Page 14 of Cuffed By Love

“Here, I’ll show you.” Devin scoots closer to me, leaning over to reach my mouse with his free hand. “So you go to message…” While he clicks on a few things, I force myself to watch the screen, but the only thing my mind can focus on is the way he smells and how close his face is to mine. If we both turn to look at one another, our noses will touch. “Dilemma averted with a click of a mouse.”

“And you’re sure he won’t see the email?” I query warily, and he smiles, leaning back in his chair.

“I’m certain, Tinks.” I groan inwardly when he winks at me. “You can thank me later.”

“Thank you?” I sputter in incredulity. “You want me to thank you for fixing something you messed up in the first place?” I give him a scornful look which he returns with a grin. “You’ll be waiting a while.” I exhale and force myself to focus on the email I was typing when I feel him slide closer to me.

“Tinks,” He almost whispers, and my fingers start to tremble as I type when his lips brush against the shell of my ear, the warmth of his breath on my skin warms me but sends a shudder through me at the same time. How is that even possible? “I’m hungry.” He groans breathily, and I lose concentration and type the word ‘tinks’ instead of thank you. He notices and chuckles gruffly. “Having trouble focussing there are we, Tinks?”

I lift my hand and press it against his face and push it away from me. “Will you shut up! How do you expect me to focus when you’re invading my space and irritating me while I try to work?” I mutter, pressing the backspace, dramatically deleting the typo and retyping again. “You’re like an imprudent child.”

Devin laughs and rocks my chair with his foot. “Fuck, you type slow.”

“Stop it!” I growl, standing up I shove his chair away, briefly forgetting about the cuffs which sends me hurling toward him as he rolls away. I fall into his lap, and Devin catches me; his strong arm circling my waist. Everything around me slows for a split second when our foreheads press together and our gaze interlocks. My left hand is clasped around his, where he caught me as I fell. I forget how to breathe, and my cheeks fill with blood under his gaze. We were so close I was sure he could hear every frantic thump of my heart, and I could feel his beating against the palm that is pressed upon his chest.

Neither of us move for how long I couldn’t tell you. It couldn’t have been longer than a couple of seconds. It wasn’t until I felt his thumb tracing slow circles over my palm…just like he used to, that quickly brings me crashing back to reality, and I rip my hand away from his and scramble off of him. “I’m done. We can go to lunch.” I say after clearing my throat.

“Excellent. I’m famished.” He declares, standing up and walking to the door to my office with me following close behind. I find myself wondering if he felt what I did at that moment. If he was affected, he isn’t showing any sign of it.

Bloody aloof bastard.

We head to the cafeteria to have lunch, and when I tell you, I have never had such a hard time eating in my life. We sat there, elbowing each other because I eat with my left hand, and he eats with his right which are the hands that are bound together. Every time I bring the piece of chicken to my mouth, Devin lifts his hand to eat his burger, and I miss my mouth, resulting in the chicken flying off the fork and falling on my lap. “Devin!” I snap frustrated after the third attempt.

Devin jumps and looks at me, along with the employees eating in the cafeteria at my outburst. “What?” He mumbles with a mouth full of his beef burger. I glare at him, practically seething, and honestly, if I were a cartoon character, you’d see steam coming out of my ears right about now.

“What?” I slap his shoulder. “Are you kidding me?” I fume, gesturing to the chicken piece sitting on my lap, ruining my beige vintage mini skirt. Devin glances down at my skirt, his eyes lingering on my legs a little too long. I watch him with a brow raised, and when I clear my throat, Dev’s eyes flitter up to mine again, the corners of his lips twitch while he fights off the urge to smile though his eyes are glowing with mirth not even slightest bit fazed that he got caught checking out my legs. “This isn’t working. You have to eat with your other hand. I haven’t had a bite of my food yet, you big ogre.”

Devin laughs and tweaks my nose, “Anything for you, Tinks.”

I kick him under the table, and he scowls at me. “You seriously rub me the wrong way,” I mutter frigidly and shove a forkful of caesar salad in my mouth and chew. Devin takes a sip of his water and leans in close to my ear.

“What way would you prefer I rubbed you then, Tinks?” He drawls, and I choke on my salad, coughing hysterically. I ram my elbow into his ribs, and he grunts before he starts laughing while my face goes through every shade of red known to mankind.

“I’m going to kill you, King. Before we can get out of these cuffs, you’re going to make me kill you. Mark my words.” I tell him flatly while I wipe my hands and throw my napkin on my makeshift plate.

Devin grins, licking his full lips. “There are worse ways to go than at your itty bitty hands, Tinks.” I roll my eyes and press my molars together to keep my cool before I turn and strangle him.

I look down at my hands, I mean, they’re not the biggest, but I can still inflict some form of damage. I could punch him in the throat…or the balls, perhaps. “Do you want to see what I can do with these itty bitty hands?” I ask him with a smirk, and he chuckles, his charmed brown eyes following when I wave my fist in his face.

“You can show me later, baby. We’re at work.” I gasp when he grabs my hand and brushes a kiss on my knuckles. I pull my hand away and roll my eyes just as Ayla comes to join us at the table.

“God, I’m starving.” She sighs, picking up her fork and looks at Dev and me staring at one another. “Wow, the hostility is just coming off you two in waves.” Ayla smiles, digging into her tofu and fig salad.

Devin scoffs and squeezes my side making me jump and hit my knee on the table. Ayla looks up at the ‘clunk’ of my knee bashing against the table, making it shake, and she eyes us both with glee, “That would be coming solely from your dear sister.”

“I didn’t think you could get any more annoying. I’m delighted to inform you that I was wrong.” I tell Dev, and he smiles brightly, wagging his brows at me.

“Wait a minute, you mean this whole time you were capable of admitting you were wrong, Tinks?” Dev gushes sarcastically, and I resist the urge to smack him upside the head for the self-righteous grin he was currently donning.

I narrow my eyes at him and lean in close, staring into his eyes. “The level of animosity I feel toward you is inexplicable.”

“Then show me in other ways, baby.” He whispers gruffly so only I could hear him. Oh, how I would like to. I hate myself for it, but I want to grab his stupidly handsome face and bruise those sinfully kissable lips with mine. Devin stares into my eyes, challengingly, and I compel myself to look away.

“Ayla!” I almost growl, and she jumps at my unexpected outburst, her fork in mid-air and her brown eyes startled. “Will you please talk to dad and convince him that this…” I lift my hand that is cuffed to Devin and point at it furiously, “…is an absurd idea.”

“Sorry, Mimi, he’s made up his mind, and you know what dad is like when he sets his mind to something, he is not about to budge on it, I’m afraid. For whatever reason, he is adamant on keeping you both bound together until you can learn to work without bickering.” She explains with a shrug and shoves her salad in her mouth, and chews.

I groan and close my eyes. “God, this is ridiculous Ayla, come on. If anything, this is making things worse.” I declare, rubbing my temple frantically. “I’ll kill him before the day is out, and you guys can come and visit me in jail,” I utter dramatically. Ayla laughs, her eyes on Devin. I turn my head to look at him, and he averts his gaze to the table, grinning. I sigh with a shake of my head. I’m handcuffed to a man-child.

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