Page 22 of My Sexy Boss
He shrugged with a sly smile. “It’s better than going out drinking. Less hangover to deal with the next day.”
“And you’d know all about hangovers.”
He turned to me, eyebrows raised. “What do you mean by that?”
I glanced over at him and wondered if I’d overstepped the line, but then I remembered he’d told me that this place wasn’t the office. What happened in here stayed in here. “I saw those tabloid stories,” I remarked playfully.
“Which ones?”
“Precisely.” I shot a look in his direction and saw amusement dancing over his face.Thank goodness.
“You shouldn’t pay so much attention to them. They’re nothing but bullshit most of the time.”
“So you’re definitely not heading out to clubs with models every night of the week?”
He waved his soapy hands around the kitchen. “Obviously not.”
We both burst out laughing, and he tapped my nose with his fingertip, leaving a glob of foamy bubbles on it. I wiped them off and caught his gaze. It was dark and burning with desire, licking around my curves and making my nipples pebble against my shirt. His eyes lowered and lingered on my breasts, the corner of his mouth twitching.
I wish my body would stop jumping into overdrive whenever he’s around.
I folded my arms over my chest and took a few steps back.
“We’re outta here, dude,” Nick said as he, Drew, and Jeff came into the kitchen.
Trace cleared his throat and pulled his eyes away from me. “Thanks for helping.”
They all did the fist-bump thing with Trace and headed out.
“Your friends are nice,” I said, breaking the awkward silence that descended upon us after they’d left.
“They come through when it counts. We’ve all been buds since high school.”
“That’s nice. I didn’t stay in contact with anyone from high school, but then I wasn’t so crazy about it. I just couldn’t wait to graduate so I could move away and be on my own. I loved college. I could be myself and no one judged me. Well, at least not to my face.” I picked up the dishrag and wiped the large pot.
“High school can be tough. I had a good time, but I went to a private all-boys school.”
“How did you ever stand it? I mean not having any girls around?”
“St. Catherine’s was our sister school, so most of us dated the girls from there. What do you think, that I’m a wolf on the hunt all the time?”
The conversation was going in a direction that could get real dicey. I had to remember he was my boss. “A lot of people do.”
“I don’t give a damn what a lot of people think. I’m asking if you do.”
“Maybe.” When he sighed and turned back to washing the pans, I wished I could’ve taken the answer back. The truth was I didn’t know what I thought. Based solely on what I’d read about him and Kels’s version of him, I wouldn’t have regretted my response, but he was so much more than that. He was kind, generous, a hard worker, intelligent, and I suspected there was a sweet softness he buried deep inside him.
Water swooshing, pots clanging, and dishes clattering filled the space between us. I watched his arm muscles flexing each time he scrubbed a pot, and I remembered how those arms felt around me the previous Saturday. Since I’d first met him at Beta, I’d judged him by what others said and thought. I’d been sure they were right, but I wasn’t so sure anymore.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” My voice sounded tinny.
“Why not? I don’t want you to lie to me.”
“What I really mean is that I guess I have a lot of preconceived notions about you. From the papers and from… other sources.”
“You mean Kelsey. We might as well bring it out in the open. She’s been talking shit about me, but I’m not going to do it about her. Just remember you’re only getting one side. But I’m not going to deny that I can be a bastard with women. I guess I’m not good at being in a relationship. Enough said on that.”
I wanted to ask him to give me his version of the breakup, but I felt like I’d be betraying Kels if I did that, so I said the first thing that came to my mind. “Do you go to Beta Club a lot?”
