Chapter 6
LAURA
Troy doesn’t go in or out of his office for the next hour. I send him a message, letting him know I’m feeling sick and I’m going home early.
He doesn’t reply.
Five minutes later, I’m exiting the elevator into the parking garage, finding my little pink pickup truck and getting inside. Once inside, I start the truck and bring the radio to life, playing old pop tunes as I pull away from Dixon HQ.
Dixon HQ exists in the heart of downtown Wild Bronco. Everything that Troy does is showy and over the top, so of course when his company became successful, he moved the headquarters to the tallest building downtown. Renovated it, modernized it, made it beautiful.
Now it’s one of the most sought after companies to work for in town. People move to Wild Bronco from all over the country for the opportunity to work there.
Me working as Troy Dixon’s assistant was a stroke of luck. I had no qualifications. No education. No reason to be his top choice. And I’ve questioned why he hired me since the first day…ever since I walked in and realized that Troy Dixon seems to loathe me and everything I do.
I press my lips together, remembering the taste of my boss, the firm pressure of his mouth on mine.
I’ve never been kissed like that before in my life.
The best kiss at the hands of the worst man, the man who’s spent nearly a year giving me withering glares and dry, sarcastic responses to every question I’ve ever asked him.
Did I misinterpret it all?
Did I mistake his desire for hatred?
I dial Keely.
“What’s up?”
I can hear the pandemonium in the background, the noise of motherhood as she calls it. A cooing baby, a giggling toddler, and some sort of cartoon.
“Hey,” I say. “You busy?”
“These days, the answer to that question is always yes,” she sighs. “But never too busy for a chat with my friend. What’s up? You sound upset.”
“I’m not,” I say in a rush. “Well, I mean, I am. Kind of. But I don’t know. I don’t know how to describe what I’m feeling right now or even what I’m thinking. That’s why I’m calling you.”
“Slow down,” she says. “Are you safe? Are you hurt? Do I need to help you bury a body?”
“No!” I roll my eyes as I pull into my apartment complex parking lot.
The shabby old buildings are on the edge of west Wild Bronco, the poorer part of town. I moved here after I dropped out of college, and I just…never left.
Never moved on. Never figured out what the hell I wanted to do with my life if I wasn’t following the roadmap that my mom and dad had shoved on me from an early age.
It’s only recently, after working for Troy Dixon, that I realized what I want.
And what I want is to work with children.
I certainly don’t want to be chained to a desk.
I don’t want to wear boring corporate attire every day, with high heels that pinch my toes, and fetch coffee for scowling men in suits.
“So what’s going on, Laura?” Keely asks. “You’re calling me in the middle of the day and you sound like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I made out with my boss,” I say. “And then he said it was a mistake and locked himself in his office and then I lied and said I was sick and now I’m home, I’m home in the middle of the day because I had to leave work because I made out with my freaking boss, Keely!”
There's only silence on the other end. I look at my phone screen to make sure her toddler didn’t commandeer her phone and hang up on me.
“Hello?”
“I’m here,” Keely says. “Just absorbing.”
“Well absorb faster,” I say. “Because I’m losing my mind.”
“Isn’t your boss hot as hell?” Keely asks tentatively. “Or am I remembering wrong?”
“You’re remembering correctly.”
“So this is Mr. Dixon, the grumpy hot one? Not the gray haired weirdo who pinched your butt?”
“That was my boss from the grocery store,” I say.
“Mr. Dixon is my current boss, the grumpy hot one, the one who acts like he hates me and never says please or thank you and told me during my first week on the job that I dress like a teenager who got ahold of her dad’s credit card and spent it on sequins and glitter. ”
Keely snorts.
“Oh right, the sparkle-hater,” she says.
“The very one,” I affirm.
“Wait, I hate that guy,” Keely says with a laugh.
“Me too,” I reply, joining her in laughter. “Except…now I’m not so sure?”
“Now that he’s had his mouth all over you, you mean?”
“His mouth and everything else,” I say, thinking about the undeniably thick erection he’d pressed into my body while claiming my lips.
“God, that’s hot,” Keely says. “So what are you going to do now?”
“What do you mean? He said it was a mistake and then locked himself in his office. He’s furious with me.”
“He’s not,” Keely replies authoritatively. “He’s just…I don’t know, being an idiot. Men are idiots, you know.”
Especially the ones I pick, I think to myself.
Except I haven’t picked Troy. Actually, he’s the last man on earth I’d pick, even if he did like me. He’s a corporate, snobby rich guy with too much money and not enough humor. He hates sequins, caramel, and joy.
“He clearly has feelings for you that he’s not prepared to handle,” Keely says. “And what about you? Do you have feelings for him?”
“Confusing ones,” I admit.
“Isn’t that always the case?” she asks ruefully.
“What do I do? Go into work tomorrow and pretend nothing happened?”
“Is that what you want?” Keely asks.
“No,” I say without thinking. But as soon as the word is out of my mouth, I know it must be the truth.
No matter how complicated my feelings are right now, one thing is for sure: There’s no going back. I can’t forget the way his hands felt on my body, his mouth on mine. Can’t forget how, with a single kiss, I suddenly see every interaction we’ve shared in a new light.
“Well, what do you want?” Keely asks.
I run a hand through my hair, thinking.
“I think…I think that I want another one of those heart-stopping kisses.”