Page 43 of Release Me

Sebastian Adler was going to kiss me.

And I think I was going to let him.

Who am I kidding? I was definitely going to let him. Thank God Regina came in when she did because I don’t think there’s anything smart about making out with your boss in your second week of work. Not that there’s ever a good time to get involved with the man signing your paychecks, who has the power to snatch back the financial security he has so graciously given you.

Sebastian wouldn’t do that.

The voice in the back of my head tells me, choosing to believe in the continued goodness of the man I’ve come to think of as a friend. I don’t know when that happened, when I started to like him and not just be grateful he plucked me out of the obscurity that was my existence at Ludus. When I started to trust him and stopped searching for an ulterior motive behind every kindness he extends to me without me having to ask.

I take him at face value.

And when I was in his office this morning, that face wanted to kiss me.

I guess it’s kind of my fault that things escalated. After all, I was the one who initiated physical contact. The act spoke of familiarity we don’t have and tap danced all over the boundaries I insisted on. In less than five minutes, I undermined them all. Walking into his office without knocking. Touching him without his permission. Leaning in when I should have backed away.

The walking into his office without knocking part wasn’t that bad. At least that’s what I’ve spent the last hour telling myself. I had a valid reason for being there, something important I needed to tell him about yet another thing his cousin failed to do when this office was his.

“Knock, knock.” I glance up from the event request form I’m responding to and find Sebastian standing just inside my door. “Can I come in?”

My heart wrestles with my brain for control of my mouth, and since I can’t trust either one of them to say something appropriate, I just nod. Sebastian moves into the room, leaving one of the doors open in a silent acknowledgment of my discomfort around being in a room alone with him. A discomfort that doesn’t seem to exist anymore.

“You can close it.”

My words give him pause, catching both of us off guard. “You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Okay.” He turns and pulls the door shut, then resumes his walk back to my desk. I watch him drop down into the arm chair across from me in hopes of getting a read on him, to figure out if he’s obsessing over what could have happened in his office earlier. His face gives nothing away.

“How’s your day going so far?” he asks, stretching his legs out in front of him.

“Good, how about yours?”

“Can’t complain.” He smiles, and my eyes drop to the cut on his lip just as he runs his tongue across it. “It doesn’t hurt, Nadia.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an eye sore.”

His eyes glitter with humor. “You requested my presence in your office just to call me ugly?”

I gape at him. “I didn’t call you ugly!” It’s actually the last word I would use to describe him, but he doesn’t need to know that. “I also didn’t request your presence in my office. You insisted on coming by.”

“Yeah, because you stopped by mine first.”

“I had something I needed to discuss with you!”

“Which was?”

My skin flushes under the weight of his gaze. I clear my throat, willing my ability to speak coherently to rise to the surface as I grab my tablet and stand. Sebastian is quiet as I move around the desk and sit in the chair next to him.

“When Regina set up my email, it was also linked to the event request email for the rooftop,” I explain, pulling up the account so I can show up what I’m talking about.

Sebastian slide to the edge of his seat and leans over, so he can see the screen. “Let me guess, Vince was ignoring event requests?”

I turn my head and immediately wish that I didn’t because our faces are so close I can feel his breath on my lips. His scent surrounds me, taking me back to the first day we met when I thought the layered notes of spiced rum and sugar cane was as pretentious as he was.

“I don’t think he was even checking the account. I’ve found requests that date back six months.” To demonstrate my point, I swipe several times, scrolling down what seems like a never ending page of requests. “There’s no telling how much revenue we’ve lost out on because he failed to approve these.”

His nostrils flare. “I should have hit him harder.”

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