“It’s company policy.”
“Got it.”
I click to the next slide as his fingers fly across the keyboard. My hand moves under the hem of my shirt to scratch my chest, and I hear his typing falter slightly.
Hm, he’s looking. Likes what he sees.
“How much longer do you have?” he asks a minute later.
I glance down at the screen. It’s one of those trainings that forces you to watch the entire video before moving on to the next slide. It’s infuriating.
“Twenty more minutes.”
“Good. I should be done by then.”
He takes his glasses off and rubs at his mismatched eyes. And I can’t look away.
He catches me staring, and he glowers. “You keep looking at me like that, I’m going to have you take the sexual harassment training too.”
That makes me laugh slightly. “Yeah, all right.”
He cocks his head and then shakes it. “You look at me like you know me.”
“Nope.”
“Havewe met before, Mr. Barrett?”
He stares at me for a long time, and I wonder if he’ll ever realize who I am, but he doesn’t, so I say nothing.
“Don’t think so.”
He rolls his lips between his teeth. “And it’s not my scent?”
“No. Haven’t noticed it.”
That’s a total lie. I have noticed it. It’s intoxicating. Every time I’m near, it infects me, turns me on.
But I tamp it down, reeling it in.
“Why do you keep bringing it up?” I ask, and that makes him bristle.
“I don’t. I mentioned it a few times because…because I realize I’m different. I try to keep it under wraps, but I can’t take it away entirely.”
I wait for him to explain, and when he doesn’t, I have to ask. “Why are you different?”
“I don’t know you well enough to tell you that.”
All right then. Guess I shouldn’t be too curious.
I turn my gaze back to the computer screen, even though I feel Arbor’s eyes on me. It’s a prickle that spreads across my skin, and it only abates when he glances away. Why this man has such an effect on me is mindboggling. I have no fucking idea what’s going on, but everything about him calls to me.
Maybe it’s because he was my first with a man.
Or maybe it’s because his scent does things to my hormones.
I have no fucking idea. And instead of obsessing over it, I force my gaze to stay on the computer screen and work in relative silence until I’m done with my training.
“You done?” he asks as I shut the laptop and stretch my arms above my head. My shirt rides up slightly, exposing my abdomen.
