Page 20 of Baby for my Dad's Best Friend

She led me to a quiet place against the back wall of the stadium where we were obscured from the flow of traffic. Then she put down the beers and put her hands on her hips. “Whatis your problem?” she demanded, putting herself toe to toe with me.

My problem just then was that I could see right down her shirt from this angle. Tanned, generous curves in a satin white lining. My mouth went dry and I stared hard into her blue eyes, refusing to let my gaze dip lower again.

“I don’t have a problem,” I lied. I might have gotten away with it if I could have left it like that, but I couldn’t. My mouth disengaged from the rational part of my brain and added, “Except I’m sick of watching Andrew Gold paw you. This is a company event, Layla. I expect professionalism.”

Her eyes widened and she barked out a laugh. “Don’t give me that bullshit. We came on a party bus, Aiden. You and Maureen were drinking beer out of a coffee cup on it, remember?”

“Yeah but we weren’t feeling each other up in the back row,” I snapped. “There’s a difference between a good time and being irresponsible.”

She shook her head. “No, there’s a difference in how you expectmeto act versus everyone else. Joe and Gloria are practically procreating next to me, but all you see is Andrew’s hand on my leg. Which doesn’t bothermeat all.”

My vision narrowed. That was it. I would find a way to fire Gold. “Well it fucking bothersme,” I said without thinking.

Layla’s face was the only thing I could see in my narrowed field of vision. I watched it morph from angry to incredulous to something I couldn’t quite put a name to. Curious, maybe. “Why?” she snapped, her hands still fisted on her hips.

“Why what?”

“What does it bother you when Andrew is touching me?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but she cut me off. “And don’t give some bullshit line about protecting me. I’m a grown ass woman who can handle myself.”

She was right, and I thanked God for it now, because I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. That indefinable glint in her eye looked too much like an invitation. I leaned forward so our foreheads were nearly touching and cupped her chin. “Trust me, I know you’re grown,” I admitted harshly.

Layla’s eyes widened and she stepped closer, her body brushing mine now. “Then why?” she asked again. The knowledge was burning in her eyes, electrifying the space between us, but she was determined to make me say it.

I couldn’t put it into words, but I tilted her chin up until her mouth was right beneath mine. Her breath was coming fast now. Mine had stopped altogether. I needed her to push me back into my place, to demand sharply to know what I thought I was doing. Either of those things would have stopped me in my tracks. But she didn’t, and all the reasons I should stop myself felt puny and insubstantial. Yeah, Jack was going to kill me, but he had every right to just based on the thoughts I was having about Layla. And if I was going to hell anyway, I might as well make the trip worthwhile.

Giving in, I closed the scant inches between us and covered her mouth with mine.

CHAPTER13

LAYLA

Aiden’s mouth seared mine, and I only had a moment to thinkfinally!before my mind went blank. Only a moment to feel triumphant excitement before burning heat took its place. I’d deliberately avoided touching him up until the moment his control finally broke, but now I wrapped myself around him. I’d imagined doing so a hundred times, but my imagination hadn’t even brought me close to how good it felt to feel his hard chest against my breasts, the long, lean lines of his body bowing over me, the stubble on his chin scraping tantalizingly over the soft skin of my cheeks.

I couldn’t decide where to put my hands–his broad chest, the muscular shoulders underneath his Red Sox t-shirt, or around the back of his neck where I could feel the ends of his hair. His hands were banded around my waist, his long fingers wrapped around my back, his thumbs on the waistband of my shorts.

I don’t know how long we stood there, our bodies locked together, our mouths moving furiously over each other, completely unaware of the world around us. Then a loud roar broke through the haze, and I remembered where we were. Who we were with.

Aiden’s mind must have been moving faster than mine, because just as I was thinking,oh, this probably isn’t the best place to do this, he was jerking away. His hands were up, fingers splayed and he looked wary, as if he’d just touched a burning pan and was afraid it might come back for more. His pupils were dilated, and his chest was moving up and down quickly like he’d just run a long distance.

“Shit,” he said quietly, not quite looking at me.

“That was–” I wasn’t sure what I was going to say.Amazing. Unexpected. It didn’t matter though, he didn’t let me finish.

“–a mistake.”

Pride stiffened my spine even though a moment ago, I’d been boneless. “Why was it a mistake, exactly?”

Aiden shook his head, his mouth pressed together in a tight, flat line. “It was my mistake.”

The crowd had been yelling so loudly that it formed a sort of protective sound screen around us. But as I said, “Excuse me? I’m pretty sure we were equal participants in what just happened.” The crowd quieted and my words echoed around us.

Aiden winced and looked around, making sure that no one from the office had made their way over this far. I looked too. In this, at least, we agreed. I didn’t want my new colleagues at Cross Media to know what had just happened between the boss and the most junior employee.

I wanted Aiden, not notoriety.

Once we were sure that no one we knew was around, Aiden took another step back and shoved his hands in his back pockets. “It was my mistake because I’m too old for you,” he explained. He wasn’t trying to be infuriating or patronizing, but somehow he managed to be both.

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