She lays her head down on my shoulder, joining me on the chair, and I run my fingers through her silky hair.
“You still haven’t said it.” She takes a couple of ragged breaths.
“Never said what?”
She glares at me.
Oh. I’m such a dumbass.
I’m in my office with a beautiful woman I hurt in my lap, and she has to remind me what I owe her.
Is there any help for me?
I hope so, because I can’t fucking stand losing her again.
I tighten my arms around her until I can’t without hurting one of us. We lock eyes. I watch how the light fills her gaze, but only I can make her glow.
“Paige Holly. I love you so much it hurts to breathe,” I grind out, one heaving word at a time, my whole heart pushing it out. “I know what I am without you—an intolerable curmudgeon, haunting this place and making everyone miserable. The three weeks you were gone felt like three years on a bed of rusty nails—you can imagine how that makes me Mr. Congeniality—and it showed me I can live, but I can’t live well.”
She laughs with this hitched, adorable flutter of her chest.
“Bad news, Wardhole. I can’t live without you.”
My hand races to her cheek, tracing her face. I want every inch of her pressed to mine. I’m greedy as hell and I need her closer.
“Yes, you can. You’ve been doing it,” I say.
Sensing my need, she matches my urgency, sliding her perfection against my skin.
“Not really. Today’s the first time I left my apartment since—”
“God, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she whispers.
But it’s not. I demolished her and I might spend the rest of my life making up for it.
We spend twenty breathless minutes fused together, locked in depths so far beyond raw desire I didn’t know they existed.
Then the door squeaks open and I’m scowling at the intruder.
“Oh, crap. Sorry,” Susan hisses. “I, uh, just came to tell you I have the interviews scheduled for your new EA.”
Paige sits up. “But I’m your EA? Or...never mind. I haven’t shown up in three weeks.”
My smile comes on like whiplash. She still wants to be my EA?
“I’ll come back later!” Susan shuts the door.
“Have you given any thought to the proposal I sent you?”
“Proposal? Oh—the envelope?”
“Yeah. That.”
“Well, I was actually waiting a year to read it,” she says shyly.
“A year?” My jaw drops.
“So I’d be immune to you and all your charms. There’s a lot to protect myself against.” She smiles, running her fingers through my hair.
I stroke my hand through her hair in turn.
“Think you’ll be immune to me now?” I growl, ready to accept one answer.
Her kiss banishes every sane thought in my head but one.
“I’m addicted. Lucky you,” she whispers, before my mouth attacks her again.
Me too, babe.
Me damn too.
“We have to open the package. It has your compensation for me being a very large pain in your very sweet ass,” I tell her.
She lifts off my lap and puts some sorely needed space between us. I keep my arms around her hips, unwilling to let her wander far.
“You’re not trying to buy me, are you, Ward?”
“Never. I just want you to be happy. It’s a proposal—and not the fake marrying kind. You can turn it down if you want, but you’ll make me crazy if you do.”
She laughs. “I’ll have to read it first.”
I kiss her cheeks and then move to her lips. “I’m coming with.”
“Why?”
“Because I never want you out of my sight again.”
Laughing, she leans up on her toes to hug my neck. “I love you.”
And I’m over six feet of stone-cold grinning fool.
“Careful. That’s the first time you’ve said it. Only a billion times to go before we’re even,” I tell her.
“You’re so terrible,” she whispers, her smile drawing out her dimples.
“You made me say it.”
The kernel of truth in her giggle makes me know she’s been waiting a long time to hear those words from my clueless mouth.
Never again, Paige.
Those words will be my daily mantra.
I open the door for my girl, and once she’s inside the car, I dive in and pull her onto my lap.
“So clingy today.” She grins at me like a cat that got the cream. “I didn’t know you could cling.”
“And you mind?” I raise an eyebrow.
“No,” she mouths, a sunburst exploding on her cheeks.
“I’m making up for lost time. You’ve been gone far too long,” I whisper.
“Yeah, well, I kinda know the feeling.” She kisses me again.
Little minx. Nothing about her expression hides how bad she’s missed the fire we started.
“I’m pumped you guys are back together!” Reese claps her hands together in the front seat, whipping her head around to look back at us.
Paige pulls away from me with an awkward blush.
Moment ruined.
“And I’m getting 'pumped' for a new driver,” I groan.
“Be nice to Reese,” Paige says, shaking a finger.