“Sorry, sir. It was the first time. It won’t happen again,” Jay stammered, still breathless, wiping his mess from the table with trembling hands.
Dean Vale didn’t acknowledge him. He didn’t say a single word and didn’t give a flicker of attention. Jay could have disappeared through the floor and Dean wouldn’t have noticed or cared.
His focus and his silence were entirely for me.
And that silence was loud.
I stood with my chin high and my skin tingling, flushed and heady with the echo of what I had just done. I didn’t do this because of Jay. He was a means to an end, and I did it for the man now watching me like he had finally decoded something dangerous inside me.
Dean Vale didn’t look angry, he looked more aware.
Aware of what I was and of what I needed.
He saw through me and strip
