Page 53 of Love Out Loud

Chapter Twenty-One

“I know you fired me,” Jake said several weeks and many rocket launches later, “but I can still help you out with the speech.”

Fiona looked up from her bowl of soup. “Wouldn’t that be some kind of breach where your company is concerned?”

He shrugged and shoved a fry into his mouth. He loved the fries at this restaurant, but not as much as he loved the woman across the table from him.Love.Yep. No doubt about it. He was in love with Fiona Nichol. His other relationships, including the one with Charise, had plateaued and moved to a kind of comfort or discomfort zone after only a short while. This thing with Fiona only intensified. He couldn’t get enough of her. “No. I wouldn’t be using office resources or doing it during regular business hours.”

There’d been no fallout at his job after he’d reported he’d been fired, except for some friendly taunting from Charise, and he planned to keep it that way.

She gave him a skeptical look. “You don’t have regular business hours. You work all the time. Either directly with clients or writing that blasted article.”

At least half a dozen times recently, he’d considered telling her about the article, but every time, he reconsidered. Not only was the study subject totally anonymous, the article had nothing to do with the two of them. It was simply an assignment he needed to complete.

She reached across the table and swiped one of his fries, then popped it into her mouth. That mouth. He found it hard to concentrate on anything else sometimes. The things she did with that mouth.

“The article is almost finished.” And he was beyond relieved at that. Once Charise had given him thePygmalionangle, it had come easily. But now, he found he had other things he’d rather be doing…with Fiona’s mouth specifically.

“I’ve been practicing,” she said.

“Practice makes perfect,” he replied. She was already perfect. The speech, not so much, from what he’d heard from her practicing in the shower—when she took one alone—but the woman herself was 100 percent perfect. They’d been spending every non-working moment together. He even hung out at her clinic between clients just to be near her, which he found borderline ridiculous.

Marcus thought it was great. “You’ve found her,” he’d said. “Lucky bastard.”

And Jakewaslucky. He couldn’t imagine a better fit than Fiona. She understood him, and he was trying to understand her. He certainly had a much clearer picture than he’d had when they first met. He was even growing to like Daisy and Otto.

“Let me help you with the speech,” he pressed again. “It’s less than two weeks away.”

She gave a long-suffering sigh.

“Please,” he said. “Why don’t you stay at my place tonight, and we’ll work through the speech?” He leaned close and whispered into her ear. “And we’ll work through your nervous energy in my bed. I think it’s a great exercise to loosen you up before and after practice.”

She sighed. “You know I can’t leave Daisy and Otto at night.”

It’s why they always stayed at her place. But he needed to change that. Hehadto change that if he wanted to be with her. “Bring them.”

Her smile lit her face like sunshine. “Really? You’ll let Daisy and Otto stay in your apartment?”

He wanted her. They were part of the package. “Yes.”

She leaned across the table and kissed him. “I’ll see you at your place after work.” She stood and pushed her chair in. “Thanks for lunch.”

He liked her ass in scrubs. A lot, he decided, as he watched her leave. He liked the rest of her, too, and he needed to talk to her about that. Let her know how much he liked her. He’d do that tonight. He’d finish that article today, make love to her in his bed, and then tell her he loved her. The perfect day.

…

“You’re distracted this afternoon,” Addison said, handing Fiona the chart for her next patient, an annual checkup for a large Persian cat with a love of hacking up hairballs on mommy’s antique Persian rug. Appropriate, probably.

She was distracted. Jake had invited the dogs to his apartment. He’d invitedherto his apartment. A first. She was sure it was his fear of dogs that had made him reticent to invite her up. She, Otto, and Daisy were a package deal. He must have decided to accept the entire package.

“Earth to Dr. Nichol,” Addison said, and Fiona fought to not laugh at the space reference.

“Sorry. Yes, you’re right. I’ll try to focus.”

Addison plucked Sir Squash from the top of Fiona’s bag. “Hard to focus when you’re getting so much…?” She squeaked the toy several times.

“Oh, stop it.” Fiona snatched the toy and pitched it back into the bag, turning around to hide her flushed face.

“Jane says the thing between you and Jacob Ward is serious.”

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