Page 45 of Untouchable

She needed to start making progress, and she needed to keep holding Caleb’s interest. Given his history with women, it was a miracle he was still into her at all, and there was no way to know how long it would last.

But she also needed to keep last night from happening again.

She couldn’teverlet herself feel that way again.

In this sketchy situation, she didn’t have the leisure to fall into a shame and anxiety spiral, so instead, she brainstormed all Friday morning until she came up with an idea.

She had to keep having sex with him, but she also had to stay in control of it. So she planned everything out to the detail and was waiting on the window seat in her room for him to get back from work.

He usually got back between six thirty and eight, but it was 5:52 when she saw the car approach.

He was early. He must have left the office a few minutes before five.

She grabbed her robe and hurried up to the master suite, where she started to draw a bath in the tub.

She figured she had enough time to fill the tub before he got into the house.

When it was full, she turned on the jets and got in, being careful not to submerge her hair in the water. She was wearing two pigtails. She’d braided them for strategic effect.

She thought she heard him enter the room a little while later, but he didn’t come into the bathroom. He had to know she was here.

She’d thought he might come in to see her, but it didn’t matter whether he did or not.

He might think it was some sort of surrender, like entering the bathroom would break a stalemate and give her the advantage.

Their relationship—even on the surface, without any knowledge of her true purposes—was as much a duel as anything else.

She took her time in the bath even though she was dying to finish up so she could find out what Caleb was doing. It made her vulnerable, not knowing.

It was almost thirty minutes later when she came out of the bathroom at last, wearing a little pink satin robe and her braids.

He was sitting in a chair near the window, working on something on his tablet.

He glanced up casually at her presence.

Her breath and heartbeat quickened at the sight of him, sexy and well dressed in a ridiculously expensive suit. He wasn’t artificially beautified in any way. He looked his age. Experienced. Jaded. Powerful, inside and out.

He’d earned that presence from years of taking anything he wanted no matter what the cost to others.

She stopped short as if surprised by his being in the room.

“Oops.”

His eyebrows arched, as she’d known they would. “Oops?”

“You must have left work early. I didn’t realize you’d be back already.”

“Right.” He obviously didn’t believe her for a moment. She’d never be able to get away with the little manipulations that women often played with men. He’d been around the block too many times to pull them off.

But deeper manipulations, those that took everything from both parties—no one could be prepared for those.

“How was work?” she asked.

“It was work.”

He wasn’t one of those men who spilled a lot of trivial details about their days to any conveniently open ears.

She gave him a slightly annoyed look. “Okay. Well, I’ll see you later.”