Page 20 of Some Like It Hot

Her brows pull together slightly in an adorably confused look. “It was inappropriate.”

“It wasn’t. We don’t have a policy against employees dating. They—we—just have to disclose it. We were two grown, consenting adults.”

“It was inappropriate to me. I was bad at my job. Thinking about staying there just because of my feelings for you felt wrong.” She bites her bottom lip, watching me. Then she says, “After we kissed and I realized that my feelings were even stronger than I thought and realized you might feel some things too, I knew I had to leave right then…or I maybe never would. And I would have felt terrible about myself keeping a job I didn’t deserve, or like, just so I could be close to you.” She pauses. “I’d already done that for about three months.”

Fuck yes. I love that. I probably shouldn’t. It obviously bothers her. But she had feelings for me. That’s all I can concentrate on.

“We could have worked it out,” I tell her. “But here we are now, not working together. Let me take you to dinner.”

She shakes her head and backs up toward the door. “I would drive you crazy, Simon.”

I step toward her. “Yes, you would. You did. In every good way.”

“No,” she protests, stepping back again. “I’m not talking about that. I’m unorganized, messy, late all the time. Not just at work at a job I don’t understand or like. I’m like that all the time. In everything. Even the stuff I love.”

I frown. I’m not following. “Elise, why would I care about that?”

“You would,” she insists. “I worked for you for six months. I know that you value organization and competence and professionalism and…I’m not those things.”

“I have an assistant for those things. I don’t need those things from you. Not when you’re not on the payroll, and I’m discussing getting to know each other on a personal level.”

Her eyes widen yet she steps back, right into the door. She fumbles for the knob, her gaze glued on mine. “We’re not a good fit.”

“We could be an excellent fit,” I say, making sure she understands the full innuendo.

She sucks in a breath.

“Simon…go back to London and forget me. I’m fine. I’m good. You don’t have to think about me anymore.”

“I’m here, in Chicago, until the end of March,” I tell her. “And there’s no way in hell I’m going to forget you. I was gutted when you disappeared, thinking I was responsible for you quitting your job.”

She twists the knob and steps forward to pull the door open. “You’re not responsible for that. I absolve you of all guilt. The job was a terrible fit for me. So you can go forth and live your life and not feel bad about it.”

“I’d feel better about my life if you were having dinner with me.”

She stares at me. “You could have any woman.”

“Good to know. I want you.”

She hesitates in the doorway. Then she shakes her head. “I have to go.”

Don’t push her. You don’t have to push right now. I tell myself that even though everything in me is screaming to take her into my arms and kiss her again.

“Okay,” I say, begrudgingly. “I’ll see you soon.”

“That sounds ominous.”

I smile. I don’t believe her. I can tell her heart is pounding and her adrenaline is pulsing. Her cheeks are flushed and she keeps wetting her lips. “Does it, love? Or does it sound tempting?”

She swallows hard. Then she says, “Bye, Simon,” and turns and literally flees.

But I just smile.

Now I know she has feelings for me. Now I know why she left. Now I know where she is. Now I can find her.

And I fully intend to.

CHAPTER 5

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