Page 106 of Dear Grumpy Boss

“So, you didn’t learn any life skills when you were younger? Expected to skate by on your pretty face?” she quipped.

I pecked her again. “This pretty face landed me you, didn’t it? Which proves it was all I needed.”

“Flatterer.” She leaned her forehead against my arm, and I could feel her smiling.

“My mother isn’t much of a cook. She grew up with help so she never learned. Then she raised me the same way. I’m lucky I know how to do my own laundry.”

Her palm flattened on my back, running from between my shoulder blades to the base then slowly working back up again.

“With your three meals, and my four, we have an entire week's worth of dinners. Elaine wasn’t raised with help, but she married my dad, who was a boss in the kitchen. He did all the cooking.”

In the silence after her words, I heard the rest of the story.

Her father had died.

Homemade dinners went with him, as did her chance at learning from him.

Elaine had never tried making up for his absence.

Everything Elise knew in the kitchen, she’d taught herself.

I turned off the stove and took her in my arms. “We’re two smart, self-starting people. We can teach ourselves.”

She bounced on her toes and cupped my nape. “We’re going to learn to cook together? I love this idea. I’m going to pin recipes for us.”

Her enthusiasm made me laugh. “Go easy on me. No more than ten ingredients, including salt and pepper.”

“I thought we were two smart, self-starting people? Where’s your confidence?”

“It went up in the flames with the lasagna I attempted to cook exactly once.”

She laughed, but I wasn’t kidding. A fire extinguisher had been involved, and I still had no idea what had gone wrong.

“But I wasn’t with you,” she pointed out. “It’ll be completely different this time.”

I believed her. With her, everything was different.

It was past two in the morning when Elise padded into my office. She’d put on clothing since I’d left her in my bed sleeping. A T-shirt that fell to the tops of her thighs and the underwear she wore that showed off the bottom half of her ass. They were plain cotton, but fuck, I got hard every time I saw her in them.

I pushed back so she could sit on the edge of my desk in front of me, her legs between mine.

She raked her fingers through my hair, slowly shaking her head. “What are you doing, sir?”

I caught her hand, bringing it to my mouth to nibble her palm. “Working.”

“When I fell asleep, you were in bed with me. I don’t like that you keep sneaking out and I wake up alone.”

“I didn’t realize you noticed.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I noticed.”

I pressed my lips to the inside of her wrist. “I’ve carved out time for you because I want to be with you more than I want to be doing anything else. But the world keeps turning, which means I have to catch up. I’m almost done.”

She swiped her thumb under my eye. “You’re tired. You can’t burn the candle at both ends.”

“Iamtired, but my body is trained to run on little sleep. I’ll turn in soon.”

She worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “I don’t like this, West. Maybe I should spend some nights at my place so—”

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