Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Madison
A ll of this felt like a dream, but reality wasn't exactly giving way for us to have as much fun as we wanted, so I had to remind myself that it wasn’t. It was difficult, however, when I stood before the gorgeous vanity of his bathroom with my hair wet and wrapped in a towel. He was toweling dry, standing completely naked behind me, and I couldn't keep my eyes away from him. He was so gorgeous with his wet hair and naked torso that I didn't know what to do with myself. I wanted to scream, and I wanted to cry, but somehow, I managed to hold back when I reminded myself that all of this was temporary. In a few days, we would be heading back to reality, and all the vultures in the office would occupy every second of his time. Perhaps, at the end of the day, he would even remember that we had done any of this here in Thailand. I hoped he didn't, and in a way, it made me want to take a picture for memorabilia, but he was too important a man for that, and I couldn't risk him becoming suspicious of me in any way. Right now, this moment felt as though two imperfect souls had come together in the most perfect way, and I didn't want to ruin it. So, I seriously took as many mental snapshots as I could and stored them deep down in my heart.
“Do you have a dryer?” he asked. “I could use mine if you don’t.”
“Yours,” I replied. “Definitely use yours.”
He smiled as he glanced at me through the mirror, and I watched as he began to comb through his curls.
“You're used to using a comb, right?” he asked, and I nodded. “Yeah, how do you know?”
“My niece,” he replied. “She has curly hair.”
My eyes widened then because I didn't even know he had a niece.
“Oh,” he watched me through the mirror and smirked at my surprise.
“I have an older sister, she’s married. She lives in Dallas, and their birthdays are coming up, so you'll need to send them gifts. I have a dad, but my mom passed away a few years ago. He’s not very social, plus he loves his ranch in Ohio, so he hangs out there with his buddies and rarely comes to New York. I think in all the time I’ve been in the city; he’s only visited me maybe once.”
“Oh,” I said a bit surprised that he was telling me so much but grateful either way. I wondered then if I was to reciprocate, but I decided that that would probably be inappropriate. However, it was necessary that he tell me all of that since I was his secretary, and I needed to keep track of all the important people and events in his life.
“You sound like you have a lovely family,” I replied.
“Interesting maybe, but lovely’s doubtful.” I was amused by this.
This made him laugh. “All families are like this.”
“Right,” I replied, nodding. “You're right.”
We remained silent then, and I just eyed him, but suddenly his question woke me up.
“What about you?” he asked. “Do you have family in the city?”
I was immensely surprised that he was asking me this, and at the same time, I tried my best to control my excitement. Maybe this wasn’t crossing the line; I mean, he was my boss, and we weren’t enemies, so it was normal for us to exchange at least base-level information about each other and our families.
“I have both my parents,” I told him. “They live in New Jersey. They used to live in the city for a long time, in Brooklyn. I was actually born in Queens, but ten years ago, they eventually got tired and wanted to move away just as I was entering college, but I refused to be a part of that. I don't know what it is, but I really love New York, even though living there requires huge amounts of money that don't make any sense, but I still love it a lot. It has its charm.”
“Right,” he replied. “I could have opened the company elsewhere, but I always wanted to be here, so as soon as I could, I moved from Ohio and came here for college as well.”
“Did you ever consider living anywhere else?” I asked just as he turned off the dryer.
“No,” he replied, as he wrapped the cord and set it down.
“You?” he asked, returning my smile.
“No,” I replied, and he returned my smile.
“I think we can go to bed for now,” he said. “They all seemed to have the situation under control, and if anything pops up again that is getting out of hand, they’ll just reach us. We have a tasking and quite possibly long day tomorrow, so we could both get some rest. We’ve also been quite active over the past few hours.”
Once again this made me blush, but then when I finally revealed my face once again, a heart-stopping kiss from him was waiting. Grabbing one of his towels, I made my way out of the room, promised to return it, and returned to mine. I was slightly disappointed because a part of me had hoped we would fall asleep together, but this definitely was crossing the line because I didn’t see him agreeing to it. Even though previously he had brought me back to my bed, and so tonight, before I was overly politely asked to leave, I gathered my things and headed out of his room.
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