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Look at that. I’d found a new reason to mentally beat him with my box file.
Actually, there was plenty he couldn’t do. Like laundry, cooking, and wearing a shirt.
Speaking of… “I can’t actually share this photo, you know.”
“Why not?” he asked.
“Because you’re not wearing a t-shirt in it.”
Theo tilted my phone towards him. “You’re right. I forgot because you didn’t yell at me to put one on after I showered.”
My gaze trailed over his bare stomach. “I’ve decided to embrace your half-nakedness outside of working hours.”
“Only half-nakedness?”
“Full nakedness, too, I suppose.”
He grinned, leaning close to me. “You know, I think everyone at the office would be just as shocked by this side of you as they would be the dinosaur-sock-wearing side of me.”
I wrinkled up my face. He was probably right. For all of Theo’s reputation as the demanding bastard of a boss, I myself had one as a picky, cool perfectionist.
And I was.
I absolutely was a picky, cool perfectionist, so I didn’t much care if people thought that about that. It was a label I was happy to embrace.
So, the sex-confident, Stardew Valley playing Chloe St. James would probably really take people by surprise.
“Either way, this picture is a bust. I can’t share it with anyone,” I said, putting my phone away and bringing my laptop back to my legs.
“Are you going to delete it?”
“No. I can’t use it now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t ever use it in the future.”
“Just admit it.” Theo touched his lips to my bare shoulder. “You just want a shirtless picture of me.”
“Your self-confidence is astounding. How did you jump to such a conclusion?”
“It was the logical one to arrive at given the evidence.”
I turned my head so I could meet his eyes. “Theo?”
“Yes?”
“Shut up and open your parsnip seeds.”
***
The next few days seemed to drag.
Theo and I split our time between the cottage and the Adair Travel office, depending on what was on the schedule. Neither option was enjoyable for me—when we were at the cottage, I was all too conscious of him on the other side of the room, and when we were at the Adair Travel office, I had to deal with Anne-Marie and her endless flirting.
It bothered me more than it should. More than I should have allowed it to.
I had no business letting it bug me.
Especially not since I was the one on the receiving end of his attention the second the clock ticked over to seven p.m.
He’d kept his word and stuck to my boundary of not crossing the line during working hours. As far as work went, nothing had changed. He wasn’t as demanding as he had been in London, but that’d been the case since we’d arrived in Buckley Heath, so I was somewhat used to it by now.
