Page 21 of Baby Bombshell for the Boss

“Tucker’s right,” Jacob said. “I mean, it’s fine if you want a guys’ night, but you barely wanted to come out at all tonight. Something’s up with you — are you sure you don’t have a girlfriend?”

“I am completely sure that I don’t have a girlfriend,” Elliot said. “Have you ever known me to be interested in a relationship?”

“No,” Tucker said. “It would be weird if you suddenly were — but this is all pretty weird anyway.”

“I’m just focused on work,” Elliot said. “I don’t have time or energy for all this. I probably shouldn’t even have come out tonight.”

The guys all groaned, but Elliot threw back the remainder of his beer and got up. “The round is on me,” he told his friends. “And the next one, too, okay? I’ll stop at the bar and let the bartender know.”

“You don’t think we want you here to pay for our drinks, do you?” Jacob asked. “It isn’t about that.”

“I know it isn’t,” Elliot assured them. “But I do think I made a mistake in coming out at all tonight. I have too much on my mind right now.”

They all looked at him skeptically, as if to imply that they knew perfectly well what was on his mind. And the worst part was that they weren’t even wrong. Elliot knew his friends suspected him of being preoccupied by Ivy — and he was. That was exactly why he didn’t want to stay out tonight. His head was full of thoughts of her.

He left the bar and hailed a cab to take him home. It was only about ten blocks, and ordinarily he wouldn’t have objected to the walk, but he wanted to zone out and think about Ivy and not have to pay attention to things like traffic and which way he was going.

Once he was in the bag of the cab, he leaned back and closed his eyes, trying to let the night fall away.

What he had said to his friends had been true. It was unlike him to care very much about any woman he was involved with, and he had never sought, much less been in, a serious relationship. The jokes they’d made about him being on some woman’s leash — those were jokes he would have been making ordinarily, when his friends explained that they had to get home to their partners and couldn’t stay out for one more round. Now he was on the other side of things — he was the one who wanted to go home early, and his friends were the ones teasing him for being whipped.

He wasn’t, of course. That wasn’t what this was. Among other things, Ivy had no idea what he was doing tonight, and if she had known, she wouldn’t have cared. That wasn’t the relationship the two of them had, and they’d been very upfront about the fact that it would stay that way. He owed her nothing apart from a good work environment. She owed him nothing other than a well-designed office space.

But what if I want to owe her things?

What a strange thing to think. Why would he want that?

It must be a desire to sleep with her again — that was the only thing that made sense. And it made all kinds of sense, of course — he did want that. It was hard to spend time with her day in and day out and to forget about what that first night had been like. He found himself aware of what she was wearing all the time — remembering little details, like the fact that her dress yesterday had exposed her collarbone. He’d had no idea that he could find a collarbone so sexy, but all day long, he had thought about how it had felt to kiss that patch of skin and the way her head had tipped back to give him better access.

He wished they hadn’t agreed that they wouldn’t do it again. He wanted to go back to that moment in a way he didn’t know how to explain.

The taxi pulled up in front of his building. He used his phone to tip the driver and got out, but as he waited for the elevator to come, he was wondering what she might be doing tonight — wondering if he would find her at home if he went over to her apartment, and if she was there, whether there was any chance of talking her into changing her mind and giving things between the two of them another chance after all.

One more night together — it wouldn’t mean much. Why was he so unable to let it go?

He didn’t know. All he knew was that he couldn’t seem to put her out of his mind. Even this night out with his friends, full of ample distractions, had failed to turn his mind away from Ivy Archer.

Soon enough, she was going to be done with the design project, and there would be no more excuses for the two of them to spend time around one another. And then, Elliot had to assume, they would be out of each other’s lives for good, and there would be no going back.

It was too much to hope that once professional ties were severed, they could pick up their fling where they had left it. They knew each other too well now. It could never be a casual affair. They would have to take each other seriously, or they would be nothing at all.

And Elliot didn’t think he could manage either choice.

CHAPTER 10

ELLIOT

“Are you sure I can’t help you move that?” Ivy asked as Elliot hauled the new couch from one end of the office to the other. “It’s a two-person job.”

“I’ve got it.” The couch was bulky, but it wasn’t overly heavy, and it was nothing Elliot couldn’t manage.

“I’m sorry we didn’t get it where you wanted it while the delivery guys were here,” Ivy said.

“Don’t worry about that. I like that we can move things around and try them in different places. I wouldn’t have wanted to feel stuck to the place the delivery team put it. It’s better that we can experiment a little.” He pushed the couch up against the wall in the reception area. “What do you think?”

Ivy eyed it critically. “The worry is that it makes the space too crowded. You have a very streamlined look in this building. Everything is extremely polished and precise, and I think that’s a good thing. So adding in furniture is bound to be a complicated process.”

“Uh-oh. That sounds like you don’t think it looks good.”

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