Boss I Love to Hate An Office Romance - Mia Kayla Page 0,94

sigh. Her hand trembled as it trailed slowly down my abs, and my body was flooded with warmth. Shit, I felt her touch everywhere.

“You could iron on this thing. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.” She counted every single ab muscle and swallowed. Hard. Then, she tucked her hand in her armpit. “See, nothing.” Her smile was strained and forced, and she had to be the worst liar I’d ever met.

Her eyes trailed the length of my body, and I felt victorious.

Drink it up, baby, because I’m going to romance the hell out of you.

I wasn’t giving up that easily. I wanted to take her on a real date, where we could be ourselves and not pretend.

“Don’t lie, Sonia. It’s not like you.”

She blew the bangs away from her face “Fine. I’m attracted to you. There. Happy? Really though, you’d have to be blind not to be.”

“I never thought you noticed before.” I wished I had.

She frowned. “Because you were a jerk. Now, you’re being all sweet, and it’s confusing me.” She pushed out her lip in a signature Sonia pout.

God, all I wanted to do was hold her and kiss her and do naughty things to her. But the latter would have to wait.

“Come here.” I pulled her by her forearms, and she landed on my chest. She relaxed into me, and I was thankful she hadn’t pulled away. “Why can’t we just see where this goes?”

“Because everyone—everyone—knows this is a bad idea.”

“Who?”

“Your brothers and …”

I grinned. “Your parents love me.”

Even her dad had warmed to me by the end of the evening. Or, at least, he glared less.

“They do not,” she argued.

“Your siblings love me.” I tipped her chin with a light fingertip. “Don’t lie.”

“Fine,” she said. “They do, but still … that doesn’t mean a thing.”

I gave her my most serious face. “Just give me a chance, Sonia. One date, and I’ll never ask you for anything again.”

I waited ten torturous seconds for her answer.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes, because, before you got here, I agreed to go on a double with Jean and Jeff.”

I scoffed. “You did? Why?” I didn’t want to see that prick again, let alone go on a double with him.

She rolled her eyes. “Because, when Miss Barbie texts with, I understand if you change your mind. I wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable with Jeff being your ex, I couldn’t let her have the last say.”

I thought on it for a moment. It wasn’t what I’d had in mind, but I’d take it.

I smirked. “Deal.”

Sonia

Brad’s revelation had kicked my world off its axis. In between him trying to convince me that we’d be good together and me trying to convince him that these feelings would eventually pass, my life had turned upside down.

Truth was, this was my fault. A lie that had snowballed into an avalanche, and now, I was asking him to lie for me again on our double date.

We were out to lunch—Brad working on his computer, me staring out the window, people-watching. In typical weekday fashion, when I had been about to grab his lunch, he’d stood and clutched his laptop, saying he’d just go with me.

I didn’t know what the point was. He had mounds of work to do and an unprecedented amount of meetings this afternoon until tomorrow morning.

I peered over the table and took him in. Whenever Brad was concentrating really hard on something, his brow would twitch and then furrow and then twitch again. It took every ounce of energy not to reach out and smooth the lines.

“Are you going to eat that?” I tipped my chin toward his food. “It’s getting cold.”

His eyes slowly lifted from his computer. Then, he smiled, and my heart flipped and flopped and then went into cardiac arrest.

Stop, stupid heart. Stop. Stop. Stop.

“You’re absolutely right.” He shut his laptop and threw his attention on me, reaching for his turkey and ham and cheddar cheese sandwich. “You’re done with yours already?”

I rubbed my belly and gave it one big pat. “Like, twenty minutes ago. Ate my cookie and yours, too, but you didn’t notice.”

He chuckled when he looked down at his empty cookie bag.

“I was still hungry. Sorry.” I lifted my shoulder to my ear, unapologetic. “Anyway, do you think you’re going to win over Titan Printing?” The current account he was still working on.

It was the talk of the office, the big merger we foresaw happening.

“I sure hope so. Our big meeting is this week. I think I’ve been distracted lately, and you