Chapter Thirteen – Jacob

Upside #13: The only blonde you want to fuck over a desk is one you see in porn. Unless Melanie Rogers kisses you like she’s drowning. Then you forget the porn.

Motherfucker.

My cock throbbed like a teenage boys. What the fuck did I do now? Lillie was on the other side of the door, and all I could think about was how Mellie gasped beneath my lips. All I could fucking think about was how she melded with my body and my touch and let my tongue battle hers.

How she’d let me pin her to a wall and kiss her until I couldn’t breathe anymore. Until she couldn’t breathe.

All I could think about was how the line had been there, and I’d crossed it.

Last night had been an accident. Sure—I’d thought about it. What it’d be like to kiss her and whether she’d taste like the refreshers she drinks or the sugary sweetness of the powdered donuts she was so obsessed with.

I’d thought about it too much. But that didn’t mean I wanted to act on it. Shit, no, that was a lie. I wanted to act on it. I always had since the moment she turned around in the cellar and dropped the gin bottle.

I shouldn’t act on it. It was wrong. We worked together. She was my employee. I knew it was wrong, but for some fucking stupid reason, that just made me want her even more.

“Uh, Mr. Creed?” Lillie called.

I quickly sat on Mellie’s side of the desk and adjusted my throbbing cock. “Come in.”

She tentatively opened the door and held up the phone. “He’s on hold. He keeps calling.”

“Did you tell him I’d call him back?”

“Four times. He won’t listen to me.”

The bathroom door clicked open.

I hope she’d looked in the damn mirror…

Mellie stepped out, as perfectly put together as she had been before I’d given into temptation. Her hair was smoothed back out, her lipstick reapplied, and any smudges had been wiped clean away.

“Pass it here.” She held out her hand for the phone, and Lillie passed it over. Mellie pushed one button before raising it to her ear. “Hello, Mr. Decaux?”

Moments passed.

“No, this is Melanie Rogers, the manager of the hotel. I understand you’re looking for Mr. Creed, but he’s not available right now.” She paused. “No, I can’t make him available. Mr. Creed had to leave shortly after our meeting to handle some personal business… That’s correct. He’s not here, so I have to politely ask you to stop calling my hotel and commandeering my phone lines, or I’ll call the police and report you for harassment… Mhmm… I’ll be sure to pass that on for you when I see him next. Have a lovely day, Mr. Decaux.” She hit a button on the phone, turned to Lillie, and handed it back. “Done. He won’t be bothering you anymore.” Then, she looked at me. “Call him tomorrow before we all lose our minds, okay?”

I quirked a brow. “Yes, boss.”

She shot me a withering look. Whatever wildness had taken her over before was now gone. “I’m going to get some work done.”

In other words, she was avoiding having to talk to me. “I’ll clean up the mess you made, shall I, clumsy?”

“I’ll ask Rosa to send one of the maids in. And I didn’t make it—you made me make it. I told you that already.” With that, she spun on her shiny, black heels and stalked out of the office, her tight skirt drawing my attention down to her pert ass.

God damn. What was I doing?

***

“I don’t see the problem.” Sam put my boxes of take-out Chinese in front of me. “You’re already over half of the most awkward part—seeing someone naked.”

I shook my head. “She’s my employee.”

“And you’ve done a fucking awesome job of keeping that separate so far, haven’t you?”

I flipped him the bird. Not only could neither of us cook, but we reverted to teenage boys whenever we were together. Our moms would be so proud.

“She’s a great person to be around. She’s easy to be around, to put it simply. It’s easy to forget who she is,” I admitted. “Until she fucking ignores me, then I remember again.”

“So, let me get this straight.” Sam wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “You scared her, she almost burned the place down, she yelled, you kissed her, then she went out of her way to avoid you for the rest of the working day.”

“She didn’t burn the place down, but only because the candle wasn’t lit. Otherwise, all bets are off.”

“How can one adult woman be so clumsy and not have seriously hurt herself by now?”

“Believe me,” I said, “I’ve been asking myself that question every day for the past week. “I’ve seen her in action, and she never gets injured.”

“Now you’ve said it, she’ll injure herself slicing a banana or something.”

“That’s definitely jinxed her.” I sipped from my bottle of beer just as my phone buzzed. I picked it up and opened the message.

Mellie: You never explained the new chairs.

I snorted, almost coughing on my beer. I put the bottle down and replied.

Me: You went off on a tangent and decided to ignore me after that.

Mellie: I wasn’t ignoring you.

Me: Avoiding…ignoring…semantics.

Mellie: I had a lot of work to do and when I got back to the office you’d gone. Not my fault you left.

Me: You were avoiding me.

Mellie: I wasn’t.

Me: You were.

Mellie: I wasn’t.

Me: I’m not sorry I kissed you, spitfire. If you’re fishing for an apology, you’re not going to get one.

She didn’t reply straight away. I put my phone back down and, ignoring Sam’s quizzical look, went back to my food. My cousin opened his mouth but was swiftly interrupted by the ringing of his own phone.

He pulled it from his pocket, looked at the screen, grinned at me, then headed for his room.

I shook my head, and my phone buzzed again.

Mellie: I’m not sorry you kissed me, either.