Page 18 of Mark my Words

Kristine: Just getting food now. Be back ASAP.

Thankfully, the Uber driver hadn’t taken off by the time I picked up the to-go order. He quickly maneuvered through traffic and managed to get me back to the office in less than ten minutes. After quickly rating him, I hustled to the elevator and recalled the exchange that’d happened earlier.

Sam was getting under my skin, and I didn’t like it. I knew I’d tried to rationalize it as proximity and exposure to the racy scenes we’d been editing together, but deep down, I knew I was full of shit.

SAM

BOSTON

Loud music filtered over the speakers as I sat at the bar, aimlessly picking at the label of my beer, occasionally glancing toward the door like a desperate stalker. This whole week had been one giant ball of awkwardness. Mostly from me, which was unsettling. All because a particular snarky coworker had laid off the snark for once.

We’d finally gotten through the last round of edits on Evan’s manuscript and handed it off to the formatters. Typically, that was the time we celebrated. Another job well done, and then we’d have the build-up to a book release. Sometimes it was a little anticlimactic with Evan because he refused to do book tours, but the marketing team usually orchestrated a big social media push.

Most authors would manage their social media accounts and add graphics Vivid had provided them, but Adrian managed all that. Evan didn’t want anything to do with social media. He let Adrian have free reign of his fan group, Facebook, and Instagram pages, and I was confident all the media graphics were also getting posted on TikTok. Someone from marketing had set up his Goodreads account. Part of me admired that he could hand those parts off to professionals to manage, but that always seemed like the fun part to me.

Adrian often had me working the local events for his authors, occasionally traveling to the New York branch of the office to help with promotional tours. I found it entertaining to interact with the readers, learn about which parts of the books they enjoyed, and travel to new cities. I always felt like a proud parent watching the readers fall in love with a book I helped make shine.

“Hey, Sam,” Andrea greeted me as she sat on the stool next to me at the bar. “Why are you over here all by yourself? There’s plenty of space over at the tables if you want to come to join us.”

Glancing to the back corner, I could see a large group of my coworkers joking and laughing, some already well on their way to being drunk. It appeared they were all having fun, especially the birthday girl, who was in a corner booth kissing her boyfriend with more tongue than was appropriate for public consumption.

“Nah,” I sighed, looking toward the door again and hating myself for doing it. “I’m good here for a while. I’ll come join you in a bit.”

This whole inner turmoil was really starting to be obnoxious, and it was killing what was supposed to be a fun evening, all because I had to open my huge mouth and invite Kristine to come tonight. I knew she probably wouldn’t show up, but I wanted to see her in an environment outside the office. I needed to see if the appeal was still there or if it was just the idea of getting her to shed that hard professional outer shell.

“Thought you’d be out trying to pick up chicks.”

Kristine sat down on the stool Andrea had just vacated, crossing her legs and showing off a generous amount of bare skin that her short, pleated, red skirt revealed. Now that was something I had never seen on her. And it was not helping my conflicted feelings at all. Fuck, she looked hot.

Her makeup was darker than I was used to seeing. Her hair flowed down around her shoulders with chaotic waves, a stark contrast from her usual sleek bun. And she was showing more skin than I’d seen outside the gym in a form-fitting tank top highlighting her athletic build. It was too bad the skirt wasn’t plaid because she would be fulfilling a naughty school-girl fantasy for me if it was. I’d love to bend her over my knee and grab hold of that...no, Sam, stop imagining her ass.

“Who says I’m not?” I shot back as I leaned toward her, hesitating before I said. “I wasn’t sure if you would come.”

“Well,” she replied with a grin, leaning toward my ear. “If you can’t get a girl to come, you may need to reevaluate your technique.”

My mouth dropped open slightly, my dick certainly noticing how good she smelled, as she started laughing at my expense.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you at a loss for words, Sam.”

“Ha-ha, Kristine, aren’t you cute?” She was, and I was starting to think I was in some serious trouble. This crush, fixation, obsession—whatever it was—had really started to fuck with me.

Don’t think about fucking, Sam. And don’t think about how you can see down Kristine’s tank top when she leans in toward you. That would be an epically bad idea.

“Why, yes, Sam. I am pretty damn cute.”

Shaking my head at the sudden playfulness I wasn’t expecting, I couldn’t help teasing her. I only hoped it wouldn’t come back to bite me in the ass later. I leaned in, brushing her hair behind her shoulder as I whispered in her ear. “I was thinking more along the lines of pretty damn fucking sexy.”

“Wha...” she made the little squeaking noise she’d made in the elevator, and I couldn’t hold in the smirk that she had a physical tell when she was flustered.

Leaning back, I picked up my beer bottle and took a healthy swig of the cold liquid before I looked back toward her. Kristine was clenching her jaw and staring at me with trepidation like I was a predator, her gaze flickering between my eyes and my mouth.

Now that we were out of the office, picking up on her signals was easier. The way she initiated eye contact, the teasing tone of her voice, and the nervous habit of bouncing her foot all indicated what I knew she’d never say. She was just as attracted to me as I found myself to her.

“Now, who can’t find her words?” I teased, watching as her eyes flashed with annoyance.

“Oh, I know plenty of words, Sam. Let’s see if I can list them off, shall we?” She tilted her head to the side in the manner I’d learned meant that she was about to lay into you.

I couldn’t wait.

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