I stare at her blankly. When she lays it all out like that I realized I’ve been a bigger ass than I thought. I wonder if Sierra was telling the truth when she said I changed my mind too much. When she’d pry into my business to try and find out what demons I was hiding that caused me to function like an irregular human. Her words exactly.
“Fuck.” I run a hand through my hair. “I’ve completely fucked this thing up.”
She chuckles, sipping her margarita, showing how different she is than any other girl I’ve ever dated. “We can be great co-workers.”
“I can’t be your co-worker.” The words leave my lips in a rush before I can think better of it and I realize how true they are now that I’ve spoken them out loud.
She leans toward me like she has to tell me a secret. “Hate to break it to you, but you don’t have much choice on that one.”
“What I mean is that I think about you naked every time I see you. I imagine having sex with you everywhere in my apartment, on every surface. The whole reason for bringing you here was so that wouldn’t happen. Fuck. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve royally screwed this up.”
Our dinner arrives and she unwraps her silverware calmly. At first glance, I didn’t think my words affected her, but then I notice the flush in her cheeks. Her tongue slides out and she licks her bottom lip, right before biting down on it and inhaling a deep breath. Maybe I haven’t screwed this up… yet.
“You know how attracted I am to you, right?” I ask.
She side glances me.
“I’m sorry for being an ass these past few weeks, but I do want you. Don’t question that. If we didn’t work together—”
“Yeah, yeah, we’d already be dating. Heard that line already.” She bites into her taco and chews aggressively. “Let’s just stop the whole back and forth thing and remain co-workers who are friends.”
“We could, but I’ll never survive.”
She rolls her eyes. “I’m just going to enjoy my tacos once again. Do we get to go to Scrumptuals again too?”
Her sarcastic tone says I haven’t lost this round yet. She’s pushing me on purpose.
“Blanca?”
She wipes her face and places her napkin on her lap. “So tell me? How do you see this working?” she asks. “Because I can’t figure out what you want.”
“What working?” I take a bite of my taco, which is delicious.
“This pull between business and pleasure and the fact that you don’t mix them.”
I wipe my mouth and look to her to decipher her meaning. “I don’t.”
She huffs. “Do you want to talk articles?”
I shake my head. “Blanca?”
She leans forward. “Ethan,” she whispers, a small grin on her face.
“Check please.” I raise my hand and Blanca laughs, our gazes never leaving one another’s.
I’m probably a moron for allowing my dick to win this war. We both worked too hard for this job.
She slides off of her stool, putting her purse crosswise over her chest so the strap indents right between her tits. Yeah, like her article pointed out so well, co-workers fuck all the time and nothing bad happens, right?
Chapter Fourteen
Blanca
I’ve never been a forward girl. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. But I just practically put my hand on a guy’s crotch and said let’s go back to your place. But truth is, I never do this. Not that I’m against a woman taking what she wants when she wants, but having three older brothers made me nervous of word getting back to them.
This time it won’t get back. Because my protective brothers don’t know anyone in Cliffton Heights.
Ethan’s hand slides into mine when we step out of Las Tacos, clenching to signal for us to start walking together.
There’s no conversation during the walk to his apartment, but there’s a stirring between us, a silent bomb that ticks the seconds as if we can’t reach his place fast enough before it explodes.
He releases my hand to slide his into his pocket, retrieving a set of keys. When he opens up the building’s door, I walk through the double doors first, him behind me.
“Up the stairs. Third floor,” he says to my back.
I step first but he matches me step for step and when I reach the top floor, he instructs me again, “To the right. Three-twenty-one.”
I turn and his footsteps sound behind mine.
My heart beats fast and my stomach turns as I wait for him to open his apartment door.
A warning flashes in my head once he’s unlocked his door. I’m asking for disaster. He’s my co-worker. A job I’ve been wanting forever and I’m chancing it for what might be just one-night?
But he pushes the door open and holds his hand out, a flirty grin on his lips, his right dimple on display. He doesn’t seem like a one-night kind of guy. He could be my one and only right? Now I know I’m talking myself into this since I’m not sure how I feel about soul mates.
I accept his hand and step over the threshold into his space, unsure what I just signed up for—one night of good times or something more?
He shuts the door behind me and steps forward, pressing my back to the wall, his hand warm on my neck. “Are you positive, Blanca?” His tongue slides out and tastes my lips like he knows my answer.
Who am I kidding? I know my answer.
“Yes,” I whisper and his head dips.
I wait to see stars or to feel dizzy before his lips reach mine. A guy who makes you clench your thighs because he puts everything into his kiss. But there’s no explosion because he draws back and his thumb traces my bottom lip.
“I need the job,” he whispers.
“Me too.”
“Are we crazy?” His thumb continues to slowly run along my lip and his gaze dips to watch his movements before bouncing back up to my eyes. “I’d do about anything to kiss you right now.”
“Except lose your job.” I place my hand on his wrist, but his thumb still doesn’t stop.
He nods.
“I shouldn’t have come onto you so strong.” This close I can see his unique hazel eyes, brownish with a hint of green and sparkles of gold.
His thumb stops. “Please don’t think that. I love the fact that you’re so forward. All I can think about right now is picking you up and tossing you on my bed, if only for a moment to see how perfect it’d feel to have you there. To strip off your dress and see your body. To know if it’s how I imagined it. Christ, the idea of the warmth of your skin on mine… but…”
A deep sense of loss claws at my insides. “Ethan,” I interrupt his thoughts. “What if this thing never goes away? I can’t work if us sleeping together screws it up and I can’t work if I’m always thinking about us sleeping together. It’s a lose-lose battle.”
I hope I’m not coming off like some needy girl. I do want him, and I understand the repercussions of what we’re doing.
He stares at me, long and hard. “I guess it’s settled.” His hand runs along my neck until he sinks his fingers into my dark hair. My eyes drift closed, and he steps forward, pressing into me. “Walk over the cliff with me?”