10. Cora
10
CORA
“ A iden?” I asked, pausing my phone as he walked into the lab. It was after hours, and I was in the middle of filming a Masked Mixer video. “What are you doing here?”
“Just thought I’d check in. See how things were going.” He’d shed his usual suit jacket, the sleeves of his black dress shirt rolled up, showing off toned forearms. He’d always had nice arms. I wondered if they still felt as good as they looked.
I cleared my throat. “I just stopped to do some filming.”
“Oh, am I on camera?” he joked, running his hands through his hair before shaking out his curls.
I smirked. “Do you want to be on camera?”
“Only if you get my good side.”
“And which one would that be?” I teased.
“Har har. You’re so funny,” he said, stepping closer. Too close. I was overwhelmed by the smell of him—sandalwood and liquor.
“Actually, since you’re here,” I said, ducking past him before my thoughts could unravel into dangerous territory, “there was a mocktail sample I wanted you to try.” I went for the container. “I just mixed it up today.”
Aiden snagged my hand before I could grab it, tugging me back toward him. I stumbled against his chest, which was deliciously firm, and his arms tightened around me. “The only sample I want to try is this one,” he growled before catching my lips in a fiery kiss.
I gasped into his mouth, and he swallowed the sound, pressing closer. I tilted my head to capture the heat of his lips, kissing him back. It was a frenzy of teeth and tongues, our noses bumping against each other, my heart threatening to burst right through my rib cage. He nudged me with his hips, and my back thudded into the worktable.
I moaned and he swept his hands across the table, knocking my camera equipment to the floor. I heard it crash, but I didn’t even care. My head was spinning too fast. All I wanted was for him to touch me. Aiden cupped my ass, squeezing, before he picked me up and set me down on the table. I spread my legs, pulling him against me, demanding attention. His hand dipped past the waistband of my pants in answer, his fingers snapping the band of my underwear. Flick . Flick . Flick! I jolted from the dream with that last flick, waking to darkness.
My heart skipped in my chest like a spooked rabbit, and I bit back a frustrated groan so as not to wake Jennifer. This was the third sex dream I’d had about Aiden in the last week, and damn —they got hotter every time. Even more so since I’d realized Aiden wasn’t a mega-jerk insisting Dominic ditch his wife for some other woman. But what was even more infuriating was that I always woke before he got to the really good part. If dream- Aiden was going to hound me, he should at least get me off for my troubles.
I rubbed my eyes, still tired, but when I turned to the nightstand to check the time on my phone, I saw that my alarm was about to go off anyway. I canceled the alarm and dragged myself to the bathroom, hoping a hot shower and lots of coffee would be enough to clear my head of sexy dream-Aiden thoughts before work.
“Dot,” I asked without looking up from the stainless steel workstation that had become like a second home to me. “Where are we with the green tea blend?”
“Javeed thought a blueberry twist was uninspired,” Dot said from her workstation. “So I left that with him.”
“I did not say it was uninspired,” Javeed called out. “I said I wanted to trial passionfruit with it first before we made the call.”
“Same difference.”
“Now do you understand why I always have my headphones on?” Chris said to me in passing.
I smirked. The team had grown on me in the weeks I’d worked with them. What made it even more fun was that I was starting to suspect Javeed and Dot might be harboring a thing for each other.
A hollow knock sounded.
“You called?” a voice said.
I whirled around on my stool. Aiden stood casually in the doorway, suit jacket abandoned, and my thoughts flashed back to my dream this morning. Ugh, no. No. No! Should I pinch myself? Make sure it wasn’t happening again? But then Chris passed by, stumbling and dropping half his ham and cheese sandwich. He swore, bending down to pick it up. Yeah, no. This is definitely reality, not a fantasy. “Technically, I texted,” I said, getting a hold of myself.
“Well, here I am.” He walked through the room, eyeing experiments and notes written on the whiteboard. “You said you had a sample you wanted me to try?”
I nodded. “Two samples. We tweaked the Raspberry Chai Royale and Spearmint Lime Fizz profiles just slightly.”
“Right, you did say those would be ready today.” He reached me, rolling up his sleeves, and I averted my gaze. I was not about to be bested by those damn forearms. “Were you filming?” he asked, gesturing to my camera set up.
Oh, come on! Was this really going to be a play-by-play of my dream? Because I was gonna be kind of annoyed if Aiden knocked all my filming equipment onto the floor. “Uh?—”
“It’s okay that you were,” he said, mistaking my hesitation. “It’s in our contract, after all.” He leaned against the table, his shirt bunching around his biceps. “How’s that going anyway? All the Masked Mixer stuff.”
“My views have definitely increased since I’ve started making my videos here. I think everyone really likes the aesthetic of the lab. Plus, I’ve got a lot more equipment and ingredients to play around with.”
“That’s great.”
My eyes ran over his face. Those blue eyes, creased at the corners as he smiled, that strong jaw, those lips. Why did he have to be so distractingly attractive when I needed to focus on the work? “So the samples,” I said, reaching for the two glasses I’d set aside for him. “Here you go.”
“Which one first?”
I handed him the spearmint lime. “I want to make sure the mint isn’t too overpowering.”
“Wait, let me grab my notebook!” Dot said, rushing over. She’d been keeping extensive notes every time Aiden tested an updated sample.
Aiden lifted the glass to his lips and took a sip, rolling the sample over his tongue, closing his eyes like he was assessing a fine whiskey.
“What do you think?” I asked, a flutter of nerves sweeping through me. Between me and the team, we’d developed dozens of samples in the last week. Aiden had been by to help us narrow down the favorites, so at this point, we were just tweaking the recipes to ensure we captured the flavor profile and the combinations felt balanced. I didn’t know what I was so worried about or why I suddenly felt like impressing Aiden was the most important thing in the world, but I studied every microexpression on his face—every twitch of a muscle, every flicker of his eyelids—trying to gauge his reaction. I pressed my hands together, holding them to my lips like some sort of silent prayer.
