The delivery had broken the spell. He’d answered the door, almost like he lived there and I was freaked out that that hadn’t freaked me out, and I’d checked that Rose was still sleeping. Luckily for me, she’d slept like the dead since the day she’d turned two, and when the parcel had been signed for and I’d discovered it was from Olivia, whatever spell had been cast around us in the kitchen had gone. We’d resumed working until Max had called Seph and demanded his presence at the gym.
Maybe he’d left me reluctantly. I’d kind of got the vibe that if I’d asked him to stay, he would’ve, but by that point I was having a minor freak out.
And I was having another right now.
This morning I’d dropped Rose off with Elspeth, making my child-minder-fairy-godmother swear to phone me if Rose so much as turned a shade paler, then I headed into the office for a client meeting, followed by coffee with another potential client, and now I was behind my desk, hearing Seph’s laugh as he came closer to the door and wondering if I could hide under something, like the pile of his winter coats that were near the door.
I kissed my colleague and I liked it.
He didn’t taste of cherry chapstick.
No, he’d tasted of all male, dirty, sexy male.
I’d always loved my red hair, but I didn’t love my colouring. Any form of blush came up like hives, which was exactly what was happening now.
Seph laughed again from directly outside our office, speaking to Max about the boxing training they’d done at the gym yesterday. My heart thudded heavier than a punch, and one that was repeated over and over again.
I was a thirty-something year old woman with a daughter and a pretty successful career. I’d kissed a colleague, not been screwed senseless by him.
I wasn’t even sure who’d started the kiss. When I replayed in it my head, which I’d done at least twice - if twice was a double digit number – sometimes it was me who’d pressed my lips to his, his hands on my arm, my waist and then moving up to my hair, dictating the pace and intensity of it. Sometimes it was him who’d started it, leaning in and demanding from me straight away something I hadn’t wanted to give to anyone else, least of all while my daughter was so close.
Least of all with the mistake I’d made five years ago.
The door opened and I was pretty sure my chest had been blasted open with the rate my heart was thudding. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Seph had entered and dialled an ambulance, finding my exploded body across the floor.
That would possibly have been the kindest thing to happen to me, seeing that if it didn’t, my face was going to set the room on fire.
“How’s Rose? I messaged you to find out – is she okay?”
His beaming smile lit up his face like a megawatt bulb.
I managed to nod, somehow regaining the use of a few of my faculties. “She’s much better. Staying off nursery for the rest of the week though.” I was pretty sure Seph wasn’t bothered where she was, as long as she was okay.
He rummaged around his desk, which had gone from immaculate to a hurricane with a temper in a matter of days. “Did she sleep okay?”
I smiled. “Like a very tired four-year-old should. Lucky for me, she sleeps like a log and doesn’t move. When she was younger, I woke up to a foot in my mouth a couple of times and I’m not being metaphorical.”
“She sleeps with you?” His raised his brows.
I noticed that his stubble was darker than yesterday and figured he hadn’t shaved again. The bits lower than my stomach twisted, remembering what that had felt like when we’d kissed and my skin goosed thinking about how it would feel travelling across my stomach and further down.
I had to stop these thoughts just in case they were written across my face.
“Sometimes. She did when she was younger, and she did last night. I wouldn’t have slept if she’d been in her own room.”
I met his eyes for the first time and tried to read what he was thinking. Was he stuck on that kiss like I was? Or was this a normal thing, making out with the new girl at work?
I had no idea and no one to ask.
“But she’s okay today? No headache or anything?” He looked genuinely concerned.
“If she touches the bump on her head it hurts, but it will for a few days. Apart from that, she’s back to normal. How was your gym session?”
It was the smallest of small talk.
His grin was shit-eating, smug and charm rolled into one irresistible smirk. “Have you seen Max today?”
I hadn’t, preferring to stay well away from anyone related to Joseph Callaghan this morning just in case they recognised a mouth that had been devoured by him.
