Waiting For It - Allyson Lindt Page 0,2

kissed him back. His lips were soft, but his mouth was hard and demanding, and crushed into mine while he straightened us.

He tightened his arm around my waist, and my body molded to his like they were meant to fit together. Each nibble across my lips and hungry swipe of his tongue made my pulse pound harder in my ears. Had I ever been kissed like this?

It didn’t matter. At this moment, nothing else existed. I dragged my nails up his back, wanting to feel everything. His groan when he pressed into me, his erection digging into my hip, was as intoxicating as fine whiskey.

He pulled away and put some distance between us. “I’m sorry.”

My heart skipped, tripped, and landed flat on its face. “For what? Kissing me?” There was no way to keep from sounding hurt. I didn’t just read a kiss wrong, did I?

“No. Definitely not.” Luke reached for me but dropped his hand. “But I’m your boss. That’s it. I quit.”

I was typically pretty quick on the uptake, but my brain was struggling to keep track of this conversation. Maybe because that kiss had forced all the blood from my brain into every single extremity that could tingle with desire. “You can’t get out of this project that easily.” My laugh sounded as forced as it was.

“You were willing to sell your soul to Sauron to finish it.”

“That’s my soul. I’m not using it for much else, and these hours mean we’re already the walking dead. But you’re talking about—” his career. How did we go from fantasy kisses and dancing to this? I was taking things too seriously. Why did I always do that? I should have laughed off the I quit joke and gotten back to work like nothing happened.

Except Luke didn’t look upset. Not with me. He was still watching me with those dark eyes that made my brain turn to mush. “Every time you laugh or sigh or say... anything—” He shook his head and let out a long breath. “This is so inappropriate.”

“Yeah. Totally.” I knew that. Or I might have, if it were happening with anyone besides Luke.

“I never want you to think you’re in this job because of anything other than your skill, or that you have to do anything other than your work, to stay employed here.”

Right. Because sleep with me or I’ll fire you was a thing. I couldn’t imagine Luke doing that, which was a good reason for me to be wary of it. I could imagine him doing a lot of other things to me, though I usually tried to keep those thoughts to a minimum. Getting work done would be infinitely harder if I actually let the fantasies run rampant—of him pinning me to the wall and kissing along my neck... my chest... lower...

“Anne?” He studied me with concern.

I didn’t want to pretend the attraction didn’t flow both ways. If work weren’t an obstacle, would things go further?

What would Sadie do?

I didn’t know.

Don’t I?

Okay, I did, because Sadie and I might as well be twins, for as close as we’d been since we were kids.

“What if we pretended?” My voice cracked on the question.

“Pretended... I wasn’t your boss?”

Chapter Two

My heart was throwing itself against my ribs like it was in a one-man cage match, and I couldn’t find my voice. I nodded.

“Strangers, then?” Luke stepped within arm’s reach. “Random encounter? Undeniable chemistry? Two people who’re definitely not us, even though we look and think exactly the same, who can’t keep their hands off each other?” His voice rumbled over me with temptation.

Being picked up by him in a bar? Or anywhere? Yeah, that was hot. “Something like that.” My response came out raspy.

He took my hand again and led me away from the desk. When we reached the small table at the other end of his office, he spun to face me. The toes of his shoes touched mine, and if I leaned in, our lips would meet.

“What’s a nice place like you doing in a girl like this?” he asked.

I laughed at the Deadpool reference. If he was pretending to be a stranger, he had a pretty good knack for getting into my head. “I’d quote the movie back at you, but even if we’re pretending we don’t work here, Rinslet can’t afford the copyright lawsuit.”

Luke’s throaty chuckle rolled over me. “Let’s skip the pick-up lines,” he said. “I’m not great at those anyway. How about we fast-forward to the part where I invite