Page 123 of Love on the Byline

“Get what you needed?” He pushed the door open and leaned inthe doorway.

“Yeah, for now.” Blake ran her hands through her hair. Godknew what it looked like. She hadn’t done much with it since the launch partytwo nights ago. Three? She was losing track of time.

“I’m going to head up to the city and do some digging,” Rorysaid, crossing to the door. He gave Ollie a fist bump and squeezed by him.

“You people keep even stranger hours than I do.”

Ollie smiled. “Again, this is tame. Hungry?”

She closed her laptop and got to her feet. She’d beensitting for too long and it felt good to stretch her limbs.

“Yes, but it’s my turn to feed you. I’m no gourmet, but Ican whip up omelets for everyone.”

“I’m afraid it’s just you and me,” Ollie said, a grintugging at the corner of his mouth.

“Where’s Bran?”

“Bran has to do some work in post, and Rory is driving him.”

She looked at the clock on the nightstand. “He’s going towork? This late?”

“You seem to keep missing the part about his schedule—”

“It’s unpredictable. No, I get it, but...shouldn’t I havegone with him? I am supposed to be shadowing him.”

He straightened. “Shit, I didn’t even think about that. Ican take you.”

“No, no. It’s fine.”

“You were working, and I thought...” He shook his head.“Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for,” she said walking towards him. “Itmeans I get to show off my skills.”

She expected him to laugh, move to the side, let her by, andfollow her to the kitchen, but that’s not what happened.

Instead, Ollie wrapped an arm around her waist, cupped herface in his free hand, and kissed her.

It wasn’t anything like the careful, breathless kisses they’dshared thus far. Ollie was more assertive this time, his tongue probing gentlybut insistently, winding its way around hers.

Blake grabbed his shoulders to keep from toppling into him,her fingers gripping hard flesh, hot even under the cool cotton of his shirt.

Breaking the kiss, he dropped his head on her shoulder. Hisbreath was hot against her skin, his whole frame vibrating as his grip on hertightened.

“You do things to me I can’t begin to explain,” he said,running his nose back and forth along the curve of her neck.

“T-the feeling is mutual.” It surprised her how thick hertongue felt in her mouth. “Adrenaline. Shared history and the surprise of beingin each other’s lives again.”

“That’s not it.” He lifted his head and rested his foreheadagainst hers, both of them panting as the heat between their bodies rose.

Her heart thundered in her ears and when she looked up intoOllie’s dark, heated gaze, her body responded in a way that it hadn’t before.Not ever.

Her fingers tightened on his shoulders as he leaned in foranother kiss.

His fingers sank into her hair as he pulled her in for aneven deeper kiss. One hand on the small of her back, he bent and used his otherhand to grip the bend of her knee. He lifted her, wrapping Blake’s leg aroundhis waist and turning until she was tilted back against the wall by the door.He nipped and kissed along her exposed collarbone, and along the arch of herneck.

“Oh, yes,” she croaked, not caring how hoarse she sounded,how desperate. It was so good.

Ollie was breathing hard. When his teeth sunk into the softflesh of her earlobe, Blake practically keened.

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