Page 24 of One Foggy Christmas
Nervous laughter puffs out as I scratch the back of my head, trying really hard not to let my mind run away with how Sadie couldtipme for services rendered.
She bounces ahead, completely unfazed by the molten pool of desire she just caused in my stomach. “Is that it?”
“Yep,” I say, even though it’s obvious we’ve arrived.
She spends her time walking around the entirety of the structure and takes a few selfies with it behind her.
“Do you want to see it from the best angle?”
“Yes, of course.” An excited giggle accompanies her smile.
I gesture to the middle, walking under The Bean until I’m in the center. Then I lie down on my back, with hands clasped together, resting on my stomach.
“You can’t do that.” She anxiously glances around at all the tourists taking pictures.
I lift my head, staring at her. “I just did.”
A hesitant smile spreads across her mouth as she debates joining me on the ground.
“Come on.”
It only takes a few seconds before Sadie drops to the cement beside me, matching my position.
She sucks in a deep breath, exhaling out as her body wiggles into a comfortable spot.
“You’re right. This is the best angle.”
“I’ll be expecting that tip now.”
Her head swivels to me, with gleaming brown eyes. “You might have just earned it.”
Inches separate us—separate ourlips.
Tension builds as we gaze into each other’s eyes.
Around us, people move and laugh and live, but for me, it’s like the world stopped spinning.
Sadie is the only thing I see.
Intense attraction stretches, pulls, and begs me to do something. My mind is going places, wondering what it would feel like to touch her. A piece of her hair lifts with the breeze, floating over her cheek and into her lashes.
I slowly glide my fingers down her skin, removing the stray strand. Her chest lifts and falls in heavy movements, and her eyes momentarily close, but she doesn’t move.
Doesn’t flinch.
It takes every fight inside me to pull my hand away from touching her face, but I do. I don’t want her internship to be aboutthis, aboutme.
“Off the record,” I say. “If I wasn’t your boss and you didn’t have akind ofboyfriend, I’d kiss you right now.”
“Off the record,” her words are slow and deliberate, “if you weren’t my boss and I didn’t have akind ofboyfriend, I’d let you kiss me.”
But I am her boss.
And Stetson does exist in her world in some way.
And no matter how much I hate it, real life is alwaysonthe record. I’d never want to do anything that put Sadie in a difficult position or made her regret her actions.
So I stay statue still.
