Page 12 of Kiss Me Like You Mean It (Oak Valley)

June sat at the desk. Her grandma was onto her, and the man she so desperately wanted to touch was somewhere on the other side of that door. She needed a distraction. The inventory spreadsheets had to be updated for tomorrow’s order, and she needed to reorder the store’s layout to fit a Used Books section.

She lost track of time when a rap on the door startled her from the numbers.

Dragan leaned casually against the doorframe, one hand on the knob.

June spun her chair to face him, not stopping the smile that spread across her face. “Hey, you.”

“Hey, you.” He strode in, stopping in front of her. “Busy day today, your grandparents locked up but books still need to be put back.” He stared down at her, hands behind his back. “So… my proposition.”

June leaned back in the chair and craned her neck to look at the wall of muscle before her. Folding her arms over her stomach, she couldn’t help but notice she was in direct line of the very large bulge in his pants. She swallowed, cheeks burning, hoping the image of pulling him into her mouth wasn’t as noticeable as she thought.

“Right. Your proposition.”

Dragan kneeled before her, placing his hands on the arm rests of her chair. When his fingers narrowly missed touching her arms, she could’ve sworn the air between them pulsed.

“I’m all ears.”

“I will help you with this fake relationship thing,” she began, trying to buy time to save herself while helping him.

“Okay —“

“— Two weeks. We’ll take it slow. And I have one voucher for needing your help in a similar favor, whenever the need arises.”

Dragan pursed his lips. “Known favor for unknown favor?”

June nodded, holding his gaze. She stretched her legs out beside his, the rough denim of his jeans sending goosebumps across her skin.

“You’ve got yourself a deal, Ms. Beaumont.”

She grinned and leaned forward. They had almost closed the gap once before, but the space away from him had given her clarity. Once they truly crossed that line, there was no going back. Better to get used to flirting and testing the boundary for when they had to publicly be together than to risk acting on it.

“A pleasure doing business with you as always, Mr. Carter. Help me put away the books?”

She was inches from claiming his lips with hers, but Dragan nodded and stood before she dove into him.

Definitely for the better.

June followed him into the store, the front sign flipped fromOpentoClosedand most of the lights turned off. The last couple of hours had flown by while she was neck-deep in logistics. The stack of books that needed to be resolved was a mile-high, as it always was when they had a bunch of kids running around. It was as good an excuse as any to burn off the fire rolling through her body, so June jumped into bouncing around the store while Dragan got to work with the children’s books, a small smile on his face while she chattered about the new changes.

“So,” June popped up by his elbow. “When will you need my fake services?” She’d done what she could as far away from him as possible. She might as well iron out the details of their arrangement if she was going to stand next to him, helping to shelve the picture books.

He didn’t look at her, instead staring at the shelf in front of him and rubbing his thumb along the book in his hand. “Tomorrow? There was chat about going mini-golfing at Castle Fun Park, but I know it’s last minute.”

“Perfect. What time?”

“Um… I’ll talk to everyone and text you.” He found the right slot and slipped the book into place.

“That works.” Her fingers brushed his as they reached for the same book, heat coursing through her body. His eyes snapped to hers, the electricity palpable.

June cleared her throat, grabbing a different book and returning to the shelves. “Can — What should I be prepared for, with your family?”

“Well, my grandma really only speaks Polish so my aunt and my mom will usually translate. My Aunt Nadia and Uncle Tomasz — “

“Toh-mash?”

“No, like, Toh-mah-sh — “ He watched her as confusion no doubt made itself evident on her face. “There’s alsodziekuje —kind of like jen-khu-ye? That means thank you.”

He chuckled while she tried to pronounce the foreign words, which only caused the heat in her core to bloom into embarrassment on her face.

---