She studied him, wondering if Ross was more affected than he was letting on. There was immediate irritation with herself when Mia’s eyes tracked to his lips again. “Sure. Maybe I’ll stop by the store tomorrow or the next day with your images. Is that okay?”
“That’s fine.”
“Good night,” she said, getting in the driver’s seat.
“Good night.”
He shut the door, and she drove off.
Her innocent wish of being the recipient of a kiss from Ross was turning into earnest desire. Mia wanted more, but it wasn’t in the plans. In fact, it was so far off, not only was it not on the page, it wasn’t in the whole damn ream of paper. But, despite her effort at avoiding distractions, Mia wasn’t sure anymore if she wanted to avoid this particular one. Perhaps it was time. What better distraction was there than Ross? And Mia realized her relationship with him could be heaven, or it could be hell.
Chapter Eighteen
“Hey.” Ross wasat the computer when Aanya walked into the office.
“Good morning,” she greeted with her usual cheerfulness, coming into the room to remove her jacket and purse. She bent to pet a sleeping Hermes in his dog bed, who was doing a lot of sleeping these days. “Did you have a nice time at the auction?”
“Yeah, it was fine,” he replied without removing his concentration from the computer screen. “You didn’t miss much.”
“I was there.”
Ross glanced at her, surprised. “You were?”
“Yes, I came with my husband.”
“Oh, well, I’m sorry that I missed you. I would have liked to have met him.”
“There will be other opportunities. We saw you, but you were…occupied…with a friend.”
With the twinkle in her eyes, she appeared to be finding their conversation this morning amusing. He was far from amused, being careful to keep his face void of all emotions. There weren’t any emotions to be had. As far as Ross was concerned, it was a non-event. Why wouldn’t his face reflect this? “We just happen to run into each other.”
He was discouraged to see the twinkle did not dissipate. Instead, it spread to Aanya’s mouth, which turned into a smile. “That’s nice. I think she’s a perfectly lovely and sweet young lady. You two look very good together.”
“We’re not together.”
“Oh, well, that’s…disappointing.” She shook her head in disagreement, departing the office.
“No, it’s not disappointing. We’re strictly old friends,” he called after her. Yes, old friends who kissed in the parking lot beside Mia’s car. He dropped his head into the palm of one hand, rubbing his eyes.
He was the biggest bonehead for thinking kissing her was anything close to being a good idea. This ranked right up there with touching a hot stove, jamming a fork into an electrical socket, or putting his face next to a rattlesnake. Well, it was over and done with, and he wasn’t going to waste any more brain cells thinking about it.
Goddamn Mia with her coffee smells and her dimple and her ability to mix him up so much, he didn’t know which way was left and which was right. And this was before the kiss even took place.
Ross’s first mistake was having a poorly thought-out plan. At the time, his reasoning was,What the hell?Let’s give sixteen-year-old Ross a thrill, and the young, naïve kid would realize things built up inside the mind never met expectations. Twenty-five-year-old Ross wasn’t worried because he could handle one tiny kiss with Mia Russo. Since high school, he’d had plenty of other kisses, and one more wouldn’t make or break him. The moment would satisfy his curiosity but not be anything more than a one-and-done. There was a good chance this kiss would disappear from his mind before the end of the year, and then it would be his turn to pretend to forget. The idea was to deliver the kiss, offer Mia a thrill before wishing her a good night. Then he would whistle all the way to his truck without any further reflections on the matter.
He thought he was being clever, which was his second mistake. (When had he ever been clever at anything?) The idea train derailed from the shoddy tracks as soon as it departed the station.
His third mistake: the plan was concocted with only him in mind. After he gave the idea more in-depth analysis, he concluded this was probably the worst mistake in the bunch. With kissing, there’s a partner, and he failed to account for her contribution in all of this. It didn’t take Ross long to realize his glaring omission. In fact, the light bulb clicked on the exact moment the parking lot experiment started. It happened when Mia’s eager mouth kissed him in return and her lips parted on a soft exhale. God, the kiss was heated and hungry and—
Exactly like putting his hand on a hot stove while using his other hand to jam a rattlesnake into an electrical socket. Or something like that.
Ross dragged a hand through his hair at the memory, exhilaration zipping through his veins.
Realizing a severe miscalculation had been made, his brain began registering a distress warning with a loudRetreat!Like the traitors they were, his hands defected to the other side, planting themselves on the supple curves of her body beneath her coat. Because his mouth was nearest in proximity to the brain, it was recruited next for the coward’s cause of desertion. All he accomplished was adjusting the kiss’s angle to a sweeter one, and the defenses fell at once. As a last-ditch effort, the brain sent aMayday! Mayday!to the lower limbs, his legs to be specific. They were able to do the task the rest of his body was too weak to carry out, but not before the appendage between his legs perked up, finding interest in the whole situation. It was clear there would be no casual strolling and whistling to his truck after this man-made disaster.
Regardless, it didn’t matter. It wouldn’t happen again.
“Your old friend is here,” Aanya said in a sing-song voice when he approached with a repaired ring in hand.
