Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
JAX
Kai is pissed, has been since that meeting, and although it’s the following Wednesday, he’s still moping around like I shit in his cereal.
The sucker in my mouth swishes from side to side, the hard candy knocking into my teeth while I work on my laptop. He’s having me do some preliminary reading on the Brazil piece to make sure there was nothing missed, since we were both distracted for more than half the time.
It’s been weird, to say the least. I want to give in to whatever we have going on, but I need the job, and the money that comes with it, more.
So, business as usual for us, and that means all of it.
I’ve gone out of my way to make sure there’s a healthy distance between us at all times.
Even in a meeting where I’m forced to sit next to him, there has to be at least enough distance that if we were both to man-spread, we wouldn’t accidentally touch one another.
Touching leads to sex, and sex is messy, that much I’ve learned.
It’s hard. Everything in my psyche is telling me to pursue these feelings, but there’s too much at risk.
Kai, though, well…I’m sure he would give in even further than he has if the opportunity arose. Hence why we’re keeping our distance, and I’m going through suckers and hard candy faster than I can buy them.
It’s hard to keep the act up, though, when I’m reading everything he’s written. I want to remind him of the sly touches, the night in the alley and the kitchen. The karaoke bar, sitting on the beach with the sun on our faces, local music and dancing.
Those moments that, if this was anyone else, we’d love to look back on.
It just fucking blows, and not in the good kind of way.
“Hey.”
His deep voice has me jumping out of my skin, too lost in my own damn head to even hear the door open.
“Hey.” My words come out garbled, and I sputter my way through the simple three letters. My body instinctually sits up from its shrimpy position and pushes against the back of the couch to support it.
“You good?” His brows pinch, and I want to run my thumb between them to get rid of the lines.
“Uh—yeah. Just reading that Brazil piece you asked me to look over.”
“And? What do you think so far?”
I’m sitting on the couch on the left side of the room, far from where he should be if he were to sit at his desk, but, of course, that’s not what’s happening today.
This motherfucker goes out of his way to grab one of the big chairs in front of his desk, the one that holds a very dirty memory, and drags it as close as possible to me so he can look at my laptop.
At least he’s not sitting directly beside me on the couch, but this is too close.
And then, he whips out those slutty little glasses, something I don’t see nearly enough, and leans in close. Fuck.
That rich, clean, perfectly him scent assaults my nose, and I have to hold my breath for a moment to prevent myself from taking a deeper inhale.
He’s not even acting phased, instead looking through the little comments I’ve made.
I stare at his profile, categorizing every little line and crease. The stray hair offset from the rest of his eyebrow, being a rebellious little thing. The way his hair is so out of place, but he makes it look professional and meaningful.
And when he turns to look at me, my heart stops, those deep brown eyes catching mine and pulling me into a trance.
Way. Too. Fucking. Close.
I close my laptop and stand abruptly, our knees brushing as I do.
I knew it was too close.
“Ya know, we have a meeting here shortly. I need to go get the notes, and then, uh—” I’m fishing for any reason to get the fuck out of this space before we make another stupid decision.
“We need to meet with Becca regarding the Christmas party. I will email you the notes and include you on a document so you can see everything else as I make them. I will, uh, talk to you later.”
Fucking smooth.