As she comes out of the closet, Mandy rolls up the shirtsleeves. The dress shirt is tucked into the black skirt.
She looks…
“Better,” I say.
“This looks dumb.” Mandy wrinkles her nose.
I toss the last bite of the sandwich to Pepper. Hungry for something more, I grab Mandy’s chin, run my thumbover her mouth. “You look fucking hot in my shirt.” I’m not going to kiss her. “I’m going to shower, then we can leave. Unless you want to stay?” I can’t decide if I want her to call my bluff.
She just gulps and hurries out of the room.
Cursing, I shrug off my workout clothes and step under the cold spray of the shower.
I shouldn’t keep her here, don’t need to keep her here. I can send her to a hotel. Shoot, I can put her up in a different high-security tower and hire a car to drive her around, if I’m that worried about her safety.
But there’s thisneed—I need her near me. I need to know exactly where she is.
Or maybe I just want to fuck her.
29
MANDY
Salinger’s car is waiting in front of the tower when we step off the elevator.
“Is Ms. Pepper going into work with you, or do you need a dogsitter?” Seward asks hopefully.
“Very clearly, you’re volunteering.” Salinger’s tone is conversational, casual, like last night he didn’t just have his hands all over me. Like an hour ago he didn’t say he wanted to suck my nipples through a shirt.
“As I said, it’s nice to have animals and babies around.”
“Salinger, you should adopt a pet so Seward has a friend to talk to,” I say.
“We don’t need anyone else around here having entire conversations with animals.” He opens the passenger door for me, and I sink into the deep leather seat.
The car smells like Salinger. I wonder what it would be like to have that smell wrapped around me in his oversizedbed, with the dark comforter shoved to the foot of the bed, us tangled in the sheets...
Nope. Not about my boss, we’re not.
Lines are being blurred, though, or maybe it’s just me.
Beside me, Salinger’s driving, eyes unreadable behind dark sunglasses.
He’s so unfairly hot, and I admit I had some teen-girl fantasy of him falling in love with me when I first started working for him. That is, until I came to my senses and signed up for that singles mixer.
I never should have gotten involved with Jaxon, and I definitely can never ever get involved with Salinger Svensson.
“Mandy,” he says.
Pepper tries to climb into his lap.
“Don’t get hair on his clothes, Pepper.” The dog ignores me, jumping in Salinger’s lap, her front paws on the window. “Oh, Starbucks!”
Salinger’s trying to ignore us, which is probably hard because we’re both practically in his lap as me and the dog gaze longingly at the green-and-white storefront.
“Coffee.”My voice is reverent. “Pepper and I usually buy a pick-me-up on the way to the office.”
He keeps driving.
