“It’s only small, but it’s here.” She undid the cuff of her left sleeve and pushed the material up.
I stepped closer to see; it was a small tattoo, crisply done on the underside of her forearm in neat narrow lines. My hand took hold of her wrist to still her so I could see and that was my biggest mistake.
I’d heard Jackson drunkenly talk about how it’d felt the first time he’d kissed Vanessa, describing how time had stopped and the world had shrunk so it only contained him and her. Max and I had hackled at him, while Callum had said nothing, probably understanding more than we’d realised.
Now I understood, because everything around us had reduced to nothing. I wasn’t looking at her tattoo, I was looking at her looking back at me. My other hand went to rest on the counter behind her and I leaned closer, catching the faint scent of her body wash.
“Fuck it.”
I leaned in, pressing my forehead to hers, my chest about to explode with the incessant thud of my heart. Two beats, three.
She shifted, her lips brushing mine, her free hand threading between us to my shoulder.
The kiss was slow, but it wasn’t gentle. It seemed that lunch hadn’t satisfied either of us, and we both needed a taste of something else. Slow, heavy nips that tested each other’s lips while our hands began to wander, mine threading through that hair which was as silky as I’d expected, wrapping it around my fingers.
Need flooded through me and my breath shortened like it hadn’t before, even the first time I’d kissed the only girl I’d ever been in love with. Words shattered across my brain that told me I was a dick for doing this, we were colleagues and I was focused on being professional. This was anything but.
Only I didn’t care. Her hair through my fingers, her lips on mine, her breasts pushed against my chest, were all worth any shit I had to deal with afterwards.
The doorbell rang, tearing us apart like boxers in a ring. I stepped backwards, my hand sticking to the smooth skin just above her jeans. Her lips were swollen from the kiss, eyes dilated and filled with the same need as I knew mine were.
The bell trilled again.
“I should get that before it wakes Rose.” She didn’t move.
“I’ll get it. You check on her.” I pressed my lips together, wondering what we’d have said to Rose if she’d walked in on us.
She put her hand on mine, her touch almost too soft. “We need to go then, before that bell rings again.”
I nodded and managed to move, telling myself that this couldn’t happen again. That I needed to explain it to her, apologise.
Knowing I wouldn’t.
Knowing that one kiss wasn’t going to be enough.
Chapter Eleven
Georgia
It’d been twenty-two hours since I’d experienced a kiss that’d seemingly stripped my brain of any form of sanity and made my insides a puddled mess.
I still wasn’t sure whether the delivery of a parcel for Miss Rose had been a blessing or a curse. If it hadn’t called time on what I was getting up to against my kitchen counter with my colleague, then I wasn’t entirely sure when the brakes would’ve gone on. Possibly when my daughter walked in on us and I still didn’t know how that conversation might’ve panned out.
Mummy, what’s that man doing with your mouth?
Mummy, why’s Seph got his hand up your top?
Mummy, what’s Seph got in his trousers? Is that where his willy is?
Holy fucking mother of all things invented.
Because Seph was packing a weapon that a certain part of my body really would like to make fire. Explode. Burn me into the next century, just not with a water infection, because dick’s that big – well. I’d had one boyfriend back in college who’d had an appendage that was eye-watering, so big that me and two friends had all refused to sleep with him. I’d ended up feeling quite sorry for him, as I wasn’t sure exactly who would let him destroy their lady parts with his gargantuan cock.
Seph had been pressed against me and his jeans hadn’t done an awful lot to conceal what was inside the denim. My face flushed thinking about how I’d practically humped him, his warm maleness negating anything I’d done in recent months – read years – with my plastic friends.
Don’t get me wrong, after Rose’s father showed himself to be a complete and utter tosser, I’d been more than happy to satisfy everything down there with a decent sized rabbit, once I’d gotten over the trauma of childbirth.
But until yesterday, I hadn’t even been tempted to lock the lips on my face with another human, and yesterday my daughter was two rooms away and could’ve walked in on Mummy and Prince Seph sussing out the details of something other than a contract.
