Page 12 of Claimed By the Boss

“Do you still hear fromMilly?” Gabriel asked.

“Yes, she is heading tocollege. She plans to study law. She told me in one of her letters that sheintends to be a nightmare for the bad guys.”

He glanced over to her andsaw her smile. Nora was a special kind of woman. There was a lot more to herthan met the eye.

Parking outside herapartment, he knew this was not the place Milly’s dad had gotten for her. Aftergetting a job at his company, she was able to upgrade to a nicer neighborhoodwith more security.

He climbed out of his car,locked it, and escorted her upstairs.

“You don’t have to see meto my door,” she said.

“I insist.” He loved thatshe didn’t argue.

He saw the code she neededto get inside her building, and he followed her up to the third floor.

She put the key in thelock and smiled at him. “I had a lovely night.”

And he wanted to kiss her.

Closing the distancebetween them, Gabriel reached out, cupped her cheek, and kissed her good night.

ChapterFour

Nora didn’t dare look atthe clock. She knew it was already past quitting time, as she was alone in themail room. So far, none of the staff seemed to have a problem with herpromotion, which was a good thing. Not that she thought there would be. Severalof the previous employees had already quit.

From the gossip she heard,it was because they were not happy with how slow promotion was moving. Theydidn’t like being stuck in the mail room, and wanted out, quickly.

She liked working in themail room. Sure, she had a plan to one day be promoted to an assistant, and tolearn everything about this company as a way of securing her future, but rightnow, the mail room was all right.

Okay, she was stalling.Even in her own mind, she wasn’t trying to think about that kiss last night. Avery good kiss.

Who was she kidding, itwas incredible. She’d never been kissed like that, and the truth was, it hadblown her freaking mind. It had been out of this world. She wanted to screamjust how good it was, but there was no one to talk to. Also, the tiniest detail—theperson she happened to kiss was in fact her boss, which was just so wrong.

She dropped her head andclosed her eyes, as she was alone, and there was no one to question what shewas doing. Her first true kiss was with a man she couldn’t have. There wererules, right? Rules about not dating within the office. She was sure that was athing, as Gabriel felt internal relationships got messy, or maybe she wasmaking that up.

“You’re avoiding me,”Gabriel said.

Nora tensed up.

Thinking about him hadmade him appear out of thin air. No, what she should have done was leave atfive-thirty, quitting time. If she had done that, all of this wouldn’t behappening.

“I’m not avoiding you,”she said.

“No, then why did someoneelse deliver my mail?”

All her life, her parentshad taught her good manners. Keeping her back to him was just plain rude. Ifshe turned around, she didn’t know what was going to happen.

Nora took a deep breath,and sent a prayer up toward her parents that if they were looking down on her, tohelp prevent her from making bad decisions.

She turned toward him, andso far, so good, but he did look so good. Why did he have to look so good in asuit? This was so unfair.

“I’ve been busy and Ididn’t want you to have to wait for your mail. I know how important it is foryou to get it in a timely fashion.”

“Cut the crap, Nora.You’ve been avoiding me because I kissed you last night.”

It wasn’t exactly the kindof kiss you brush on the cheek. This had started out as a brush of the lips,but then his fingers had sunk into her hair and held her in place. Not in a badway, but in such a good way. Her lips had tingled from the contact. So much ofher body had tingled.

She couldn’t deny howdesperate she was for him. And this terrified her. Gabriel was her boss. He wasout of her league. She needed to get her brain back on track, and having dirty,sexual thoughts about her boss was not a good idea.

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