“Fine. YOU’RE FIRED!” His words came out so loudly that they made me jump.
And suddenly, all my bravado and confidence and sex talk melted away in an instant. I turned and tried to make a run for it, but . . . BANG! I walked straight into the glass wall of his office. I reached up and grabbed my forehead.
“Shit!” I muttered through my tears and rubbed the bump that was starting to form.
“Are you okay?” I felt a comforting arm on my shoulder and turned around, coming face-to-face with him.
He was so close now that I could feel his breath on my face and smell the coffee that was lingering on it. His hand tightened on my shoulder and my heart rate quickened.
“Doris, are you okay?” he asked again.
I nodded. The tears had stopped now, and my gaze drifted up to his lips. His hand loosened and traveled down my arm, slowly, and stopped by my elbow. I inhaled sharply as the warmth of his hand came into contact with my bare skin. I lifted my head up and looked straight into his eyes. The blue was almost completely gone and had been replaced by a stormy black.
Shit, what the hell was happening here?
CHAPTERTHIRTY-THREE
Ryan
“Why were you thinking about sex all afternoon?” he finally asked, ending the long silence that had dragged on between them.
She looked at him and blinked those big, amber eyes. They always looked like they held a secret. Maybe that’s why he was like this around her? Because there was something about this woman he couldn’t put his finger on. She intrigued him. Beguiled him. He wasn’t proud of it, but that was the truth.
Her mouth opened slightly, as if she was going to say the words. God, he wanted to hear them. He wanted to hear her say that she’d been thinking about him as much as he had been thinking about her all afternoon. She’d been thinking about it so much that she’d written the world’s worst email. And when she’d written the word “breast” instead of “best,” she’d been imagining his hands and mouth on them.
“That’s just something I said. I didn’t mean it,” she said. Her voice was breathy, and her pupils were dilating.
“I don’t believe you.” He took a step closer.
“I’m telling the truth,” she whispered, leaning in.
“Then why don’t I believe you?” He matched her pose. Their faces and lips were only centimeters apart now. He heard her swallow, but she didn’t pull away. He could smell and feel her breath on his lips, and he wanted to kiss her like he’d never wanted to kiss anyone before.Don’t kiss her, Ryan . . . Kiss her, goddammit! Don’t kiss her, Ryan . . . Kiss her, goddammit!A war raged in his head right now.
“You know what I think . . .?” He leaned in even closer, turning the centimeters into mere millimeters.Don’t kiss her, Ryan.
“No?” she whispered back at him.
“I think—”Kiss her, goddammit!
RING, RING.
The loud phone made them both jump apart as if they’d just been caught doing something that they shouldn’t have.
“Fuck!” She half shouted the word and then looked at him in utter horror. She slapped her hand over her mouth, as if she’d only just realized what had been happening between them. As if she’d been under some kind of spell that she’d just snapped out of now. He stood and watched her, ignoring the incessant ringing that was echoing around the empty office. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from hers.
What was she thinking?
“Doris . . .” He stepped forward, and she jumped back, as if she was trying to get away from him. The sound of the phone seemed to be getting louder and louder, even though he knew that wasn’t possible.
“Just . . . wait . . .” He held his hand up. “I have to take this, but wait . . . I want to talk to you.” He moved over to his desk and turned away from her momentarily. “Give me a min—”
But she ran out of his office before he could continue.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-FOUR
Poppy
But I didn’t wait for him. I raced out of the office, into the elevator and made my way down to the reception. “Dammit!” I cursed loudly when I saw it was raining again. Why was it that whenever I needed to make a fast escape, the heavens opened and made my life even more difficult? The rain wasn’t coming down too hard, and I considered walking in it. That is, until a massive bolt of lightning cut through the black, stormy sky. I jumped.
