No Kissing Allowed (No Kissing Allowed #1)(23)

Even my apartment wasn’t safe.

Aidan reached for my hand, urging me to face him, and gave me a smile that was supposed to comfort me, but it never touched his eyes. “It looks like you have guests. I should go.”

A part of me wanted to beg him to stay, to explain just how well the lock on my bedroom door worked, but I could see the resolve in his face. Whatever magic had taken over in the elevator, and on the walk, and out in the hall, was gone now.

“Okay. Thanks for the walk.”

He pressed an easy kiss to my cheek and whispered, “Don’t look so disappointed. We still have tomorrow.”

“What’s tomorrow?”

“The beginning.” And he disappeared out my door.





Chapter Twelve


Lauren waited until everyone was gone, including Grace, to corner me just outside my room, her face lit with excitement. “Was that who I think it was?”

I hesitated. Somehow admitting it out loud made the whole thing seem so much worse. “That was Aidan.”

She grinned. “Your boss.”

“No!” I walked into my room, and she followed. “He’s my boss’s boss.”

“Oh, well, now that we cleared that up.”

I kicked off my ballet flats and sat down on the edge of my bed. “What am I doing, L? I can’t seem to stay away. First the gym, now this. I could get fired. We could get fired.”

“Maybe that’s why you like it. It has that forbidden thing going on.”

“Maybe, but I think it’s more than that. I listen to him talk about his life and it just doesn’t match the guy I see at the office. He’s more than his title, and I can’t get enough. I want to know everything about him.”

“So why don’t you just go for it, but keep it a secret?”

My eyes snapped up. “A secret?”

Lauren walked over and sat on my bed, crossing her legs up under her. “You know, like a secret affair. Behind closed doors. All that movie crap. If you like him, hang out with him, but don’t tell anyone. Seriously, this is exactly what you need. You want to focus on your career, right? But you’re a woman who has needs. You can have both—the career and the comfort of a man, without all the complications of dating. You don’t have to explain late nights at the office or why you’re focused more on your laptop or phone than him. It’s perfect.”

“I don’t know.” The idea was tempting, but no matter how I reworked the situation, it felt off. I didn’t want to tiptoe around with some guy. That wasn’t me.

“Cameron, you haven’t gone out with a guy since Jacob Warner, and that was months ago. And he was Dr. Phillips’s son.” She shuddered, and I drew a face.

“Hey, he was hot in a sweater-vest kind of way.” I relented at Lauren’s pointed stare. “Fine, he was horrible. They were all horrible.” I thought of all the dates I’d been on after Blaine. The frat guys. The athletes. The professors’ sons. Nothing clicked.

“Not all of them. Blaine wasn’t bad. He just wasn’t the one.” Lauren drew out a long yawn and pushed herself off my bed. “I’m heading on to bed. But think about it. You don’t have to make this a thing. You can just have fun,” she said around another yawn.

“Yeah, and what about you? What happened with the new boy, Patrick?”

She grinned. “To be determined.”

I smiled back. “Tease.”

“You know it.”

Then I slipped into bed and thought about the word “beginning” and Aidan’s lips and how very much I hoped tonight was the beginning of many more to come.





Chapter Thirteen


I walked through the revolving doors of my office building, my mind still replaying the kiss from last night. How it seemed to warm every part of me, even long after Aidan had gone. I wanted to feel his lips on mine again, test the connection. It had been a long time since a kiss had stayed with me. Would a second kiss have the same effect?

Smiling, I slipped through the stairwell door, prepared to suffer the five flights up to Sanderson-Lowe’s floor, and came to a stop.

“I hope that smile’s for me,” Aidan said as he pushed away from the wall. He wore a black suit, tailored to perfection so it showed off his lean, athletic frame, and a white dress shirt with a red tie. Something about a red tie oozed power and control, and suddenly, my mind was envisioning that tie wrapped around my wrists, Aidan kissing a trail down to my—

“Cameron?”

I took a step forward, reaching out to touch the front of his suit jacket before I remembered where we were and stopped myself. “Sorry, I couldn’t help it.”

He grinned and edged closer. “No one takes the stairs. We’re alone.”

“How alone?”

Another step. “Alone enough to do this.” He leaned down, his minty breath warm on my lips, before his mouth covered mine. I gripped his jacket, holding him to me, and he chuckled against my mouth.

“You’re going to get me fired, you know that, right? I’m not going to be able to keep my hands off you at the office. Prepare for lots of private meetings.” He kissed me again. “In private rooms.” His tongue swept over my lips before dipping inside my mouth, teasing me. “With lots of private attention.”