Chapter Twenty-Three
Twenty-Three
My alarm pierced through my slumber, and I was awake. At some point during those early hours, Danuwoa had turned over. His toned arm was heavy across my waist.
We were cuddling.
This was bad. We were here working. We were not dating. There was this insane chemistry, but it was wrong, so, so wrong. If someone were to see us…Sirens went off in my head. You were not supposed to mix business with pleasure, it said it clearly in black and white, and I signed that I acknowledged the policy. And yet here I was on my first work trip sharing a room with the hottest man employed by Technix. Fuckboy Kyle was a plastic Ken doll compared to all that was Danuwoa. From his hair to his muscles and tanned skin…I had to stop looking at him before he caught me.
Too late. He caught me staring. I made sure my robe was closed tight, and grabbed the collar with my hand.
“Good morning,” he said as he rolled over to get out of bed. I averted my eyes as he adjusted his morning wood. How could someone be so confident in front of the opposite sex? He was just casually walking around in his underwear as if it were so natural and normal. This was the farthest thing from normal.
He went to the coffee maker, yawning, and popped in a pod. We had a limited amount of time to get downstairs to do a quick tech rehearsal and grab breakfast with the rest of the company. I went through my duffel to get out my dress and blazer for the day.
“Dibs on the shower,” I said.
“I think you’ll need this.” Danuwoa handed me my discarded bra from last night. I snatched it from his hand. My face was hot. He smirked and went to grab his freshly brewed coffee.
I wish I could say it was a sexy bra, but I didn’t own a sexy bra. It was a cheap basic nude underwire bra from Walmart that was worn in but comfortable. It was my trusty, sturdy bra. The one I knew would not show under anything, and the straps never slipped.
As I stood with the shower streaming down my back, I cringed remembering my bare boob was just hanging out last night. Which was worse? My ugly old bra or a boob flash? The worst part was the ache that lingered from lying next to Danuwoa all night. Now was so not the time to get all hot and bothered—in a shower with him in his underwear on the other side of the wall. I got out and tried to center myself. I could worry about whatever was going on with him later. All I had to do was make sure everything happened on schedule and without a hitch.
I took my hair out of the braid I slept in, letting the waves fall around me. I was wearing my white dress again, this time with my black blazer. I put some tinted lip balm and mascara on and went out to face Danuwoa.
“All yours,” I said as I watched him stretch on the floor. Was I in a porno? Who just hangs out in their underwear stretching when sharing a room (and bed!) with a coworker?
“Great, there’s some coffee for you.” He pointed as he got up and headed for the shower.
A smart Ember would have just left the room and headed down to the event space right then. But smart Ember was unavailable. She was leaving an out-of-the-office automatic reply in my brain. I was left horny, curious, and dumb. Exactly how all my crushes left me. The difference? This crush was currently very naked in the shower, and I thought he was crushing on me back. This was not how I operated.
What was wrong with me?
I gathered my backpack, made sure I had everything, and looked for my shoes. Past Ember sucked. She left me hanging here searching for where my left shoe could possibly have been flung last night. I got on my hands and knees, looking under the dresser and chair.
“We gotta stop meeting like this.” Danuwoa laughed.
I craned my head and of fucking course! He was dripping wet with a towel wrapped low on his hips. Water droplets fell down the V that pointed to his you-know-what region. The room grew about twenty degrees hotter in the span of a second.
“Stop drooling; you’re objectifying me.”
I gave him the bird and continued my search for my shoe, this time making sure my butt wasn’t sticking up too much—an impossible feat in this sundress.
“You gotta stop walking around in nothing. Have some modesty,” I grumbled and hit my head on the desk.
“Looking for this?” He tossed my missing shoe. It landed with a thud by my side.
“Where did you find that?” Thankfully, he was wearing socks and underwear, and was starting to button his dress shirt when I was brave enough to spare him a glance.
“Under the bed.” He pulled his pants on.
“Thanks.”
“Why don’t you wear those?”
