Page 24 of Executive Benefits

His laughter rang through the air, and as the last parade float slowly rode away, he led me to a charming cafe that was stuffed to the gills with holiday paraphernalia. “This is the Christmas Shop?” I asked, pointing.

Nick tugged on my fingers, and I stepped in close. “That’s what the owner and town call it for the holidays because the owner and her family love them so much. They transform their cafe into the Christmas Shop every year since I was in high school.” His eyes looked up, and I followed his gaze. “Huh, look at that. Mistletoe.”

Excitement whispered over my chilled breath, and as he gazed at me, I knew I wasn’t going to back away. His lips came to mine, and memories of the other night flipped through my mind as my fingers dug into his coat.

His tongue lapped over mine with a slow precision meant to soak my panties and made me wonder what he would do with his tongue if his head were between my legs. A moan slid from my mouth with the thought as his fingers knotted in my hair.

He kissed me faster, making me forget we were in public, and a thousand other things I wanted him to do to me beat into my head as our kiss went up to the next level, raising my blood pressure as my heart beat against my ribs.

My hands slid into his jacket, and I felt around for the hem of his shirt, sliding my fingers up it, feeling his abs as soon as they found it. I tried to remember that I couldn’t take his shirt off in public. That would be a bad look for both of us. Plus, it was thirty degrees.

A sharp buzz twittered over my lips and trickled down my neck and low into my belly. I nipped at his lip, and he held me tighter. My fingers ran behind his back, still touching his skin but encircling his waist with both arms.

His hand cupped my jaw, and he rounded out the kiss, pulling back just enough for his foggy breath to caress my face as our eyes met again. “I don’t think—” he started.

“That was a disgusting display.” A woman’s voice shattered the moment between Nick and me, and I remembered I was in public, and that meant people were around. My cheeks warmed, and I couldn’t believe I lost myself like that. But I could.

I liked it.

A lot.

I wanted to walk away from the woman who I knew was Kendra and invite Nick to come back to my place so we could finish our kiss. Instead, I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, worried that I really did make an ass out of myself and afraid to look to see who was saying it, because I was sure it was…

“Kendra, I don’t think you need to comment on anything I do or don’t do,” Nick said, rubbing my shoulder, trying to comfort me. I dropped my hands from around his waist and turned to look at Kendra, running my hand over Nick’s back to hold onto his waist. His arm dropped over my shoulders. “Don’t you knowwhen you say shit like that, it doesn’t make me look bad? It makes you look bad.”

He took my hand, and we started to talk away from the group of women when Kendra shouted, “It’s great to see you found someone so young. No other woman your age would have you.”

I turned my head to defend our situation. I desperately wanted to say something back, but Nick held my hand tighter. “Don’t give her a reaction. It’s what she wants, and she doesn’t need to get anything else, okay?” he said.

Kendra’s voice resonated in my head. Was our age difference really too much? Did that say something about Nick? We rounded the corner, and I pulled away from him. “Well, you weren’t lying about how angry she was.” I hated hearing the quaver in my voice. She was a bit scary, and I was kind of worried about what would happen next.

“Um, next time, I’ll be a little more prepared.” I patted Nick on the shoulder and took a few steps back. I needed to think about some things.

“Julia, I’m sorry that happened. I didn’t… I mean…” The sorrow about what happened was genuine, but I needed to be alone. I had some stuff to sort out.

“Don’t worry, Nick.” I waved and turned. “Next time, I’ll be more prepared.” I tossed the words over my shoulder and hurried away, ignoring the pool of emotions swimming on the edge of my nerves.

There was a lot to unpack.

I’d never really had to deal with ex-wife drama, although my ex, Jared, had a sexual harassment suit brought up against himwhen we were together. It was one of the reasons I left him. I’d always seen him flirting but knew he wouldn’t cheat on me—at least that’s what I told myself—but I continued to talk myself out of leaving him.

We’d been together for a year and I was starting to outgrow the relationship, but I’d been stubborn, trying to tell myself that he had been “The One” when I first met him and I didn’t want to be wrong in thinking that because what would it have said about me?

Thankfully, the lawsuit shook me out of my ego and I got to step away from the relationship, learning it was okay for me to make mistakes as long as I learned from them.

Then of course, after I dumped Jared, moved out of our apartment, and started to get into a good routine for myself, clients started bailing on me. I learned through one loyal client that Jared had approached her and tried to tell her how shitty of a job I did for them and that he wanted to “warn” her away from having her business ruined.

Even though we were in a city with millions of people, he'd managed to do enough damage that Mia decided to talk me into leaving the city. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but it was a big transition. We had to find a town that wasn’t too far away from other places. Heart’s Creek was about two hours away from Buffalo and was a stone’s throw away from Pennsylvania. We could get to Manhattan in less than an eight-hour drive too.

Not that we needed to travel much, at least at first.

But eventually. It was a goal.

By the time I was two blocks away, I slowed. My apartment was right around the corner, and I began to calm down when myphone dinged. I smiled, knowing Mia needed to give me a hard time, but she was right. I wasn’t ready to dive into that shark tank with Nick, and it would be better if I just steered clear of anything more than fake dating.

No matter how good of a kisser he was.

I went to text Mia back only to see that it wasn’t Mia who texted me. It was Jared. The text demanded that I call himright now.

---