Page 14 of Tangling with the Boss

For her, I’ll learn anything.

“Hazel,” I say quietly. She hums, eyes still closed and face tilted to the stars. “Will you tell me now? Will you tell me why you won’t stay?”

Just like that, the peace flees her expression. Her forehead pinches, and her shoulders go stiff, and Hazel’s mouth presses together in a tight line. And I’m opening my mouth to coax her, to make those shoulders relax, when my assistant pushes off the side of the pool and plunges into the water fully dressed.

“Hazel!”

I lunge up, panic choking my throat. Shit! Can she swim? What if that dress tangles around her legs? What if she’s too tired after a long day in the sun?

Doesn’t matter. I’m already charging forward, diving in after her fully clothed. Already thrashing through the ghostly water, lights glowing from the sides of the pool, desperate to reach her.

A small body. Pink fabric twisting in the water. An elbow in my gut.

We break the surface, both gasping for breath.

“What—Leo—what the hell is wrong with you?” Hazel fights out of my arms and turns on me, soaked and furious. Her eye makeup has smudged, and her pink dress clings to every inch of her pint-sized body. “I’m not drowning, you ass.”

My mouth opens and closes as I gape at her, enraged.

“You jumped in! Who does that? Of course I panicked!”

How am I the bad guy here? I just ruined a perfectly good tux to rescue my assistant and now I’m the villain. Make sense of that.

“Well, I can swim, thank you.”

I will not splash her; will not dunk her beautiful head under. I am not five years old.

“Good to know. I’m glad this wasn’t adangerouslyinsane thing to do, just unhinged. You know, if you’re that afraid to answer my question, you can say so. There’s no need to drown yourself to escape a simple, adult conversation—”

Water splashes over me in a small wave, and I wipe my eyes, spluttering. My assistant glares at me, furiously treading water. “Oh, shut up. It’s not that easy and you know it.”

Iknowit? What the hell do I know?

“You splashed me,” I say like an idiot. Hazel huffs and does it again. “I—you—stop splashing me! Come here, you little witch.”

With all the times I pictured myself wrestling with Hazel, this scenario never came up: both of us fully dressed in my private pool, our evening wear soaked to our skin, bickering and grappling as water sloshes over the sides. Overhead, a cloud drifts across the moon like it’s shielding it from our nonsense, but I’ve never felt so alive.

She’s a wriggly little thing. All elbows and knees, with zero shame about trying to catch me in the junk. And I’d give her some space, would be more careful about crossing this line, except my assistant is giggling like a maniac, splashing and kicking and—Jesus—biting. Booming out a laugh, I wrestle her around until she’s facing me, bare legs wrapped around my hips.

Hazel pokes out her tongue. My fingers flex on her waist.

It’s inevitable, really.

We slam together like two wild beasts, kissing savagely, still half wrestling. And I’m bigger than her but she’s nimble and slight, and more to the point, a single brush of her lips melts my brain. I’m helpless to do anything except stagger to the pool’s edge, leaning back against the tiles while Hazel claws at me, kissing and nipping, yanking on my sodden clothes.

“You—are—such a jerk!”

I know.

I know I am, and she’s an angel. She’smyangel, and she’s wet and warm and twined around me like ivy, kissing me like she never wants to stop. Neither do I.

“This,” Hazel says, panting between kisses, “is why I can’t stay.Thisis what I want, it’s what I’ve wanted from you for years, and it’s killing me. I need to leave. Can’t you see that?”

My hands slide down to her ass and squeeze. So perfect. So sweet. “You’re not going anywhere.”

There’s an enraged growl, then Hazel kisses me again, sucking hard on my bottom lip. And I thought I was already as hard as a man can get after all that wrestling, but hey, guess I’m wrong, because lust arrows through my gut and my cock stiffens so much it could drill through the pool wall.

“You don’t want me!” she says against my lips.

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