Chapter Six
“You what?”
“I think we should kiss,” he repeated, clearly flustered. “We should just do it, and get it out of the way. Then we can forget about it and get over it, move on, clear the air, whatever. But it’s just always there,” he said, almost pacing in my doorway. “It’s right there between us and it’s driving me mad. I can’t concentrate, all I can think about is what the fuck kissing you would feel like, or taste like.”
My heart was hammering and my stomach was in knots. He was standing right in front of me, telling me he wanted to kiss me.
“I’m not concerned about work,” he went on to say. “Because I’m sure, I’m absolutely certain that if I just kiss you once and get it out of my system, I’ll be fine. I’ll be back to normal and we can just act like nothing happened. I know you want to kiss me too,” he said, still ranting. “I can see it when you look at me. You stare at my mouth and you lick your lips, and it’s like you’re trying to not want to kiss me and I don’t blame you, because it’s weird, I get that. But I think if we just did it and got it out of the way, we could work together without all this wondering about what you might taste like…” His eyes went wide and he paled. The look on my face must have scared him. “Or not,” he mumbled, taking a step back from me. “I’ve obviously misread the signs and you’re not saying anything and I’ve just ruined everything.” He turned and almost ran for the elevator.
“Cooper, stop,” I said, following him and grabbing his arm. “You haven’t misread anything.”
He exhaled in a rush, pure relief, and ran his hand through his hair.
“But I’m not sure,” I said, taking a step closer to him, so we were almost touching.
“We don’t have to,” he said quickly. “I shouldn’t have suggested—”
His words died when I slid my hand along his jaw. I leaned in and could feel his warm breath on my lips. “I’m not sure if once would be enough.”
His eyes were wide and he licked his lips. “Probably not.”
Our lips met, open and soft. It was a tender and wary kiss; scared of what was happening, of where this was going. Neither of us moved for a long second, but I gently pulled his bottom lip between my lips, and he gasped.
It seemed to kick him into gear because he let his satchel fall to the floor so he could use two hands to hold me. His mouth opened as he deepened the kiss, his hands slid around my waist as his tongue slid into my mouth.
I think I groaned. Or maybe it was him.
I held his face as we kissed, taking in everything about him—the warmth of his body, his soft lips, his taste, his smell. He made my head spin and my knees weak, my heart was thumping and I wanted more.
But then the elevator arrived at our floor and before the door could open, I pulled Cooper’s hand, leading him back into my apartment. He grabbed his satchel off the floor and made it inside, just as old Mrs. Giordano walked out of the elevator. I gave her a polite wave and smile as I closed the door and Cooper burst out laughing.
I leaned against the closed door and grinned at him. “Mrs. Giordano doesn’t need to see that.”
Cooper put his satchel down against the wall near the door, and with smiling lips, he said, “Mrs. what’s-her-name might like to see it.”
“Mrs. Giordano is ninety-two years old,” I told him. I was still leaning against the door and he was right in front of me. He wasn’t pressed up against me, but he wasn’t letting me move either. His eyes were flickering from my eyes to my mouth, as though he was about to kiss me again. My voice was just a whisper. “I thought you said just one kiss?”
“I thought you said it wouldn’t be enough,” he whispered back as he pressed his lips to mine again. He held my face this time, as he opened my lips with his own. Our tongues met and he pressed his body against me.
I wrapped my hands around his back and pulled him tighter against me. I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want to want him. I didn’t want to like it. I didn’t want to need it.
But I did.
He slowed the kiss, dragging his lips from mine, looking down until his forehead rested on my cheek, then my chin, and eventually he took a small step back. He was breathing hard, but he was smiling. My hands were still on his hips, so he took another small step back, stepping away from me. “I think I should go now,” he said.
I worried that he might panic at the realization of what had just happened. We had just kissed. Twice. Me, his friend’s father, a man twice his age. His boss.
“There’s no need to panic,” I said, realizing how stupid it sounded as soon as I’d said it.
“Oh, I’m not panicking,” he said gruffly, then he very obviously readjusted the bulge in his jeans.
“Oh.”
Cooper laughed, embarrassed. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly then looked me in the eye. His eyes were bright and playful. “I will see you in the morning at the office.”
“Okay,” I answered, trying to gauge his mood.
He picked up his satchel, put his hand on the door handle and said, “I’m going to need you to move from the door.”
“Oh,” I said, stepping around him. “Sure.”
Then he stepped right up close and pecked my lips again, kissing me for the third time.
“That’s three,” I told him.
He opened the door. “I’m not counting,” he said as he walked toward the elevator. He looked around and smiled at me before he stepped in.
I closed the door to my apartment, wondering what the fuck I’d just done.
I’d just crossed every professional and personal line I’d ever had. He worked for me, and he was my son’s friend. Meaning, he wasn’t just someone Ryan knew, he was someone Ryan had gone to school with. As in the same age. As in exactly half my age. I tried not to think about that. Or what that meant.
Cooper was an adult. A very willing, consenting adult. A very well-endowed adult by what I’d felt pressed against my hip.
