Off Limits(111)

“In any case, my little scholar, you’re just getting started. I think eight hours of study in one day is enough.”

Alix chuckled, closed her book and put it in her backpack. When she went to put it on her shoulders, I shook my head and took it from her, unzipping it before taking the study materials and putting them on a bookshelf in the conference room. “I know you well enough, Alix. You’ll take these home and then after we relax you’ll pull one out and start studying again or something. You’re very single-minded in determination when you want to be.”

“When I see something I want,” she replied, looking at me with clear intent in her eyes. Still, she followed the rule, and despite a palpable desire in her eyes to reach out toward me, she didn’t. It would have been so easy too, with the office all to ourselves, but I wasn’t ready for that yet. Let the rule become more unconscious to us first, and then see if we can put time and a geographical limit on our activity.

“Still, for the rest of the night you need to focus on your body as much as you have your mind. So which would you like, the gym or food?”

“The gym,” Alix immediately replied. “But first we need to go home and get some clothes, right? Oh damn, I don’t have a swim suit.”

“They sell them there. Hell, you probably did the photo shoot for the company that makes the suits at some point.”

Alix shrugged, dismissing it. “I may have, it’s not important now. That’s behind me.”

“You sure?” I asked as we walked across the parking lot. “Why?”

“I’ve found something more important to me,” Alix said simply, “being a model seems a bit . . . mundane.”

We got into the car and closed the doors, her eyes flaring at the sound of the latch closing. “God, that was difficult.”

“Alix, look at me,” I said, my hands resting on the steering wheel. When she didn’t, I turned to look her directly in the eyes. “Look at me, Princess.”

She responded immediately, her eyes locking on me, blue and sparkling. “Yes, Kade.”

I reached across the narrow gap between us to stroke her cheek with the back of my fingers, marveling at the soft texture. “I know that this is important to you, and it is to me too. But you can’t give up your entire career for me, or for anything. Walk away for a while maybe. But you can’t burn bridges or nuke your chances of a comeback in the future if you ever wanted.”

I kicked myself as Alix’s eyes immediately teared up and her lip trembled. “Do you mean that someday you might . . . ?”

She couldn’t even say it, and I didn’t need her to. I shook my head, smiling gently. “No, Princess. What I mean is, what if in four or five years, after you finish college, you get an offer that makes what I’m doing now look like small potatoes? That seven or eight figure contract you tried to pawn off on me, but for real? Or who knows, maybe Alix Nova can make Portland the new hotbed for models.”

Alix laughed and cried at the same time, taking my fingers and kissing them before releasing them. “I love you, Kade.”

“I love you too, Alix. Which is why I won’t let you hurt yourself for me, no matter what. We’ll work together to make sure we don’t limit each other’s choices or options,” I said. “We support each other.”

She nodded. “Yes, Kade.”

I started up the car and drove off, heading toward home. “By the way, what did you decide to get Rita?”

“I spoke with her,” Alix admitted, “and I was glad I did. She wants a new computer for whatever work she’s doing, and I was thinking maybe you could include something personal from the time you two spent together. You know, for a while she wanted to make things more permanent between you two.”

“I know. And Rita is a good woman, but she’s not you. Alix, I think . . . no, I know now, that I’ve wanted you for years, and I think that stopped me from developing anything deeper with another woman. It’s more than want, Alix. You’re my Princess, because to me you are royalty. But I’ll think, and we can get something for Rita besides just the computer.”

“Any ideas?”

I stopped at a red light and thought for a second, before a wicked grin spread across my face. “Yeah. The designs for that bench and bar that we used last night. I bet she’s got quite a few subs she’d like to use that on.”



* * *



The eyes of every man in the gym nearly clicked when Alix stepped out of the locker room in her workout clothes. I could understand why, and I had spent most of the last three days with her constantly by my side, so I was at least partially immune to her beauty. But a woman like Alix, there was no way anyone could ever be totally impervious to her looks. Still, when she came out in her red shorts and white t-shirt, even I did a double take. “Wow,” I whispered as she came over. “Seriously, you’re going to either ruin or motivate the workouts of every man in this place.”

“I don’t care about their workouts, only ours,” she said lightly. “Like the color scheme?”

“Yeah, of course,” I said. “Why?”

“It’s a certain rose,” she whispered, “I thought it appropriate for me.”

I laughed and nodded. “Does that mean you’re doing your own thing?”