Irresistibly Yours (Oxford #1)(39)
It was self-preservation, really. Penelope had made the mistake once of reading too much into a man’s friendliness, and she was determined not to make the same mistake with Cole.
They worked well together—no surprise there, but more than that, they respected each other. Were comfortable with each other.
Liked each other.
And if every so often Penelope found herself wishing she could go back in time and do things just a little bit differently the night of that kiss, she reminded herself that the way they were now was better.
Safer.
And then…
And then she walked in on Cole and another woman.
“Oh!” Penelope skidded to a halt in the doorway of his office. “Oh!”
Cole had a curvy blonde pinned against his desk, one hand on either side of the woman’s ample hips as they kissed.
Penelope flashed back to the time Evan had told her he was seeing someone.
It hurt. It shouldn’t. But it did.
Cole acknowledged the interruption before his lady friend did, and he lazily pulled his mouth away from the blonde’s before his eyes met Penelope’s across the office.
“Hey, Tiny.”
The man didn’t look the least bit embarrassed, but Penelope was mortified.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, her voice coming out all croaky and awkward. “The door was shut, and I should have knocked, it’s just…”
It’s just that they never knocked.
He came into her office whenever he damn well felt like it, and vice versa.
A policy she’d be remedying stat.
The blonde had turned around to see the interruption for herself, and Penelope was unsurprised to see that the other woman was pretty—very pretty.
Of course she was.
“Sorry,” Penelope mouthed, even as she was closing the door.
“Hold up,” Cole said, pushing back from his desk. “What did you want to see me about?”
Penelope forced a smile and held up the paper in her hands. “First proofs came in for the Adam Bailey article. I’m thinking we want to revisit which shots we picked. They looked fine on their own, but on the page—you know? Never mind. It can wait.”
Wait until you’re done playing tonsil hockey.
“I was just leaving,” the blonde said, smoothing a hand over her silky pink dress. “I’m Meredith, by the way.”
“Penelope,” she said, feeling horribly out of place.
Penelope snuck a glance at Cole to make sure he wasn’t bothered by the interruption, but he seemed completely indifferent to her presence as he swiped a thumb over his mouth, probably to remove Meredith’s lipstick.
“See you, baby,” Meredith said, leaning forward to brush her lips against Cole’s cheek.
Penelope noted with no small amount of envy that the woman didn’t have to go up on her toes to reach Cole’s face. The combination of her height and heels put cheek—and mouth—within easy kissing distance.
Everything about the other woman made Penelope feel like a child. The height. The curves. The clothes. The confidence.
Meredith grabbed her purse by the door and Penelope all but scampered out of the way as the woman gave her a friendly smile and sailed out of the office in a whoosh of some spicy, exotic perfume.
Penelope started to follow her, but Cole’s voice stopped her. “Yo. Pope. Get in here. Show me what you’ve got.”
She swallowed and approached the desk as he sat in his chair.
So he wanted to play it cool? Fine. She could do that.
“New girlfriend?” she asked, proud that her voice didn’t betray her embarrassment. Or jealousy.
No, not jealousy.
Annoyance.
No, that wasn’t right either.
Agony. That was closer.
“I don’t have a girlfriend,” he said, plucking the folder out of her hands and flipping through the proofs. “You’re right. These photos don’t work side by side. They’re too busy.”
“You could have put a sock on the door or something.”
He glanced up in confusion. “What?”
She pointed to the door. “Next time you’re going to have sex in your office, give me some sort of warning.”
He lifted his eyebrows and leaned back in his chair. “One kiss hardly equates to having sex.”
“Well, it was quite the kiss.” Who was this snotty, peevish woman running her mouth?
He lifted his eyebrows. “Everything okay? You sound—”
“Don’t say it,” she snapped.
“Say what?”
“Don’t say that I sound jealous.”
“Were you?”
“Why would I be jealous?”
He flung his hands out in exasperation. “You tell me.”
Penelope leaned forward and snatched the folder off the desk, before turning on her heel and marching out of the office.
“Where the hell are you going?” he called after her.
Penelope didn’t stop. Didn’t want to have a conversation until she’d sorted out her thoughts.
And to think, just a couple weeks earlier she’d turned down Adam Bailey’s invitation to go back to his hotel room because she’d been thinking about Cole.
She should have taken up the slutty golf pro on his invitation, she thought, as she slammed her office door shut behind her. She should have— The door opened again as Cole entered her office uninvited, then slammed it once again behind him.