Page 227 of Terms of Exposure
"I do."
And then I kissed him—right there in the hallway, where anyone could see.
Chapter forty-nine
Emma
The rest of the day refused to match the moment.
The anticlimax was almost insulting.
Emails.
Phone calls.
Meetings.
The usual machinery grinding forward like nothing had changed.
And now I was reviewing quarterly projections like it was any other Monday.
The whispers died down by lunch. Apparently corporate gossip had a four-hour half-life. Tessa had stopped by twice—once with coffee, once with a transparently fake question about a vendor contract—but even she'd run out of excuses to hover by mid-afternoon.
I saved my last spreadsheet, closed my laptop, and decided I'd earned the right to bother my boyfriend.
Boyfriend.
The word still felt strange. Too small for what he was to me. But "the CEO I'm in a power exchange relationship with who I also happen to be desperately in love with" didn't exactly roll off the tongue.
I walked down the hall and knocked on his door.
"Come in," he called, voice tight.
"Hey," I said, pushing the door wide. "What's up?"
"The head of the Singapore division is being a dick," he grumbled, finally looking up.
The door closed behind me as I bit my lower lip. "Want me to make it better?"
"Better?" His Adam's apple bobbed as I sauntered toward him. "What did you have in mind?"
I perched on the edge of his desk, leaning forward. "I have a couple of—"
The desk vibrated beneath me, the incoming call button lighting.
"Goddamn it," Damien said beneath his breath. He gave me an apologetic look. "I've got to take this."
I straightened as the call light blinked. "It's fine, what I had planned wasn't appropriate anyway."
"Wait." He stilled. "What did you have planned?"
"Wouldn't you like to know," I teased as I straightened, smoothing the fabric of my skirt.
"I'll see you at home, Mr. Holt."
Thirty minutes later, I kicked off my heels and padded toward the master bathroom.
Marina's. Tonight.
