Page 9 of Snowed In with the Bosses

LIAM

I’d retreated to my office during lunch to try and regain my composure after spending the morning around Clara. She fucked with my head in a way I’d never experienced. Watching her hunched over her drawing station with her bottom lip between her teeth printed an inescapable image in my mind.

Here, in my quiet office with no distractions, I twirled my pencil between my fingers and sat back to look over the concept piece for the new community hub. Something about it bothered me but I was too close to the project to see the problem. Cursing, I threw the pencil onto the desk and stretched my arms up over my head.

A message popped up on my phone. I snatched it up, grateful for the distraction, and read the text from Alexander. Urgent city council meeting tomorrow morning. Meet in my office.

Fuck. I grabbed the sketch and bolted from my chair, leaving it spinning behind me, and ran to Alexander’s office. My steps stumbled to a halt at the sight of Ethan and Clara leaning toward each other at the oval table where Alexander held most of his meetings. Blueprints, sketches, and four laptops covered the table. Everything we’d worked on so far. Clara’s long hairfell over her shoulder and brushed over Ethan’s arm. He’d rolled his sleeves up, and the hair wrapped around his forearm. His jaw tensed, his fingers flexing on the paper he held down as his other hand pointed out something to Clara. She shifted closer, her head dipping beneath Ethan’s chin. “This section here?”

Ethan shot me a look so full of tortured desire that I almost choked on my own spit.

Alexander stood behind his desk, his phone at his ear and his voice tearing through the room. “Are you sure there’s nothing you can do?” He watched Ethan and Clara with the same kind of longing that battered my chest. An electric energy crackled around the room. We were in a sudden time crunch. We should be focused on the meeting tomorrow. Urgency for Harrington’s project collided with the energy in the room and raised the hairs on my forearms.

Another part of me pulsed when Clara finally noticed her hair draped over Ethan’s arm and gathered it up with a whispered apology.

Alexander slammed the phone down and stalked over to the table. “No way to get out of it.”

“What’s the plan?” Ethan remained beside Clara, his thigh touching hers when he turned to look over her head.

Clara straightened and bundled her hair into a loose knot at the nape of her neck.

I followed the motion, barely stopping from asking her to leave it down. I moved to Alexander’s far side and added my community hub sketch to the blueprints scattered across the table.

“Clara.” Alexander stopped as though her name was some kind of exquisite fruit. He sucked air through his teeth. “You’ll work on the visual renderings and layouts. Ethan’s in charge of tech. Liam, you’re on the community engagement aspects.”

As usual, Alexander gave us the jobs we were best at. I grabbed what I needed and retreated to the opposite side of the table, to the chair furthest away from Clara. I’d stay there as long as possible. Which at the rate my body reacted to her, would be all of five minutes before I gave in.

I looked over the blueprints. “Harrington mentioned he liked your fountain in the hospital. Any reasons we shouldn’t include one here?”

Clara tugged on her lower lip with her thumb and forefinger, almost smudging her lipstick. “Could be a hazard. Little kids getting wet, especially in winter. We’d need more security to keep people from getting in it. But a train ride around the mall part would be fun and give the kids something to look forward to.”

“Great.” I added a note to the side of my sketch. Every time I made a line, I looked up to check on Clara. She sat with her ankles crossed, her knees together, and a look of pure concentration tightening her gemstone eyes. While the rest of us struggled, Clara remained in complete control.

It kind of pissed me off, but in a good way. I wanted her to be as torn up about us as we were for her. “What about a nude bar in the executive suite?” The absurd question had the desired effect.

Clara’s head snapped up, her entire focus locked on me. “Excuse me?”

“Just making sure you were listening.” I smirked and stood, picking up one of the blueprints and carrying it around the table. When I sat down next to her, she drew in a quick, sharp breath that shot straight to my dick. “The offices need to have an additional draw to them.”

“And your first thought was naked women?” A hardness entered her eyes, the censure sparking bright and pulling her lips into a sour pucker.

Ethan rolled his eyes from Clara’s other side, but he wasn’t immune to Clara any more than me. I’d lost sight of Alexander, but I felt the weight of his gaze on us.

“No.” My first thought washernaked in my bed. “What about this?” I shuffled the papers around until I found the one I needed. My shoulder touched hers. I enhanced the contact to check her reaction and a jolt of pleasure shot through me when she leaned into the pressure. I roughed out a few quick lines. “Interactive digital art installations. A few parks. We can include a dog park near the animal shelter. People can have play dates with their prospective pet in a place that will help them all relax. Adopting a pet from a shelter is hard, especially when they’re scared.” I drew a large rectangle a block away from her animal shelter. “Here.”

The pressure on my shoulder increased. Clara stretched closer and set her forearm on the table alongside mine. Her long sleeve kept me from feeling her skin on mine, but the heat of her swam through my head. When she took the sketch from me, her hair slid over my cheek in a tantalizing moment, the pure silk texture begging for me to snatch her into my lap and kiss her senseless. My cock strained against the confines of my slacks. Thank fuck for the table that hid my erection from her curious gaze.

She nodded. “That could work. Hold on.” She moved her laptop closer and pulled up the 3D design program. I watched her face while she worked, memorizing the angles and planes of her cheeks, how she twisted one side of her mouth when she thought of something, and how she smiled when things emerged on the program. “How’s this?” Excitement brightened her eyes and brought color to her cheeks. She spun the computer around toward me.

It was all I could do to look away from her face and pretend to look at the screen. Her infectious enthusiasm spilled over all of us.

Alexander came up behind her. “That’s great. Visually appealing by itself. We could add some potted plants, maybe even a whole garden center off to the side.” He tapped a few keys on the keyboard.

Clara started to move her hand back at the same time Alexander moved, and their fingers collided on the keyboard.

“Sorry,” she whispered. Her eyes met his and I swore I saw actual sparks fly between them.

Yep. We were well and truly smitten with this woman. She could ask me for anything and if it was in my power, I’d give it to her.

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