The elevator kept going..
Floor 28.
Floor 29.
Mia's back was pressed to the cool mirrored wall, but she might as well have been on fire. Every shallow breath dragged her lace bra across her aching nipples. Every tiny shift of her hips rubbed her soaked panties against her swollen clit. She could smell herself sweet, musky arousal and she knew damn well he could too.
Noah hadn't moved closer again.
He didn't have to.
The space between them was already suffocating: three feet of charged air that felt like his palm flat against her throat.
Floor 32.
His eyes never left hers. Dark, unblinking, pupils blown so wide the hazel was almost gone. His jaw worked once slow grind of teeth like he was physically restraining himself from closing the distance and doing exactly what he'd threatened.
Mia licked her dry lips.
His gaze snapped to the motion.
A low, animal sound rumbled in his chest.
"Don't," he said, voice gravel scraped raw. "Don't fucking do that unless you want my tongue in your mouth in the next three seconds."
Her laugh came out shaky, edged with something close to hysteria.
"You think I'd let you kiss me?"
"I think you'd beg for it," he answered without hesitation. "I think you'd climb me like a tree and grind that dripping pussy against my cock until I let you come. And then you'd hate yourself for every second of it."
Floor 35.
The elevator gave a soft chime nearing the executive level.
Mia's fingers curled into fists at her sides.
"You're delusional."
"Am I?" He took one single step forward. Not enough to touch. Just enough to make her have to tilt her head back to keep eye contact. "Then why haven't you hit the emergency stop yet, Hayes? Why are you still standing there letting me smell how fucking turned on you are?"
Her breath hitched audibly.
"Because I'm waiting for you to make the first mistake," she whispered. "So I can ruin you with it."
Noah's smile was slow. Lethal.
"Baby, the only thing getting ruined tonight is your ability to pretend you don't want this."
Floor 38.
The doors slid open.
Empty corridor. Dimmed lights. The hush of after-hours corporate wealth.
Neither moved.
Mia's heart was trying to claw out of her chest.
Noah's hand flexed again—fingers spreading, then curling—like he was imagining them buried inside her.
Then he stepped back.
Just one deliberate pace.
He reached past her—close enough that his chest brushed her breasts for one searing heartbeat—and hit the button for the lobby.
The doors began to close.
Mia didn't breathe until they sealed.
Noah turned his back to her, shoulders rigid, hands shoved deep in his pockets like he didn't trust them.
The descent was silent except for their breathing—hers quick and shallow, his slow and controlled, like he was forcing every inhale through sheer will.
When the doors finally opened on the ground floor, he walked out first.
Didn't look back.
Didn't say another word.
Mia stayed inside until the doors tried to close on her. Only then did she step out, legs unsteady, into the cool marble lobby.
She made it to her car in the underground garage.
She made it home.
She even made it through a cold shower.
But at 1:14 a.m., her phone lit up.
Unknown number.
She knew who it was before she opened the message.
**Noah:** Couldn't sleep either?
Mia stared at the screen, thumb hovering.
Her clit was still throbbing. Her nipples hurt. Her mind was screaming every reason to block him.
Her body typed before her brain could stop it.
**Mia:** Delete this number.
Three dots appeared instantly.
**Noah:** Already saved yours, baby. Night-night. Dream of me.
She threw the phone across the bed like it burned her.
It buzzed again.
She looked.
**Noah:** P.S. Next time the elevator stops between floors? I won't ask permission.
Mia pressed her thighs together so hard she whimpered.
She typed one word.
**Mia:** Try it and you will regret it
Sent.
Then she turned her phone face-down, buried her face in the pillow, and came untouched just from the memory of his voice promising to ruin her.
She hated him more than ever.
---