Page 62 of Hired Husband

The smile slowly slipped away from her face, a more thoughtful expression replacing it. “What are you feeling?”

“Small,” I said. “Insignificant.”

She frowned. “I thought you’d be inspired.”

“Yeah, so did I.”

Unfortunately, I knew now that my biggest inspiration had been her. And I was losing her more by the second. So I just stood in that crypt, lost for words until she finally smiled again and nudged my arm. “We should go. I arranged for a visit, not a sleepover.”

“Fair enough.” I swept my gaze around the room one last time and fell into step beside her, feeling like I was drifting my way back up through the narrow stone passages. “That was really something, Jasmine. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank you enough.”

“There’s no need,” she said quietly without looking at me. “I think I needed this today myself.”

Once again, we lapsed into silence, neither of us saying a word as we headed back to Heliopolis. By the time we got there, the streetlights were on and night was falling. As we headed inside, the tension that had been building the whole way back snapped, the bickering starting up again.

Those moments we’d shared at the Pyramids were suddenly so far in the past it was like they’d never even existed in the first place.

“The Roman Empire rose and fell faster than you got us back here,” she said. “I knew you shouldn’t have been allowed to drive in Cairo.”

I frowned. “What have you got to be annoyed about? You spent the entire drive back scrolling Instagram. Isn’t that what you would’ve been doing in your apartment anyway?”

She scoffed. “Oh, wow. We’re back there, huh?”

“I have no idea what you mean.” I jabbed the button to call the elevator. Bitterness wound itself through my bloodstream as I thought about the fact that I would be leaving soon. “I was just saying. Isn’t that what you do all night anyway, look at pictures of yourself on that app?”

“You have no idea what I do all night, nor will you ever,” she snapped. “It’s not scrolling Instagram, though. I’ll tell you that much.”

Neither of us spoke again until we reached her apartment door. She unlocked it and pushed it open, but then she turned to look at me. For a long second, she just stared up into my eyes, but then finally, she sighed and shook her head. “Have a good time in Chicago, Isaac.”

“I won’t.”

“Why not?”

I shrugged, my eyes narrowing as I held hers. “I don’t want to go.”

We stood there for what felt like eternity, still just staring at each other until I realized I was supposed to be leaving. As I turned toward the elevator, she turned toward her door, but neither of us had even taken a single step when we both turned to look back at the exact same moment.

“Oh, for the love of—” I started, but then her lips crashed into mine and we were kissing.

I didn’t even know who’d closed the distance between us or how it’d happened so fast, but her arms wound around my neck to pull me closer and I wrapped both my arms around her waist, devouring her mouth like I was never letting go.

As I walked her back into her apartment with our bodies fused together just like that, I knew this was a ferociously terrible idea, but if I had to say goodbye, then I was going to make it the best fucking goodbye either of us had ever had.

CHAPTER 24

JASMINE

Those kisses we’d shared in Sinai had been nothing like this. Those had been good. Great, even. At the time, I’d ranked them as the best I’d ever had, but these were explosive. They were kind of kisses that made sparks fly through my entire body and fried my brain until there was nothing left in it but him. Memories of this man and how long I’d been waiting for this exact moment, knowing I was likely never going to have it.

The very first time Isaac Thayer had smiled at me, I’d burst into Colin’s apartment one night while no one had even known I was in the States. Even back then, I had seen his face and everything else had just disappeared for a moment.

Then there had been the next time I’d seen him, when he’d picked me up from the airport after I’d made yet another surprise visit, and he’d looked at me like he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to slap me or kiss me.

Instead, he’d teased me and so it had started, this weird little dance of avoidance and denial we’d been doing ever since. I’d caught him checking me out enough times to know he’d always been attracted to me too, but it had felt necessary to keep our distance, and we had.

Until now.

Although that wasn’t quite right. It was still necessary. We shouldn’t be doing this and we both knew it, but as he kicked the door shut behind us, I reached for the hem of his shirt anyway.