it might help her finish it faster if I don’t move it around. My secretary had recently replaced the laptop computer on her desk with a sewing machine. We were giving up the ghost of working entirely, it seemed.
“It’s fine, El. Can I help you?” I tried to remain professional, not to let my deep admiration and desire for the beautiful woman holding office supplies slip between my words.
She glanced at the man in the chair, who was waggling bushy eyebrows in her direction. “These, are, um, property of West Wines, I think.”
It seemed a little odd for her to have bothered returning office supplies, and as I smiled at her, I had a sneaky suspicion she had invented this excuse to come see me since we hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk all week. I’d seen her at the winery, of course, but since we’d opened, the evenings had been busy with customers.
“Excuse me,” I said to the man in the chair. “I’ll just be right back.”
He shrugged, demonstrating none of the sparkling personality I’d decided accountants should have.
“Let me just show you where the office supply return depot is,” I told El, rising and waving her back to the door.
“The office supply return depot?” she repeated, grinning up at me.
“Yep,” I said, walking her down the hallway and toward the supply closet at the end. She was wearing heels again, and they clicked along the tile, matching the beat of my heart. “Just right on in here, miss, uh, Watson.”
El shot me a mischievous smile over her shoulder and stepped inside the large closet as I flicked on the light and pulled the door shut behind us.
“Sir,” she said in a low voice. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think this was a ploy to get me alone.”
My entire body responded to the thought of having her alone, and I stepped closer, dropping my hands to her perfect waist. “I miss you,” I whispered as she pressed herself against me.
“Oh,” she said, registering the firmness of my body against hers. “So the rulers really are kept in here,” she joked.
“Sorry,” I said, stepping back so she couldn’t feel the ruler-like bulge in my trousers.
She shook her head slowly, staring up into my eyes. “You do the same thing to me,” she whispered.
That did it. I pulled her closer and took her mouth with mine, rougher than I’d meant to. I heard the stapler she held clatter to the floor, and her arms wrapped around my back, pulling me against her harder. Her mouth was soft and open, and her tongue met mine and sent my conscious mind skittering into a dark corner somewhere.
All my insecurities about Chad, about work, about life in general, evaporated in her arms.
After a few steamy moments, she pulled back and her hands went to her hair, tidying the loose waves there. “Should you maybe get back to your interview?”
I sighed. “I guess.”
“But I’ll see you tomorrow after work, right?”
“Yes,” I assured her. “I can’t wait.”
“Have you gotten your new phone yet?”
“My what?”
El frowned, her forehead wrinkling adorably in the low light. “So I can text you. I know it’s silly, but I’d really like to be able to text with you during the day. Say goodnight. It would make it easier to wait for tomorrow.”
Something inside my soul shriveled at the reminder of my deception. I stepped back. “Oh, no, not yet. I haven’t had time.”
“Then just give me the number you have now.”
What I did next wasn’t mature. I panicked, though. I wrote down a completely fake number on one of the Post-Its and handed it to her with a smile that probably didn’t look anything close to genuine. I thought I might actually throw up.
The smile El returned was so beautiful and generous it made me want to tell her everything right then and there. But I didn’t have time. I would tell her tomorrow, I vowed. And then I returned to my office, thanked the accountant for his time, and spent the rest of the afternoon in self-flagellation. I had to fix this.
***
Since El and I had already been to the nicest restaurant in town, I decided casual would be fun for our first real date. I chose a place that was both a quiet bistro and rowdy bar, in a building separated by a wall that ran down the middle. I figured we could have a nice meal and then, if she was up for it, we could