Priya mumbles something under her breath about regretting she can’t fire me and/or drop me in the middle of the desert somewhere I can’t make her life harder.
I blow a kiss her way. Once that’s out of my system, I finally get serious.
“Okay, my liege. Let’s get to work.”
If my mind wanders more to Beau and what we’re doing tonight than I’d like, she doesn’t need to know that.
Chapter Ten
My alarm goes off at two fifty p.m., jolting me out of the catalog entry I’m writing. I seamlessly shift from focus on work to a special mix of pleasure and terror that Beau inspires in me. I pack up my purse and clean my coffee mug to distract myself from it, standing in my doorway when the tasks are done and I don’t have anything else to do.
Ajay passes by my door and then doubles back when he sees me standing just inside my office, all my stuff in my arms.
“Wait, is everyone frozen and only I get to roam around the world, unsupervised?” The mischief in his tone has me putting my hand on my hip and giving him the stink eye.
“The thought of you without a keeper is terrifying.”
“If the world isn’t frozen, then why are you standing here like a mannequin?”
“I don’t want to leave the office.”
“I never have that problem.” Ajay runs his hand through his thick hair, flopping some back over his forehead. “But I think I know what might be causing some of that hesitance.”
“Damn twin bond.” I don’t know when Priya told Ajay about me getting closer to Beau, but I bet it was in a hyper-efficient email where she also got three additional tasks done.
“It’s a recognized exemption to snitching.” He nods sagely. “I hear you’re getting close to this peachperson.” She really did tell him everything. “Maybe this one will even last longer than usual.”
“Nope. You and Priya are not allowed to gang up on me.”
“You never got that in writing.” He slides his arm around my shoulder. “I’ll walk you out.”
“You just want to be nosy.”
Beau is waiting for me outside our offices, his head bent over his phone. He’s bundled up for the New York winter, but I can still remember exactly how he looks, and feels, under that coat. I take a deep breath at the memory, trying to remember that right now I’m in public and it’s considered bad form to have sex in public.
Bunch of puritans.
But I need to remind myself that he lives where the peaches grow, and I live where there’re more buildings than stars you can see at night. He’s going back to his peaches, and I’m staying here with the buildings.
That’s supposed to be a comfort. Itisa comfort. But...still.
It might not be as big a comfort as it originally was.
“Hey.” I walk up to him, leaving Ajay behind, bracing myself for any of that awkwardness that wasn’t there this morning.
“Hi, Baby Girl,” he says with a smile, wrapping his arms around me and lifting me slightly up off the ground to kiss me.
The combination of his kiss and his arms is so potent that I immediately forget about the crowd around us, and my own cousin, to get lost in Beau. Until a loud, obnoxious,definitely-not-getting-any-help-from-me-with-his-work-from-now-on person clears his throat next to us.
Beau raises his head but doesn’t set me down. “Oh. Hi.”
“Just pretend I’m not here. This is more entertaining than my stories,” Ajay says.
“Ajay’s leaving now,” I say from the perch of Beau’s arms, kicking a leg out to symbolically kick Ajay away. Because I can’t reach him from where I am.
“Oh.” Beau drops me lightly to my feet and turns to the annoyance. “Well, it’s nice to see you again.” He moves me to one side to extend a hand to Ajay.
I glare at Ajay. I should still be a foot taller and have both arms around me right now.
