Page 14 of Holiday Hookup

“Talk to me,” I plead. “I know you feel this pull between us, I know you remember what our first kiss was like… and the second.” I give her a playful wink, but she just shakes her head. She tries to walk away again, but I stop her, pulling her even closer.

“Dane, we can’t.”

I refused to believe that the universe didn’t put me here in this apartment across the hall from the woman that turned my life upside down with just a kiss. It’s too coincidental.

“Baby…”

She whimpers at the term, and just as I’m about to kiss her again, reminding her exactly how good we feel together, her phone rings. She untangles herself from my arms, quickly looking at the call display before answering.

“Hello, Brian.”

Jealousy I didn’t even know I possessed rears its ugly head as her eyes meet mine with a smile. She mouths my ex right before going back to listening to whatever he’s about to say, and from the look in her eyes, I can tell it’s not good.

“How the hell did you find out?” she mutters, pinching the bridge of her nose. “No, I’m fine, I’m staying with a neighbor.” She looks my way as I wink in her direction and can’t help the sense of satisfaction that comes from seeing the blush rise against her cheeks.

“He’s just a neighbor, Brian, he was home when the flood happened and offered to take us in.”

I growl at the mention of me being “just a neighbor” because if I have it my way, I will become way more than that.

“It’s only for a week,” she sighs as she rolls her eyes at something he says. “No, I am not letting you take Jaxon for the week.” She pauses and then groans in frustration. “Because he’s my son too, we have a custody agreement and you’re working out of state!” She hangs up the phone, closing her eyes and she leans against the wall.

“Everything okay?” I know it’s a dumb question. Her body language alone tells me she’s anything but okay right now.

“Brian doesn’t like the idea of us staying here.”

I give her my best smile, trying to get her to lighten up, but it doesn’t work.

“This isn’t funny, Dane, he’s really pissed.”

“So, let him be pissed.”

“I don’t have time to deal with this.” She looks at her watch, sighing. “I have to go to work.” She grabs her bag off the floor where she dropped it earlier and heads toward the front door.

“I’ll see you tonight.” My voice is strained as I hold back the actual words I want to say to her. At first, I think she missed the tone, but when her eyes meet mine over her shoulder, I can see the glint staring back at me.

“Goodbye, Dane.”

“Bye, gorgeous.” And just like that, she’s gone, and I’m left with a hard-on and a new plan of attack.

Chapter 11

Do I want to be sitting at my desk, rummaging through emails hoping to find something, anything to distract me? No. But right now it’s the only thing I have distracting me from thinking about everything that happened this morning. Was I naive to think living with Dane would be simple? That I wouldn’t want to jump his bones every time he walked into a room? And now Brian is pissed, and honestly, I don’t blame him. If he told me he’d be living with someone I’d never met before and taking our son, I’d have the same reaction. But right now, staying with Dane is my only option. Even if being around him stirs up feelings I haven’t had since the night Brian and I got married.

“Nellie, can I see you in my office for a moment?” Cheryl, my boss, calls from across the room.

I’ve been working as her legal assistant for a few years and although it’s not what I want to do for the rest of my life, it pays my bills and is very rewarding. When I step foot into her office and she motions for me to take a seat, I do, watching as she leans forward onto her desk, her eyes meeting mine.

“Nellie, I need a huge favor.”

I tilt my head to the side, wondering what she could possibly need from me.

“As you may know, Jason was let go last week.”

I suppress a smile because that is such a diplomatic way of saying he got fired. We all know it from the way he stomped out of here yelling about how unfair his life is.

“Well, it turns out that he left quite a mess behind, and there are a bunch of case files that haven’t been loaded into our system yet.”

I close my eyes because I know exactly where this is going.

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