Page 41 of Maid for My Billionaire Boss
“That could be . . . attractive—” I chuckled, as I failed to come up with an appropriate way to describe it.
“Useful,” she cut in. “I mean, I’ve never had touseit, but I could imagine like say, a kidnapping situation where I need a spare second to escape—I would totally test it out.”
“As you should.” I nodded, suddenly feeling grateful I hadn’t been on the receiving end of this talent.
“What about you?” Her eyes shined back at me with piqued interest. “Same question.”
“Well, I can recognize any font immediately within seconds of seeing it.”
Her nose wrinkled like she had failed to understand a punchline in a joke. “Don’t you have something more embarrassing than that?”
“Um, I can solve a Rubik’s cube in under a minute.”
“Lame.”
“Why is that lame?”
“Both of those things tell how good you are at something. Tell me something you’re bad at.” Her brows lowered toward me in a serious manner, but the smile on her lips was inviting in a way I felt all the way into my gut. We had come to the end of the beach and stood right on the water’s edge. The tide was high from the winds and would have been a great distraction had I wanted one, but I didn’t need a distraction.
I was ready to confront my feelings.
I was never good with words, but when I looked at her with the dissipating sun rays lighting her face, making her smile the most captivating thing I’d seen in a long time, I had a better idea than talking.
I took a step closer to her, dropping my eyes to her lips in the same manner she had done to me earlier today.
Total payback.
“Isn’t that obvious?” My voice started to crack now, but it was mostly still functional.
“Not really.” Her words stumbled out, but she didn’t back away.
I paused, yielding in caution, not becauseIneeded to, because I didn’t. With Atalie there wasn’t a need to be guarded. She had followed me to a swamp. Her loyalty was proven, and my heart was open. I waited to give her time to say something or hint I had read her code wrong, but she didn’t.
That was clearly more code.
Inching forward another step, I made my intention clear with my body language. She reciprocated, taking a step closer too. I held my breath, all previous doubts I had melted away and I affixed my eyes on hers. Her gaze seemed to vibrate right through me, skittering along my spine all while my heart ramped up, thumping at Mach 20 speed. If my heart was beating as fast as it could, the rest of my body was moving in the slowest setting as I wanted to memorize this moment.
My fingers found her chin, and the pads of my fingers skated along her cheek like she was the most precious thing I’d ever touched. I lowered my face so close that when I inhaled, her scent consumed me. I brushed my lips against hers, knees buckling when they were met with her softness. Like static, my lips clung to hers, fueled only by a whisper of a breath so soft it was like an act of worship to taste her. My mind recoiled back to when she saidthat if it’s right, it hurtsbecause thispainedin all the best ways. I was heading fast to a severe case of skintingles—like shingles but far more serious and you only get it from kissing—and I didn’t want it to ever end.
She abruptly broke our entanglement by sealing it with the distinctive smack of a smooch and taking a giant step back. Just the mere sound of it sent another rush right to my chest. Our eyes locked and I was left standing there, wondering how in this spinning world of unexplainable phenomenon could our casual relationship escalate into a kiss like that.
I knew the answer.
I was clearly a genius.
I had fallen for her.
I fought for control of my faculties, wanting only to kiss her more, but I could tell by the way she grazed her fingers over her lips nervously, she had a hesitation. I didn’t want to make her uneasy. So, I retreated, fumbling for words as I wasn’t sure what to say. I definitely didn’t want to apologize because Iwasn’tsorry. Maybe I owed her an explanation because I could see how itmighthave felt random to her.
I deadpanned.This talking thing wasn’t working for me!
I willed my lips to curl into a grin that was so forced it had to look cheesy, then I blurted out, “Finally!” Like I had conquered Mount Everest after struggling with the last hundred feet for years.
She smirked, while still concealing her lips with her fingers, and echoed, “Finally?”
“That was way more challenging than it may have looked.” I quickly pinned on, “The talking part. Not the kissing. The kissing part was easy.” Then I held up my finger in analysis, and that is when my word vomit started. “Well, not easy like I do itall the time. . . more like easy because I felt it, ah . . . natural, um. But not like natural, because you’re just here . . . more like it wasyou, and, I ah, just wanted to kiss you, I’ve beenwaitingto kiss you but . . . uh, not if you don’t want to kiss me . . . so youstopped, and”—I put my hands in the center of my chest in gesture and continued— “so I stopped. . . and I’m just not sure what I’m saying. Talking is hard.” Clenching my fingers into fists, I dug my nails hard into my hands, feeling the sting of being a world-class dork.
Reminiscent of a chaperone at a junior high dance, Mom’stoo loud voice that was obviously warning she was comingcut through the air. “We’d better get back before the weather gets even worse.” My eyes swept away from Atalie to see Mom’s smirk was as telling as Josiah’s pink face when she said, “I just remembered I wasn’t wearing earrings today.”
