Page 77 of Just a Distraction

I want to track you down and say these things to you in person because, number one, I kind of like seeing you in person. And kissing you. And looking at you. And kissing you. And talking with you. And laughing with you. And kissing you.

But alas, this will have to do. We’re both working right now, and we’re too awesome to be slackers at work.

So, let me cut right to the chase. I have a burning, very important question. One that has been carving a hole in my psyche all morning and which, even now, I’m second guessing myself on. It really is the craziest question. One that might make you laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it.

No more stalling, Rose! Out with it!

Deep breath. Here we go.

Do you, Milo Kale Tate, also go by the penname Thaddeus Blackthorn?

Love,

Rose

Before I talk myself out of it, I go across the hall and down to the mailboxes for his department. When I slide it into his box, after stalling around in the area until a couple of HR employees go to leave, I can practically hear the ding of the notification hitting his phone. It’s enough to make me hightail it out of there and scurry to do my daily inspections.

If I’m not thinking about Milo’s kisses, I’m thinking about the possibility that he and Thaddeus Blackthorn are one and the same. I can barely concentrate on my work at all. The afternoon drags and I’m half tempted to go back to the HR office and see if he’s gotten my letter.

Count that as fully tempted, because not twenty minutes later, I’m in there, under the ruse of checking on the paperwork for one of my housekeepers who quit recently, checking to see if my letter is gone.

It’s not. It’s still sitting there. Our secrets are out there where someone could easily pluck it up and read them all.

I was so dumb saying those things in the letter. This is the workplace. I shouldn’t have taken a risk like that. Would his brothers see it and take it as a joke? Why didn’t Sebastian put in actual mailboxes with locks and keys for his employees? This isan outrage! It has to be a violation of employee privacy laws or something.

I roll my eyes at myself, and the day wears on.

When I hear a knock on the housekeeping office door, I stiffen. My boss, Anna, gives a hasty “Come in!” and there’s Milo, standing in the doorway in his affable, cool, beautiful way.

“Can I speak with you, Ms. Hawkins?” he asks, sweetly. Innocently. Anna’s brows go in the air, but she nods her approval and I’m up and out of my desk without hesitation. He places a hand on the small of my back once we’re in the hallway and steers me out the side door. The latch behind us closes tight.

“Did you get my letter?” I ask, searching his expression.

He unbuttons his sleeve, displaying a quick flash of his handsome forearm, when my letter falls out and he shakes it open, his eyes teasing me.

“It’s about time,” I chide. “I left that for you at ten this morning.”

“I didn’t pick it up until just now,” he counters. “I got the notification that I had mail and I’ve been wanting to go see if it was from you. But Sebastian gave me another project to do today, so I didn’t allow myself until things started to wind down with work. And I was going to respond with a letter of my own, but I figured something like this warranted a response in person.”

“So?” I beg. “Respond!”

“I have to re-read it to refresh my memory.”

“Milo,” I warn. “Just answer my question.”

“First I want to revel in the fact that you seem to love kissing me.”

“Milo!”

“Alright, alright.” He takes a step closer to me, tugs me into a hug, and then whispers in my ear. “Yes, I am Thaddeus Blackthorn.”

My knees threaten to buckle out from under me.

I take in a breath, but instead of pulling away from me, he continues to whisper. “When Balthor tells Zehma she’s his canopy, and how time stills at her glance? I wrote that the day after we first met. I had to wait a long while to get Zehma’s story to be ready for those lines.”

I gasp and pull away from him, searching his face. “I’m in shock.”

“That I could manage to write so many words? Yeah, me, too.”

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