“For as long as it keeps you calm.”
“I am calm,” she murmured against his finger.
“See? It’s working. Should’ve thought of this back on the bridge. Might’ve kept you from kissing me.”
Her soft lips lifted with a smile beneath his finger. “You’re never going to let me live that one down, are you?”
“Can you blame me?”
She shook her head as she reached for his wrist to lower his finger from her mouth. “I also wouldn’t blame you if you asked me to leave.”
“Why would I do that? We made a deal. Unless... do you want to leave?” His lungs tightened. “I mean, you can leave. Nobody’s saying you can’t. I don’t ever want you to feel like—”
“I don’t want to leave.”
He exhaled slowly, trying to hide his relief. He glanced down at their hands. At some point she’d let go of his wrist and he’d grabbed hold of her fingers. He forced himself to let go. “I know I gave you a bit of a hard time at first, but just for the record—”
“Oh, how we love that record.”
“I don’t exactly hate that you’re here.”
“There you go with the sweet talk again.”
“Well, get ready to swoon, because what I’m trying to say here is... I feel like you’re somewhat close to almost being actually helpful.”
The joke landed like he hoped it would, making her laugh. And not one of her fake snorty-sounding guffaws either. A true laugh. A beautiful laugh from deep inside that made her eyes crinkle and her lips lift in a way that made him think he needed to press a finger over his own mouth to keep from kissing her.
Man, she was beautiful.
Nate flicked the vent switch up and down. A little air circulation would be helpful right now. He continued playing with the switch. “But seriously, don’t feel obligated. If at any point you get tired of...”Me.He cleared his throat. “Committee meetings and secretarial duties and to-do lists—”
For the second time her fingers wrapped around his forearm. Almost like in order to talk to him, she had to be touching a part of him. Again. He didn’t hate it.
“Does it make me a little kooky that I actually adore their ridiculous meetings?”
“Makes you very kooky.”
She laughed again. That sound was quickly turning into an addicting melody he wanted to star as a favorite on his playlist.
When she inched forward, Nate shot his finger up to her lips. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Think about what,” she mumbled against his finger.
“Kissing me.”
“Why on earth would I kiss you? You just said I was kooky.”
“Please. I know your track record. Calling you kooky won’t stop you from going after my lips. Plus you’ve been ogling my spectacular chest for the past ten minutes.”
Her eyes crinkled in amusement. “Excuse me, but I haven’t ogled anything. The first three minutes I even had my eyes covered.”
“But then you did some touching, which we all know goes hand in hand with ogling.”
“I’m leaving now.” Still grinning, McKenna covered her eyes with one hand and fumbled for the doorknob with the other. “And for the record, I didn’t touch your chest. Your chest touched my hand.”
“Is that what happened?” Nate said, leaning to see through the narrowing space of the door closing shut. “Well, for the record you never denied that my chest is spectacular. We already know how fond you are of my left armpit. Or was it the right? Let’s just assume you’re obsessed with both.”
The door slammed shut on her laugh. When Nate turned toward the mirror, the steam had cleared enough that he could see himself grinning like a fool.
