He laid a hand on my shoulder and turned me toward the map. Standing just behind me, with his body aligned with mine, he pointed at the monitor. “See this cold front?” As his right hand traveled across the graphic, his left drifted along the bare skin of my arm. “It’s sliding up under the warm air mass.”
Okay, surely we were no longer talking about the weather. Nothing on the map matched what he was describing.
“What happens when two bodies collide?” My voice came out a quiet rasp. He was so close, I could have leaned back and pressed against him.
With a breath that tickled my neck, he whispered, “Severe turbulence.”
My own breath became shallow. I wanted to turn around and face him, but maybe this was the only way he’d confess his attraction to me. “What’s your prediction?”
His chin brushed my ear as he touched the screen, hovering over the mountain range to our west, and his electricity sparked across my skin. “It’s sometimes difficult for a low pressure system to surmount so many obstacles.”
I twisted around and licked my lips. He took off his glasses, and his green eyes pinned me in place. My heart rate quickened. I chanced a little more open flirtation. “How likely are they to come together?”
I prayed this had all been innuendo.
Like he heard my plea, he bent his head, his mouth inches from mine, and whispered. “Under the right conditions, one hundred percent chance.”
That wicked smile I loved so much twisted the corner of his lip. I played back the question I’d asked, and God. My face had to be beet red from my own cringe-worthiness. I’d never been this brazen with anyone, even if it was only code.
I locked onto his gaze. “So what’s keeping them apart?”
The edge of the desk pressed against my thighs as I leaned back, knees parted. He stepped into the breach, so close, rocking into me, letting me feel his own arousal. “Nothing but air.”
Was that me swooning?
“Evan? Elizabeth?”
We both swiveled to find Lauren, standing in the doorway, looking from me sitting on the desk directly below the monitor, in a most unladylike position, back to Evan groin to groin with her associate producer. Without another word, she turned and walked out.
“Oh, fuck.” Evan backed away with a wince and took off after Lauren.
What an ignominious end to my career.
Chapter Twenty
Evan
“The Devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape.”
Hamlet
I chased after Lauren, hoping to convince her…of what? Not to believe her lying eyes?
Jesus. What a shit show. I’d hoped to give Elizabeth the promised newscast pointers, but from the minute I’d walked in, the studio had been a zoo. The frenetic energy had me on edge, and then she stood there, inches away, looking like sin in a short skirt. And I lost control.
We’d texted all weekend, light and casual, all very safe, very PG. I’d meant it when I told her I didn’t want to date coworkers, but I couldn’t stop replaying that kiss from Saturday night.
Despite my lingering distrust I’d let my guard down. The more we’d talked, the more I liked her. The more I liked her, the more I wanted her. And the more I wanted her, the more I liked her. It was a perfect storm, making me crazy.
So when she came into the weather office, I didn’t think at all. My body just acted out a fantasy. I had a rule not to mess around at work, and at my first opportunity, I couldn’t resist touching Elizabeth. And God, the way she bent to me, coaxing me to whisper things that would have been too honest if we hadn’t couched it in innuendo.
But she’d told me that was her language, and I was a willing pupil.
She made flirting fun, like she fed off me, off my thoughts and words, as well as my body. I’d never had such a connection with anyone. It was almost like she could read my mind.
Then Lauren walked in, and my house of cards disintegrated.
By the time I caught up to her, Lauren had entered the control room, clipboard in hand, directing a wide-eyed producer I’d never seen before at the dials. She glanced up at me with a scowl. “Evan, I don’t have time for this today.”
