Dropping The Ball - A New Year’s Billionaire Romance - Weston Parker Page 0,35

and his tongue came out to wet his lips while his eyes never left mine. I knew in that moment that this was happening, that he was going to give us both what we so badly wanted.

I dipped my head back to let him know I was okay with it, and then he let out the sexiest sound I’d ever heard and kissed me like he’d been dying to do it his whole life. My arms wound their way around his neck, my fingers dipping into the soft hair at the bottom of his scalp.

Just as we surged together again, the harsh voice outside of the curtain made us jump apart. The store manager shouted at us. “None of that allowed in here, please.”

He darted away once he’d made sure we separated, and went on his merry way.

Holy. Shit. I needed air. Lots of it. Pronto.

Chapter 13

CARTER

Back at Rylee’s house, we unpacked some of the groceries we’d gotten together earlier. She smiled over her shoulder as she bent over to retrieve a pan. “I’m no chef, but I have my mom’s recipe for this dish. I’ve never tried it by myself, though. Don’t get your hopes up too high.”

By unspoken agreement, neither one of us had brought up our kiss yet. I knew we needed to talk about it eventually, but it seemed unwise to do so until we got back here. There were potential ears everywhere else, and we couldn’t risk outing ourselves so early on in the assignment.

Since we had kissed now though, that wasn’t the only thing we needed to talk about. I’d been racking my brain for the last few hours to figure out how to tell her who I was. The mention of her mother and the fact that we were about to cook one of her dishes together just cemented it for me.

The time had come, even though I really didn’t have a good explanation for why I hadn’t told her earlier. It’d made sense to me at the time, but I’d realized while trying to figure out what to tell her when she inevitably asked that everything I’d come up with sounded lame in retrospect.

Things between us were progressing much faster than I’d thought they would, and much further. Whatever it was that was happening with us, I’d already risked too much damage by not coming clean on the first day we’d “met.”

Stupid. Fucking. Idiot. I knew now that I should’ve just told her, but I hadn’t, and now I had to deal with the consequences of my decision.

“I need to tell you something,” I said, rolling up the sleeves of my button-down shirt after shrugging out of my jacket.

She set the pan down on the stove, grabbing the chicken from the counter opposite us and peeling open the packaging. “Sure. We can talk about whatever you want, but let’s watch a movie and get in the hot tub later. How does that sound?”

Fucking idyllic. I could say without any shadow of a doubt that a night like that with her would be the best thing that had happened to me all year, but it wasn’t as easy as just agreeing to it.

“I’m working, remember?” I reminded her, keeping my tone gentle. “Despite what happened earlier, we need to keep in mind that when we’re here, we’re not pretending to be together. I’m here as your bodyguard. Nothing more.”

Bart would have my balls if he knew what’d happened earlier. He’d probably castrate me and send me right back to make sure I completed the job I’d signed up for, but it definitely wouldn’t be a fun process.

He was a guy’s guy, but I knew he wished he was in a relationship. I also knew he wished I was in one, even if it would complicate the work I did for him sometimes. It’d all come out of him one night at my place after a few too many beers.

A part of me wanted to believe that if I explained this to him, he would understand and not kick my ass for breaking the rules. I wasn’t optimistic or naive enough to think it wouldn’t be an issue at all, or that he, like Rylee, wouldn’t ream me for not being honest from the outset. I deserved whatever came my way from both of them, though.

It was only fair that I spoke to her about it first, and that was exactly what I planned on doing. Rylee, however, seemed to be intent on talking