Page 61 of I Choose You
“I’ll be speaking to my employee now. You can go,” Andrew said, as if that was going to matter to me.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I growled at him.
“Reid,” Claire called. “It’s fine. Just go.”
My eyes swept over Claire before darting back to Andrew. I gave him a hard stare, but if Claire wanted to handle this on her own, that was up to her. I didn’t like it though.
“If you need me, I’ll be right out here.”
Claire just nodded, so I turned and walked out of her office. I wasn’t going to go far though, just in case she needed me. In the next room over, I took over the furniture refinishing from Dale, keeping close to the adjoining wall. Andrew’s voice carried more than Claire’s did, but I couldn’t make out what either of them was saying. It hadn’t even been ten minutes before Andrew stalked away, leaving the library behind him.
“What the hell is his problem?” I asked Claire, making myself at home in her office.
“Good question. He definitely seemed really hung up on this project. He must be under a lot of stress right now.” She worried her kissable lip between her teeth, and my dick twitched.
“If he’s so worried about getting this done on time, he should stop giving you everyone else’s work to do.”
“It’s…” Claire’s gaze darted to my mouth, then slowly drifted up, locking with mine. “Fine.”
The air shifted around us. It was like a rubber band snapped inside me. A chain reaction of snapping rubber bands. My control slipped, but my resolve hardened. I surged out of my chair, gripping the desk that separated me from her. “You know what happened the last time you told me it was ‘fine.’ If you’ve forgotten, I’d be happy to refresh your memory.”
Pink crept up Claire’s cheeks, though desire swirled in her eyes. She told me no the other day. I heard her, loud and clear. But there was something between us, a raging fire that burned through my veins. She had to feel it too. I was goingto get Claire to admit she wanted this too. And with that one word, she already had.
She shifted in her seat. “I have to get to work. And so do you.”
A low growl escaped my throat, but I backed off. I was almost out the door when she called to me.
“And Reid…” I turned to look at her over my shoulder. “Thank you for standing up for me.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I winked at her.
I grabbed Dale and spent the rest of the day on the third floor. We had replaced the soft spot that Shawn found and evaluated the rest of the subfloor, finding a few more spots that I wanted to replace before the final flooring was installed.
“What’s up with you and Claire?”
We had been working in a comfortable silence for a while, and Dale’s question caught me off guard.
“Nothing.” Technically, that was true. I would have loved for there to be something up between us, but Claire had shut that down. For now. Besides, it wasn’t anyone else’s business what had happened between us, and seeing as Claire was still in denial about it happening again, it wasn’t something I wanted to get into with my employee.
“She’s only passing through, you know.”
“I’m aware.” This conversation was starting to piss me off. “Like I said, nothing’s going on.”
“Good.”
“Good? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
Dale just eyed me from where he was working on his knee pad. “Don’t jump down my throat. I’m just looking out for you. I don’t want to see you get hurt. Again.”
I knew Dale meant well, but I didn’t need him getting allup in my business. He had put up with a lot from me after the breakup. I got it. But whatever happened between Claire and me was our business.
“I’m not a little kid,” I grumbled.
My phone chimed with a new message. I was anxious to end this conversation with Dale and didn’t even think about who it might be before I checked it. Claire’s name showed in the notification box, and it instantly turned my bad mood around.
Claire: Jack Donovan’s masonry called me back. He can be here tomorrow to give us a quote :) Once he’s done with the inside, we’ll just need to pick which of the designs we want to go with for the exterior.
She sent an option one and option two. We had been going back and forth with the designs for the fireplace in the main reading room for a while. They were both nice and, more importantly, historically accurate. But one of them was simpler in design, while the other was more detailed.
