Page 10 of Snowed In with the Bosses

Alexander held her gaze several seconds past what would be considered appropriate. No one moved. I barely dared to breathe. Finally, he backed away. All the oxygen that had been sucked from the room returned and I hauled it into my greedy lungs.

Concentrating with Clara beside me became an exercise all by itself. I kept stealing glances at her that she occasionally caught with a side-eye. She’d raise a brow, fiddle with the mouse, then resume working. We hit some kind of rhythm between the four of us and before I knew it, my stomach rumbled like hours had passed.

Alexander snapped his laptop closed and squeezed his eyes shut. “Let’s break for dinner.”

“Dinner?” Clara checked her phone and gasped.

“Who’s hungry for Marcello’s?” My neck popped when I rolled my shoulders, and I let out a groan.

Clara shot me a devious grin. “I’d offer to rub your shoulders, but you’d probably try to add that to your naked women buffet.”

“The only buffet I want is the one that has you covered in whipped cream.” I raised both eyebrows, the look daring her to keep the challenge going.

Her mouth opened. Closed. Opened again, then snapped shut and stayed that way.

Pity. “Anyone opposed?” I waved my phone. “I’ll call in the order and have it delivered.”

At the grunts of affirmation, I swiveled back to Clara. “Any favorites?”

“You have no idea,” she muttered under her breath.

I cupped a hand around my ear. “Sorry. I missed that.”

“I said pineapple, bacon, and ham.” Her chin shot up and it was her turn to stare me down. “With extra cheese and sauce.”

“Your wish is my command.” I stood and stretched my arms overhead, my spine protesting sitting so long.

Thirty minutes later, we’d cleaned up the table and spread three pizzas in place of the blueprints and sketches.

Clara filled her plate, added an extra cup of sauce, and grabbed one of the bottles of water from the mini-fridge behind Alexander’s desk.

I stacked my own pizza and returned to my seat beside Clara. “What do you think so far?” I waited until I’d chewed and swallowed to start the conversation.

Clara’s eyes shot wide, then narrowed on me. I loved putting that surprised look on her face. It gave me wild, devious, sexual thoughts. She bit into her pizza and chewed slowly, probably to keep from answering me.

“You think they’ll approve this?” Ethan leaned back in his chair and propped his socked feet on the table. He’d gotten rid of his shoes hours ago while pacing the far end of the room. He liked to pace and think.

I’d caught Clara watching him too, the same way she watched Alexander and even me. By some miracle, she felt the same attraction we did.

Alexander rocked in his chair, his feet flat on the floor. His office sported a small set of windows behind his desk, and I caught a brief glimpse of Silverbrook wrapped in snow before a flurry of flakes blotted out the view. A short shrug and Alexander lifted a slice of pizza. “We’ll find out tomorrow. We’ve made excellent progress in a day, and they can’t fault any of our designs.”

“They might.” Clara dipped her pizza in the sauce and took a bite. Sauce dribbled onto her bottom lip.

Before she could lick it away, I leaned in and slid my thumb over her bottom lip.

All the blushes I’d seen from her before held no comparison to this one. Her freckles stood out in stark relief against the red sweeping up her neck and into her cheeks. A breath whistled from her nose but neither of us moved. She sat in front of me, as ripe and beautiful as any woman I’d ever dreamed of, and I wanted her. I’d wanted her from the minute she walked into the restaurant yesterday and challenged us. The ache was a painful thing that needled my bones and prickled my nerves until they burned.

She was the type of woman I would obsess over, love desperately, and fuck mercilessly. My grin denied all of those things as I smoothed the curve of her lower lip, gathering up more sauce. “It’s a bold look. Almost as red as my winter suit.”

Heat flickered between us when her gaze roamed over me as though to visualize the red suit.

I pulled my finger back and stuck it into my mouth, closing my eyes for effect.

Ethan groaned from across the table.

I knew the feeling. I tasted her on my finger, the sweet and subtleness of her lipstick and the lingering tomato tang of the sauce. I wanted more.

“What?” Fear coated Clara’s voice.

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