10
Florence
The place is busy tonight, and by the time we sit down fifteen minutes later, I'm past ready to eat.
"Can I get a salad while we wait for the pizza?" I ask the waitress.
She looks at Josie. "Salad for you, too?"
Josie shakes her head. "I ordered our pizza thirty minutes ago through the app. It should be ready for us. Pietra," she adds with a smile.
"It should be ready, then." The waitress looks at me. "Do you still want your salad if the pizza is ready, ma'am?"
I blink. "No. If the pizza is ready, I'll skip the salad."
"That'll just save room for dessert." Josie grins, taking my hand and lacing her fingers with mine. Her hand is soft and warm.
After the waitress leaves, she turns my hand over, tracing her thumb across the sensitive skin inside my wrist. "You said you were hungry," she says softly, her voice sultry. "I want to take care of your needs." Her eyes drop to my lips.
I raise an eyebrow. "Are you trying to impress me, Doctor?"
She grins mischievously. "Is it working?" She leans forward and presses a kiss to my palm—soft enough that I feel her breath against my skin.
"Ms. Pietra?" A woman in whitewashed jeans with a long blonde ponytail stands by our table.
"Yes? I'm Florence Pietra." I don't recognize her.
She breaks into a smile. "I'm Fiona. Bakker. My husband Jason works for you." She gestures with her chin toward a table on the other side of the room.
"Oh, sure." I glance over at him and smile. He's surrounded by their four kids—the oldest looks to be in middle school. "How did Finley's gymnastics meet go last week?"
Fiona laughs. "She fell off the beam—I think having her dad there for the first time made her nervous. But otherwise she did okay."
"She better get used to it." I chuckle. "He plans to be at every meet if we can manage it."
She nods. "I just want to say thank you, for being flexible with his schedule. He likes working with you. He loves his job."
"I'm glad we could work things out so he could be there. I can't promise every meet, but we'll do our best to try. I know how important family is to him."
Josie grins. "She is pretty awesome, isn't she?" she says to Fiona, bringing my palm up to her lips again. Not sensual this time, but an unmistakable sign that we're together.
"I'll leave you two alone." Fiona smiles. "I just wanted to thank you for being a great boss."
After she returns to her table, Josie turns to look at me. "Somehow, I didn't expect to hear that tonight."
I meet her gaze. "What, that I can be nice sometimes?"
The side of her mouth quirks up. "There might be hope for you yet." She traces her tongue along her bottom lip. "You'd better be careful, or those ice queen walls will start melting."
I tear my eyes away from her, forcing my heart to stop racing.
I smirk. "I wasn't given much choice. Being flexible was the preferable option," I say honestly.
She breaks into a grin. "I knew there was at least one nice bone in your body." She glances up, scooting back a little. "Lifesaving pizza to the rescue." She nods toward the waitress coming with our pizza.
The smell of melted cheese and greasy pepperoni hits me. I haven't eaten since lunch, and I'm famished. "This is so sinful." I grin, pulling a piece onto my own plate.
Josie rests a hand on my thigh and squeezes gently. "Don't look now, but we have an audience."
My eyes automatically scan the room. Jason's daughter Finley is watching us with wide-eyed curiosity. "It's just his daughter," I point out. "Why does it matter if we have an audience? We're eating dinner like everyone else."
Biting her lip, she sighs. "Florence, this whole thing is about people seeing us together."
Oh, right. "Only if you're going to agree to this," I remind her. It would definitely not do to be seen out with Josie and then show up engaged to someone else. That would make this entire mess worse.
"I'm in," she says softly, taking the slice of pizza off my plate and holding it up to my mouth. "Just play along with me. Pretend like you're infatuated with me." She raises an eyebrow.
I take a bite of the pizza, melted cheese trailing grease and crumbs across the corner of my mouth. I have to hold in a moan. It's the best pizza in Delmont, and it hits the spot.
She leans over, rubbing her thumb across the corner of my lips. "You need to learn some table manners." The grin on her face says she's having way too much fun with this.
"You're got grease on your fingers," I point out, licking her middle finger clean. I take her thumb into my mouth.
Her eyes widen.
She pulls back from me, glancing around before leaning in close to my ear. "Save that for later," she whispers. "There are kids watching." She presses a soft kiss to my cheek before sitting back and grabbing a slice for herself.
"You've got good taste," I tell her, forcing a playful wink—trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling in my belly. I haven't wanted anyone for a long time. I'm not going to let my libido complicate this arrangement.
"After all the time we've spent together, you're only now realizing that?" She laughs, nudging her leg against mine. "So tell me—how did the dad-of-the-year over there get the ice queen to be flexible?"
Is she mocking me?
"A few months ago, he brought me his resignation letter. When I asked him why, he told me he wanted to be home more for his kids—school and sports things like Finley's gymnastics meets. The younger kids aren't into competitive sports yet, but they will be." I glance across the restaurant. Even though their family looks chaotic, they look happy. All of them do.
I see Finley watching us. I meet her eyes and smile.
"I grew up in a loud family," I tell Josie. "Big and crazy and chaotic. I saw how hard my parents worked to be there for all of us." I bite the inside of my cheek and look back at her. "I choose to put my energy into making the world better in a different way. But Jason's a good man. I respect him for putting his family first."
"You surprise me," she says softly.
"Don't flatter me," I say drily. "He's by far the most qualified person for the job. Sometimes it's in the best interest of your business to give a little, knowing it'll be worth the compromise." I shrug. "Any competent CEO would have done the same thing."
She sits back and studies me for a long minute. "I honestly don't think most CEOs would. They demand full devotion and full dedication. No wiggle room."
"You're cute, thinking you know what most CEOs would do." She's right, though. "I said competent CEO. Most, arguably, are not."
"There's my ice queen," she teases.
We eat, falling into a comfortable silence. She's a keen observer—half her attention at our table, half scanning the room.
She nudges my leg under the table. "Do you know the guy sitting in that back booth? He's been watching us. The one with the baseball cap." She motions with her eyes, keeping her head still. When I start to turn, she puts her hand on mine. "Scoot closer to me. Don't be so obvious."
I slide closer, feeling the heat of her body against mine.
She leans in, her mouth brushing my ear. "I'm going to kiss your neck, right behind your ear." Her breath tickles, her whisper sending a spark of warmth to my core. "Turn your head and pretend like you enjoy it."
I don't need to pretend.
"Don't forget to glance at the corner booth before you close your eyes." Her voice is husky, taking my breath away. "Okay?"
I manage a soft sound of assent from the back of my throat.
My God, when's the last time a woman made me feel like this?
Her soft lips and hot breath are suddenly on my neck, every nerve in my body springs to life at the featherlight brush of her kiss.
"Josie," I murmur. I cup her cheeks, looking into the sapphire depths of her eyes. "Stop," I breathe.
Her eyes widen; she starts to pull back. "I'm sorry, I—"
I press a finger to her lips. "Don't be sorry. It's just… too much right now." I fight desperately to steady my breathing, to dampen the heat surging inside me. I flounder to grasp onto something. "We need to talk about this first," I whisper.
She nods, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Then can I take you home, Boss?"