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He looked around the room, then at the door I’d just closed. “As much as I’d love to spontaneously have my bones jumped by you, I’ve really got to take a piss.”
“I’m not—” I stopped myself, taking a breath. “I’m not okay because you are a distraction. I can feel everything slipping ever since you showed up. My focus. My job. My relationships.”
“What relationships? Like the one you have with boring salads? Because that relationship should slip.”
“I’m lying to my mother and my boss is trying to play matchmaker. Do you think she’s going to see me the same way after this? I’ll just be the silly kid she tried to set up with Barry Boulders. I won’t be an employee. I’ll be a woman. Just a freaking womb. It’s already starting. Did you see how quickly she gave Rand that assignment? Before you came here, she would’ve asked if I wanted it first.”
“So what are you trying to say?”
“So you’re screwing everything up,” I snapped. “This was my life, Travis. You had no right to insert yourself into it and start re-writing things for whatever your purpose is.”
“Hey,” he said softly. “I’m going to suggest something, and I don’t want you to take it the wrong way. But have you considered that your real problem is how you’re fighting your feelings?”
“I’m not fighting anything.”
“You think you can’t have both. Happiness and success. That’s your problem.”
“No, you’re my problem.”
He grinned at that. “You can let yourself have more than one thing, Lizz. I flunked chemistry and I could even tell you it’s there with us.”
“You were bad at chemistry, too?”
“Terrible,” he said.
Like magic, he’d come closer to me at some point. And somehow, in my unsound mental state, the fact that we were both terrible at chemistry seemed more significant than it should have. “Chemistry was my worst subject in school,” I said.
“Listen,” he said. He was right in front of me now with his hands on the outside of my arms. His fingers were moving slowly, making my skin prickle with goosebumps. “You feel crazy, right? Like you could explode at any moment from the smallest thing. Tell me I’m wrong, and I’ll drop it.”
“You’re not wrong,” I admitted.
“That’s sexual tension,” he said. “I feel it too. Normally, I’d tell you we should just hash it out right here and now. We could agree there’d be no strings attached. Except…”
“Except,” I whispered. Why were his eyelashes so long and gorgeous? Why did it seem like his eyes twinkled?
“I don’t want it to mean nothing when you finally sleep with me.”
“Finally? Who says it’s inevitable?”
He gave a tilt of his head that somehow made my question seem ridiculous—like the two of us eventually sleeping together was the only obvious way this thing would end.
“How about a bet,” he said.
“I don’t like gambling.”
“Kiss me right here. If you don’t feel anything, I’ll leave you alone. If you feel that same spark we felt at the elephant encounter, you give me another date.”
“What’s to stop me from lying?”
He shrugged. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
It felt like I could barely breathe. My chest was tight. My face was burning hot. Travis and all of his overwhelming aura was practically suffocating me. I couldn’t help staring at his lips. “Fine,” I said. “But I think you’re going to regret this.”
“I highly doubt that.”
I waited. “Well?” I asked.
“The deal was you kiss me.” He grinned, then beckoned me toward him with his index finger. “Come to Barry.”
I bit back a smile, then took a steadying breath. Don’t make this a big deal. It’s just a kiss. One kiss and I could solve my problems. I could get Travis to leave me alone and get back to my… life.
Why did that idea make me feel hollow instead of excited?
I shoved it all down and took two business-like steps toward him. I didn’t quite know what to do with my hands, so I put one on his shoulder and another on his hips, like a middle schooler about to slow dance.
He just stood there, waiting with an amused smile. “This is great,” he said.
“Shut up.” I leaned in and pressed my lips to his. I used every bit of willpower I had not to enjoy it, but our lips met, and my breath caught.
They were just as soft as I remembered. I breathed in his scent, kissing him again and letting my hand on his waist cup the hard muscle there. He slipped an arm around me, pulling our bodies together.
“Is that…” I said, looking down at the place where I felt something very large and hard pressed between us.
“Don’t get intimidated,” he whispered, then he kissed me again.
I decided it wouldn’t be fair to just kiss him one time. Anybody could get overwhelmed by a quick, unexpected kiss. It would make all the systems in my body go on high alert, even if there was no deeper meaning. The only real way to know if this was “chemistry” was to kiss him a little longer.
