No Kissing Allowed (No Kissing Allowed #1)(20)

I took a step back, my eyes on anything but him. “Oh, right. Thanks.” I swiped at the spot and glanced down at my hand, but nothing came away. I started to go for it again, when he stood and slowly walked toward me. My heartbeat sped up with each step, and then he reached out and ran his thumb across my cheek, sending a surge of tingles from my cheek to my toes. I wanted to look out into our office, check to see if others could see us, but I couldn’t bring myself to look away from him. And then he lifted his thumb to his mouth and licked away the mustard, and holy. Hell. My already-heated body burst into flames.

He held my gaze as his arm dropped back to his side. “And it is a big deal. To me. It’s all I can think about.”





Chapter Eleven


“Aidan, I need your signature on—” Dorothy, Aidan’s assistant, stopped inside the door. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were in a meeting.”

Aidan turned slowly to face Dorothy, his expression as relaxed as ever. “We were just finishing up.”

“Okay, thanks, Aidan. I’ll get right on this.” I sped out of his office and back to my cube, drawing a long breath as I sat down in my chair. He can’t stop thinking about it? As in, he’s worried, or he can’t stop thinking about me? It didn’t matter. It meant nothing, because we were nothing and never would be any more than nothing. Rules were rules. And he didn’t date. Even if the company rule weren’t there, I couldn’t get involved with him. I’d known my whole life the kind of guy I wanted. A family man, who adored his parents and wanted kids of his own someday. Aidan wasn’t my guy.

With the phrase firmly set in my mind, I threw myself into my work. Researching, checking emails, reviewing a few mock-ups creative had sent me for other projects. My phone vibrated against my desk, and I peered over to see a string of texts from Grace and Lauren. I read the trail, my face breaking out into a giant smile with each text.

Grace: We’re going out tonight. Like, hook up, embarrassed-the-next-day, going out.

Lauren: I have $0.10 in my bank account. Scratch that. Shit. I’m negative again. Fuck, why does this keep happening to me?

Grace: Because, silly girl, you refuse to actually keep a budget. If you’d listen to me, you’d have plenty of money.

Lauren: Says the girl WITH plenty of money. Where are you, Cameron? I need to know I’m not alone in the poorhouse.

I quickly texted back that I, too, had next to nothing in my account and asked if we could go out on Friday instead. It was twenty-four hours away and Lauren’s payday. Surely Grace wouldn’t argue.

Grace: Fine, but if you go out tonight without me I’m going to be super pissed.

Lauren and I both responded at the same time with a Never , then I eyed the time and quickly began throwing my things into my bag. It was almost seven now. Where had the day gone? The last thing I wanted was to be stuck here with Aidan—alone. I wasn’t sure I could keep myself from asking him what he’d meant.

I kept my head down as I slipped into the elevator, and began my usual mantra even before the doors had closed. The itsy bitsy spider went up the waterspout. Down came the rain…

The doors began to close, and I sang the words louder in my mind, my gaze so focused on the tiled floor I didn’t notice that the doors never closed. I glanced up as Aidan slipped inside, and then he saw me, and suddenly the tiny space felt almost unbearable. Heat radiated up my back as he turned to face the doors, directly beside me, his shoulder half an inch from touching mine.

“Cameron,” he said, and wow, did I suddenly love the sound of my own name. The way he drew the word out, like he needed to keep it on his lips a little longer. I wanted him to say it again.

For a moment, I forgot my singing, but then the doors closed, and I couldn’t think about Aidan, not now. I started the song again in my mind and focused on the floor.

“Are you all right?”

I sucked in a rattled breath. “Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” Out came the sun and dried up all the rain.

“Cameron, look at me.”

I peered over, just as the elevator jerked and came to a halt. My eyes flew over to the numbers, to the doors. Why weren’t they opening? Why the hell weren’t they opening? My gaze went to the ceiling, then the numbers again, the doors. Oh shit, oh God. No, no, no.

Aidan stepped calmly toward the numbers and hit the one again, but nothing happened. We were stuck. My eyes began to burn, and I bit down on my lip hard to keep from screaming.

“Cameron?” He reached down for the emergency button. “It’s all right. You know that, don’t you?”

I couldn’t look at him. All I could do was nod, but nothing about this was right. Sweat broke out across my forehead and back, my legs shook. In romance novels, authors wrote about this very scene like it was the hottest thing imaginable. Get trapped in an elevator with the man of your dreams, the lights go out, and then sexy times begin. But nothing about this was sexy, and if the lights decided to crap out on me, too, then they may as well call the morgue along with the fire department.

Aidan pulled out his cell and called someone, though service was shitty in elevators, so he wasn’t likely to get a call through. He reached for the emergency phone, and I could feel his eyes on me, watching my meltdown. By this point, my entire body was shaking, my mind closing down. All I could think about was how small the space was, how little air. I tried to tell myself there was plenty of oxygen, no one died of lack of oxygen in an elevator, but it was no use. Panic coursed through me, polluting every muscle until I wondered how I remained standing.