Page 68 of A Ticking Time Boss

I’d been a wreck at that bar, and not particularly kind to him either. I remember berating him for the way he spoke to the bartender when ordering another drink.

Carter’s smile is intimate. “You don’t see yourself particularly clearly. I’ve noticed that before.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re fucking gorgeous.”

I scoff. “Right.”

“I mean it. You were that night, too, you know. All big eyes and smart mouth and this long, curly hair. You didn’t know me, but you spoke to me like you did. I liked that.”

I’ve never been one to suffer from false modesty. My looks are good if I put some effort in, but I know my limitations. I’m pretty average.

Carter seems to read my thoughts. He takes another deep sip of his wine, eyes still on mine. “You don’t believe me.”

“It just seems… excessive. You’re you. Handsome, tall, rich, capable. I was panicking at a bar.”

“You saw me,” he says. “Even back then.”

The words fill up the space in my chest, warm me from the inside out. It could be snowing right now and I’d still be hot, on this fire escape with him. “Oh.”

He reaches for my glass of wine and puts both of them to the side. “You still do, you know. I’m myself with you in a way I haven’t been in over a decade.”

“I’m glad,” I say. “Don’t ever be anyone else around me.”

His lips curve. “I don’t think I could be, even if I tried.”

My fingertips feel cold, curving around the steely roundness of a bar. “What are we doing, Carter? Really?”

He captures a curl of my hair and watches it slip through his fingers. “We’re spending time together,” he says. “We’re getting to know one another.”

“But what about work,” I breathe.

He smiles. “I’m trying my damndest to seduce you, and you think of the Globe. I love how your brain works.”

“Not the paper,” I say. “But us… and my job. Our colleagues.”

“No one will know,” he says. “Your job won’t be affected.”

“We won’t tell anyone?”

His breath ghosts over mine. “What happens between us is nobody’s business.” Carter slips a hand under my chin and tilts my head up. Forces me to meet his eyes, and there’s a question in them. I give the tiniest nod and lean closer. My heart is racing like it’s trying to run away.

He closes the distance between us. The kiss is a soft brush of his lips against mine, once, twice, controlled and steady. I blink my eyes open to find him watching me with a half-smile. “What I should have done,” he says, “before I called you from that hotel room.”

I shake my head. My hands find the lapels of his suit, curling around the stiff fabric. “I don’t regret it.”

“Christ, me neither.”

I kiss him this time. Press my lips to his, my fingers sliding back to find the soft hair at the nape of his neck. Carter groans into my mouth and deepens the kiss, the hot tip of his tongue meeting mine. The brief touch feels like a shot of electricity through my body.

His hands slide down my sides, smoothing over my body through the fabric of my coat. He kisses me like he’s thought long and hard about it. Like it’s an extension of our banter, another match of wits. Deep and soft, quick and slow, he varies the pace.

I grip him tight and melt against the onslaught.

Just when I think I can’t take any more, he shifts his lips to my cheek and kisses a line down to my neck. “Audrey,” he says, voice so thick as to be almost unrecognizable. “This is a great fire escape.”

I laugh. It turns breathless when he finds that spot, right beneath my ear, and my hands tighten on his shoulders.

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