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“Ground floor?”

“What? No, the first floor. I’m not trying to go to the basement.”

Leo smirked, “I keep misspeaking. Back home, what you call the first floor we call the ground floor.”

I widened my eyes, “Well, considering the button you want to push has aoneon it, I’d say our vernacular makes more sense.”

Leo chuckled at my snark and looked up at the ceiling after hitting the button for the first floor. He tucked his bottom lip in between his teeth and shook his head once, closing his eyes along with the elevator doors. The cab started to descend when he asked, low and intimate, “Do you remember your safe word, Jacqueline?”

My heart skipped a beat behind my ribs; giddiness and excitement flooded my veins at his question before I replied, “Yes.”

“Good,” Leo reached forward to punch the emergency stop button in the elevator, jerking us to a rough halt in between floors, “Take off your panties.”

My breath caught in my throat.

My heart skipped a beat for another reason, and I found myself looking around to remind myself that we were, in fact, still in the elevator. At work.

“What?” I asked.

“Take off your panties.” Leo’s eyes lowered as if he could see through my skirt. I released a nervous laugh, before slowly resting my hand at the hem of the fabric.

Leo leaned against the wall of the elevator, crossing his arms as if he wasn’t staring at my skirt with a hungry expression. As if his eyes weren’t darkening when I tucked my fingers beneath my skirt.

“Are—” I swallowed around a dry, nervous lump in my throat, “Are you serious?” I asked.

“Extremely,” Leo replied, lifting one of his hands to rest his thumb against his bottom lip. He brushed it gently, and the view of his lip softly being tugged back and forth distracted me for a moment. Leo’s eyes lifted to lock on mine, the icy blue becoming less and less visible beneath his growing pupils, “I have all day, Ms. Williams.”

I bit my own bottom lip, wishing I was tasting his.

So I tucked both of my hands under my skirt, keeping my purse on my shoulder, while I dragged my skirt up, up, up.

Leo’s eyes stayed glued to every inch of exposed skin that was slowly revealed, his thumb continuing to tease his bottom lip while I curled my thumbs into the waistband of my lacy thong.

Because I didn’t want panty lines today.

Definitely not because I hoped Leo would see and appreciate the lace.

I had to bend to feed my feet through the holes, careful not to snag my sneakers on the lace as I finally pulled them off.

I stood straight and pulled my skirt back down, my panties bunched in my hand while I maintained eye contact the best I could. I was trembling from anticipation. What else did he have planned for inside the elevator? Why was I excited for it? We were still in the office. The elevator wasn’t in the plan to start anything physical with him.

Was it because he bent me over my desk earlier this week? Was my threshold for what I was willing to do with this man expanding the more time I spent with him? At what point would we escalate things to the break room? The sensory room? Who’s to stop us from doing it on Signe’s front desk at this point?

“Jacqueline,” Leo shook his head once, stepping forward and brushing his fingers over mine, uncurling my underwear from my hold, “I can see you overthinking this. Don’t.”

I stood stock still as he gently brushed his lips against my temple, taking my underwear and pocketing the lace in his jeans pocket.

And then Leo stepped back, pushing the button and continuing our descent.

I exhaled the breath I was holding, the sensation almost made me dizzy in his presence.

“Your flat, or mine?” Leo asked.

“Um. Mine.” I replied, gripping the strap of my purse for dear life.

The elevator doors finally parted, and I took the first steps out of the threshold as Leo said, “I’ll follow you.”

Something spiked in my pulse from his words. I hesitated in the building lobby, glancing over my shoulder at him. Leo’s hands were back in his pockets, his eyes lifting from where they were previously staring at my ass. He waited for me to either say something or keep moving forward.