Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Myles
I stared at the arched ceilings in my bedroom. The whole loft was my bedroom. I didn’t plan to get married and have kids, so I’d made the entire space open. I didn’t like being shut in. I hated being limited.
Sunlight poured through the windows. I was normally out of bed and in my gym by now, but I hadn’t been able to rouse myself from the covers.
I had a girl under my roof.
Technically, she was sleeping in my office, but my dick didn’t know the difference. My morning erection didn’t care that she was an employee. The prick had no concerns about workplace fucking. I wasn’t sure what Ms. Kerrigan would say about any of it, but I was better off not knowing.
Seeing her every damn day, wondering what different ways I could discreetly ogle her, was a steady torture that couldn’t end soon enough. Two more months. Then she’d move on.
If I was smart, I’d be figuring out a way to keep her on staff.
She was intelligent, knowledgeable, and capable, and the rest of my staff liked her.
She’d fit in at Foster House. I didn’t know a thing about her, but I knew that.
I trusted Mrs. Crane with a large portion of the inner office, and I’d trusted her with hiring a temp.
I only cared they were proficient and interested in the industry, not me.
Several times I was tempted to message Mrs. Crane and ask for details on Wynn Kerrigan, but the less I knew about the alluring woman with the big brown eyes and pale hair, the better.
Wynn.
A perfect name to breathe into her ear as I was thrusting—
Fuck. I needed to get to the gym. Run off this unwanted lust. When the pitch was over, I’d find someone to burn it off with.
My dick did not like that idea. A stream of longing went through me.
Fine. Fuck. I was lonely. I didn’t have relationships. I fucked here and there, but pursuing women wasn’t a priority. Enough of them chased me that I didn’t have to go looking. I wanted it that way. I kept it that way on purpose.
I rolled out of bed and squinted out the window. The landscape already looked greener after the rain last night.
I ran through the shower instead of going to the gym. The pitch was on my mind and what Ms. Kerrigan had suggested. She was right, dammit. I didn’t want to put myself out there, but I’d have to in order to go in as a small fish in a big sea and have a chance at getting a deal.
I checked the time. No one would be here for two hours. Had she left yet? I’d slept fitfully enough I would’ve heard, but just in case, I put on a white T-shirt and tossed on a pair of gray sweats.
I should’ve gotten fully dressed, but last night had gone late, and I picked comfort over dressing for the position I wanted. Another thing my mentor had taught me, but I was wound tight and slacks would only be more constricting.
The lights had been left on, but my office was bright. I flipped the switches off as I made my way to a lump of blankets on the couch. Was she still here?
I approached. Pale hair stuck out the top.
My world tilted as I stood over her. Her small frame was tucked deep into the blankets I’d yanked off my couch from when I watched a rare movie after work or when Gianna was especially dramatic and wouldn’t quit blowing up my phone.
Wynn was sleeping in my things and the rightness of it settled into my soul, making a nest just as she had on the couch.
What do I do? Let her sleep?
She was afraid of what others would think.
I knew what they would assume. An attractive woman with a sharp mind and round ass that wiggled when she walked, sleeping in my office?
No one would think she’d taken the couch, and I’d been on the other side of the wall.
Doubt would be planted, and it wouldn’t be my reputation that suffered.
I couldn’t have that.
If you borrow something, give it back in better condition.
Another mantra ramming through my head. I applied the principle to my staff, and while Ms. Kerrigan might be temporary, she worked for me.
“Ms. Kerrigan.”
She didn’t move.
“Ms. Kerrigan.”
Still no response. How hard did she sleep? She was rounding on just over five hours if she’d been able to settle down right away. A short night, but still manageable.
“Ms. Kerrigan,” I said louder.
A small moan left her, and she burrowed deeper. I liked that sound way too much. The corner of her phone stuck out from where it was buried between the back cushions.
“Wynn.” Maybe her first name would work.
Nope.
I nudged what I hoped was a shoulder. Anything else would be highly inappropriate, and unfortunately enjoyable. “Wynn.”
A whimper that was less appealing and more resistant to waking up came from the lump in the blankets.
I shook her shoulder. “Wynn.”
She popped up with a gasp. Her hair rained over her face in a tangled mass. “Oh my god. I’m late for chores.”
“What?”
“What?” She aimed her wild gaze at me and froze. Her gaze fell to my chest, then south of the waistband of my sweats.
Christ, if she kept looking there, I’d be hard in seconds. I cleared my throat, and she jerked her attention up. Again her gaze dipped to my chest.
Ms. Kerrigan had an odd fascination with my collar line. I often caught her looking at the base of my throat, where I kept the button undone. I had started measuring the success of my day by how many times I caught her.
She’s not for you, jackass. I’d given myself many things that I’d been deprived of, but this woman wouldn’t be one of them. She made me think about things that were better left forgotten. Fun and free evenings. Someone waiting at home or that I could talk with, cook supper for.
I’d seen homes like that. I’d lived in one once. Twice. It was hell when it went away.
Then there was the way I’d started talking about my past, opening up. So damn easy around her—and I didn’t even fucking know her. She was temporary. That had to be why.
I could handle temporary things.
“Oh.” She buried her face in her hands. “Sorry. It took a minute to remember where I was.” Her shoulders shook, but I caught the laughter. “I wasn’t snoring, was I?”
“No.” Her snoring would probably be sexy, too. She made taking notes alluring, with her eyes narrowed in concentration and her pert nose wrinkling. “No snoring. It’s six thirty. Thought you’d want to get going before people started arriving.”
She popped her head up. Her eyes turned amber in the morning light.
“Right. My pristine reputation.” She flung the covers back.
Another gasp rang out. She flipped the blankets back, but not before I caught a swatch of bare stomach and a glimpse of sunny yellow underwear.
Her skirt had ridden all the way up, and her shirt was half twisted around her torso and caught in her bra.
Did her bra match her underwear?
Desire punched low, and I spun before she could come face-to-face with morning wood number two. Or was it still morning wood number one, since I’d never taken care of the first round?
“I’ll give you privacy.” I strode toward my loft, desperate to put distance between me and something I wanted so much and couldn’t have. I hated that feeling, but for some reason with Wynn, I craved it.
Ms. Kerrigan.
She could never be Wynn to me. She was temporary, just the way things I couldn’t control were supposed to be.