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“This is Jasper,” I told Elliot, hating that I even had to introduce them. “An old friend.”
Jasper’s head tilted at my description, but he remained silent.
“Well, any friend of Calliope’s is a friend of mine.” Elliot’s entire posture conveyed that he considered Jasper to be his worst enemy.
“Jasper was just leaving.” I kept my eyes locked on Jasper’s.
“Oh, what a shame.” Again, Elliot’s tone and body language proclaimed that he felt the exact opposite.
“Was I?” Jasper was taunting me. I knew he was asserting his own dominance, torturing me with the prospect of him staying, hurting Elliot. Or deciding to get chatty. Jasper was a man of few words, but he knew how to make words cut like a knife.
I gritted my teeth, willing to go toe-to-toe with him, willing to rip his fucking face off with my bare hands. “You were.”
His lips tipped upward in a slow, haunting smile, his eyes plastered on Elliot. “Nice to meet you,” he said pleasantly. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again.” My lungs constricted at the threat that was but kept my stare even.
“Calliope.” He leaned in to kiss me on the cheek, despite Elliot’s proximity and my body language screaming aggression.
I resisted the urge to reach into his suit jacket, take his gun from the holster and unload the clip into his torso. Barely.
Too many witnesses.
His lips were ice cold against my skin, sending icy pulses of disgust through me.
Elliot’s hand flexed against my hip. I could feel the aggression rolling off him, but he didn’t say anything, didn’t do anything. He was letting me take the lead.
“I’ll see you back at work,” Jasper promised in my ear.
He lingered too close for too long, enjoying my discomfort, my anger, all of it.
Then he stepped back, buttoned his jacket, nodded to Elliot and walked out of my vision.
My chest was heaving with my fury and fear, so it took me a handful of seconds to get my blood pressure under control. Elliot stood silently behind me.
I expected him to ask a slew of questions the second Jasper’s loafer left the deck of the restaurant. Elliot was more than entitled to them. And the entire interaction was much too bizarre and surreal to not acknowledge.
I struggled to process how I would explain it. How I’d explain Jasper. There was no way to do it. And now that Elliot was in his crosshairs, I couldn’t endanger him anymore. What I had been doing was stupid, selfish. Arrogant of me to have stayed with Elliot so long.
He’d ask. I’d tell him everything and force him to end things with me. That I could do. Even if it broke me.
But instead of a single question, Elliot brought me to his body, cradled my face and kissed me. Slowly, patiently. It was all-encompassing. I didn’t relax immediately, though. I was too wired, too afraid, too outside my own body. But Elliot endured, quietly coaxing me back, filling my extremities with warmth and strength.
Only when I’d completely melted into him, utterly gave myself over and felt my heart rate return to normal, did Elliot’s lips leave mine.
He still kept tight hold of me, forehead resting against mine. There was no anger in his eyes, only a twinge of concern he couldn’t hide.
“You wanna get back to work, Calliope Derrick?” he asked softly. “Any more of this and I’ll be forced to press you against this wall and fuck you. And that’ll probably be a lawsuit, considering the restaurant’s full of people within eyesight.”
He nodded to the bustling restaurant, which I had forgotten even existed for a moment.
The noises slowly filtered back into my ears, comforting me along with Elliot’s grip on me, grounding me.
I forced myself to smile. “I know some good lawyers, but let’s not risk it.” I tried to sound like myself, but who was that? Was that the stone-cold, depraved and possibly evil bitch Jasper knew? Or was it the new person I was with Elliot?
A wrinkle erupted between his eyes as Elliot heard the hitch in my voice. He kissed me gently again.
“Well, get back to work,” he ordered with a wink. “I heard the boss is a real hardass, and he already has plans for you for later.”
Despite the events of the night, I shivered in expectation, nodding. I let him walk me back to the dining area, the cozy restaurant that Jasper had just breached. He’d sullied it, and I knew in my heart that was the beginning of my end.