London walks away from him, and he turns back, three steps back this way and he’s face-to-face with me.
“What, you stalk your probies now, Hammond? Maybe you need to be written up?” Schmiddy scoffs and steps around me, not bothering to look back as he walks back to the house.
He doesn’t have a care in the world for the probies. Or anyone else, for that matter.
“Seen better views before. Don’t know about you.” London is shoulder to shoulder with me, standing in the moving stream of pedestrians.
“I thought?—”
I don’t know what I thought.
This is precisely why I never should have entertained this idea. Me and London, we can’t be anything.
I can’t think straight.
Not knowing where she is. If she’s okay. It eats me fucking alive every damn shift.
But I... I can’t turn this off, either.
“You’re walking the wrong way. You’re not going home?” I ask.
Her shoulder presses against my own. “I was going to see my girl, clear my mind.”
I dip my head. “Mind some company?”
“Mind, no; need, yes.”
Her brown eyes lift, snagging my gaze.
Ten minutes later, I’m sliding my key into the front door lock and Petal is whining on the other side.
London chuckles. “I’m coming, baby, hold up.”
The second the door is open, Petal rushes London, who sinks to the floor and cuddles her, her body wrapping around the pup.
“I’ll give you two a minute.” I pad to the bathroom and lean on the vanity.
Maybe I should cut her off from the dog. Remove any non-work reasons to be around each other. I heave through each breath. The more I try to rationalize staying away from London, the shorter my breathing gets.
My grip whitens around the sink’s edge.
I should rip the Band-Aid off . . .
Nip this in the bud before it?—
A low groan rumbles through my throat.
“Miles?”
My name is a soft plea. The type of sound that could break a heart in two in the wrong context.
I don’t loosen my grip. I shouldn’t. I can’t.
London is behind me, her palm pressed to my spine before her forehead comes to rest on my shoulder.
Christ.
Heat winds through my veins, my cock throbbing in time to my racing pulse. My body vibrates with the need to turn around.
