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18: So Close

I wasn't the kind of guy who slept with his staff, but... this was more. I was falling for her.

Falling for a girl I barely know. Fuck, what's running through her head?

Mia was easier to talk to, but still not the easiest to open up. Her ex did a number on her. Beneath layers of sass, and more layers of pain, lived a bleeding heart.

"There's something you have to see."

Nervousness in her voice made me blink at the book. Was it her personal thoughts? For the brief moment she passed it into my hands, my breathing turned shallow, and my steady pulse increased.

Her frown dissolved those hopes and apprehension rolled her lip under her teeth. She dropped her hand to her side.

My eyes dropped with the movement. I mapped the bow shape of her upper lip and teeth denting the lower one. As if braced for a punch, I clenched my stomach. My fingers twitched to pull that pink flesh out, or better taste it. Any response my brain cooked up evaporated the longer I studied the warm tones in her eyes fighting whatever awareness weighed them down.

C'mon, Mia. Give me a sign.

One sign was all I needed. I begged her with my eyes as the words knocked on my heart.

Let me in.
Get me to the other side.

Under the temptation, I leaned closer. Mia before today stiffened and tensed into defensive mode, even when her body lit up with all the go-ahead signs. Goosebumps, wide eyes, lips parted, a pink flush in her cheeks - I wasn't wrong interpreting them.

She felt the same pull, she just needed to stop pushing against it.

Now, she relaxed and not from four hours of golf that coated her skin in a mix of perspiration and suntan lotion. Warmth pooled around her rounded pupils and her short breaths pitched her chest.

I took a giant leap onto that wire and bobbed precariously. The last thing I wanted was to make a move too soon and pushed her to retreat again.

My chest tightened as her teeth dented further into her lip. I wanted much more than guarded glimpses, dashed exits, and personal space. More than six inches between our mats.

And no space between our lips.

I wanted to know that it was me that skipped the pulse in her wrist where I rubbed my thumb. My cock pressed against my zipper wanted more, but my patience screamed she needed me to move slow.

No more birds in the face, Sam.

I cupped her pink cheek and rubbed her warm skin with my thumb. Wildfire urges to kiss away her doubts spread through me. The blood surging through every cell in my body screamed a call to action.

So I leapt. Blindly.

"Can I kiss you?"

My thumb passed over the path I wanted, from one corner of her mouth to the other, and released her lip. She froze, with uncertainty framed by her thick lashes.

I lowered my head and paused an inch from what I wanted. The only one who could stop me was her. It was her choice, one painful beat of my heart at a time.

Her lips parted and a hot breath passed over the pad of my thumb. Horror rounded her eyes and her soft words split open my heart.

"I can't, Sam."

I can't. Not we.

I didn't need to hear her list of reasons, because I couldn't find one that wasn't an excuse. My last working brain cell reminded me that she worked for me, I was getting out of a long-term relationship, and she wasn't over her ex.