Page 26 of Worth the Risk

My face flushes. I raise my head just enough to catch his gaze which is burning a hole through me. I look back down, attempting to read a few more, but my vision blurs when he starts to walk toward me. He comes to stand next to where I’m half sitting, half leaning against the edge of my desk.

“Personally,” he adds, reaching his hand across me to touch the screen slightly as he points toward one comment in particular, “I like this one.”

My entire body is alight with electricity. I blink several times until the comment finally comes into focus.

Have you two ever kissed? I’m convinced if you did, the entire internet would melt.

My knees grow weak. I read the comment several more times, not wanting to look over at Austin even though I can feel him staring. Finally, I muster the courage, turning my face just slightly.

“They’re not going to like the answer.”

“No, they’re not,” he says, his gaze settling on my lips.

“Should we post it?”

I don’t know why I say it. The second I do, I want to take it back. Not because I don’t want to kiss him but because I haven’t been able to get the thought of kissing him out of my head since the moment I met him. And the guilt—the guilt has eaten at mefor years every single time I looked at Noah and felt a tinge of disappointment that it wasn’t Austin smiling back at me.

My heart beats against my ribs so loud I’m convinced he can hear it. I open my mouth to say I’m joking when he beats me to it.

“That’s very generous of you to want to share our first kiss with the world.”

“Our first kiss?” I repeat back, still questioning why I’m tiptoeing around this subject with him, so close to the line when I should be running away from it. “As in, there would be a second?” I tease, completely out of my depths.

“Taylor.” He says my name in that low voice, the one that has my fingers curling so tight against the edge of my desk my nails feel as if their digging into the wood. “Do you want me to kiss you?”

“That’s not what I said.” The words come out in a defensive rush.

His gaze dips again. “Yet you aren’t saying no.” His voice is even lower, his head tilting slightly as his body draws a centimeter closer.

“Fine, this is me…” My words drift off, my body on edge as I involuntarily lean in closer. “Saying no.”

He doesn’t even attempt to look into my eyes, his gaze frozen on my lips as his hand comes across my body, up to my neck. My eyelids flutter and my lips part like I’m desperately on edge, because I am. Just when he’s about to close the distance, he chuckles softly, pulling back.

“Those are just empty words, Tay. Your body is saying something completely different.” He pushes away from my desk, moving to stand directly in front of me. His words are barely above a whisper as he reaches around me, picking up my phone from the desk.

I watch in confusion as he opens the camera, then walks over to the bookshelf adjacent to us and places the phone on it, facing us. But this time when he comes back to stand in front of me, he doesn’t stop. One hand snakes around my waist confidently, settling against my lower back as the other slides up my neck and into my hair.

“Gotta give the people what they want, right?”

He doesn’t give me time to respond. His lips are on mine a second later and I’m suspended, wondering if I’m dreaming right now. Until he moves his lips against mine and the warm, wet sensation of his tongue demands entrance.

Instantly, my body takes over, my hands reaching out to tangle in his hair, all thoughts of if we should be doing this shoved so far back into the recesses of my mind I couldn’t stop myself if I tried.

The kiss isn’t frenzied. His hand stays against my back, the other tightening its grip on my neck ever so slightly as he tilts his head, sliding his tongue deeper into my mouth.

My thighs spread slightly, his hips easing between them. I’m a second away from moaning, the warmth of him so close to my center I can feel it radiating out of his body when the ding of the elevator brings me back to reality.

My eyes fly open, settling on my open office door. We have about ten seconds before someone walks off the elevator and past my office. There’s no way they won’t see us.

“Someone’s coming.” I push against Austin’s chest, attempting to slide off my desk at the same time. I barely get a few inches from him when his hand darts out and grabs my wrist.

He looks unfazed by the revelation, his eyes still heavy and dark as his chest rises and falls with each rapid breath. His head turns slightly to the side when the sound of footsteps interrupts us.

“Hey, thought I might find you down here, boss.” Adam, one of our head financial advisors, pops his head into my office, clearly unaware of what he interrupted. “I wanted to discuss a few things on th?—”

“I’m busy. I’ll be at my office in a moment.” Austin’s tone is clipped, his gaze returning to mine, but I avert my eyes, too afraid I’m going to melt into a puddle on the floor if I look at him right now.

I sneak a glance at Adam, his expression faltering a touch at Austin’s gruff response. He looks from me to him, then back to me. My face is burning with embarrassment as I think of Adam putting the pieces together regarding what he just walked in on.

---