I followed his finger to the sparkly, strappy shoes I brought just in case I wanted to feel fancy.
“I’m not going to wear those all day,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“They’re pretty sexy.” He blew out a whistle. “They look like they strap all the way up your legs.”
His voice was doing things to me. “They do.” I gulped.
“Maybe you can put them on tonight?” He said it like it was a promise of indulgence and sin. If I put those on, it would be.
“If I feel like it,” I said, mustering up the bravado I didn’t feel, playing coy in a game I wanted to give in to.
I watched from the corner of my eye as he finished getting ready. His hair was wet and loose. One day, I wanted to braid that hair. Oooh, that was a stupid thought! What was I thinking? We hadn’t even kissed or had any sort of arrangement to work around the Technix dating policy. That was a million steps from where we were, and yet, my fingers twitched, itching as he started braiding his hair into his signature beautiful long braid.
“Shall we go down?” he asked.
“What? Together?”
“How else?” He slung his backpack straps over his shoulders.
“No way! Anyone could see us!”
“So?”
“So? Do you want us to lose our jobs?!”
“We are the earliest people up. Everyone else is still sleeping right now.”
I grabbed my backpack and walked to the door. “I’m leaving first. Wait five minutes before you follow me, got it?” I opened the door just a smidge and peeked out. The coast looked clear. “See you down there.”
I slipped out and headed down the hall toward the elevator. I heard another door close, and I jumped. I was scared out of my mind. On the wall hung a long mirror, and I casually stole a glance to see if I recognized the person behind me. I did.
I stopped short. “Didn’t you hear what I said?” I angry whispered, which was always louder than my normal talking voice, but mad me was not rational.
Danuwoa laughed and kept walking to the elevator. Nothing pissed me off more when I was already angry than someone laughing me off.
The elevator opened. We stepped in but I was seething.
“Relax. No one is around.”
I stepped right up to him. Directly in his space. “How hard would it have been to just listen to me?”
We were sharing air and it was electric. Charged. As if a spark would be set off at any moment.
He took a step closer to me. Our chests were now inches apart, and he whispered in my face, his breath smelling like the toothpaste he just used. “About as hard as it was for me to lay in that bed next to you, knowing you wore nothing under that robe.”
“So, you decided to flaunt yourself in your underwear all morning?”
“Did that bother you?”
I tried to take a step back, but his hands grabbed the straps of my backpack, keeping me in place.
“Yes,” I gulped.
“Why?”
“You know why.” I looked down for a moment, but his hand released one of my straps, and he used it to tilt my chin up so I was looking into his eyes.
He kissed me. Right there in an elevator of a hotel full of our coworkers, Danuwoa eviscerated my soul. He was forbidden, and the spark that set my body aflame. His lips moved over mine, coaxing my stunned mouth to respond to him. To stop fighting and enjoy. It was sweet and sexy. So tender and sensual.
I wanted him to back me up and press me against the mirrored wall, but before we could go further, the elevator stopped on the floor beneath us. I was barely coming to my senses and didn’t pull away fast enough. A man whistled.
Not just any man, but Kyle.
He stepped onto the elevator in the clothes he’d worn the night before, his hair disheveled. “Please, don’t let me stop you on my account.”
Danuwoa stepped away, and I felt ice cold, shock seeping through my body. Being caught kissing him in front of the CEO’s nephew was the absolute worst thing that could ever happen. My fight-or-flight response was kicking in, and I couldn’t wait for the elevator door to open so I could flee the scene. Danuwoa tried to touch my hand, but I moved it away. I was pissed and wanted to throw up. What the fuck did Danuwoa do? I told him to listen to me.
I exited the elevator and clocked that Danuwoa grabbed Kyle’s arm and held him back. On autopilot, I fled toward the ballroom on quick feet to make sure everything was ready. I paused only once before I turned the corner to see that Danuwoa and Kyle were having an intense, hushed conversation. A part of me knew that whatever Danuwoa was saying was not going to help.