Page 35 of Forever with the CEO

I pouted.What? I’m not going to see him this week?

Jesus, Allison. Where’d that come from? Of course the man is busy.

Nick: But we can talk on the phone.

Allison: Deal. Let’s do that. I want us to be prepared by the weekend.

Nick: Then call me after the twins go to bed.

Allison: I’ll probably call this evening at 8:30.

Nick: It’s a date.

My pulse sped up, and my mouth was suddenly dry, as were my lips.

Allison, that’s just a figure of speech.

I had to get myself under control because things were only going to get more difficult from now on. I couldn’t heat up every time he touched me or looked at me in a way I assumed was flirty. Because until now, he hadn’tactuallyflirted with me. I was certain it was all in my head.

I breezed through the rest of my activities for the day, energized, knowing that I was going to talk to Nick tonight. Date or not, just knowing that I was going to hear his voice made me feel better.

Unfortunately, later that evening, it took longer than usual to get the twins to bed. I ended up not calling Nick until nine o’clock, settling into my favorite corner of the couch as my phone rang.

“Good evening,” Nick answered.

“Sorry I’m late.”

“Don’t worry.” I heard the clatter of cutlery in the background.

“Are you eating now?”

“Yes. I ordered room service.”

I frowned. “Nick, I feel guilty now. You didn’t go out to eat because we’d planned this call.”

“Nah. Whenever I’m traveling, I prefer room service in the evenings.”

“Are you sure you want to do this tonight?”

“Yes. I already have a few ideas.”

“Do tell, because I’m a numbers person. My imagination is limited.” We both laughed at that, but he’d soon find out how true that was.

“We’ll tell them that we met a few times over the years at Jim and Nora’s various events, like barbeques and such. We don’t need to go into too much detail. They just have to understand that we knew each other from before the funeral.”

“That sounds good.”

“And then... well, forgive me for being so crass, but I think this will shock them into not asking too many details. I can say that when we started to hang out more after that, I couldn’t resist making a move on you because you’re so damn hot.”

I laughed. “That isn’t crass.”

“That’s the toned-down version. The original one was ‘you’re so hot that I kept fantasizing about taking you to bed the first time I came to your house,’ but I think that’s too much information.”

My heart nearly jumped out of my chest. That sounded almost real. Like it hadn’t been made up. My entire body was burning. I swallowed hard, regaining my wits slowly.

“Too much for elderly ears for sure.”

He chuckled. “Thought so. We can say that we started spending more time together. I kept coming to the house, one thing led to another, and we now know that we can’t live without each other.”

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