Page 25 of Grumpy Boss's Secret

The light changed. I hurried across the street, torrents of rain almost blinding me. I heard a car honk behind me as I reached the opposite corner. I whirled, ready to give a dark stare to whoever was cat-calling me from their car while drenched by a thunderstorm.

A silver Porsche was driving slowly along the road next to me. The driver’s window was rolled down. A man was leaning out of it. It was Ian. I stopped walking.

“What do you want?” I shouted.

His eyebrows went all the way up.

“I’m here to give you a ride!” he shouted.

I hesitated. What kind of ride? Visions of me riding Ian in the back of that car flooded my mind.

“Why?” I shouted back.

He gestured helplessly, exasperated.

“It’s raining!”

“Yes, I noticed!”

“Jozi! Get in the car!”

“I’ll get your seats all wet! I might as well just keep walking home!”

“It’s not safe!”

Thunder shook the ground, and lightning split the sky with a blinding flash. I could have sworn I heard some windows rattle.

"Okay, you win," I said, hurrying off the sidewalk and around Ian's car to the passenger door. I tore it open and stumbled inside.

I shut the door. Quiet. Darkness. Stillness. Warmth. The sound of the rain hammering on the roof, unable to reach us. I looked over at Ian. He was watching me, the corners of his mouth twitching.

“You’re impossible,” he said.

“Thank you,” I said primly.

“Where’s your apartment?” he asked.

“Like, a two-minute drive from here,” I said.

“Yeah, but where?”

"Go straight," I said, running my fingers through my wet hair.

In another three minutes, we were in front of my apartment building. Ian gazed up at it curiously. I could feel my bloodstream pulsing, wondering if he would ask to come up with me. Honestly, I didn't want him to. I didn't want to be some easy workplace side-piece. My body felt differently, but I was in control.

“I’ll stop dripping all over your seat now,” I said, unbuckling my seatbelt and putting my hand on the door handle. Getting ready to make a run for it. “Thanks for the ride.”

“Thanks for the kiss,” he said.

I stared at him for a moment. On the way, his eyes were twinkling at me. The way that smirk was still playing around the corners of his lips. I opened the car door and ran out.

“Okay, okay, okay, so now what?”

I tugged my dress off and hung it on the door hook in my bathroom. I turned on the shower. The water hissed, filling the air with humid warmth. Potato meowed irritably from inside her fort. She didn't like it when I was in the bathroom. She considered it to be her domain.

"Potato, help me figure this out," I said, crouching down and peering into her blanket fort. She stared back at me with wide yellow eyes as if scandalized that I was only in my underwear.

“He kissed me,” I said.

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