“I’m definitely getting the mint,” he said, eyes still closed. “But it’s much more subtle than before. The lime’s coming forward. It doesn’t feel overpowered.” His eyes popped open. “Refreshing. I think we have a winner.”
Dot clapped her hands together before scribbling a heart around the sample code in her notebook. Javeed silently fist pumped from his workstation while Chris put a checkmark next to the sample name on the whiteboard.
I picked up the second glass. “Okay, raspberry chai next.”
“Hey, do you want to film this one?” he asked.
“What?”
“You know, for content or whatever.” He gestured to the ring light propped at the back of my workstation. “To use on your channel. Once the line goes live, I don’t mind if you post some behind-the-scenes content on the development process.”
“Uh…”
“I’m a natural on camera.” He flashed a smile. “Just make sure you get my good side.”
I stumbled at his comment, the glass in my hand shaking so badly that the sample slopped over the lip of the glass and onto his pristine white shirt.
“Oh my god!” I returned the glass to the workstation and twisted, looking for a towel. Why didn’t we have any towels? “Shit, Aiden. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean?—”
“It’s fine.”
“No, your shirt,” I said, noticing the way the liquid turned the white material transparent, clinging to the rippling muscle beneath. What were the freaking chances? I curled my hands by my sides to stop myself from touching. It didn’t stop me from wanting to touch though. From wanting to live out one of the fantasies from my dreams. I wanted to latch onto that luxury linen and rip the dress shirt open, buttons flying across the room, and get my hands on those abs.
“One second,” Dot called, racing back to her workstation. “I’ve got some napkins here.”
My cheeks flushed so hot I put my hands up to hide the color.
Aiden reached for my shoulder, mistaking my reaction for embarrassment. “Cora, honestly, it’s not the first time I’ve spilled something on myself at work.”
That image wasn’t helping.
“Kind of a hazard of the job when working with liquids.” He squeezed my shoulder once, then touched his hand to his shirt before raising it to his mouth, sucking the taste off the end of his finger.
My mouth went dry. These dreams were going to be the death of me.
“Mmm,” he hummed. “Oh, that’s good. That’s really good.”
“Here!” Dot said, reappearing with a handful of napkins.
Aiden took them with a “thanks,” dabbing at his shirt.
“I think I have some more,” Dot said, rushing off again.
“This should do,” he called, but Dot was already on a mission. Aiden popped one of the dress shirt buttons open to wipe at the skin underneath.
I glanced away. “Well, that’s gonna show up in tonight’s dream,” I muttered to myself.
When I looked up again, Aiden was staring at me, and my heart lobbed against my rib cage. Holy shit , he heard me! That furious blush started crawling its way up my neck again, more so because Aiden didn’t look confused or angry or annoyed.
He looked…intrigued? His eyebrow arched and his lips quirked, and when he opened his mouth, I just knew he was going to ask me about the dream. Please don’t. Please no! Not here. I needed to escape. I needed to?—
“So,” Javeed said, interrupting whatever Aiden was about to say. “Besides the fact you’re wearing most of the sample, I take it you approve?”
Aiden nodded. “I’d say we’re in good shape for you to move onto the next phase of testing.”
Javeed flipped out his phone, checking his calendar app. “If we get taste testers in here by next week, we could have preliminary public reactions by the end of the month.”
Aiden agreed. “I like that timeline. I think it’ll match up well with what marketing has on the go. I didn’t want to show you anything too soon, in case the combinations didn’t work out, but you’ve made considerable progress, and we’ve got a few different flavors now that are promising…” He gestured to Chris’s laptop, open on a workstation. “Can I borrow this?”
“Go for it,” Chris said.
Aiden logged himself in, opening his email. “Now remember, these are just initial mockups for packaging and promotion. They’ll be tweaked as the final drink recipes are approved, but I thought you’d like to see what we’re working with so far.” He moved out of the way.
Dot, Javeed, Chris, and I gathered around the screen, scrolling through the images marketing had sent him.
“I asked for a bold color palette, something that would complement our current branding for Elixir but that would also set Elixir Free apart on the shelf. Give it its own identity.”
“I think we’re also heading for a summer launch,” Chris said, “so this color scheme matches that perfectly.”
“Agreed,” Aiden said. “I would also just like to point out for interested parties how sleek these new mocktail bottles are.”
My lips twisted, holding back a laugh as I caught his eye.
“Hopefully these bottle designs make the cut,” he said teasingly.
“I told you,” I said. “It’s all about how it feels in the hand.”
His eyes narrowed playfully, and his gaze lingered on me. Heat crawled across my skin again. “Anyway, I just wanted to say how impressed I am with how quickly this team has pulled together and how productive you’ve been. Especially you, Cora. You came in, ready to match my vision, filled with ideas of your own. We never would have accomplished so much so quickly without your expert leadership on this team.”
My pulse skipped at the warmth and sincerity of his words. Emotion hummed in my throat. Was this the same man who I could barely stand the sight of when he’d walked into Bottom of the Barrel?
“Masked Mixer for the win!” Chris said, calling it out like an announcer at a wrestling match. Dot whooped, and Javeed clapped me on the shoulder.
“I really don’t know where we’d be without you,” Aiden said, cutting into the celebration. “If you keep this up, Elixir isn’t going to want to let you go when the project is over.”
I’d assumed I’d have one foot out the door the entire time I was here, but now the idea of Elixir, of Aiden, wanting to keep me around? It sounded good. Very good.