Page 124 of Never With You
“No, like, come over here.” Nate sits up, placing his feet on the ground, and grabs my hand, pulling me to a stand. “Come here.” His hands go to my hips, and he physically turns me around, sitting me on his lap.
“I'm not sure what HR would say about this,” I laugh.
“Calm down. I just want to show you something. Look right there.” He points to his open office door. “What do you see?”
“Everyone else working.”
“Don't be lame. Tell me what you see from this spot right here.”
I pretend to be annoyed, even though there's nothing annoying about sitting on Nate's lap. My eyes squint, and I look beyond the door to my desk.
“I see my cubicle.”
“Exactly.” He leans in, brushing his lips against my ear. “Every day, I've sat at this desk with a straight shot to you working there. I've been distracted every day for the last nine months.”
A rush of chills creeps down my arms as his whispers spill over my neck.
“I've been distracted by your hair, the way you crinkle your brows when you're thinking hard about something, the way you bounce your knee up and down when you're in a hurry and trying to get out of the office, the way you twist your hair when you're lost in thought, or how you lift your arms and arch your back to stretch. That one might be the most distracting.”
I elbow him in the ribs, but he just laughs good-naturedly.
“I don't know, Nate.” I turn my head so our lips are centimeters apart. “Kind of seems like you never hated me at all.”
“It definitely seems like that, doesn't it?” He places a kiss on my cheek.
“It's a wonder you got any work done.”
Another kiss, but this time on my lips.
I spin around in his lap so I'm facing him, locking my arms around his neck. We spend the next few minutes kissing until Lyle clears his throat.
“If you two don’t stop, I'm going to have to hire an actual HR person.”
“It's not necessary, Lyle. I'm going back to work.”
Lyle grunts as he walks away.
I stand, but Nate clamps his fingers around my wrist. “Okay, but come back in ten minutes.”
I roll my eyes, but I’ll definitely be back in ten minutes.
* * *
“Let’s go over this again,”I say as we drive to Scottsdale to Nate’s parents' house for his brother’s engagement party. “Why aren't we telling your family the truth about our relationship and how it really started?”
“We don't need to get bogged down with all the details and technicalities.”
“You just don't want to tell them because it'll make you look bad.”
“Exactly. I ended the Thailand trip on a high with my dad. If we tell him I lied, our relationship will get knocked down a peg or two. Besides, is it really a lie? We've been messaging back and forth for months. We already liked each other. The specifics of when we actually became more don’t matter.”
“Fine. We don't have to tell them today, but eventually, someday, promise me that you'll come clean with your parents.”
“You bet. It'll be a deathbed-repentance type thing.”
I press my lips together, amused once again by Nate’s lackadaisical personality. If I were in his shoes, I’d probably have a three-page paper typed up, detailing the exact outline of my confessional. But he’s keeping me loose, and hopefully, I’m keeping him a little more on task.
Nate turns his truck into his parents’ drive, and I gasp. Obviously, I know his parents are rich—I just ran an event for them where no expense was spared—but seeing it in real life is different.
