Chapter 35
Daniel
I was tired, but there was no way I could sleep.
I kissed her. I held her. I’m holding her again.
My thoughts were running a mile a second, and all I could do was look at her sleeping.
We were both still in our jeans and t-shirts, and just took off our shoes before going to bed.
I held her tightly, dying to kiss her again.
She felt so small in my arms, but everything about her was strong.
Her entire body was toned, she stabbed a guy in the neck, she headbutted another guy in the nose to protect my sister, and she asked me to hold him while Becca hit him.
Who are you, woman?
I pushed her white hair away from her face and put my hand back on her stomach.
I’d never felt like this about anyone. Not emotionally or physically.
I’ve had a few one-night stands and a few relationships, but this felt different.
I barely kissed her at the hotel, and it made me feel like every one of my senses overloaded.
It was just a peck, just touching her lips with mine to see if she would respond or push me back.
I smiled, thinking about how her lips moved when she said, ‘Oh.’
She let me pull her to my lap on the couch, and she said yes to sleeping together in her bed. This was happening, right? It was just moving slowly, but it was moving.
I’ll move as slow as she fucking wants.
I didn’t care how long it took. I couldn’t deny that I was falling for her.
Fuck, if I hadn’t already. I was a goner after what she did for Becca, again.
And I still didn’t know anything about her.
I knew who she was as a person. I saw her and understood her.
Wasn’t that enough? What did her past matter to me?
She didn’t care that I’m a Mason—I have absolutely zero doubt about that.
The way she dressed when she went out with Becca and how she behaved around us made it clear she wasn’t changing anything about herself for us, and I loved it.
I don’t know how long I watched her sleep, lost in my thoughts and enjoying every second I could hold her. I nearly jumped when she suddenly turned around and looked right at me.
“Did you sleep?” she muttered.
I shook my head.
“I want to accept Becca’s offer, if she still wants me.”
Fuck!
I took a slow breath. My arm was still around her, and I stroked her back.
“She wants you.”
“Will you accept my resignation?”
“You know I won’t stop you, Lydia.”
“I need you to tell me what you think of this because it’s hard for me to guess from your tone.”
“You want me to be as blunt as you?”
Her eyes practically lit up. “Can you?”
I chuckled. “I don’t want you to go. I want to keep seeing you every day in the office. I want to see you all the time.”
She nodded. “My turn?”
I pushed the dark brown hair that fell on her forehead back behind her neck and nodded. “Go ahead.”
“I’m making this decision based on two things. One, I care about Becca. A lot. Enough that I’m okay with giving up the quiet office life to work with her and be there when she needs me. I’ve never had a friend like her before, or family like that.”
“You know I would love for her to work with someone she can trust, and we both trust you.”
“I know. The second thing is… Daniel, I haven’t done this in a while, and even when I did, it wasn’t like this, so I don’t know what I’m doing. If I work for her, then I don’t work for you. I’m not your employee and you’re not my boss.”
Wait.
I moved my hand to her neck, stroking her jaw with my thumb and wondering if she could hear my heart pounding. “Lydia, spell it out for me. Please.”
She sighed and kept her eyes on mine. “I think I have feelings for you and I’d like to try figuring this out between us. It would be easier if I didn’t work for you when I did that. Are you—”
I didn’t wait for her to finish her question and put my lips on hers.
She was so soft, I couldn’t help the small groan that came out of me.
I just touched them with mine first, and then gently kissed her bottom lip.
Every cell in my body tingled and felt like fire when she kissed me back, softly on my top lip and then my bottom lip, before leaning back.
“Did that answer your question?” My voice sounded hoarse. This was finally happening, and I was happy despite all the shit that was happening with it.
She kissed me back and it felt…. God, I hoped she wouldn’t freak out if she looked down.
“Yes. Are you okay with this moving slow, because I’m not—”
“As slow as you want. You set the pace, Lydia.”
She smiled and leaned her head on my chest. “You should probably call Madelyne.”
I laughed. “She’s going to kill me. She adores you.”
Worth it. Thank you, Becca.
I moved my hand to her neck, slowly going up and running my fingers through her hair to massage her scalp.
She shivered and let out a soft hum. It felt like her body was melting to my touch, and I was overwhelmed with too many emotions to process.
All I could focus on was the fact that I knew something that she liked, something that made her hum softly like she did when she sipped coffee in the morning and lost herself to whatever she was feeling.
I wanted to make her do that as often as possible and learn every single thing she liked to feel on her body.