Page 76 of She Likes It, Hey Micah
Maybe she does, a voice says in the back of my mind. It sounds eerily like Kale.Maybe the reason you can’t tell if she’s interested is because you won’t let her actually know you.
Feeling Micah’s eyes on me, I step to a display of dried flowers on one of her walls and pretend to be engrossed as I talk. “I was starting up an investment company with my business partner, and we had a lot of good clients. Things grew quickly, and my salary was…not small.”
“What happened?”
I don’t want to give her details. Not about Miranda, anyway. “My business partner decided she didn’t want to share the income we were getting, so she locked everyone else out, cleared the accounts, and tried fleeing the country.”
There’s only one of each kind of flower on this foam board, carefully dried and pinned in place. The board doesn’t seem complete, either, like she’s progressively adding to it when she comes across new flowers.
“That…” She seems to struggle for words. “Sucks,” she settles on. “Is that why you work for Grant?”
Tempted to touch one of the delicate flowers, I stuff my hands into my pockets. “Turns out when you’re part of a company that steals millions of dollars, people tend not to trust you. I didn’t get arrested with my partner, but my name has basically been blacklisted in Sun City. I couldn’t get a job at Jamba Juice even if I tried.” And I did try. They said I didn’t have the temperament they were looking for.
“So why did Grant trust you?”
“He’s my brother. He has to trust me.”
Oops.
Stomach twisting, I close my eyes and wait for her to react. That was a secret I was hoping to take to my grave, but Micah makes speaking the truth all too easy. What is she going to think of me now?
“You know,” she says, and her voice is so soft that I can’t help but turn to see her expression. She’s smiling, but it’s a pitying sort of smile. “A lot of things are starting to make sense now. That’s why you go by Price.”
I cringe. “He was going to call me that anyway. It’s a stupid nickname he came up with when we were kids.”
She bites her lip, probably trying not to laugh as she comes closer. “Why you sometimes talk to him like he’s not your boss and you’re not afraid of him firing you.”
“He can definitely still fire me,” I mutter.
“Why you guys look alike.”
“We look alike?”
She laughs. “Fischer. I thought you were him when we first met. I thought maybe he had just been working out lately and hadn’t put any new pictures on the website.”
I don’t know why that makes me smile, but it does. “So you’re saying I’m the fitter sibling?”
She slaps my arm, then slaps it again before running her hand along my bicep. Before I can recover from that tantalizing touch, she starts unbuttoning my jacket.
“What are you doing?” I choke, stepping back. My heel hits the wall, and I nearly fall into her display and crush all of her flowers. I catch myself with a hand on the wall.
Though she turns pink, she rolls her eyes at me. “Oh, relax, Fisch. I just want a better look at that muscle of yours before I pass judgment.”
Okay, maybe I overreacted, but I still feel slightly dirty as I slide out of my jacket. Which is ridiculous, considering I’ve still got my shirt on and an undershirt beneath that. “Maybe warn me if you start trying to seduce me,” I say, as if I know what she’s about to do.
Turning even pinker, Micah proceeds with surprising confidence, basically giving me a full upper body pat down, from my forearms to my shoulders to my abs. I have no idea why she finds this necessary or why I’m allowing it to begin with, but a part of me wants to see what my limits are. Since I was a kid, I’ve shied away from physical contact as much as possible because it’s never felt natural to me. Yes, I’ve dated, and yes I’ve kissed a few women. But things always felt forced. Slightly uncomfortable. Like I was trying to superimpose expectation over reality. I’ve never gone beyond those brief moments, and I always wondered if I ever would.
Apparently I was just with the wrong women.
Tonight, Micah’s soft touches leave a trail of fire in their wake, like my body is coming to life for the first time. It isn’t like she hasn’t touched me before, but this is different. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I don’t have to force myself not to react. I’m just here, entirely focused on the way her hands move across the fabric of my shirt in their exploration until they come to rest over my racing heart. I don’t want her to stop.
“I think you definitely win,” she says breathlessly.
I press my hands over hers, leaning forward. “I like when you touch me.” That sounds more sensual than it is, so I try again. “You make me feel safe.”
“You make me feel safe too,” she whispers back and rises up on her toes, tipping her head back.
She’s asking me to kiss her, and I am absolutely going to do it.
