Oh God.
I scrunched my eyes closed, taking a breath. “What if you wake up one morning and decide you can’t stand me anymore?” Because how many times had that happened to my mom? How many men had kicked us out and we had nowhereto go? “What if you decide you can’t work at Charred if I’m here too?”
“First of all, that’s not going to happen.”
“But—”
“Second of all, do you know how many locations of Charred we have? Do you know how easy of a fix that would be?”
“I would be the one leaving.”
“No, I would be. I don’t want to be here anyway. You’re the only reason I show up every evening.” When his hands spread further across my face, his thumb dragged over my lips. “And every moment I haven’t been able to touch you, I’ve gotten angrier.”
“What’s stopped you from touching me?”
“Being your boss.” He went quiet. “Deep down—and this is something I don’t think I’ve even admitted to myself—a part of me thought that eventually, I’d get to the point where I couldn’t take another second of working here and I’d quit, and that was when I’d tell you how I felt about you. But then I found myself coming here just to see you, and this cycle has gone on for weeks.” His hands dropped, and he surrounded my waist. He lifted me onto the counter, standing in front of me, his fingers returning to my cheeks. “I know the financial impact this job has on you. You have to trust me when I say this job will always be yours. The same way I trusted you when you said you wouldn’t tell the team that anything had happened between us. My entire family wanted you to sign an NDA, but not me.”
I held his shoulders. “Why didn’t you have me sign one?”
Even though he was holding my face, I could still feel him on the sides of my waist.
His strength.
His power.
It was overwhelming, and I wanted more.
“I didn’t want a legal document between us. I didn’t want our time in that hotel room to feel like a transaction.” He paused. “It was so much more to me than that.”
What had once throbbed in the worst way was now filled with warmth.
With emotion.
With feelings I never thought I’d have.
“I don’t know what more is going to look like,” he admitted. “I don’t know how it’ll play out here in this restaurant or with you working two jobs and the only time we get to spend together are the hours you should be sleeping. But I want us to figure it out. I want that more than anything.”
I intertwined my fingers behind his neck, and I leaned in so we were only inches apart. “Walker, I want that too.”
“Baby … please …” He tilted my face up. “Just fucking kiss me.”
NINETEEN
Walker
The second her lips landed on mine, my entire body lit on fire. An urgency was taking over every part of me, demanding more. My hard-on throbbed, pre-cum leaking from my tip. My hands were on her cheeks, but they were desperate to tear off her clothes. My tongue was fucking dying for the flavor of her pussy.
When her arms wrapped around my neck, I could no longer stay still, and I began my trail, my fingers lowering to her chest. Her nipples, like tiny rocks, and each time I tugged one, her exhale came out as a moan.
I’d missed so much about this—the feel of her mouth, the taste, the softness of her lips. I missed, when my tongue slithered in, listening to her breathing change. I missed how when I touched her braless nipples, even from the outside of her clothes, she arched into me.
I missed the way her nails found my skin and stabbed, likethey were doing now. It didn’t matter how hard she dug in; that bit of pain, mixed with pleasure, made me even fucking harder.
She was right; a kiss wasn’t going to be enough.
I reached for the button at the top of her shirt, and once I had it popped through the hole, her hand went to mine.
“We’re doing this here?”
