type of person who would do that?” he challenged.
“No. But the paw prints do soften you up a bit.”
He glanced down at ruined cashmere. “Remind me to have Linus fire you.”
I clamped a hair tie between my lips and worked my hair into a short tail. “Nice try. But I think he likes me,” I said around the hair tie. “You should give it a shot. Maybe give your blinding hatred a rest.”
I wrapped the tie around my hair and gave it a tug.
“I don’t hate you, Ally.” His voice was quiet, gruff.
I wasn’t sure how it had happened, but suddenly we were standing too close. Nothing good would come of this odd attraction. Yet I couldn’t seem to help myself.
He was supposed to be cold. However, from where I stood, inches away, he seemed anything but.
“Good. Because frankly, I’m irresistible, and you might as well just give up the fight now.”
“I can’t afford to find you irresistible,” he said.
We weren’t touching. But it felt like the space between us was charged with something. It was acting like a defibrillator on my heart.
I didn’t like him, I reminded myself. But clearly that didn’t mean I didn’t want him.
Apparently I’d turned into a woman who would gladly rip her clothes off and jump a guy who didn’t like her just because he was scary hot.
That thought led to an unfortunate fantasy montage of just how Dominic Russo would look if he were fucking me. On top. Under. Bent over me. Against a wall. Tangled in sheets.
“What?” he demanded.
The question had the effect of a record scratch.
I could only imagine the show my face was putting on right now.
“Nothing,” I squeaked. “Gotta go.” Gotta go take a long walk in the frigid night air to cool the hell down and stop thinking dirty, dirty thoughts.
But he didn’t move when I did. And now we were almost touching. I could feel him. His hands were still tucked in the pockets of his coat. The heat that came off his body was extraordinary.
I could imagine just how it would feel if I slid my palms over his chest. I knew exactly how the texture of his crisp shirt would war with the body heat that seemed desperate to escape.
I could feel his breath on my hair. I would have bet money that he could hear the thrum of my heartbeat because I sure as hell could hear it. I could feel it everywhere in my body. An insistent pulsing of hot blood.
He leaned in and down, and for one split second, I thought that those firm lips were going to crush mine in the kind of kiss that no one survives. But he reached past me, then straightened. “Here,” he said, handing me the headphones I’d left on the desk.
My fingers closed over them, but his didn’t let go. We stood that way for another long beat. Looking at the headphones. At our fingers that were almost brushing.
He still wasn’t touching me. But it felt like he’d stripped me down and spread me out to be admired.
Devoured.
Ruined.
Was he feeling this, too? Or was I just the awkward woman who couldn’t get out of her cubicle without making a mess?
I chanced a look up at him.
Those blue eyes bore into mine. He looked frustrated. Angry. Hungry.
“Did you have lunch today?” I asked.
He blinked like he was coming out of a trance. “Did I what?”
“Have lunch,” I repeated. “You look hungry.”
“You should go, Ally,” he said, taking a deliberate step back.
And just like that, he took his heat with him.
I grabbed my coat off the back of the chair and swirled it around me like a protective cloak before leaving without a word.
I got off the subway one stop early just so I could suck in the cold air and calm my racing mind. I hadn’t just had a moment with Dominic. Definitely not. He didn’t have moments. And he’d made it abundantly clear that not only was I not his type, but he could barely stand to be civil to me.
I was tired. Distracted. I’d completely misread all the signs. He wasn’t helplessly attracted to me. He was just being polite. Or annoying.
He hadn’t touched me. Not even when he handed over my headphones, I reminded myself.
I was not about to enter a mooning downward spiral about the hot boy in school. I cranked up Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” and refused to let my brain replay the non-moment.
The studio was on the first floor of a