Page 51 of Between the Lines

“‘Yes?’ That’s all I get?”

I clear my throat. “You made an observation. I simply?—”

“No offense, Nathan, but cut the crap.”

My spine tingles and my face heats. In the same moment, she steels herself. I know that I’m about to get the law laid down, which is ironic. I’m typically on her end of things. What I’m even more anxious for is the slight breath I see her take. The one that tells me she’s nervous. Not about approaching me like this, not about calling me on my bull. She’s nervous because…

“You’ve been avoiding me. You didn’t answer my text. We were supposed to have a meeting about Rocco, and you told Lucy that you’d just meet with her after to go over our notes—and Igetthat I don’t actually work here, but I do for the time being.

“Is it because of what happened in my car? Because if it is, I get it. It was over the line and unprofessional, and maybe there was some part of me that thought you actually felt something too, which is why I sent that text, but I’m clearly misreading things, so?—”

“Stop.”

I can’t take it anymore. She freezes, startling with an intake of breath.

“Just.Stop. Claire. I’m not…”

I can’t lie to her when I am very clearly avoiding her.

With the pile of paperwork and bills on my desk as the constant reminder for whyI can’t have her, there isn’t room for temptation.

She didn’t take the avoidance as a sign. She came in here and called me on my bull, and somehow, she’s got me caving to her every whim.

“I have been avoiding you.” It’s a ten-ton weight off my chest to simplytell herinstead of keeping it all bottled up inside, just like every conversation we’ve had has done to me. I stumble over the fact that she’s the only person I’ve been able to do this with in far too long, and how freeing that is. Her face crumblesjust the slightest, and it takes everything in me not to reach out to her yet. “Butnotbecause I don’t want you.”

My voice registers on the Richter scale with the last part of that admission, the freeing feeling sprouting wings around my chest. My gaze ticks up to take her in, and there’s a wheel of technicolor emotions slowly spinning over her features.

Relief swims in the softness of her skin. Denial heats the apples of her cheeks, now past the typical cotton candy pink, spilling its way into scarlet. But it’s the hunger in the darkness of her eyes that both cinches my heart and makes my slacks tight against the zipper. The way she slowly trails the tip of her tongue over her lips pushes me to continue spilling my guts.

“I have been avoiding you because I cannotstandnot having you.”

Thatparticular confession rattles the foundation beneath our feet. Erupts in my chest like a volcano. Makes my words come out like raspy concrete. Her gaze flares, and when her fall-themed manicure digs into the leather arm of the chair she’s standing beside, I know she feels it too.

“I can’t help it, though.” I chuckle darkly. “Now that I’ve had a taste? Just the sight of you has me imagining things I shouldn’t.”

I can’t even pretend to miss the indent of her teeth as she bites her plump bottom lip, or the raspy sound in the back of her throat that I hope is the suppression of a moan. But at the same time…

“But we can’t, Claire. You know that as much as I do. You’re an employee of this school. You’re ten years younger than I am.” Her lids flutter, and the way her cheeks start to melt back into pinktells me that our bashful dilemma is now taking over. “I know how much you hate beingtoldwhat you can and can’t have…”

My thighs widen in my chair and I bow my head, clasping my hands between my spread legs. I’m washed in the shame of this whole situation. Cooped up in my office at the scene of our last crime with a beautiful woman that I absolutely cannot eventhinkof having.

“What if I…I think I’d like that. Being told what to do. If it came fromyou.”

My entire body stiffens, from my toes, straight up through my cock as both it and I sit up straight. My gaze narrows, my head dipping as I do my best to understand what it is she’s saying to me.

I ask her with my eyes, in fear of the words that will come out of my mouth. She answers by lifting her chin slightly, the challenge and the want competing for dominance as her teeth press into her bottom lip again.

“You’ve been thinking about me since then, too?” she asks, a husky tone painting that dangerous question.

We shouldn’t be having this conversation. In myoffice, no less. But it’s after hours, the building is otherwise empty, and somehow, that gives me permission.

“Since before then,” I admit, not even sure why. “Every second of every day, Claire. I can’t get you out of my head and it’smaddening.”

It comes out tortured, because I can’t stand it, but also because I can finally tell her, can finally let her know how twisted this all is. It feels good to get it off my chest. Maybe now, she’ll see how terrible of a man I am and leave me alone to?—

“Tell me.”

Her breathiness makes my cock stir.

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