“Well…” He moved back, gripped the frame of the truck, and began to shake it back and forth. “Nothing came skittering out.”
“Well, I guess that’s good,” she said.
She moved closer to him, closer to the truck, that was. And then he turned toward her, holding out the keys. This was the second time in as many days that she had taken a set of keys from him. And she could remember that last time their fingers had touched, and it had nearly set her on fire.
She gripped the end of the keys, but he didn’t let go. She pulled, and he held them fast. “Let me know if it doesn’t seem like it’s safe. I’m not going to have you driving it if it has issues. We’ll find another vehicle. If it comes down to it.”
“Thank you,” she said, and he finally released the key. She moved to peer inside the truck and didn’t realize how close that brought her to him. They were both sort of wedged in the opening between the cab and the door, and it was a lot more intimate than she had expected.
He looked down at her, and she saw something flare in his eyes. His eyes were beautiful. They were a gray sort of blue that contrasted nicely with his hair. She wanted to touch his hair. And his beard.
That beard again.
Oh no. Her heart was beating fast, and she couldn’t move. She was crushingly aware of her mouth.
And very aware of his.
Also, of the fact that his breathing mirrored her own. Fast, a little bit too shallow.
She wanted to touch him. She wanted to throw everything away. To detangle from these desperate roots, she was trying to put down and be wild for once. Free.
With the coldest, most stoic man she’d ever met. She really knew how to do wild.
But maybe that was why it was just so tempting…
“I’m your boss,” he said, taking a step away from her.
I’m your boss.
Therefore trustworthy? Or inappropriate?
It wasn’t in her head, though, that was for sure.
“Oh. I…”
“Just…” He rubbed the back of his neck, and he looked momentarily unsure of what to do. She imagined that wasn’t normal for Cody. “So, if you need a truck, I’m going to make sure you have one. I’m going to make sure that you’re taken care of. That’s what I mean.”
It wasn’t what he meant. He had been talking to her, but he had been talking to himself also.
Oh God, what a nightmare. That wasn’t in her head. That had happened. That had been a real moment of very intense sexual tension, and it had been shared.
“I’m glad I’m here,” she said. “I almost didn’t come. Because… Of everything.”
“I only wish he had done it here so I could kick his ass,” Cody said. “Also, I’m not cutting your pay.”
He started to walk away from her. “Oh…”
“I told you. I’m going to make sure that you’re taken care of.”
She stood there by the old truck, watching Cody’s retreating figure. He was her boss.
He was her boss.
And she found that she believed him when he said that he was going to make sure she was taken care of. She was doing it. That thing where she tried to find security by wrapping as many things up in one aspect of her life as possible. But if anything had given her an incentive to avoid being in a situation like this with him again, it was that.
Because without this job, she didn’t have anything.
And with it… She was beginning to think that she might have quite a lot. She couldn’t mess it up.
