Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83343 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83343 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
“As long as you can find the cost savings somewhere else, which shouldn’t be difficult given the budget for goddamn drapes.” I step away to go over the project plan pinned to the wall behind Michael’s desk.
“Exactly.” Her voice is animated, and I have to look away to stop myself grinning at her like an idiot. Her pleasure is completely infectious. “I think we just switch out the fabric in the study and we’ll cover costs.” She pauses and wrinkles her nose. “And maybe we change the rug choices in there too.”
“You’ll figure it out,” I say.
She’s silent and then I feel her stand next to me. She’s not touching me, but she’s about as close as it’s possible to be without touching.
“Thank you,” she says.
“You don’t need to thank me for giving you a job you’re great at. And anyway, you already thanked me.” I glance at her but her gaze is fixed on the project plan.
“Not for that,” she says, her voice soft, just above a whisper.
“Then what?”
She pauses for one beat, then two. “For always being the man you say you are.”
My heart hitches in my chest and for once in my life, I’m stunned into silence.
She turns to face me and I keep staring at the wall, concerned that if I look at her, I won’t be able to hold myself back from telling her all the things about her I just can’t get enough of.
“Vincent Cove, will you look at me please?”
Here goes nothing. I take a deep breath and turn.
She places her palm on my chest and its heat burns through my shirt. I want to rip open the fabric and press her skin against mine.
“Vincent. I’ve been as patient as I’m prepared to be.”
I frown in confusion.
“Will you kiss me already?”
A grin tugs at the corners of my mouth. “Kiss you? That doesn’t seem very…professional.”
Her gaze falls from mine, as if she’s accepting defeat.
I shouldn’t have said that. This is no time to tease, no time to pretend I haven’t been desperate to kiss her since I met her and every moment since.
“But it’s all I think about,” I say and slide my hand on top of hers to keep her touching me. “The first thing I wonder about in the morning and the last thing that circles my brain at night.”
She glances back up. “Kissing me?”
I nod slowly.
“Then why haven’t you? I see you every day.”
“But for now, I’m your boss and…things are complicated.” I don’t elaborate. I don’t tell her I can’t offer her anything more than here and now. That I’m not the kind of man who makes promises about the future. Or even considers a future outside of my work. She’s not asking those questions.
“Don’t overthink this.”
I chuckle, because that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. “I’ve been wanting to ask you to dinner.”
“Like a date?” she asks, beaming up at me.
“Yeah. I have a friend in Cambridge who opened his own restaurant. It got its first Michelin star this year.”
Her smile withers, her gaze hits my chest and she freezes.
What changed so suddenly?
“Could we have dinner closer to home?” she mumbles.
“What?” I laugh. “At the Golden Hare?”
She looks up, pain in her eyes. She was serious. And I’m an insensitive asshole.
“If that’s where you want to go, that’s where I want to take you.”
“You know I’m not myself when I go too far away from home.”
How could I have forgotten? “Leave it to me,” I say. “I’ll make sure our first date is on the grounds.”
She relaxes again and the smile creeps back. I thread my fingers into her hair, bend, and sweep my lips over hers. Her hands slide over my shoulders and I take a deep breath, savoring the moment, committing it to memory. I circle my other hand around her waist and pull her against me. I’ve been thinking about this for so long and now it’s here. She’s here. She’s in my arms, right where I’ve wanted her for weeks now. The feel of her hands on me and the way my skin warms under her touch, the way she fits against my body… It just feels right.
She lifts up onto her toes and takes over the kiss. At first it’s small and chaste and perfect. Then she opens her mouth and I can’t help but groan at the invitation to more.
How did I get so lucky?
Our tongues press and breaths mix, our bodies so close but not close enough. Her skin is so smooth, so soft, so delicate, and as my stubble grazes it, I have a primal desire to leave a mark so she never forgets how good this feels.
Her hands roam my body, up my back, across my shoulders and then down my waist to my belt. Her fingers hook onto the leather as if trying to find a way in.