Page 98 of Business Casual
She rolls her eyes. “If you don’t want to kiss me, you can just say so.”
“I think I’ve proven that I like kissing you just fine.” I stand from my chair, the legs making an obnoxious sound against the kitchen floor. She flinches and I want to pitch the damn thing out the window.
“See.” It takes a monumental effort not to point in her face. “I’m not going to be kissing you if you’re still hurting.”
She pouts. Lips turned down at the corners, a jut to her bottom lip, Nova pouts at me.
I stop and look at her.
Sick Nova is soft in ways that Sarcastic Everyday Nova would be rolling her eyes at. Maybe it’s how she normally is when she wakes up after a migraine or maybe it’s…maybe this is how she is with me now. A version of herself that she doesn’t get to be anywhere else. The idea of it makes me want to fucking glow, a warmth creeping into my chest the longer I look at her.
“I think a kiss would make me feel better,” she says, still staring up at me.
“Well,” I say, one hand on the back of her chair and the other cupped around the side of her face. I trace the line of her jaw with my thumb, back and forth. “I can’t argue with that.”
She tilts her face to mine and tugs at the front of my shirt. “I thought you’d agree.”
“Shut up.”
“You shut u—”
I cut her off with my mouth against hers. I hold myself there in the chaste beginnings of a kiss, and let myself breathe her in. Fresh autumn air and the barely there smell of her shampoo. The lavender dryer sheets she uses and…Nova. I’d know her taste anywhere. Blindfolded and in my sleep. Half standing in the middle of her kitchen. I kiss her again and again and again, light brushes of our mouths together until her fingers walk their way up my chest, palms cupped around either side of my neck. My hand on the back of her chair flexes as I move my mouth against hers, gentle and slow, groaning when her tongue swipes at my bottom lip. I open my mouth for her and let her set the pace, let her take what she needs, another sound from the base of my throat when our tongues slide together.
She tastes like sunshine. Like strawberries cut into tiny, ridiculous shapes and…toothpaste?
I lean back, our noses brushing. “Did you brush your teeth before you came down the stairs?”
She pinches at my chest, quick and sharp. “Were you going to kiss me with nap breath?”
I grin. “Were you planning for a kiss?”
Her cheeks pink.
“You said you didn’t know I was here.”
“I didn’t know you were here,” she mumbles.
“Were you hoping I was here, Nova girl?”
“Shut up, Charlie.” She tugs my mouth back to hers.
“Yes, Nova,” I mumble against her mouth, and I kiss her in the melting light of her kitchen, a half-empty bowl of fruit on the table in front of her.
22
CHARLIE
I check thetiny clock in the corner of my screen for the seventh time. “You’ve got me for three more minutes, Selene, and then I’ve got to go.”
“You’ve kept me apprised of the countdown for the past fifteen minutes.” She doesn’t look up from her desk. “Are there chickens that are in need of rescuing, Farmer Charlie?”
“Look at you.” I grin. “You remembered there are chickens.”
She tilts her chin and squints into the camera. “Wait. The chickens exist? There are real chickens?”
“Eight of them, in a coop behind the bakehouse. You now have two minutes for any business-related questions.”
She closes a file and rests her hands on top of it. “We’ve covered everything. This week is substantially slower. I guess your dad is occupied with something else.”
