Page 60 of Kissing the Boss (Fairy Tale Quartet 2)

“Why would they make him mad?” He frowned and shook his head. “It’s his job to look at people’s design ideas.”

“Then why haven’t you ever shown him one before?” I accused, unable to stop stressing.

“Seriously, Kaity. You need to chill.” He lifted both hands and stared at me as if I were some kind of rabid animal he needed to declaw.

When I blew out a breath, deciding he was right—calm was better—he nodded, approving.

“I’ve never shown him a shoe design because I’ve never come up with one before,” he finally explained.

“Oh.” I cleared my throat and nodded, very calmly. “But what about someone else from your department?” I pressed. “Surely, one of your people have—”

“Taken them straight to him,” he finished for me. “Nash’s side of the company doesn’t work like Mother’s. People don’t have to get approval from their department head every time they take a piss. Here, it’s okay to be open and fluid and team up and plan together between departments, as long as it helps the workflow.”

“Oh. Cool.” My shoulders settled even more. “That’s good to know. And I actually like that ethic.”

Brick nodded. “Reason number nine hundred and thirty-four why I work under Nash.”

“Yeah,” I murmured, smiling and unable to hold back the pride in my expression. But hearing other people rain praise on my man felt good. It made me want to find him and do a little of my own praising. “He is pretty amazing, isn’t he?”

“Watch it, little sister,” Brick suggested dryly. “Your crush is showing.”

Scowling, I pulled my shoulders back indignantly. “It is not.”

When he merely lifted his eyebrows, I mean-mugged him and spun away.

Behind me, I heard pages flipping. Remembering he still had my notebook of sketches, I whirled back to Brick, scowling. “What’re you looking for now?”

He shrugged, still flipping pages. “Just looking. You’re not a bad artist actually. Not as good as me, but not bad.”

I lifted a single eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest, dryly answering, “Gee, thanks.”

He kept browsing. “But I’m feeling a little left out here. Why don’t you have any good purse designs for my department?”

“Oh, huh,” I murmured, tipping my head to the side. “I never thought about designing a purse before.” An image of Camille, Mabel’s granddaughter with the purse fetish, sprang to mind. Now I kind of wanted to design a super-cool purse that would make her drool. A second later, my brain waves twisted in a new direction, and I found myself tipping my head in Brick’s direction, asking, “Hey, how did you end up in charge of the Purse department, anyway? Purses don’t really seem like your thing.”

He held up a finger as he keep his attention on my sketches and continued to browse through them. “I prefer the term Handbag department, if you will,” he answered. “Sounds more gender-neutral. And anyway,” with a shrug, he explained, “they offered me Undergarments when all the departments were reconstructed last year, which I would’ve totally rocked.” He finally glanced up to wiggle his eyebrows lasciviously. “But alas, Purses was the last department left under your sweet, wonderful Ezra’s domain, so I snagged it while I could.”

I sent him a short scowl. Even though I’d just mentally thought of Ezra as mine, I said, “He’s not my—”

A sharp rap at the entrance of Brick’s office diverted my attention that way, where I found Ezra framed in the doorway. My insides instantly seized with awareness and whatever I’d been about to say was gone. Because, yes, yes, he was mine. He was definitely mine.

“Hi!” I said, maybe a bit too quickly and definitely too perkily. “Good morning. How are you? Are you here to see Brick? What am I saying? Of course you’re here to see Brick, since it’s, you know, his office and everything. So… I’ll just… I’ll go sit at my chair right over there and… And let you talk to Brick now.”

Ezra grinned, mute to my rambling as he remained standing in the doorway, so I felt frozen in place, unable to sit at my own desk as I’d just said I was going to do.

And so I stood there, staring at him… Like a weirdo.

Groaning, Brick shaded his hands over his eyes as if watching us was too much. “Jesus,” he muttered. “You two are so freaking obvious. Get in here and shut the door already, man.” He waved Ezra into the room, which Ezra did, quietly shutting the door behind him and still looking at me.

“Just so you know,” Brick went on, “if my mother catches you guys within ten feet of each other, she’s instantly going to realize what’s up.”

Well there went our dirty, tawdry secret. Thirty seconds in, and the stepbrother was already onto us.

“We’re not—” Ezra started, but Brick cut him off with a sniff.

“Yeah, don’t even bother trying to feed me that bullshit. The fumes from the chemistry wafting off you two is making me freaking lightheaded and nauseous.” He pinned a scowl on me. “Didn’t I tell you how dangerous it would be to start anything with him?”

I winced. “Yeah, but that’s why we decided to keep things, you know… On the down-low.”

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