Page 34 of His Off-Limits Christmas Gift

Only the smattering of cold spots on the back of my neck jarred me back to reality. Snow fell, much later than forecast. She reacted as well, stiffening for a slight second and burrowing closer to me.

It didn’t stop, though, trying to cool us off. White specks dusted my shoulders and the tops of her arms that draped over them. Her hair had a growing layer of snow, but it was a clump of the chilly material that slipped under my collar that finally had me jerking back with a sound of alarm.

She laughed, rewarding me with that beautiful, sexy melody. Seeing her lips kiss-swollen because of me, her eyes open with such bright excitement because of our kisses, I wanted to etch this vision into my brain forever.

“What is this?” I said, laughing with her as the snow dumped down faster.

“I don’t know!” She grabbed my hand and urged me to walk under cover. “I thought they said it might snow tomorrow.”

We moved too quickly, perhaps both of us too goofy and disoriented from making out, so we skidded on the already slick pavement.

“Whoa!” I caught her from falling, but with that move, I overcompensated and almost pulled her down with me.

Among the laughter and hurry to get out of this freaking squall that came out of nowhere, both our phones started to buzz.

“What is it?” I asked her. She was quicker to both regain her balance and walk along the sidewalk. Her phone was in hand,easily removed from her purse. I was still grappling with shoving my coat back to reach mine in my pocket. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that we were both called at the same time.

“Oh, yikes. Ten texts from Julie,” she reported.

I got my phone out and saw the same. Blinking and holding my hand up to shield the snow from falling in my eyes, I read my office manager’s message.

Julie:WHERE ARE YOU?

Julie:Mtg in five!

“Whoops.” I’d forgotten a lot, actually. Spending time with Rachel had me forgetting that this was still a workday, or what remained of it. Kissing her had rendered my brain to mush.

“Uh-oh,” she said teasingly as she urged me to walk faster with her.

It took us three slips, a lot of laughter, and a couple more heated looks to get back to the office.

And with every step of the way, I wondered how we ever might’ve stopped each other if the skies hadn’t opened up to dump snow on us.

A lesson, my ass.Teaching her how to find another man wasn’t on my radar at all. I intended to have her kiss me again.

As I held the door open for her, I vowed to learn everything I could about making her mine.

13

RACHEL

All weekend, I agonized aboutthe kiss. I replayed the thrill of it in my mind. I felt the tingles of arousal spreading through me when I thought back to how turned on I was. Every time I let my mind wander and stick on the fact that Nate wanted to make out with me like that, so spontaneously, I felt a sly smile threatening to take over my face.

I kissed my boss.

And he liked it.

Those taunting, husky whispers telling me “how” to kiss could’ve made it seem like he was fulfilling his role of my mentor. He might have thought he was teaching me how to really kiss a man, but the idea of another person was not on my mind. At all.

Under his lips, held up by him, I was focused on feeling the glory of his hot kisses and wishing for more. If the snow hadn’t startled us apart, then I was sure we would’ve eventually been clued into how Julie was seeking him. She’d contacted me, hoping to find him for that one late meeting with someone in Japan who couldn’t do a video call with the time zone differences at any other time.

If not for those interruptions, though, how far would we have taken it?

That question plagued my mind all the way until I returned to the office on Monday. Unfortunately, I was too shy to ask him such a direct question about what could come next between us. I had no right to ask such a thing after he’d so clearly and succinctly said he’d sworn off women after Yasmin.

Then again, those kisses made a liar out of him. A man didn’t make out with a woman like that if he wasn’t at least slightly interested, right? Even at a basic, elemental level?

At least he’d played along with my lie that I was his girlfriend.Nate wasn’t slow. He had to have seen that I was trying to stand up to Yasmin.

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