His words unlocked something inside me. A kind of ease. The release of worrying about being perfect all the time. And as I relaxed into my tasks, I was less of an accident-prone disaster and more of a productive member of the team.
But by Friday afternoon I was dead on my feet from five consecutive days of hard physical labor. I went in search of Sam just after five o’clock. She was in her office, frowning over somepaperwork although I knew she’d spent a good chunk of the day replacing rotted out boards on the wraparound porch before one of us fell through.
Not that I was watching her or anything.
I couldn’t help but wonder if she was avoiding me though. The last several days I’d heard one of the guys express surprise that she wasn’t working alongside us as much as she usually did.
Maybe it was because whenever we were in a room together it was almost like we were drawn to each other. Every time we brushed shoulders, or she got close helping me with something, my breath would hitch in my throat, and my brain would go all fuzzy. A couple of times I caught her staring at me, a puzzled look on her face, like she didn’t understand what was happening between us either.
I tapped on the door frame of her office to get her attention. “Excuse me, Sam? I need to get this paperwork signed so I can submit it to my parole officer.”
I couldn’t help but wince slightly at my words. Parole officer. How embarrassing.
I was so disappointed in myself for how I’d acted. I mean, I was a grown woman. And I hadn’t even liked Matt that much really. I was mostly dating him to get my parents off my back about why I wasn’t dating anyone. In retrospect I wasn’t mad about the cheating so much as the fact that I’d put up with dating a guy I didn’t like and he’d screwed me over. As for my cousin, well heractions were not exactly a surprise. She’d always been jealous of me. The joke was on her though – Matt was terrible in bed.
Although in fairness, maybe the problem wasn’t his technique so much as the fact that he was the wrong gender.
I had a feeling the woman in front of me wouldn’t be terrible in bed though. I had a feeling she would approach lovemaking with the same serious intensity that she approached her job. I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to make her come apart.
“Paper?” Sam asked. “Sure, let me see it.”
When I handed her the paper our fingers brushed and we both froze, holding it between us. She licked her lips, and I made a choking noise that caused her eyes to pop up to mine. For a long moment, we just stared at each other, and I felt the strongest urge to move closer. My finger slid along the side of her hand, gently caressing, but she didn’t pull away.
“I’ve uh, I’ve got a problem,” I said, my voice husky.
“With the paperwork?” she asked, looking confused.
“No, it’s more of a personal problem. I seem to have developed a crush on my temporary boss.”
I couldn’t believe I’d said that out loud. I slapped my free hand over my mouth in shock. An embarrassed heat rose in mycheeks, but I held Sam’s gaze. She studied me carefully, as if she was trying to figure out if I was serious or not.
Then I did something that surprised us both: I dropped the paper, lowered my hands to her shoulders, and kissed her.
Sam
Even though she’d moved slowly, giving me time to move back, I was still surprised when Olivia kissed me. Maybe because I’d been fantasizing about this for so long it took a second to realize it was actually happening.
Her saying that she had a crush on me was both gratifying and terrifying. I’d been obsessed with her all week, and I couldn’t even say why. She was about as opposite from me as could be. Not just because she was some billionaire heiress born with a silver spoon in her mouth while I grew up eating out of food boxes.
She was also girlie, so girlie, with her painted nails and cute little car and the way she arrived at the job site every day with a full face of makeup and perfectly done hair. I took some pleasure in seeing her messed up at the end of the day, I had to admit. Whenwe all ate lunch she’d talk about spa days and fashion shows and art exhibits while the rest of us talked about the Seahawks and tools.
Yet when she pressed her lips against mine, everything inside me seemed to calm, like her touching me was the antidote to everything bad in life.
Olivia nipped on my lower lip and when I gasped she slid her tongue into my mouth, exploring. The movement made a jolt of energy course through my body, bringing me out of my passive state. Without breaking the kiss, I gripped Olivia’s slim hips and spun her around until she was leaning against my desk. Then I took over, deepening the kiss.
Suddenly we were both moving, hands frantically sliding over each other’s backs, waist, and asses as we pressed our bodies together from chest to hips. Somehow despite our height difference, we fit together perfectly.
We kissed until we were both breathless, and then we kissed some more. When we finally pulled apart, I was struggling to sort through my competing emotions. We stared at each other, panting, as common sense finally returned. For me at least.
What was I doing? I prided myself on being a professional, and here I was making out with our… well, not employee. Intern maybe? Temp? Whatever she was, kissing Olivia was a terrible breach of professional conduct. If one of the guys had come in here… well, let’s just say all the hard work I’d done to earn theirrespect would be totally out the window. And if the big bosses found out…
“I’m sorry,” I said, taking a big step back. “That was inappropriate.”
“I started it,” she reminded me. Her lips were red and swollen from our kiss. I resisted the urge to touch my own tingling lips.
“Still, it shouldn’t have happened.”
Even though it was true, the words tasted bitter in my mouth. I picked up her paper from where it had dropped on the floor and went around to the other side of the desk. Olivia stared at me while I filled it out and signed it.
