you’d care if I had a date.
That was probably wishful thinking. It had to be. Only now she was doing that shifty-eyed thing she did whenever she was embarrassed, and she’d crossed her arms over her chest, and… oh, fuck it.
“Because I’m jealous.” Nate set the words free with a sigh that was half relief, and half annoyance with his own big mouth.
She huffed out a laugh, but there wasn’t much humour in it. “Jealous? Seriously? What does that even mean?”
“In my case, it means that the thought of you with anyone else makes me want to set something on fire.”
Those words hovered in the air between them for an uncomfortable few seconds before her calm facade evaporated.
“Ohhh, you are such a fucking guy,” she snapped. “I cannot believe you!”
Well, Nate reflected. It turned out honesty was not always the best policy. He should’ve stuck with the plan, shouldn’t he? Why hadn’t he stuck with the plan?
Because she had a date with a pirate. Sometimes plans get rearranged.
“Three weeks,” Hannah whisper-shouted. Whisper-shouting was never a good sign, with her. “Three weeks, Nate! And you haven’t said a word!”
“A word about what?”
“About us!” she hissed, fury flaring in her eyes. “Which was fine. It’s fine. It’s fine. But now you think I’m seeing someone else, all of a sudden you’re jealous?”
“It’s not all of a sudden—”
“Yes it fucking is!”
“Hannah, I…” He broke off just in time, the word love ready to roll off his tongue. “I like you! Okay? Of course, I’m jealous.”
“Oh, you like me? You like me? But ever since we… ever since we had sex—”
Jesus Christ, she was still whispering sex.
“You’ve been acting like I’m just some… some…” she scowled, frustration all over her face. “Some acquaintance! A friendly acquaintance! I am not an acquaintance, Nate! I put your thing in my mouth!”
He blinked. “Did you just call it—”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, will you focus?”
Good point. “Hannah, I swear to you, you’ve got this all wrong.”
“Don’t tell me I’ve got it wrong! I never get it wrong!”
Shit. She was actually upset. Really upset, if she was reverting to know-it-all Queen of the World mode. Nate paused for a moment and took in the stern set of her shoulders, the harsh line of her jaw. He knew when Hannah was angry, and this wasn’t it. Not exactly. Right now, she was too tough, too brittle—as if she might break.
Hannah was hurt.
A frantic sort of panic rose up in his chest, because he’d hurt her. And that was just… no. No.
Nate was on his knees in front of her before she could blink. He caught her face in his hands, just to make sure she looked him in the eyes as he spoke. “Give me thirty seconds. I know you’re thinking a lot right now, but just stop for thirty seconds. Stop and let me explain. Because I can explain.”
After a tense, silent moment, she whispered, “How?”
He’d take that as permission and talk fast. “I have feelings for you, and I’ve known that for a while. But I also know that as long as I pay your salary it’ll never be right for me to pursue you. I’ve already crossed a lot of lines—”
She snorted. He grinned. If she was giving him attitude, she was already better than she’d been a second ago.
“All the lines,” he corrected. “But, sweetheart… after that day in the garden, I think you made it pretty clear you didn’t want things to continue. I thought I was being ridiculous, just hoping you’d change your mind. But I did hope. Thing is, I knew that even a word from me could feel like pressure, in this situation, so I kept my mouth shut. I was trying not to push. Maybe I tried a little too hard,” he admitted ruefully. “Because I never meant to make you feel like… like an acquaintance.”
She sighed. “I can see you trying not to smile, you know.”
“Sorry. It’s just… an acquaintance? Really?”
“It seemed accurate.”
“Okay,” he said solemnly. “Fair enough. But I swear, I was just trying to be good. That’s all. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. I didn’t know how you felt about me.”
“You still don’t know how I feel about you,” she said archly.
He smiled. “Well, are you gonna tell me?”
“No.”
His smile grew. “Okay. Are you gonna kiss me?”
Hannah eyed him thoughtfully. “That’s quite a good idea.” Then she grabbed his T-shirt with both hands, dragged him closer, and pressed her mouth to his.
And time stopped.
It stopped. That