Wings. Dark. Huge. Flaming black wings shooting out of Tanner’s shoulders.
Perhaps I’ve had a bit too much wine, but I feel sober.
Perhaps my sex-starved brain is just starting to make things up.
It’s a beautiful image but has nothing to do with the man beside me now.
A man I’ve become good friends with.
A man who makes me aware that there’s something inside me that I’ve been trying to hold back.
Perhaps this is what it feels like, being in love.
I blink.
I am not in love with Tanner. We’ve barely been on a date, if you could call lunch that.
Sure, he gave me an orgasm on a printer. And shows up to every meeting. And gets involved more than any other CEO I know.
And tells me, when I want him badly, desperately, that he wants so much more from me.
That he wants me… to bond with him.
Just that word causes something to echo deep in my soul.
“I’ll stay mobile,” he says, leaning down to whisper in my ear and naughtily teasing my skin with his breath as he does so. “No one will suspect a thing.” His hand grazes my waist as he leaves, and the gentle touch is so searing I have to bite back a moan.
Then he’s gone, easily working his way among the groups of people, shaking hands, throwing back his head in easy laughter.
I love this company, but right now, I hate it for taking his attention away.
Even though it’s my fault this is happening. My stupid insistence on us staying professional.
I go back to my table, pouring a glass of wine and sipping it as I listen halfheartedly to a conversation between some of my co-workers about changes to the health plan.
I turn to talk to them about it, and time passes quickly until dinner is ready to be served.
I’m about to look for Tanner, but out of nowhere, he appears, pulling out the chair beside me. He deftly removes the name card for whoever was supposed to sit there and moves it to the empty spot next to him.
I glare at him for a second, and he just shrugs, shameless.
“I have to take some CEO privileges,” he says, leaning in conspiratorially. He lowers his voice to a whisper. “Like sitting next to the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.”
How can he just talk like that?
Please don’t let me melt all over this table.
The person he moved just looks happy to be next to the CEO, and as our meals are served and conversations starts up on either side of me, I feel Tanner’s hand move onto my thigh, giving it a soft squeeze.
I bite my lower lip, keeping back a moan, because he’s being such a damn tease right now.
I look over to see him talking innocently with the man next to him as if nothing untoward was happening under the table.
His hand moves slowly in a bit, then closer to where I desperately want him, and this time, I do let out a slight moan, drawing some attention over to me.
Tanner removes his hand but grins as he digs into his salad.
“Uh, it’s good, right?” I ask, holding up my wine glass. “Maybe I had a bit much.”
That’s enough to make the others at the table laugh and shrug it off, but when I send a furious glare at Tanner, his mischievous grin only deepens.
All I really regret is that he’s not touching me anymore. I shake my head, telling myself to wait just a little bit longer.
Soon enough, dinner is over, and someone pulls Tanner away to talk to him, much to my disappointment.
But just as the COO, Bill, comes up to talk to me, I hear my phone buzz with a text.
I smile with relief at the excuse to ditch Bill, since I really don’t find the experience pleasant. He’s always bragging about his dad or saying something sexist about how well I do my job “for a woman.”
“Sorry, Bill,” I say, leaving him with a frown as I move to a private corner to check my phone.
T: Tell Bill to stay away or I’m going to introduce him to eternal darkness.
I let out a snort at Tanner’s exaggeration, then type out a reply. I’m not sure he deserves death.
The phone buzzes quickly with Tanner’s response. I didn’t say I would kill him. Just that he would never see light again.
I frown at the text because it’s a little unusual, but I’m still pleased by Tanner’s protectiveness.
“Anything interesting happening?”
I jerk my head up and shove my phone in my pocket just as Dawn, the CTO’s wife, comes over to me.
I sigh in relief. “Ah, no. Just texting.”
“These things are so boring. You looked like you were having fun over here.” Her eyes twinkle. “And at dinner.”
I think a tomato would blend in with my face about now. “Ah. You noticed.”
She grins, putting her arms around her small purse and holding it to her chest as she looks over at her husband with a look of pure admiration. “You know, workplace romances aren’t all bad. Did you know I met Ray through work?”
“No,” I say softly, my eyes wandering over to Tanner, locking on him like homing missiles. “But I’d love to hear about it.”
Someone please tell me that what I’m doing isn’t wrong, because once I get home with Tanner and those homing missiles are allowed to hit, I know I’m going to explode.
And nothing is ever going to be the same.
“I see how you look at him, and don’t worry. I won’t tell on you,” she says. “Though, I just have to say, even though it was awkward at times, it was worth it. Ray and I met because we were both hired onto the same team. Sometimes you don’t choose how you meet someone, you know?”
“Yeah,” I say, locking eyes with Tanner as he looks over at me, feeling sparks ignite in the air around me.
Dawn catches my expression and just smiles warmly again, putting a hand on my shoulder supportively. “Anyway, good luck. And don’t worry. Ray and I won’t tell anyone.”
“There’s nothing to tell,” I insist. Yet.
She just gives me a little wink before sidling off, and as I watch her walk over to Ray, who gives her a smile and puts out an arm to pull her in against him, my heart can’t help but want the same.
“You ready to go yet?” A voice interrupts from behind me.
I whirl around and sigh in relief when I see Tanner there. “How do you always sneak around like that?”
“I move in the shadows,” he says in a teasing tone. “When no one is looking.”
I glare at him. “You’re so weird sometimes.”
He smirks. “You love it.”
He’s right. I do. His weird works with my weird.
I look up at him, unable to resist noting the perfect shape of his lips, his straight nose, those gorgeous eyes. “Yes, I think I’m ready to go now, if you think we can sneak out without being noticed.”
His grin is all confidence. “I’ll meet you out front in five minutes.”
“I’ll be there.”
16
Tanner
We took a cab back to her apartment because it was the most subtle way to escape the party without people assuming we were leaving together.
After all, no one notices a cab.
A limo, as I would have liked to call for her, is a different story.
Still, as much as I hated the business party, pretending to care about feeling better than others who make less money, it was worth it to see Eva like this.