He kisses me the minute we’re out the door—on my peppermint-stained lips, then my cheeks and jaw and ears. He laughs lowly and picks me up, throwing me over his shoulder fireman-style, and carries me to the elevator down the hall. By the time we’re inside it, the elevator operator has retired for the evening—which is for the best, because Alex is hard. He nudges me against the wall, hikes one of my legs up around him.
“This is what I imagine every time we’re in that goddamn office elevator,” he rumbles. “Even the first time, beautiful.”
His fingers push against my core, slipping past my underwear, feeling for himself how ready I am. He sighs softly and presses his body closer to mine.
“I don’t want to wait until we get home,” I pant.
“No?” Alex teases.
“No.”
In my mind, I imagined this would lead to the leasing office bathroom or a storage closet, but in Alex’s, it leads to his dad’s town house three blocks over. We walk there frantic, kissing on every corner, and then Alex is fumbling with a single key in his wallet, tucked inside a worn white envelope. When the door opens, I clock the wrought iron staircase, the chandelier, white tile floors, a tall orchid on the entryway table—and a stack of papers. One with an embossed gray insignia in the corner that looks… vaguely familiar. But before I can place it, line the insignia up with an accompanying memory, Alex leads me into a sunroom and draws me down onto the softly carpeted floor with him.
“You been here before?” I mumble between kisses.
“Nope,” he grinds out, working his hips against mine in an imitation of what we both want. “Wasn’t even sure the key would work.”
“Nice place. You think they shop at Pottery Barn, too?”
Alex rumbles out a laugh on top of me. “Hush,jagi.I’m trying to focus.”
I have no idea what Alex just called me, but it feels kind of monumental, so I do what he says and hush, let him kiss me the way he wants.
Touch me the way he wants.
Touchhimthe way he wants.
Until we’re boneless, high on each other’s pleasure, a mess of sweaty limbs and peppermint schnapps breath. He kisses each of my fingertips, naked on the floor of a home he’s never been inside. But he isn’t peeking around, doesn’t seem to care in the slightest about where we are. He’s looking only at me. His eyes are hot, magnetic, enthralling.
And I still can’t muster up a single word.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
I look upjagithe next day:Korean term of endearment for one’s significant other. In English,jagiis like calling someone honey, darling, or baby.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
To:Casey Maitland (Financial Analyst)
From:Molly West (Human Resources Representative)
Meeting Subject:Quick Touchbase!
Time:Thursday, December 21, 10:00–10:15A.M.
The meeting invite comes through on my desktop monitor while I’m hours deep into an analysis for Don. It’s 9:45A.M.Molly wants to meet in fifteen minutes.
“Fuck.”
I stare at the screen for a full minute, frozen in disbelief, before I realize Fari got up at the sound of my profanity and is leaning over my shoulder. “Fuck,” she repeats. “That’s ominous.”
I quickly scan through all the reasons this meeting could be happening. Layoffs wouldn’t be starting yet; we still don’t even know the results of the board’s deliberation. And as much as Iwant to warn my friends, I’ve kept my mouth shut about the acquisition, so it can’t be a scolding on that, either. Which just leaves…
“Little Cooper knows about us,” I whisper.
“About you and Alex Harrison?”
I nod, thinking back to that girl at the Christmas party who snapped our photo.
