Between The Lines

CHAPTER THREE: Lines on Glass

By the time we reached the ground floor, my blouse was half-untucked, my lipstick was a crime scene, and Callum Hayes looked like sin in a tailored suit.

We didn’t speak.

The elevator doors opened with a soft chime — like nothing had happened. Like I wasn’t still trembling inside. Like his hand hadn’t just gripped my thigh like a secret he couldn’t keep.

I walked out first. Head high. Spine straight. Nerves wrecked.

He didn’t follow.

Instead, he waited — like he knew the moment we stepped back into the real world, we had to pretend again.

And so, we did.

Caldwell & Stone was all glass and ambition — clean lines, hard angles, and absolutely no room for scandal. The office buzzed with people in sharp heels and sharper tongues. No one noticed my shaking hands or the phantom of his touch burning on my skin.

Except maybe Claire, the front desk assistant with a sixth sense for sin. She raised an eyebrow as I passed.

I cleared my throat, mumbled something about coffee, and headed to my desk.

But the moment I sat, my phone lit up.

Unknown Number

You left your red pen in the elevator.

Do try to be more careful, Ms. Rowe.

I nearly choked.

He had my number?

Of course he did. He was the CEO. He probably had my blood type.

My fingers hovered over the screen, unsure what to type back — or if I even should — when another message arrived.

Meeting in Conference Room 9. Ten minutes.

And fix your lipstick.

My jaw dropped.

I scrambled to the nearest restroom, heart pounding like a traitor. I stared at myself in the mirror — wide eyes, flushed cheeks, lips still swollen.

What the hell are you doing, Ember?

What the hell is he doing?

And yet… I fixed my lipstick.

By the time I pushed open the frosted glass doors of Conference Room 9, the room was empty.

Except for him.

He stood by the window, back turned, phone in hand. London stretched out behind him — powerful, untouchable, cold.

Then he turned.

And everything inside me broke again.

“Sit,” he said softly.

I obeyed.

He walked around the table — slowly — his eyes never leaving mine.

“Tell me,” he murmured, “was that just adrenaline?”

I swallowed. “You kissed me back.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Neither was that.”

His jaw tensed. “This is dangerous.”

“I know.”

“It could ruin us both.”

I stood. Walked around the glass table until I was standing right in front of him.

And then I said the one thing I shouldn’t have:

“Then ruin me.”