Page 44 of Claimed By my Frenemy

“But notthismuch. Anyway, I already got him a dog walker. She comes during lunch. Her name is Emery, and she loves him. She sends me pictures every day, and he looks like he’s having the best time.”

We all congratulate Madison on her puppy and give her different advice we remember from having dogs over the years, but I mostly stay silent. I’m thinking about what’s going to happen when I see Theo again, when I talk to him about what I’m thinking.

The next day, I decide to talk to Theo. I can’t just hold these thoughts in anymore. I can’t deny the way I feel when I’m around him, and I don’t want to let fear hold me back, even though a little bit of doubt is still floating around.

I find Theo in his office. I feel more comfortable striding into the partially finished resort now.

“Hey, Mia. What’s up?”

“Can we talk?” Nerves hit me, and I suddenly want to back away. “I mean, if you have time. I get it if you’re busy or something.”

Theo rolls up the sheet of paper he was looking at and motions for me to sit down. But I can’t. I just want to rock back and forth. I force myself to stand ramrod straight.

“What’s on your mind, Mia?”

I take a deep breath, gathering my courage. “I’ve been thinking a lot about us, and about everything that’s happened. I know we’ve had our differences, and I know things have been complicated. But I also know I’ve seen a different side of you lately. And I think... I think I want to give this a chance, like what you said yesterday.”

His eyes widen in surprise. “You mean…us? Like, a relationship?”

I feel giddy just admitting it out loud. And seeing the way Theo’s face lights up makes me think this might be the right decision after all. “Yes, I want to try. I want to see where this can go.”

“Mia, I’ve… well, I told you how I feel yesterday, but I think that we could be something if…if we both give it a chance. A real college try.”

“Well, I think we owe ourselves at least that.”

Theo stands up on the other side of his desk, and I know what he’s going to do before he does it. All of me wants him to do it, so I let him.

He steps closer, his eyes locked on mine. “You have no idea how much this means to me. I promise I’ll do everything I can to make this work.”

“I know you will. And I will, too. We’ll be a team.”

Before I can say anything else, Theo closes the distance between us, his lips capturing mine in a kiss. I wrap my armsaround his neck and shut out everything else, including the thoughts raging through my mind.

I don’t want to stop kissing Theo. I step closer to him so that our bodies are pressed together. My hips seem to move on their own, rocking slowly back and forth, harder and harder against Theo until I feel him starting to get hard.

I can’t breathe. I can’t remember how to think straight.

Finally, Theo pulls away. He avoids my eyes for a moment. “Well, I think if we don’t want to end up naked in my office, we should probably stop.”

“What’s wrong with being naked in your office?” I ask.

Theo laughs, then clears his throat, looking everywhere but at me. “Well, I guess there’s nothingwrongwith it, but the lock hasn’t been installed on the door yet, so…”

I glance at the door and see what he means. “So, we should use self-control.”

Theo finally meets my eyes. “For now, anyway. But not forever. Oh, no. I couldn’t forever.”

I like the promise in his tone. I’m just about to respond when a contractor steps into the office without knocking first or anything. My cheeks grow hot as I think about what he might have seen if we hadn’t stopped ourselves.

Theo switches to business mode and addresses the contractor. I slip back out, knowing we’ll have plenty of time to seal our relationship later.

22

THEO

“Roberts,you can’t keep waiting on this. If we don’t break ground on that property soon, it won’t be ready for next season at all.”

I look at the desk in front of me. Steve has rolled out the plans that include building C, the building that we would need Mia’s property in order to have space for. I had tucked them away in a drawer, but Steve has managed to pull them out again.

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