Boss I Love to Hate An Office Romance - Mia Kayla Page 0,54

his cologne filtered through my nose, hitting all my senses.

“You smell good.” With anyone else, I’d be less honest, trying to front it. With Brad, that was all we were—honest and blunt.

“You look divine,” he dished right back. There was a huskiness in his voice that surprised me.

I brushed it off. I knew him too well, with his lines and his lusty looks. If I didn’t know him better, I would’ve fallen for it.

“Breathe,” he said. The warmth of his minty breath brushed against my skin and pushed goose bumps to the surface.

“I’m okay.” I twisted the shimmery fabric of my dress within my fingertips, wringing it as though I were crumbling a sheet of paper.

His look told me he wasn’t convinced.

I straightened when we were seated in the pew, feeling the cold wood behind me, a contrast from the warmth Brad radiated beside me and the heat wave I’d experienced moments before. My eyes perused the beautiful church. The old wooden bench, the cross in the center of the room, the two floral arrangements in the front filled with hydrangeas and gladiolas and roses, all in an array of whites and creams and pinks.

Kelly, a college friend, waved to me, and when I turned to wave back, my eyes caught sight of Jeff sitting several pews behind me, next to my replacement, her beauty radiating against every light in the room.

My whole body went rigid, and my jaw locked. Jeff smiled, but I couldn’t. When Blonde Barbie by his side met my eyes, I jerked back around before I could get a better look, and a gut-wrenching pang shot straight to my chest.

Brad followed my line of sight, sensing my change of mood.

I elbowed his side. “Face forward!” I whisper-yelled.

His eyes locked with mine. Then, he leaned in and kissed the tender part below my ear.

I reeled back. “What are you doing?”

His stupid smirk surfaced. “What I agreed to do—playing a part.” He pressed another kiss to my cheek and tucked an escaping curl around my ear. “Is that him?” He subtly jerked his head behind us.

“Yes,” I whispered under my breath, my cheeks burning bright from the lingering kiss. “Turn back around.”

“I expected better. He’s not all that.” There was underlying disdain in his tone.

But Jeff had been. He had been all that, my other half, the butter to my bread, the yin to my yang. Until, one day, he hadn’t been anymore, and he was all that to someone else.

Brad grabbed my face, squeezing my cheeks between his fingertips where they puffed out, chipmunk-style. “He’s not.” Then, he leaned in to kiss right by the corner of my mouth, the same place as last night.

Why does he keep doing that? Missing on purpose? Not that I wanted him to kiss me. It was just odd that he kept on missing the mark.

Of course—boundaries.

He wanted to maintain boundaries. Right.

I was about to say something when the processional of Pachelbel’s Canon in D echoed through the church, and everyone turned to the groom walking down the aisle.

For a brief moment, all other thoughts disappeared, and I took in the groom walking down the aisle. Tim looked dapper in his three-piece suit, the royal blue in his tie bringing out the gray in his jacket. When I’d met him, he was a lanky freshman in college, skin and bones. Now, he was taller, broader, older. Though college wasn’t that long ago, it seemed as though a decade had passed.

The doors closed, and the processional song changed. The whole congregation stood. When the doors opened at the entrance, you could hear the whole crowd’s intake of breath, mine included.

Carrie was stunning with her elaborate ball gown, which cinched at her waist and flared out into a princess skirt. Her hair was pulled up into curls at the crown of her head, and from underneath, her curls hung a mile long, lace veil with intricate designs outlining the edge. Her father, a linebacker-sized patriarch of the family, stood tall right beside her, tears rimming his eyes, which was so unlike his big and buff demeanor. But it was understandable since Carrie was the first of his many daughters to get married.

I snapped about five pictures when she passed by our pew, and I was so engrossed in her beauty and Tim’s face at the end of the aisle. It wasn’t until after that that I noticed Brad’s warm body pressed against mine, his arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me in front