Page 32 of Sizzle
Now I know I’m going to die, but for an entirely different reason.
It takes me a minute to stop gawping at her, but when I do, the urge to press is ferocious.
“If I can live with that kind of uncomfortable, you’ll be okay.”
She likes that, the not-quite-confession that I’ve been wanting her all this time. That familiar pink bloom is back in her cheeks.
“Has it been terrible, then, working with me? I did my best to make it as easy as possible.”
“Easy is not the word I’d use,” I say drily. “If anything, you’ve made it so damn hard, half the time I can’t speak.”
The pink spreads across her face.
“That bad, huh?” She says in a faint voice.
“That bad,” I agree.
“Maybe I should apologize.”
“I’d like to see that, sunshine,” I say. My conscience is sitting on my shoulder, hands clamped over his ears and eyes squeezed shut. What the hell am I doing?
“See what, exactly?” she says, fixing herself another bite from the platter between us on the table. She dips her thumb in a drop of oil and brings it to her mouth. “Seems to me you’ve seen plenty already.”
When she licks the oil off, I damn near cream my pants.
“Not enough,” I say.
Joelle lets up, smiling into her napkin.
“Fair enough,” she says.
She doesn’t mention Alex, and she doesn’t appear to be embarrassed any longer, which means I’ve done my job. She’s at ease and she didn’t quit, and she doesn’t—thank Christ—appear to be afraid of me. So now we can get back to work.
Except she’s still moaning into her food. How the hell is any man supposed to think under these conditions?
“Do you always eat like this?”
Joelle looks up, surprised. She swallows the bite down, her delicate throat working and just like that, I’m weak at the thought of seeing her throat move like that under somewhat different circumstances.
“Like what?”
“Like you forgot to put on panties this morning.”
There was a line here somewhere. I crossed it so long ago that I don’t even remember where it was. As long as she keeps smiling at me like this, I can’t seem to stop the words.
“What makes you think I’m wearing panties at all?” says Joelle, that half-smile reappearing for a second. Then she winks.
This is it. I’m going to die. I’m going to die hard and unsatisfied with my heart bursting because she’s so damn sweet. If I could sit right here for the rest of my life flirting with Joelle, I would.
But duty calls in the form of the doorbell, signaling the first of my staff has arrived for the day.
The next several hours keep me busy, but not busy enough to ignore the drumbeat in the back of my mind spelling out my doom. If I’m not careful, I’m going to lose my head over this girl and I need my wits about me. I still have to save the Duckbill, for one thing. And then there’s the fact that Alex hasn’t called or texted once since he left.
Yet another sign that my new normal is off the rails. Since when do I care if my roommate calls while he’s out of town?
Except he usually does, even if it’s just to check in. And Alex isn’t usually out of town the morning after we spent time together with tandem hard-ons.
Not that I’m thinking about his dick. I’m not. But it wasn’t exactly a typical experience for us. In fact, I’m thinking Joelle’s the first girl he’s laid a hand on since the Ice Bitch left him last year. That makes it a big deal for him, probably. Checking on him is the least I can do.