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“Are you referring to the token verification algorithm?” Jude reached behind him to the whiteboard and removed a purple sticky note. He held it up and said, “I’ve got some ideas about how to proceed, if you have the time.”
“I’d love to!” I said. “You don’t have to finish the contract review?”
“Like you said: it can wait until tomorrow. I’d much rather get down and dirty in the code with you.”
“Woah, buy me a drink first, why don’t you?” I joked.
Jude’s smile disappeared and his cheeks turned crimson. “I didn’t mean it like…”
Damnit. Now he’s all awkward again.
“I know, I know,” I said. “I was making a joke. That’s my defense mechanism: to tackle the awkward subject head-on rather than pretending it didn’t happen. But if we’re going to work together, you can’t turn nine different shades of red every time it comes up!”
Jude rose from his chair. “I think avoiding the subject works just fine.”
I rolled my eyes and stepped closer to him. “That’s dumb. We don’t need to tip-toe around it. We’re both adults. We kissed. And it was agreatkiss.”
He blinked in surprise.
“Ithappened,” I said. “We can’t change that now. But if it’s never going to happen again, then we need to accept that and move on. I’m doing that by making jokes about it. That’s what works for me. But it seems like you’re just bottling it all up. So help me out here, Jude. Can you meet me halfway? Laugh when I make these jokes so we can both get over the kiss andmove on?”
Jude’s face was a blank mask, illuminated by the glow of the computer screens. The harsh light accentuated the features of his face: the cute nose, the full lips, the cheek bones that were sharp enough to cut a slice of bread on. He blinked behind his glasses and his mouth moved like he wanted to say something, but didn’t know how.
“Just say it,” I insisted. “Whatever you’re thinking, just get it out right now so we can get to work.”
“No,” he replied. His tone was so emphatic, so emotional, that it surprised me. “I don’t want to move on, Amber.”
“Then what—”
I cut off as he grabbed my face in both hands and kissed me.
This kiss was every bit as passionate as the first one, but this time my brain was more ready for it. I leaned into his lips with need, my body coming alive at his touch the way it had last week in this very same office. I opened my mouth and Jude’s tongue slid forward hungrily, desperately, and he clung to my face like he never wanted to let go.
He ripped away suddenly, just like he had done the first time. His chest heaved and I admired the way he looked, sleeves rolled up and forearms exposed, his slacks perfectly tailored to show off his lean frame. Jude was cute, he was gorgeous, and he wassexyin the perfect nerdy way—and he didn’t even realize it, which of course made it all even more alluring. He ran a hand through his sandy-blond hair while sucking in his breath, eyes searching me for any kind of reaction.
And I saw it, then. The hesitation that was there the first time, too. The impulse to grab his bag and run from the office, run fromme, because this wasn’t what he was supposed to be doing.
Fuck that, the devil on my shoulder whispered.This is the real reason you came back to the office. Don’t let him run away this time.
“Well?” I demanded, my own chest heaving. “Is that all you’ve got?”
The reluctance disappeared from his gaze, replaced by unimpeachable determination. Jude grabbed me by the forearms and spun me around, throwing me against the wall next to his whiteboard and kissing me again, this time with his entire body, warm and lean and hard as it pressed against me. My tongue joined his eagerly as the kiss deepened once more, our hands reaching and grasping and demanding each other. My body was on fire with desire and his kiss was so intoxicating, so overwhelminglypresent, that I was only dimly aware of other sensations.
The starched crispness of his dress shirt.
The fingers tangling into my hair and tightening into a fist.
The soft fabric of his slacks.
The heat and hardness underneath, pressing against my leg.
We were a fumbling mess of arms and fingers and tongues, knocking the dry-erase markers off the whiteboard in a clatter but not caring one single bit. Jude’s fingers were on the buttons of my jeans, unfastening them and pulling, tugging, opening themjustenough. There was no sign of the shy coder boy as he reached down into my pants, pausing briefly at the elastic band of my panties before plunging deeper.
I broke free from his kiss and craned my head back, moaning in the empty office as his fingers overran my clit, then curled up inside of me. I hadn’t realized how much I had been aching for this, aching forhim, until this very moment, but now it was such an overbearingnecessitythat I don’t know how I had been ignoring it.
As pulses of pleasure shot through my body from his fingers, I fondled my way down to the ever-growing bulge at the front of his dress pants. He moaned deep in his throat at the barest touch, and the sound was so pure and intoxicating that I didn’t even bother unzipping him; I squeezed him through the thin fabric, appreciating his thickness while stroking him. Soon his fingers were twisting and pumping up into my pussy in time with my own strokes, and we fell into an erotic rhythm while our tongues danced and sang.
“The couch,” Jude murmured into my mouth.
