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‘This is killing me,’ I said as a response.
Her brows furrowed.
‘Not being able to touch you. Not being able to kiss you in front of everyone.’
Her eyes, her lips, everything about her softened and for a second there I thought I saw regret flash across her features, but as quick as it came it disappeared.
‘You’ve done nothing but touch me today, William.’
I looked straight into her eyes. ‘I touched you eleven times, Charlie. Not nearly enough. We’re gonna have to talk eventually.’
‘I know, but I’m a little afraid, if you couldn’t tell.’
‘I never saw you as someone who ran away from things.’
‘I’m not running away.’
‘Then what are you doing?’
She faced her laptop screen again. ‘I don’t know.’
All I wanted to do was reach out and gently bring her eyes back to me, but I couldn’t push my luck, our luck, that much. The last thing I wanted before I could talk to Charlie and figure out our situation was to deal with Douglas or even her sister, who thankfully hadn’t been in the office during the day. ‘You won’t until we talk about it.’
She started typing on her laptop again, which was my cue to leave.
I stood up, but then leaned down again because I had to. ‘I won’t hurt you, Charlie.’
She turned halfway to me, her shoulder resting against my chest. ‘I know that.’ She forced a smile on her lips, and it looked all wrong. ‘We are a losing game, William. We both know it. That’s all, but I don’t know how to stop wanting you either.’
I frowned. What the hell was that supposed to mean?
‘William, sorry to interrupt.’ I looked up and saw Douglas’s secretary waiting for me. ‘Douglas is waiting for your meeting.’
I sighed and straightened up as Charlie faced forward again and began typing as if nothing was wrong.
Wilma gave me her usual smile and turned around and left. Before I could ask Charlie what she meant, Trisha came back and took her seat.
‘Hey William. Is the press release done, Charlie?’
‘Yes. Let me go over this last part again, then I’ll send it to you to double check.’
I left them to their work and headed towards Douglas’s office. The meeting took us an hour. When I first went into his room, I tried to catch Charlie’s gaze a few times, but she didn’t glance my way. Once I managed to focus it was almost the end of the meeting.
When I left his room Charlie was gone, but when I went into my office I found a piece of chocolate cake, my favourite, waiting for me on my desk with my very own note from her.
I don’t know how you make me the happiest person, but you do. Thank you.
23 Charlie
I unlocked my door and entered my apartment, locking it immediately before resting my back against it. Trying to stay away from William, at least at the office, had become necessary to protect my sanity the entire day, and I had failed to do so multiple times. As many victories as he had won today, I had won the battle by managing to give him the slip. I wasn’t sure what was happening between us, and I wasn’t looking forward to the torture that I’d be going through if my heart didn’t get what it wanted. It didn’t matter that I was kind of hurting my heart anyway.
The torture aside, running away from William took some finesse, but I had managed it. My lips started to stretch in a big smile, I was proud of the hard-won battle. I heard Pepp jump down from my bed, where he loved to rest while he was waiting for me, with a happy yip followed by even happier tip-taps. I leaned down and gave him kisses whenever I could get them in and got hit in the face with his tail as he generally went crazy around me.
‘Hi. Hey, handsome boy. Did you miss me?’ I laughed. ‘I missed you. I missed you like crazy. Yes. Did you have a good day? I had the best one.’
After our enthusiastic hello, he left me to go and drink some water while I took off my jacket and let out a long breath. My cheeks were all flushed from the cold, but whenever I thought about William and our kiss and his hand on my thigh, my whole body started burning anyway.
‘What should we eat?’ I asked the good boy, trying to keep my smile to a minimum as I took off my clothes and changed into my comfy oversized tee-shirt.
I grabbed my phone and sent Valerie a quick text. She’d been texting me non-stop the entire day, but I was enjoying making her squirm.
Charlie: I no longer need to say that I need to be kissed. I’ve been kissed to my very limit.
