Chapter Forty #2
It wasn’t until I walked over into the corridor and headed for my office that I smelled her perfume in the air.
Then I looked up and I saw her standing there with her back to me.
Freezing on the spot, I was halfway through taking a step forward when my body shut down.
With one hand hanging limp down by her side and the other pressed against the bottom of her stomach, I could practically feel the tension rolling off her shoulders as she stared at my office door, completely unmoving.
And despite all the shit that had gone on while she’d been away at work, and despite the verbal stripping down I’d just had from Slater, the smile on my face broke free immediately. She was there when I needed her again, and it was when I’d least expected to see her.
Creeping forward, I moved as quietly and as slowly as I could until there were only inches between her back and my chest. I was certain she would be able to feel the heat of my body pouring down onto her, but when Ayda didn’t move, I raised my hands up slowly behind her before wrapping them around her face and pressing them against her eyes.
Her body flinched as though I’d snapped her out of whatever daze she’d been in, but when my lips dropped down to her neck and trailed a path of kisses up to the spot just below her ear, I felt her entire being melt back into my arms.
“Is it a coincidence that you always turn up here when I need a shower?” I whispered, my lips curling into a smile against her. “Or are you here to break into my petty cash and run away with all my T-shirts?”
“The shirts,” she whispered back in response, her hand reaching to cover both of mine. “Definitely the shirts. I’m going to sell them all and make a small fortune.”
“I feel so used.”
A small burst of laughter fell from her lips as more of her weight settled back on me, her fingers prying my hands away. “Poor baby. Is now a good time to tell you that I’m also using you for your incredibly hot body?”
“Now I feel cheap, too,” I said, spinning her around in my arms until I was looking down on her. “You’re going to ruin me, aren’t you, Hanagan?”
“Ruin you?” she asked, her hands running up and over my shoulders, a blush tainting her cheeks. “I had an intervention at the diner today because they thought I was on drugs.”
“Drugs?” I smirked, raising a brow.
“I was practically giddy.”
My hands fell to the waist of her jeans, my thumbs running over her hips as I pulled her closer and breathed her in. “Practically isn’t good enough. Sounds like I need to work harder.”
Her eyes widened before darting around the room. I didn’t know what she was looking for, or if she’d just remembered where she was, but the shrug and smile told me she was beyond caring as she leaned in and pushed up onto her toes. “If you try any harder, I may lose feeling in my legs permanently.”
Not giving her a chance to react, I bent at the knee, wrapping one arm under her legs and one arm around her back as I scooped her up and started to move forward. “Legs are overrated anyway. And it might do me a favor, too. No legs, no running away, no matter how many times I screw up.”
I raised my foot to my office door and tried to kick it open.
When it stayed firmly shut, I did the same again, kicking it a little harder to try and make the fucker budge so I could walk Ayda through it like I’d seen all those Hollywood bastards do a thousand times before.
Only it didn’t budge an inch, and I was left standing there looking like more of a tool than I actually felt.
“That kinda went a little differently in my head.”
She flashed me a smile, the humor and amusement evident. Reaching behind her, she twisted the handle and winked at me. “Should work now. I promise to be thoroughly impressed.”
“Now I feel used, cheap, and inadequate. I’m so glad you showed up tonight, Ayda. I don’t know how my head would have fit through the door without you.”
Stepping over the threshold, I walked us straight through the office, skipping through the bathroom before heading to my room and standing the two of us over the edge of the bed.
“Inadequate is not a word I would attribute to you.” Her eyes shot to the mattress below her and back up at me, her grin almost cocky. “A bed? What are you planning on doing with me and a bed?”
“I was planning on making you work off some more of your debt.”
“You’re a cheeky bastard.”
“You have no idea.” I growled before I launched her onto the comforter, my own face lighting up the more her laughter rang out around the room.
At some point, between me shrugging off my cut, tossing my hoodie to the floor and climbing over to her, it dawned on me that I’d never wanted to make a woman laugh quite like I felt the need to bring a smile to Ayda’s lips.
Despite all the dark clouds that were hanging over my head, she was like that poetic ray of sunshine that I was drawn to, and I knew as long as she was nearby, I’d probably be alright in the end.
Or at least that’s what I hoped, for both our sakes.