“That’s what it says on paper! But what if Ethan had checked in on us two minutes earlier?”
He quirks a dark brow at me. “Then we would’ve given him quite a show.”
Heat rushes through me at the thought of what the two of us must have looked like, my legs wrapped around Donovan’s hips and my hands knotted in his hair, his mouth devouring mine. “That isn’t funny! We could have both lost our jobs.”
“On what grounds? It was 10:00 p.m. We had every reason to believe we were alone in the building.”
I fight the urge to strangle him. “Not everything is about the official rules, Donovan. Some things are about optics. If Ethan had seen…if we…”
My voice trails off, and Donovan’s gaze heats, dropping to my mouth. “You’re thinking about it too, I can tell.”
“I’m not!”
“Sure you are. And I don’t blame you. I haven’t thought about anything else since last night. And believe me, I’ve tried.” His voice lowers. “God, Rune, why do you think I’m standing here with my hands in my pockets? It’s because I’m afraid if I take them out, I’ll wind up laying you down right on the floor of this gazebo and begging you to let me make you mine.”
My jaw falls open. “You—what?”
“You don’t know me very well yet, but I don’t say things like that, Rune. I don’tdothings like that, either. But there’s just something about you…” He frees one hand and runs it through his hair in frustration. “Christ, tell me you feel it too.”
I should tell him that I don’t. That he’s lost his mind. But the best I can do is to squeak out, “I think you’ve been reading waytoo many of the Sinsters’ spicy novels. Also, Mr. Stickler-for-the-Rules, I’m pretty sure we’d get arrested for public indecency.”
“Don’t change the subject. You asked me to make youfeel, and I could have sworn I did. That you were as into it as I was. Was I wrong?”
I can see the doubt in those beautiful blue eyes of his. All I want is to erase it. “No.” Surely I can give him that much.
“Why, then? And don’t give me crap about the employee manual.”
What can I say that will convince him? “We’re too different. It would never work.”
“Have you never heard the phrase ‘opposites attract’?” he argues. “When I called you ‘Chaos,’ I didn’t mean it as an insult. I know what I said before, at the Grille, but that was just me being…” He swallows hard. “Sometimes, when I’m pushed out of my comfort zone, I can react poorly, okay?”
Now it’s my turn to snort. “You think?”
“I—I like your chaos, okay? You have this energy about you, this charisma… I don’t know how to describe it. But from the moment I met you, all I could see was you.”
“The moment you met me?” I narrow my eyes at him. “You mean when you let the elevator doors close in my face and then backed away as far as you could, like I was radiating poison?”
Donovan’s jaw clenches. “Damn it, Rune. Because I wanted… Are you really going to make me say it?”
“I think,” I say, regarding him in puzzlement, “that I am.”
“Fine!” He glares at me. “Because from the moment I saw you, I wanted to plunge my hands into your messed-up hair and mess it up some more. I wanted to pin you to the mirrored wall of that damn elevator and push up that little skirt and ravage the hell out of you. To see you wrecked just for me. And I hadn’t even said one goddamn word to you yet, other thanWhat floor.” He’sbreathing hard, his chest heaving. “So forgive me if I kept my fucking distance.”
Shocked silence falls between us. I open my mouth, shut it again.
“Say something.” His voice is tight.
I try, I really do. But for once, I’m speechless.
“If you won’t talk, then I will,” Donovan says. “You were so…alive, is the only word I can think of. You called me black and white, before? Well, it was like you stepped right into my world and filled it with color. And yeah, you made a mess. Hell, two hours after I met you, we’d already been in a wreck courtesy of my asshole brother and gotten splashed all over social media. And four hours afterthat, you fell right into my fucking arms.”
“Don’t remind me,” I mutter.
“You fit, though. Like you belonged there.” He liberates one hand from the pocket of his jeans and strokes the hair back from my face, his touch gentle. “I don't understand why I’m so drawn to you, Rune. I just know that I am. If by some bizarre chance you feel the same, then please give this—give us—a chance.”
His tone is pleading, and my chest aches at the sound. It seems impossible to me that this beautiful man, who’s willing to be so honest and vulnerable with me, could possibly be connected to the death of my family. But I’ve worked with everyone else at Smashbox for years. If not him, then who?
“Rune?” he says again, tracing the line of my cheekbone as if he can’t help but touch me. And God help me, I feel just as drawn to him. What the hell is going on here?
