“You’re not a secretary who just kissed her boss. And admitted to being super attracted to her boss. It’s like the 1950s—pining away after the executive from behind my typewriter.” She shook her head.
“Did you watch Mad Men a lot? Because this is nothing like that. I’m not here as the CEO. You’re Paige. I’m Luke. We’re here together because we want to be, and because I’d like to wife you for a few months.”
“Well, I think you could probably kiss me into submission, but I’m asking you not to. I’m not wired to be able to resist you, I guess. Something—biological makes me really susceptible to your kissing. So, try to remember I’m an employee of your company, and I have no immunity to your charm.”
“That’s unfair to tell me I have a perfect weapon against your resistance and then forbid me from using it.”
“It’s the only way I can make a smart decision. No more kissing. Not today, not after our date on Tuesday. I have every intention of figuring out if we could help each other without letting my judgment be clouded by sexual attraction,” she said.
“Who says it’s a bad thing? We’d be together for a few months; we might as well enjoy ourselves.”
“I’m not a geisha, Luke. I wouldn’t marry you that way. If I even agreed to it, which I doubt, it would have to be in name only. No sex. Like we discussed.”
“I’m having second thoughts. Those are not my favorite terms. What about the mating imperative you were talking about? That sounded like a lot more fun than ‘no sex.’”
“Very funny. We’re at my building. I’m going to go ice my foot and beat myself up for acting like an idiot today. See you at work.”
“Not so fast, tiger,” he said with a grin.
Luke scooped her up into his arms and lifted her from the car. He carried her into the building and up all the stairs as if it were nothing, no effort at all. He didn’t look bothered by the fact that he was carrying a fully-grown adult up flights of stairs. He even stood patiently while she fished in her purse for the keys. When he swung open the door, her sister was sitting on the couch.
“Sissy! What’s wrong?” Paxtyn said, gett
ing up slowly.
“Nothing, I just fell and hurt my foot.”
“Ok. Here, put her here and let me get her some ice. You must be Luke. I’m Paxtyn, Paige’s sister.”
“I see. Good to meet you. Yes, she took a spill outside the gym, unfortunately.”
“You fell in front of the gym?” Paxtyn asked.
“Yeah, it’s probably on YouTube by now, under ‘stupid girl falls on sidewalk,’” Paige grumbled.
“It was an accident,” he said, defending her. She frowned and pulled the blanket off the back of the couch to cover herself up.
Paxtyn was wearing her blue pajamas—hadn’t felt well enough even to get dressed today. It wrenched Paige that her sister was so weak, that to Luke she would just be the sister with cancer and not her hilarious, healthy self that she once was.
She watched as Paxtyn offered to make him a cup of coffee and he declined politely. As he told her goodbye and promised to check on her by phone later, Paige found there was a lump in her throat so that she couldn’t answer him. She was sad that this was how he’d met her sister. Sad that there wasn’t any way to make this normal, to have him be a real boyfriend who went to dinner to meet Paxtyn. That she wouldn’t be the person who would have a chic pixie cut and a scarf around her neck. She didn’t have that kind of life—where her boss could be her boyfriend, where her sister’s cancer could magically go away. It was just a dream. A stupid fantasy brought on by kissing him. The heat from that kiss had fried her brain.
Chapter 15
LUKE LEFT, AND SHE lay on the couch with her foot on a pillow and a bag of frozen peas on top of her ankle. She fought back tears. Paxtyn sat down on the coffee table and reached for Paige’s hand.
“Does it hurt?”
“Not really.”
“Want some ibuprofen?”
“No, thanks. I just—I should never have gone out with him.”
“I think I told you exactly that. Remember?”
“Yeah, Pax, you said don’t date your boss. But you also told me I should go have some fun.”
“Not with him! With friends, or some other guy who’s more suitable. As in, not the head of your company,” Paxtyn chided. “Do you want to be the talk of the water cooler at the office?”