Page 25 of Always Be True: Tino
“See something you like?”
Denial was not an option. That didn’t mean she had to admit that he’d caught her drooling over the fit of his jeans. “Yes, actually, I do. Well, at least I did.”
He frowned. “What changed?”
She offered him an impudent grin. “I was admiring a volunteer who clearly doesn’t mind hard work, but now you’re just standing there.”
“So are you.” He prowled toward her. “In fact, you stopped working long before I did. I have to wonder why.”
A wiser woman might have gone right back to opening boxes or else into full retreat. Instead, Natalie stood her ground and let Tino come to her, held in place by the heat in his dark-chocolate eyes and that sexy smile. She’d been right about him being temptation personified.
He slowly enfolded her in his arms. “Tell me to stop if you don’t want this.”
She wanted it—wanted him—all right. There was only one reason to hesitate. “You might have noticed that this room is nothing but windows. People might see.”
He looked around them, scoping out both the front view of the parking lot as well as the windows that faced the hallway on the other side. “Good news. There’s no one in sight, at least not right now.”
With the warmth of Tino’s arms brushing against her skin and her own pulse pounding in her ears, she didn’t really care if there was an entire gallery of spectators staring at them.
When his mouth came down on hers, hard and demanding, she immediately parted her lips in invitation. Always a man of action, Tino didn’t hesitate to stake his claim on her. God, had anyone ever packed so much into a simple kiss? Not that she could remember.
She was dimly aware of him lifting her up and carrying her over to the nearest corner, the one spot in the room that wasn’t visible from the outside. She should’ve protested but couldn’t figure out why. Had his kiss somehow short-circuited her thought processes? If that wasn’t the reason, maybe it was the way his hands felt as they skimmed across her skin, leaving a trail of heat in their wake.
As least Tino’s brain functioned better than hers. He abruptly broke off the kiss as he planted his hands on the wall on each side of her. Looking a bit rueful and breathing hard, he smiled down at her. “I’d apologize, but I can honestly say I’m not all that sorry.”
She also had no regrets, but this was neither the time nor the place. Her lungs struggled to draw in some much-needed oxygen, but she managed to speak. “No apologies necessary, but we should get back to work.”
“Yes, we should.” He took a half step back. “But one of these days we’ll be somewhere a lot more private, and we’ll have to see where the moment takes us.”
Then he leaned in close enough to brush his lips across hers again. “I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait.”
Her, either, but they really did need to get back with the program. Thank goodness he went into full retreat until he reached the other side of the room. Within seconds, he was back to flattening the boxes. It took her longer to gather her scattered wits, but the clock was ticking. She tugged on the hem of her shirt to make sure it was straight and made a half-hearted attempt to tame her hair.
Where had she left her own box cutter? She patted her pockets. No luck. Had she dropped it? Nope. Sighing, she was about to do a slow three-sixty when Tino pointed toward the box she’d been opening before they’d gotten, um, distracted.
“Is that what you’re looking for?”
There it was, lying right out in plain sight. At least she’d had the presence of mind to close the blade before setting it down. “Yes, thanks.”
She positioned herself with her back toward Tino to avoid getting distracted again. It didn’t work, not completely anyway. Apparently she couldn’t be in the same room with the man without being aware of him on some visceral level. The sensation was equal parts scary and exciting.
It was one more sign that she’d done the right thing by walking away from her engagement. Looking back, she realized that Benton had never stirred her emotions the way Tino did despite having met only a week ago. But were they rushing things?
For now, she needed to concentrate on the job at hand. Tonight, tomorrow at the latest, she’d sit down and think things out.
She’d opened only two computers when Tino rejoined her. “Do you want me to start setting one of these at each of the individual workstations?”
“Yes, that would be a big help.”
When she’d unpacked the last box, she flattened the rest of the empties and added them to the pile that Tino had started. All that was left was organizing the paperwork that had come with each computer and recording the serial numbers.
“These are really nice computers.” Tino started down one row while she did the other one. “Were they donated or did you have to buy them?”
“A little bit of both. I wanted to make sure that we were starting off with state-of-the-art machines. There’s no use in teaching classes on outdated equipment with equally outdated software. Having decent computer skills can make a huge difference in the kind of jobs people can get these days.”
“Who will be teaching the classes?”
“A retired software engineer will teach the morning classes, and I’ll be teaching the evening sessions two nights a week.”
