He Opened the Door, I Walked Out Chapter 11

He Opened the Door, I Walked Out Chapter 11

The knock on my office door came at exactly 2:15 PM, interrupting my review of the quarterly reports. I glanced up from the spreadsheets, expecting to see my assistant with another stack of documents requiring my signature.

“Come in,” I called out, not bothering to look up from the papers scattered across my mahogany desk.

The door opened with a soft click, and when I finally raised my eyes, my breath caught in my throat.

Elaine.

She stood in my doorway like a vision, her dark hair falling in soft waves around her shoulders, wearing a cream-colored blouse that

hugged her curves in all the right places. The afternoon light streaming through my floor-to-ceiling windows caught the golden highlights in her hair, making her look almost ethereal.

But it was her eyes that held me captive-those same eyes that had looked up at me with such passion just nights before, now holding a

mixture of determination and something else. Something dangerous.

“Elaine.” Her name escaped my lips before I could stop it, my voice rougher than I intended. “This is unexpected.”

A slow smile curved her lips, the kind of smile that had haunted my dreams since our night together. “I hope you don’t mind the intrusion. I found something of yours.”

She reached into her purse with deliberate slowness, her movements graceful and controlled. When she pulled out my sterling silver cufflinks-the ones I’d been searching for all week-I felt a jolt of recognition mixed with something far more primal.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for those,” I said, rising from my chair and moving around the desk toward her. The familiar scent of her perfume hit me as I drew closer, sending my pulse racing. “How did you-”

The question died on my lips as understanding dawned. She’d stayed at the hotel. In my bed. The image of her tangled in my sheets, her skin flushed from our lovemaking, flashed through my mind with vivid clarity.

“You were at the hotel,” I said, my voice dropping to barely above a whisper.

“I stayed the night,” she admitted, her cheeks taking on the faintest pink tinge. “I found them this morning.”

The air between us crackled with tension. Every instinct told me to close the distance, to pull her into my arms and claim those lips that had driven me to distraction. But something in her posture, in the way she held herself with such careful control, made me pause.

“You could have called,” I said, studying her face for any hint of what had brought her here. “Or had them sent over.”

Her chin lifted slightly, a gesture I was beginning to recognize as her tell when she was about to do something bold. “I could have. But I wanted to see you.”

The admission hit me like a physical blow. The honesty in her voice, the vulnerability beneath her composed exterior-it was intoxicating. But before I could respond, a commotion erupted in the hallway outside my office.

“Elaine! Elaine, please!” A man’s voice, desperate and pleading, carried through the heavy wooden door. “You can’t just ignore me like this!”

Elaine’s expression didn’t change, but I caught the slight tightening around her eyes, the almost imperceptible straightening of her spine. She knew that voice.

“Was that your husband in the hallway?” I asked quietly, pieces of a puzzle I didn’t fully understand beginning to click into place

“Yes,” she said simply, no shame or guilt in her voice. Just fact.

“And he doesn’t know?”

“No.” She paused, then added with a smile that was equal parts innocent and wicked, “But I think he’s starting to suspect,”

The sound of voices grew louder outside-my assistant’s professional tone trying to calm what was clearly an agitated man. Richard Mills. The name suddenly had a face, a voice, a desperate edge that spoke of a man watching his world crumble.

I should have felt guilt. Should have felt the weight of what we’d done, what we were continuing to do. Instead, I felt something for more dangerous: possession. This woman, this extraordinary creature who’d walked into my life and turned everything upside down, had chosen me. Had come to me.

“Mr. Sterling?” My assistant’s voice came through the intercom, strained with barely concealed panic. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but there’s a gentleman here who insists on speaking with you. He says it’s urgent.”

I looked at Elaine, who met my gaze with steady calm. The woman was remarkable-standing in the eye of a storm of her own making without so much as a tremor.

“Tell him I’m in a meeting,” I said into the intercom, my eyes never leaving Elaine’s face. “And that I’m not to be disturbed.”

“But sir, he says he’s-”

“Not. To. Be. Disturbed.” Each word was crisp, final, carrying the weight of absolute authority.

Silence fell on the other side of the door, but I could feel the tension radiating through the walls. Richard Mills was out there, probably putting together pieces of a puzzle he desperately didn’t want to solve.

Elaine stepped closer, close enough that I could see the flecks of amber in her brown eyes, could feel the warmth radiating from her skin. “Thank you,” she said softly.

“For what?”

“For not asking questions. For not judging.”

I reached out, my fingers brushing against hers as I took the cufflinks from her palm. The contact sent electricity shooting up my arm,

and I saw her breath catch at the touch.

“I told you before,” I said, my voice rough with want. “I don’t judge. I just take what I want.

Her lips parted slightly, and I could see the pulse fluttering at the base of her throat. “And what do you want right now?”

The question hung between us like a challenge. Outside, I could hear footsteps pacing in the hallway, the muffled sound of Richard’s voice pleading with my assistant. The man was unraveling, and his wife was standing in my office looking at me like I was the only thing that mattered in the world.

“Right now?” I said, stepping closer until there was barely an inch between us. “I want to take you to lunch. Somewhere public Somewhere your husband might see us.”

Her eyes widened slightly, but not with fear. With excitement. With the same dangerous thrill I felt coursing through my veins

“That’s a very bold suggestion, Mr. Sterling,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“I’m a very bold man, Mrs… “I let the question hang, realizing I still didn’t know her last name.

“Mills,” she said, and the irony wasn’t lost on either of us. “Mrs. Richard Mills.”

The name of one of my employees. A man whose quarterly reports currently sat on my desk, whose future with the company hung in the balance of decisions I’d been putting off for weeks.

I should have stepped back. Should have ended this before it destroyed careers, marriages, lives.

Instead, I smiled-the kind of smile that had closed million-dollar deals and crushed competitors without mercy.

“Well then, Mrs. Mills,” I said, moving to the door and placing my hand on the handle. “Shall we go to lunch?”

I opened the door to find Richard Mills standing in the hallway, his face flushed with desperation and dawning horror as he saw his wife

emerge from my office at my side.