Page 22 of Heart Like Yours
Getting closer to the open door, the sound of her softly humming a familiar tune draws me in. I should make some noise, make sure she knows she’s no longer alone. But I don’t. Instead, I find myself leaning against the doorframe to her soon-to-be office and smile as I watch her jot something into the notebook.
She drops the pen, takes off the black pirate hat, and tosses it across her desk before she digs through one of the boxes stacked beside the desk and when she bends over, I take it as my cue to announce my presence.
“A pirate’s life for you, huh?”
Paige squeals, twisting so fast that her maroon skirt flares out around her. The notebook falls to the floor as her hand smacks against her chest.
“Garrett.” She gasps and thoughts of her saying my name like that for other reasons fly through my mind. Paige bends to pick up the notepad as she scowls at me. “You’re lucky I didn’t throw something at you.”
I laugh and push off the doorframe, entering her office while resisting the urge to openly check out Paige in a pirate costume.
“I knew to keep some distance between us,” I tease.
She shakes her head, setting her things onto the desk before turning to face me fully. My mouth dries at the way the browncorset pushes her breasts up and causes them to spill from the top of her white shirt.
“What are you doing up here?” she asks, pulling me from my newfound fantasy of us playing cowboy and pirate.
I tuck my hands in the front pockets of my jeans and get closer, peeking at whatever she was working on.
“I actually came to askyouthat.” My eyes land on the paperwork she was flipping through in the box and I level her with a half-assed glare. “You put together a hell of a party downstairs. You should be down there and enjoying some time away from work.”
“I know, but I remembered some things I forgot to tell Eva and didn’t want to bother her with it when she was enjoying herself. But I also didn’t want to forget, so I came up to make a note and then”—she motions to the work beside her—“I got a bit distracted.”
“You do realize that you’re not leaving the building? If something comes up down the line and Eva or the team need anything, you’ll still be here to help. So will I.”
She nods but doesn’t seem fully convinced by my words. Watching her closely, the way she shifts her weight on the balls of her feet, how her wide gaze lands everywhere but on me.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, taking a shot in the dark and crossing my fingers that she’ll let me in. She looks at me then, shoulders straightening as she visibly tries to close herself off.
“Nothing, I just?—”
“Paige, we’re about to be partners. If something is bothering you, I need to know that you trust me enough to talk to me. I want to be here for you, to help whenever and however I can. But I can’t do that if you shut me out.”
“I’m just…” She sucks in a breath, looking past me, and crosses her arms over her stomach. “I don’t want to mess anything up. I’m trying to make sure this transition with Evagoes smoothly and that I can do everything you need me to. But I feel like I’m gonna forget something, or not know enough about running a business. I want to make sure it’s all perfect and?—”
“I don’t need you to be perfect,” I interrupt, stepping closer and reaching out to tuck her hair behind her ear. “Expecting perfection only sets us up for failure. What I need from you is to be, well,you. Your passion and dedication to this company mixed with your knowledge and ability to do what’s right for everyone involved is what I need.”
My hand has a mind of its own and I cup her cheek in the palm of my hand.
“I just need you, Paige,” I whisper.
I hold my breath when she leans into my hold, her eyelids fluttering as she lets out a quiet sigh. My gaze drops to her slightly parted lips and my very thin restraint is put to the test.
Every inch of me is buzzing with the need to wrap my arm around her waist and hold her against my chest. To finally learn what it would feel like to kiss her.
“We should go back downstairs,” she whispers, placing her hands on my chest as if she’s going to push me away. Yet she doesn’t move from my arms.
I rub my thumb over her cheek and she finally raises those shining, sapphire eyes to mine before they drop to my mouth. Her tongue slips out, wetting her lips.
Paige is in my arms, looking at me as if she’s waiting for me to just kiss her despite her words that we should leave. When she looks up at me again, the desire clearly painted across her face as her eyes flutter closed and she leans into me, I know what I’m about to do. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I know that if this goes poorly, or if I’m reading her all wrong, there would be no one to blame but myself.
She’s magnetic, pulling me toward her with a force I don’t want to fight. Our lips touch in a soft caress, and I wait for her to pull away, to tell me no.
Her hands tighten on my chest, clenching my shirt in her fists before pulling me closer to her until she’s kissing me. My own hands move of their own accord, desperate to feel every bit of her that she’ll let me as I get lost in her lips. One hand slides down to wrap around her waist, resting on the small of her back and eliminating any space that remains between us.
My fingers comb through her silky hair to the base of her skull, where I carefully tighten my grip so I can tilt her head, allowing me to deepen the kiss. Tracing my tongue along her bottom lip, she opens for me without hesitation.
Kissing Paige feels like everything I ever dreamed of and more. My mind races to memorize every detail about it. How her plump lips feel against mine, the way it feels for my hand to smooth down her backside until her ass is in my palm. The sound of the quiet moan that I greedily swallow down and the feel of her shifting her hips against my hardening cock.