into the room at my tablet which was out of his view.
“I don’t want to chit-chat.” He took a step closer to me. So close that I had to tilt my head back to look up and meet his eyes. “Now tell me what you were doing.”
“I already told you I wasn’t doing anything.”
“It didn’t sound like you were doing nothing.”
“What’d it sound like then?” I asked innocently.
Elliot bounced his gaze between my eyes for an extended moment, but I wasn’t going to crack. Too many male-dominated board meetings had prepared me for moments like this. He was going to have to try a lot harder if he wanted to intimidate me. His breaths grew deeper as he enunciated his next words, “What. Were. You. Watching. Aera?”
“A video.” Whichtechnicallywasn’t a lie.
“What kind of video?” He pushed the door open with his shoulder and barged into the room, heading straight for the bed. Snatching the device off the comforter, his mouth dropped open as he twisted the screen to face me.
“You were watchingporn?” he asked dumbfounded, like he hadn’t knownexactlywhat I was doing before barreling in here.
I did my best to keep my face impassive as I lifted both my shoulders. “I will neither confirm nor deny.”
“You can’t deny it when I’m holding the evidence right here.”
