Page 47 of My Forbidden Boss
But my voice was louder, and for the first time since I’d met her, I finally had something that I could hold over her. Like a child with a kite but no wind, I took it and ran.
“Oh, nooo! Too late, honey. There’s no way out of this one. I have a fan, don’t I? Or, at least, someone on your side who thinks that you and I going out for a bite wouldn’t be such a bad thing? Ha!”
She stamped forward, yanking the final earring back just as she had successfully threaded it in place. Without hesitation, Tisha threw it at me, bouncing it harmlessly off my chest. It only made me laugh harder.
An instant later, we were face to face, her with a slender finger jabbing up and taking turns poking me in the pecs and pointing dangerously toward my nose.
“That is not…! No! I… Urgh! You… Oh, what’s the point?!”
I went cross-eyed, playfully staring at her brandishing finger and giggling in victory all the while. Tisha only got madder, so I leaned forward into her, letting her poke the tip of my nose. She flinched, but I kept leaning down, forcing her to keep me at bay with the lone finger smushing down until my nostrils closed.
It didn’t take long for her anger to falter, taken hostage by a brief concern for my sanity. The expression was too genuine, and I had to laugh. Soon she was laughing, so I lightly took her hand from my face and gently held it to my chest. By the time she noticed, it was already there.
Tisha’s eyes flicked down, then back up into mine. She pulled, but not hard. Her hand didn’t budge a millimeter.
“What… What are you? Oh, uh… Okay. Well, um… Hollis, I…”
I stroked her hand with the whisper of a touch, my eyes never leaving hers. She stopped, seeming to breathe deeply. I thought she shuddered but couldn’t be sure. The warmth from her room meeting us in the doorway was too toasty to have her left feeling chilled.
Unless it’s me…
But her eyes told a different truth. One far more enticing. They danced from side to side, reading my face so close to hers. Again, Tisha spoke, babbling onward to fill the silence I was perfectly content to stay buried in.
“Hollis, I… I don’t want you to think… Honestly, I had nothing to do with…”
Keeping her hand in mine with one hand, I dropped the other to her chin and touched a finger to her lips. Her chest rose and fell faster, but otherwise, Tisha didn’t move.
“You don’t have to explain. And I promise I won’t give you a hard time about it. It’s just dinner. No assumptions. No expectations. Just some kickass food and maybe a bottle of wine or two. Deal?”
She nodded lightly, her lips kissing the skin of my forefinger. She felt it and pulled back, just enough to speak.
“No assumptions. No expectations. Deal.”
We smiled. I removed the hand at her chin and released hers from the other, although it was a long moment before she slowly pulled it away from my chest.
I sighed and smiled wider, feeling the tension comfortably stringing between us. “You know… You’re going to have to tell me about your friend, though. If he… You said, ‘he,’ right? Well, if he ever needs a job or…”
“Oh, he already works for you.”
My head tilted, automatically shuffling through the hundreds of possible faces. “Oh? Well, alright. I definitely need to thank him. He’s going to get a big old raise, a promotion, company car, timeshare…”
Tisha scoffed, accepting the earring as I picked it up from the floor and offered it to her.
“Okay, so, we’re back to you being the boss and buying me off, but now I have to worry about my friends being double agents? Hey! Give… me… that. Thank you.”
I finally let go of the earring as she pulled, smiling fiendishly as she scowled and turned away. She called back over her shoulder, once more fiddling with the jewelry at her ear.
“Anyway… What do you mean, ‘thank him?’ He hasn’t packaged me up and given me to you! Brandon didn’t even have anything to do with me being here.”
I shrugged, instantly memorizing the name. “Well, no… But it seems that… Brandon… does deserve my gratitude, nonetheless. Apparently, if it wasn’t for Brandon, I wouldn’t have gotten to see you in that dress. You look stunning, by the way… not sure if I ever actually said that.”
‘Stunning’ didn’t do her justice, but I was finally on firm footing and hesitated, unsure of how to precisely put to words how amazing she was without once more putting her off.
She turned and dropped her hands, looking downward suggestively and showing off her figure, as if it needed the emphasis for my attention to be immediately ensnared.
“Well… You are right about that, I suppose. You can thank him… and I’ll kill him. Although I have to say, I really do love this dress and never would have brought it in a million years otherwise. It doesn’t exactly scream, ‘business trip,’ I don’t think. Anyway, I’m ready whenever you are. I trust wherever we’re going is worthy of the dress, since you seem to think so highly of it?”
I nodded, then stopped. “Well… No, you’ll just laugh. Never mind.”