Page 121 of A Ticking Time Boss

“You know, I might start wearing sexier outfits to work just to taunt you.”

“You’re the devil.”

“Yes, and you’re stuck with me,” she says, locking her legs around me. “For eternity.”

“Go ahead and torment me.” I find her lips again, and God, I can’t wait until this year is over. For all of the Globe’s allure—and there’s plenty, especially as the newspaper has started to slowly increase its subscriber count—I want to stop hiding us.

And I never want her to worry about what her colleagues might say if they find out.

So in a year, I’m going to change jobs. I’d offered to do it sooner, but Audrey had been adamant. It has to be fair to both of us, she’d said, and the Globe needed me too much to step down.

It’s a compromise we both benefit from.

“Go,” she tells me, another ten minutes later.

“I wish I could cancel,” I say, watching her sprawl on the couch. She’s in her pajama shorts, bare legs stretched out, feet on an overturned moving box.

“You can’t,” she says. “You won’t be gone for long, and you’ll get all those tasty mini quiches.”

“You’re tastier.”

She blushes, but doesn’t look away. My girl doesn’t faze easily anymore. “You can taste me when you get back,” she says. “How does that sound?”

I reach down to adjust myself through the fabric of my suit pants. “Fuck, kid.”

She laughs. “Go. I’ll be here when you get back.”

“I can’t wait.”

“Oh, I remembered something. I can’t come for lunch tomorrow.”

“Not a problem. What came up?” I shrug into my suit jacket and tuck my shirt more firmly into my pants. I’m going to have to be charming. It used to be so easy. Fun, even. A game for a bachelor to play. Now the only person I want to charm is in this apartment, and I’m leaving it.

“Freddie asked me to have lunch with her and I very much want to say yes.”

“Second choice to my colleague’s wife,” I say morosely. “It’s a sad day.”

Audrey grins and pushes off the couch. She reaches up to fix my hair, smoothing out the mussing she’d done earlier. “You’re always my first choice,” she says. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” I say. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“I’ll be here,” she says, and I think those might be the sweetest words I’ve ever heard. She’s not going anywhere.

And neither am I.

EPILOGUE

Two years later

“Kid, you look beautiful!” Carter calls from the living room. “You always do!”

I turn around in front of the full-length mirror and inspect the dress for the fourteenth time. It fits great, but it’s tighter than I’m used to. Floor length and sweeping. My hair’s up, curls hanging down along my back. That part I like. The dress?

I still haven’t quite gotten used to wearing clothes like this. The fabric falls like liquid silk around my legs. I’ll have to be careful when I walk.

“Sure I don’t look too fancy?” I call back. The dress is art on the hanger. But on me? I don’t want to look like I’m playing dress-up.

Carter comes into our bedroom. He’s in a tux, wearing it like he wears everything. Naturally and comfortably. “You look beautiful,” he says, “and delicious, and expensive, and intelligent, and mine, and—”

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