My shoulders slump. “That’s not what I was going to say, but couldn’t fighting further exacerbate your injury? It could make it worse.”
“Fighting doesn’t put me in any more danger than it does the average guy with two working legs. I was a fighter before this fucking chair, and I’m still one.”
Running my fingers across my forehead, I shake my head . “The douchebag could’ve hurt you.”
“Or you, which is why I did what I did, and I’d do it again, so don’t fucking ask me to regret it.”
“You’re still the same SOB who thinks he can get away with any and everything.”
“And you’re still the same princess who’s afraid of her own damn shadow but puts up a front so that people won’t see the real you.”
“Screw you,” I shout, feeling seen.
“Sure,” he growls.
Time moves in slow motion as he reaches up with one arm, leveraging himself against his chair with the other, and he wraps his hand around my arm. With a yank, he pulls me to him, and as if magnetized, our lips fuse.
I move my hands to the arms of his chair, bracing myself as Mark’s lips caress mine. That’s the only appropriate word I can use to describe the way he kisses me wholly, fully. Tiny pulses of energy shoot down my body, building larger and larger as the kiss deepens. This embrace between us is everything I remember from our teenage years and so much more.
Mark is the first one to pull back. His gaze is as dazed as mine, probably. “Yeah, I thought it’d be like that again.”
I nod because he’s right. There’s no other way for our kisses to turn out besides amazing. He runs his thumb across my lower lip, and I tremble, my fingers gripping on tighter to his chair.
A whole conversation is exchanged between our eyes as we stare at one another. How can it be that more than a decade and a half has passed, but everything still feels the same, only better? So much has changed. So, so much.
“Everything’s different, but this is the same,” he says sincerely with my chin still in his hold as he brushes his thumb across my skin.
I can’t find the right words to fill this moment, so I remain silent. Maybe if I do, everything that’s wrong with this will fix itself. Quite possibly, if we can just hang onto this shred of a moment between us, the world around us will allow this thing to grow and flourish into what it’s always was destined to be.
And when my hopes start to rise too high, the sound of a car horn on the other side of the parking lot breaks the spell.
Mark’s hand drops from my chin, and, finger by finger, I release the hold I have on his chair, standing once again.
“Here, don’t forget the food you ordered for your mom,” he says, handing me the to-go bag I had forgotten entirely.
“Mama,” I whisper. That sets my mind straight again. My mother is home alone on a Saturday night, and she probably hasn’t eaten. And I’m in the parking lot kissing a man whom I have no choice but to stay away from outside of work, for her sake.
“Thank you.” I grab the bag of food from his hand and take one final look before heading to my car. When I pull out of my space, I find Mark still sitting there watching me. I wave, and he tosses his head in acknowledgment.
What else am I supposed to do but go home?
Chapter 10
“You kissed me the other night,” I blurt out after hours of torture.
Today is Tuesday, and it’s our last day of seeing one another before taking a break for the Thanksgiving holiday. I told myself there was nothing sad about this day, but for hours I’ve felt the sadness inside of me growing. Knowing I wouldn’t see Mark for at least another six days.
Add to that, that since I’ve been in Townsend’s boardroom with him, he hasn’t mentioned anything about the kiss we shared Saturday evening. Sure, we were surrounded by employees, both his and mine. However, we’ve been alone for the past thirty minutes.
Mark peers up from his laptop, and that familiar mischief is in his eyes.
“You kissed me back, J.” His eyebrows lift and fall.
I laugh. “I didn’t want to be rude.”
He snorts, sitting up fully. “What you didn’t want was for me to see how wet your panties got for me.”
I gasp so loud if anyone else were in the office, they surely would’ve heard me. “Mark …” I glance around at the corner ceiling, ensuring there aren’t any cameras that I may not have noticed before. “We’re still at work.”
