Page 9 of So Close to You
“Why? Because they might be true?”
She closes her eyes for a second. Nerissa’s presence is suffocating even from several feet away.
“I don’t know what to do with you,” she admits in a whisper.
Nerissa looks at her with a devastating mix of tenderness and exhaustion.
“That’s the problem, Seraphina. You always try to manage your feelings as if they were just another department in the clinic.”
The remark draws a brief, bitter laugh from her.
“And you always show up right when I manage to get things back under control.”
“No. I show up when you stop lying to yourself for five minutes,” Nerissa corrects, slowly moving closer to the table.
“This can’t keep happening.”
“Then look me in the eyes and tell me you didn’t feel anything.”
Seraphina looks up and makes the mistake of holding her gaze. Because it’s all still there: the desire, the anger, the need to kiss her without thinking about anything else.
Nerissa lowers her voice until it becomes an intimate whisper.
“Just tell me you can go home to Elliot, kiss him, and pretend this doesn’t exist.”
Seraphina tries to answer, but the words won’t come.
And they both understand exactly what that silence means.
Chapter 3
Seraphina bursts into the private restroom in her office, her heart pounding in her throat. White marble covers the walls and floor; a sink with clean, straight lines stands beneath a large mirror that seems to judge her every move. She clutches the cold edge of the ceramic with both hands, takes a deep breath, and closes her eyes for a moment in a desperate attempt to regain the impeccable facade of a CFO.
The door opens again, and she sees Nerissa reflected in the mirror.
“Nerissa, this isn’t the place,” she says.
Nerissa remains silent for a few seconds. She steps toward her, stopping less than a step away, without quite touching her.
“Look at me,” Nerissa orders.
Seraphina lifts her chin out of pure instinct, though her fingers remain clinging to the edge of the sink as if it were her last anchor to reality. Then she tries to regain the upper hand with words.
“I have a fusion to oversee. You can’t barge in like this every time…”
The sentence dies on her lips when Nerissa raises a hand with deliberate slowness and brushes aside a stray strand of hair that had escaped from her updo.
“Don’t use that tone with me,” Nerissa murmurs, leaning toward her. Her warm breath brushes against Seraphina’s ear, sending a new shiver through her. “Not when we both know perfectly well what you want.”
Seraphina swallows hard. Her breathing has become ragged, a clear betrayal of her body. She searches her mind for any argument she can use, but Nerissa shakes her head once, and silence fills the room.
“Do you really expect us to be just friends?” Nerissa challenges her, a mocking smile on her lips.
Seraphina closes her eyes for a second.
“It was… a mistake,” the CFO replies in a low voice.
“No,” Nerissa replies firmly as she places a hand on the sink, trapping her there. “It wasn’t a mistake. I’d say it was the only time in all these months that you let yourself go. And now you want to lock me back in that ‘nothing happened’ box. And I don’t want to be someone you turn to when your bed gets cold.”
