Window Shopping(23)

Mainly, I’m panicked.

Aiden takes a step forward and now I’m tipping my head back to meet his eyes, the rich male scent of him fuzzing up my brainwaves. “Name one rule in the handbook. Besides the one saying I can’t take you out. Can’t…” He drags his full bottom lip through his teeth, a low sound kindling in his throat. “…bring you home to bed. Without signing paperwork.”

Bed.

Aiden’s bed.

It would be amazing.

Big and sumptuous and heavenly. Especially with him in it.

“I, um…well, there’s the one rule that says…”

“The one that says employees must enter and leave through the rear entrance on weekends?”

“Right,” I say brightly, snapping my fingers between us. “That’s it. That’s the one.”

His eyes twinkle. “There’s no such rule in the handbook, sweetheart.”

Even as I glare up at him, I can’t be anything but impressed. He caught me. He caught me considering what could be between us, and now there’s significantly less restraint radiating from his body. A change that makes me nervous, while also making my toes curl in anticipation. Of what?

“Well played, Cook.” I place my hands on his chest with every intention of pushing us apart, but his pecs flex as if starved for my touch and his eyelids droop, his nostrils flaring, and I can’t remove my touch for the life of me. Now I’m just standing in the break room feeling up my boss, scrubbing my hands lightly up and over his hard slabs of muscle, then back down, watching him enjoy the treatment so openly, so eagerly. “Fine, you caught me, okay?” I try to swallow the choppiness in my voice. The arousal. “I was curious.”

“About us,” he clarifies, studying me. “If it could happen.”

Despite warning signals from the back of my mind, I hum in affirmation and he grins the grin of a lifetime. It’s so gorgeous and bright, transforming every one of his features, I almost liquify in the face of it. “Maybe,” I whisper. “But I-I’m not paperwork curious.”

His expression doesn’t dim a single watt. “If you don’t mind, Stella, I’ll be sticking around until you are.”

He leans down and kisses my forehead, tucking a loose wisp of hair behind my ear. Then his eyes take one last lap around my face and he takes my hand, guiding me out of the break room. He leaves me outside the entrance to the storage room where I’ve been working most of the week, emerging a few seconds later with my purse and jacket. He holds the puffer open so I can slide my arms into the holes and I can’t help but savor it. The first time anyone has ever held my coat for me.

“How are you feeling about tomorrow?” he asks, his vibratory thrum just beside my temple.

“I don’t know. I don’t know what you meant by ‘sticking around.’ That could mean anything, really. Are you threatening to woo me or something? I don’t get—”

“Stella,” he interrupts with a smile in his voice. “I meant how are you feeling about unveiling the window in the morning.”

My face has to be magenta. “Oh. Sure.” I duck my head under the guise of lining up the zipper of my jacket. “A combination of nervous and…more nervous. Mostly.” When I straighten, his curiosity and patient attention on my face makes me want to say more. “But no matter what happens, I’ll know I didn’t take shortcuts or pass on any ideas because they were too hard. I’ll know it was my best effort. I have the sore lower back to prove it.”

He makes a sympathetic noise, circling around the back of me. Before I can guess his intention, he slips his hand beneath my jacket and runs a firm thumb up the center of my lower spine. My shameless moan is echoing off the walls of the main floor of Vivant. “If only we had the proper paperwork filed. I’d be taking you home for more of this.” His thumb digs in, circling on top of my sore muscles. It feels so good, my vision doubles, my neck falling back on my shoulders. “I’d do my part. A hot bath would do the rest.” From behind, he rests his mouth on my ear, his hand settling on my waist very briefly, squeezing. “Tell me you want to hear what would happen next, Stella. Give me permission to say it.”

“Permission granted,” I say with embarrassing quickness, because who wouldn’t? Who wouldn’t want this beautiful man rasping secrets into their ear?

Aiden prowls around me slowly, stopping when we face one another. The hand on my waist has been dragged low, along the small of my back and that’s where it remains now, burning me through my clothes. “Once we worked out the strain in your back…” He leans in and settles his mouth on top of my ear. “We’d work on making the right parts of you nice and sore, wouldn’t we?”

“Aiden,” I breathe, half admonishing, half stunned. I really thought I had a read on this man. He’s a wholesome rule follower who believes the best in people. A man who has a few demons lurking but is innately good at his core. Now we’re throwing a dirty streak into the mix?

Good grief.

“I tried to warn you,” he says, taking my hand and leading me out of Vivant onto the street where bitter Manhattan cold does its best to cool my flaming cheeks. “I’m not always nice.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I remember,” slips out.

His lips twitch while he’s flagging me down a cab. “I was hoping you would.”