“I do?”
“You flinch when I touch you.”
“I do not flinch.”
He only looks at me.
Fine. Maybe I do. A little. A reasonable amount. A woman can only be publicly claimed by her terrifying boss so many times before her nervous system starts making executive decisions without consulting her.
“I was surprised,” I say.
“You’ll be surprised at the wedding too.”
“That seems likely.”
“Then we fix it now.”
My heart trips.
I nod too quickly. “Then we should probably start with the story.”
“We’ll get to the story later. We need something else first.”
“What comes first?”
His gaze holds mine, steady and dark with something that makes my pulse lose all respect for rhythm.
“You.”
I forget how to breathe.
Jordan tilts his head slightly, studying my face like every thought I have is written there in neon marker.
Maybe it is.
His voice drops lower.
“First lesson, Natalie. If we’re going to make them believe you’re mine, you need to learn what it feels like when I touch you.”
Chapter 5
Jordan
After I say the words, Natalie goes silent for the first time since she stepped into my office.
Her fingers curl around the edge of my desk. Her lips part. Those blue eyes lock on mine, wide and bright and full of every thought she is trying to keep from me.
She fails.
She always fails.
That is one of the things that has been tearing through my discipline since the day I hired her.
I keep my hands braced on the desk, one on each side of her hips, because touching her too soon will make this harder. Touching her at all is already a mistake.
I am going to do it anyway.
“You have questions,” I say.
