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“Are you okay?” he asks.
“I’m…fine,” I respond, holding on to the door frame for balance as it seems my legs have grown weak due to his presence. I know I can’t blame that on the alcohol. I’d be lying if I did. Essex does something to me – something insane. His rude boy attitude makes my skin crawl, but the way he kissed me elicits a different response. It makes goosebumps tatter my arms as I relive that moment. Of all the men in Florida I could be attracted to, it’s him. Go figure.
“May I?” he asks.
“May you what?” A frown spreads across my forehead.
“Come inside?”
“Um…uh…”
“You’re hesitating.” He looks behind me and asks, “Do you have company or something?”
“No.”
“Then why won’t you invite me in?”
Uh…I don’t know…maybe I’m afraid for my lips…
“Uh…whatever you have to tell me, Essex, you can say it right here.”
With raised brows, he asks, “Right here? In the doorway? So your neighbors can hear?”
My eyes automatically roll. I say, “You can come in, but if you murder me, I’m telling Ella you did it.” I step aside and open the door wider so he can enter.
“It’s going to be difficult to tell Ella anything if you’re dead.”
As he passes, I feel a wave of masculine energy enter with him. It’s his power, I suppose – his power over me. His long reach. His influence. The big stick.
“Right. I didn’t think that all the way through.” I fan myself. Suddenly I’m having hot flashes.
It’s the wine, Quin, I tell myself, but most likely, it’s him. Besides, I wasn’t hot before he came up in here. And then there’s the matter of the kiss we shared and I saywebecause I can’t blame him for the whole thing. I just went with it like the flow of a river emptying off into streams. And it was…
It was…
“Tessie.”
My eyes fly open wider. “Hunh?”
“I said it looks nice in here. You were just standing there, frozen.”
“Oh. I was…I was thinking about something. As for my apartment, it’s no mansion, but it’ll do.”
“A simplethankswould’ve sufficed.”
“Ugh…why are you here, Essex?” I ask. I can be just as bold as he can. Besides, he’s inmycrib now. I get to bark orders and do the kicking out.
He slides his hands in his pockets and says, “Because I owe you an apology?”
I clutch my invisible pearls. “Who are you?”
He smirks. “I’m being serious right now.”
“So am I. I thought you were here to fire me.”
“Fire you? I don’t care what you do to piss me off—I would never fire you, Tessie.”
“Youmay not fire me, but that monster who you transform into when you’re at the office—oh he woulddefinitelyfire me!”
