Page 48 of Play the Game
I press the alarm bell and the intercom, but nothing happens. “I guess they’re not working.”
Evan groans, leaning back against the wall. “I’m fifteen weeks pregnant, and I couldn’t zip my favorite skirt this morning. I’ve had to pee approximately every twenty minutes today, and I still can’t drink caffeine or eat anything but bagels and Jolly Ranchers without throwing up. The man who’s in charge of my professional future thinks I can’t properly organize trial exhibits, and now I’m stuck in an elevator with the one night stand turned father of my unborn child who I may or may not hate just a little.” She rolls her eyes at the ceiling. “This is my villain origin story; I know it for sure.”
I take a deep breath and let it out slowly because I actually kind of hate small spaces, and the idea of being stuck in this elevator makes me want to climb the walls just a little, but I shove it aside. Setting my phone on the floor facedown so the elevator stays lit, I stand in front of Evan, close enough that I can smell her shampoo and the scent of cherries from the Jolly Ranchers she’s been eating all afternoon while we worked. Testing us both, I reach out and smooth a hand over her hair. The second I touch her, her breath shutters out and her shoulders fall just slightly.
I’ve been noticing it since our first doctor’s appointment. The way Evan deescalates when I touch her. The way her breaths slow and her body calms. The way I can practically feel her anxiety melt away. I’ve always been a noticer of people. Of emotions. Cece once called me an empath, and maybe that’s it, but it’s never felt important to me to name it. It’s just how I am. I don’t know how to be any other way.
Except standing here in front of Evan, I realize that I have never, ever felt anything like the way I feel when I’m around her.It’s almost like she’s a part of me. Like I can feel what she feels and understand what she needs without her ever having to utter a single word. For the two years we’ve worked together, I’ve always been extra aware of her, mainly of how insane she made me.
But something happened in the conference room back in September, and it was more than the fact that we accidentally made a baby. I’ve always noticed her, but now Inoticeher, and the noticing is a tangible thing.
Without saying a word, I slide a hand around the back of her neck, tangling my fingers in her hair and gliding my thumb along her jaw. Evan sucks in a breath, and her eyes widen but she doesn’t do one single thing to stop me. Taking another chance, I rest my other hand lightly on her hip, feeling the warmth of her skin through her skirt, the snap of electricity at the places our bodies are connected.
Standing here locked in this elevator with Evan, her cherry scent surrounding me, her chest rising and falling with every breath she takes, and her eyes locked on mine, I understand it deep in my bones. There’s something here. Some big, big something here. I can feel it, and I know she does too. The buzz of awareness. The anticipation. The knowing. The air around us thick and heavy with the thing that’s going to change us both. I don’t know if it’s going to be for better or worse, but either way, I want it. Want her.
“I like the skirt you’re wearing.”
“What?” Confusion laces her tone, and the ability to throw Evan Rhodes off kilter is a heady thing.
I slide my hand up just slightly, stroking my thumb over the waistband of her skirt. “You said you couldn’t zip your favorite skirt this morning. But I like this one. I like the way it hits below your knees, but the slit in the back gives me a glimpse of your thighs. I like how it’s tight enough that I can see your ass move when you walk.” I drop my hand just low enough to skimthe curve of her ass and watch her eyes flash. “You have a really, really great ass, Ev.”
Evan swallows hard, her hands gripping the rail along the elevator wall. “What is happening right now?”
I smile, leaning in and pressing a kiss to her neck, feeling her pulse thundering under my lips. “What’s happening right now is that I want you, Rhodes. It doesn’t make any sense, and I can’t figure it all the way out, but I want you so damn badly that I can’t think about anything else. Every single inch of you makes me crazy.”
I lean back so I can look her in the eyes. So she knows how serious I am when I say this next thing. “I know I fucked up earlier, and I’m so, so sorry. I never want to make anything harder for you. I exist now to make your life easier, and I failed at that today. I won’t again. You deserve to argue this case at trial. You’re a smarter, better lawyer than I could ever hope to be, and I hate that Austin is too big of an asshole to see that. I’m sorry I can’t do anything about all the times you have to pee, but I swear that the second caffeine and actual food don’t make you want to throw up, I’ll buy you all the seasonal coffee you can drink and make you real breakfast every single day. Lunch and dinner too, if that makes you happy.” I slide my hand around to her cheek and hold her face steady, her eyes on mine. “If this is your villain origin story, let me be a part of it, Ev. We’ll be bad guys together because it turns out that I don’t hate you at all.”
Evan’s eyes sharpen in the dim light of my cellphone flashlight, studying me like she’s trying to figure me out, but the way her cheeks flush a pretty pink gives her away. She wants this. She wantsme.
Every breath we take draws us closer together until our lips hover centimeters apart. I stay right there, wanting her to make the final move.
Our gazes locked, I will her to understand. So much of our current situation, from the baby to the way her body is changing to the fact that our boss is an asshole who will never understandhow valuable she is to this firm to the way we’re stuck in this damn elevator, is out of her control. I won’t take one more decision away from her.
When Evan’s eyebrow quirks, a sly smile spreading across her face, I know she knows.
And I wait.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
EVAN
He’s letting me make the final move. The one that brings our lips together for the first time in four months. The one that takes us from whatever it is we are to something different. The one that changes everything.
I know it like he spoke the words out loud, and now his eyes are cobalt as they bounce between mine. Watching me. Waiting for me to decide what happens next.
He’s giving the choice to me, but the thing is, I don’t think I have one. Maybe I never did.
Cooper Wyles makes me insane, and I also want him more than I want to take my next breath. It has nothing to do with the baby or the bagels or how he always seems to know what I need.
It’s him.
Maybe it always has been.
So, with a raised eyebrow and a smile, I close the distance between us and leap straight into the unknown.
The second our mouths touch, fireworks explode in my brain, and Cooper lets out a low moan that sounds somethinglike relief. His hands cup my neck, fingers tangling in my hair as he tips my head back and slants his mouth over mine. He parts my lips with his own, licking inside my mouth and sliding his tongue against mine, tangling and twisting us together until I let out a moan of my own. I grip his hips with my hands and my only thought isYes, this.
The feel of his mouth on mine is both familiar and new. My body remembers his, but it’s different now. There’s a newness between us born of our shared reality and the shared realization that maybe we never hated each other at all.