And with that thought, I stripped off and got in the shower, seeking relief. Again. To images of Cooper. Again. What he would look like underneath me with his head thrown back, or on his knees with his lips around me.
The lips I’d just tasted.
Fuck.
I came so hard the room spun. I leaned against the tiles in the shower to catch my breath and until I was pretty sure I could stand without falling.
Fuck, this guy was doing my head in.
I thought about him all night, what he’d say in the morning at the office, how he’d react when he saw me. I went to bed thinking about him, I dreamed of him. I needed to jerk off again in the morning.
It was getting ridiculous.
It was with a dreaded anticipation I went to work the next day. An errant thought occurred to me when I was stepping out of the elevator to my office that he could report me for sexual harassment and in that split second, a thousand thoughts ran through my head.
I half expected Jennifer to tell me I had a team of lawyers sitting in my office, but she just smiled and handed me messages. “Coffee is on your desk.”
I ran my hand through my hair and huffed out a breath in relief. Jesus, what had I got myself into?
I was at my desk about half an hour later when Jennifer walked in with Cooper behind her. He was dressed in his usual tailor-fitted suit, looking even better today than he ever had, but he said nothing more than a polite and quiet, “Good morning, Mr. Elkin.”
I had a lunch meeting, and a consult meeting, and I saw him briefly throughout the day. But not once did he make eye contact. He didn’t look at me and smile, or laugh, like I was used to seeing.
He basically didn’t acknowledge me. He was professional and stoic, like nothing had happened between us. Maybe he was right. Maybe if he kissed me once, he would get it out of his system and move on like nothing happened at all.
I, on the other hand, was a distracted mess.
I didn’t know if he was playing some kind of game. I didn’t know if he was just being professional, or if I was truly out of his system and now meant nothing to him.
All day, every time the phone rang, I half expected Jennifer to tell me one of the partners wanted to see me because a complaint had been lodged against me.
That call never came of course, but at six o’clock when Jennifer knocked on my door to say goodnight, Cooper was behind her. I looked up from my desk. “Goodnight, Jennifer,” I said. Then I looked back at the papers on my desk. “Mr. Jones. A moment, please.”
Jennifer gave a nod and left Cooper to walk in. He sat down and looked around my office, then at me. “Yes?”
I didn’t exactly know what to say, or how to say it. So I went with a safer, “You’ve been busy today?”
He looked at me seriously and said, “It’s technically after hours, so can I speak freely?”
I looked at him, unsure of what he meant. “Yes.”
But he didn’t speak. He threw his head back and laughed. “Jennifer has been on my ass all day,” he said with a laugh. “Said you looked stressed this morning and didn’t need any interruptions from the likes of me.”
“The likes of you?”
“Those were her words.”
I smiled, relieved, and exhaled loudly. “I almost had a stress-attack getting out of the elevator this morning,” I admitted. “I wondered if my boss and his lawyers would be in my office when I got here.”
Cooper’s smile died. “What for?”
“A sexual harassment case, from a certain twenty-two-year-old employee,” I said, looking pointedly at him.
I could have compiled a list of how I expected him to react, but laughter wouldn’t have been on it. He burst out laughing, and when he looked at me again and saw the look on my face, he laughed some more.
“It’s hardly funny,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Were you really worried?” he asked, still smiling.
“I didn’t know what to think.”
“Neither did I,” he admitted. “So, is this where you tell me it was just the one kiss and nothing more? Is that what you called me in here for? To say thanks but no thanks?”
“It was actually three kisses.”
“I wasn’t counting.”
I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. This was it. This was where the line got drawn or where the lines got blurred.
“You seemed pretty into it from where I was standing,” he said.
I barked out a laugh. He had no idea how into it I was, how often I thought of him or the positions I thought of him in. Fuck.
I had to be losing my mind.
“What do you want?” I asked, trying to take the pressure off making it my decision.
“I want an honest answer.”
I exhaled in a huff. He wasn’t letting me out of this. “I… I, um…”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he said impatiently. “If I were to offer to bring dinner to your place tonight, would you say yes or no?”
“Are you always so forthright?” I asked. “Or is it a Gen Y thing?”
He raised one eyebrow at me. “For one of the best, most sought-after draughtsmen in the industry, you’re not very good at making decisions.”
“Professional decisions are easy,” I told him. “Personal ones are not.”
“Oh, Tom, just answer the question.”
He’d called me Tom. Not sir, not Mr. Elkin, not even Thomas. He’d called me Tom.
“Yes. Yes, I want dinner. Yes, I want more. Once wasn’t enough,” I blurted out. “Once was never going to be enough.”
He grinned at me, and held up three fingers. “It was actually three kisses.”
I bit back a sigh. “Are you always so infuriating?”
Cooper laughed. “Yep, it’s a Gen Y thing.”
I groaned. “Can I take back the offer of dinner?”
“Nope,” he said, standing up. “I’m getting Chinese and I’ll be at your place in”—he looked at his watch—“half an hour.”
I smiled as I watched him walk out. When the door closed behind him, I let out a groan, and ran my hands through my hair. I shut down my laptop, picked up my satchel and turned the lights off when I left.
I think I grinned the whole way home.