Page 141 of Between the Lines

“Too bad,” he says, voice soft. His lips trail along my cheek. “We both have to talk about things we don’t like to get this memoir finished.”

A shiver races down my spine. “You bastard.”

“Yes,” he mutters, mouth returning to mine. “Since I met you, I can’t help myself. But I would never hurt you.”

He presses his lips to my own. They’re bruising in their intensity, and I kiss him back just as strongly. It doesn’t make any sense. This never has, but it’s the only thing in all of this that feels easy.

I cling to him in much the same way as I should be pushing him away. He knows about the show. Has likely seen the meme. The laughter and the comments and the?—

I bite his lower lip.

Aiden chuckles against my lips, and his hands slide down to grip my ass. He’s a pillar against me. Immovable. His tongue brushes over my lower lip, and I groan into his mouth. He turns us around, and then he lifts me, puts me on the edge of his desk. Something digs into my hip, and I know I’m sitting on his stuff and he doesn’t seem to care about it.

Aiden tips my head back and kisses my neck. I shiver in his embrace, my knees splay so he can step in between them.

Something falls to the floor.

He chuckles against the column of my throat. “You bleached your hair blonde before,” he says.

I run my nails along his scalp, and he hisses out a breath. “Yes.”

“This is your natural color?”

“Mm-hmm.”

He kisses across my collarbone, lowering the strap to my tank top with every touch. “I like it. It suits you.”

I reach for the buttons of his shirt. I get the top two undone so I can slide my hands under the fabric, across the warm, taut skin of his upper chest. I’ve seen what he does in the gym to maintain this kind of body.

Aiden kisses me again. It’s more forceful this time, and I fall backwards. He catches me, arms twining tightly around my waist.

“Fuck,” he mutters. He’s breathing hard, his hair mussed from my hands. “I want you, and this is the wrong moment.” He kisses me again, hands sliding up my sides. Brushing past the swell of my breasts. I want the clothes off—now.

But his kisses slow into teasing, heated touches. “Let me take you out to dinner later.”

I work on more of the buttons of his shirt. Something about feeling his skin is making everything clearer for me. Like I can only focus when I touch him. “Take me out?”

His hot breath washes over my ear, his hands find the hem of my shirt. He runs his large palm up my lower back. Warm, so warm against my skin. “Yes. Let me take you out tonight. Take your mind off everything. We’ll do something fun.”

“You have a meeting with investors.”

“I’ll cancel it,” he says.

“Where?”

“Anywhere. I’ll think of something.” His fingers toy with the clasp to my bra, but he doesn’t undo it. His entire arm is underneath my shirt, warm and firm against my back.

Just holding me.

“Like a date?” I regret the question as soon as it’s out. It would violate rules one and two. And he’s the owner of this company, and he doesn’tdatepeople like me. He doesn’t dateat all, really. But his memoirist? Who made a fool of herself on national TV? The question is naive.

A testament to how stupid I canstillbe.

But Aiden just kisses me again.

I melt under his touch, caught between his chest and his arm pressed to my bare back.

“Chaos,” he says. “Yeah, it’s a date.”

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