Page 53 of Miss Treated

“You too. Um, thanks for not making things awkward with your husband.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s none of Gerard’s business who Nic hangs out with on his personal time.”

At least I’d dodged one bullet, but the situation highlighted the perils of dating Dominic while I was working here. “Thank you.”

Later in the day as I pored over the vendor payments, I convinced myself that keeping Dominic in the friend zone was the smart decision, at least while I was working here. I was trying to establish myself professionally. I couldn’t afford to take any chances, and particularly not with an office romance. For heaven’s sake, I was investigating his aunt, of all people. I told myself this was a sound decision.

But when Nic dropped by later, I was hard pressed to remember all my sensible reasons. How unfair for him to look so damn good all the time.

“Hi,” I greeted, breathless. No, this wouldn’t do.

“Hi yourself. How is your day so far?”

“Busy, but good.” I loved the way he seemed to genuinely care. “How about your day?”

“Better now.”

Damn. Two words, and my stomach was all butterflies. My body was ready to overthrow my self-imposed rules. My mind stepped in and threw a Hail Mary. I blurted, “I saw your mom upstairs in your dad’s office, and it was awkward, and I don’t want to be the woman working for your father while sleeping with you.”

There, I’d said it. A word-vomit of epic proportions. But if he were shocked at either the outburst or the contents, he didn’t show it. Instead, he smiled, slow and lazy. The type you saw in men’s cologne commercials where the model was a vision completely unfair to unleash on the unsuspecting masses of women.

“You do know I’m willing to wait as long as it takes, right?”

What man said things like this? In an age of instant gratification where you could hook up at any time, why in the world would he, the most beautiful man I’d ever seen in real life, want to wait for anything? “I don’t understand you. Why would you wait?”

He sat down across from me and took my hand.

My resolve was dissolving one tingle at a time.

“You imply you wouldn’t be worth waiting for.”

“But what if all the anticipation leads to disappointment?”

He chuckled. “It won’t. And I know you know that. So we’ll wait. But I’ll ask for one thing, if you’re amenable to it.”

“What?”

“I want to continue spending time with you. As friends. Maybe this weekend you could come over for dinner again? Or we could go on a local hike with Lady. Something. Just don’t freeze me out, okay?”

“You’re really willing to wait until my assignment here is done?”

He brought my hand to his lips and kissed the inside of my wrist, sending sparks clear down to my toes. Then he had to go and throw in a pretty-boy line. “I’ve been waiting twenty-eight years. What’s a few weeks longer?”

I rolled my eyes but couldn’t suppress a smile. He was adorable even when cheesy.

“No? Did I oversell it? Damn. Good thing we’re just friends, and I’m not trying to impress you yet. Wait until I do. You won’t be able to keep your hands off me.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Dominic

The day after my “friendship talk” with Kelsey, I sat in my office trying to figure out how I could better assist her with the audit. Although I’d meant what I’d said about waiting as long as it took to date her, I wanted to quickly wrap up the obstacle standing in our way.

Speaking of obstacles, Sophia was being a pain in the ass. She claimed her team didn’t have time to provide the samples Kelsey had asked for. Too bad. I was pushing to get everything to Kelsey by Friday. A week was more than reasonable for Sophia’s people to turn around a few items.

A knock at my door interrupted my thoughts. I smiled widely when Kelsey came in.

“Good afternoon.”