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Images of him doing just that invade my thoughts and I know a blush is forming. I can feel the heat of it creep up my neck and I know no matter what I say at this moment it’ll only end one way…with us kissing. Thankfully, his phone beeps and I’m able to escape from his magnetic presence as he moves into the other room to answer it.
I wonder if it’s his daughter, or the ex, or maybe since his tone is neutral it’s neither but instead the Farris or their attorney.
Stop thinking, goes through my brain, that’s what Rafe told me, that’s what I’ve told myself hundreds of times but for some reason I can’t. Maybe it’s my overactive fight-or-flight response to the feelings Rafe creates in me but every time something tiny happens, I make it into something bigger. That self-destruct button I hit whenever something scares me into feeling.
Okay you must be wondering why on earth I sabotage every relationship I have. It’s hard to explain why. Maybe the idea of being in love is so much easier to handle than the actual prospect. One thing I do know is I’m petrified of falling, losing myself the way I’ve seen friends lose themselves and their independence when they become a ‘we’ and I don’t want that.
Rafe returns and my thoughts are put aside as sensations overtake me and then I see the smile on his face…victory!
“Charles?” I ask with a hint of a smile.
“It was and they want to see us for lunch today in order to sign over their shares of the company,” he says, before pulling me out of my chair and giving me a huge bear hug. Totally professional you know, or not.
“That’s awesome,” I say once he sets me back on my feet. I’m slightly breathless and the smell of his aftershave fills my head begging me to step back into his arms, wrap mine around his neck, and kiss him for days.
“You’re amazing,” Rafe tells me, his eyes reflecting the desire that has to be shining in my own. “You were the key I needed.”
“I don’t know how to feel about that statement,” I joke stepping around him to head to the sitting area and pull out a file that had the contract we’d need for the lunch meeting.
“It was supposed to be a compliment,” he says following me, taking the file from my hands and bringing my gaze back to his.
“Yeah, it just feels a little odd to be referred to as a key…” I say trying to diffuse the always present tension.
“Then how would you feel being called my secret weapon?” he asked. “Who happened to be kept secret from even me?”
“It fits my personality better, after all you did call me one big secret,” I reply despite knowing it’ll lead somewhere I shouldn’t let it.
“I’m looking forward to learning your secrets,” Rafe states and that’s it…I’m lost.
Somehow, I find myself in his arms being held securely but yet there’s still room for me to wiggle out if I feel like it, but I don’t, I want him to kiss me, even though I don’t.
I don’t make much sense, do I? I can’t help it. It’s Rafe, he muddles my brain sending me in twenty-nine different directions and I honestly don’t know whether to laugh or cry about my lack of control when I’m with him.
“We shouldn’t,” I tell him even as his mouth descends towards me. I raise my hands to push him away but somehow they end up wrapped around his neck as our lips meet and it all disappears. The fight within myself to stay away from him, the sanity that I’d barely been holding onto, and most importantly any train of thought I might have had going through the back of my head.
The kiss, or maybe it should be labeled,The Kiss, since it was definitely a standout moment, changed everything I’d been prepared to do. I was going to let things cool between us until he realized it was a mistake, that we weren’t thinking straight last night, and that it was simply the close quarters getting to us, making us think things that weren’t really there, but that kiss…there’s only one word to describe that kiss…insane.
Honestly it was, because all of the sanity I had escaped my possession with that kiss. It was entirely too slow, each minute movement of our lips seemed to take a decade to complete, and I was lost so deep inside it that I couldn’t have found my way out with blinking exit signs in front of my face.
Rafe finally pulled me closer letting our bodies barely touch and it happened, I let him in.
No, not likethat, I mean really, I’m not easy or anything. Well, I guess you already knew that didn’t you, but I let him in. I stopped fighting myself and made the decision to go with the flow and be comfortable with where it leads—a terrifying prospect for me.
Chapter 7
“Ican’t believe it,” Gloria said once the papers were signed.
“What dear?” Charles asks.
“I thought it would be difficult to let go but it surprisingly isn’t,” she states sending Rafe and I a glowing smile.
“That would be because these two have given us total comfort as to the future of Lemans,” he replies shaking Rafe’s hand as we get up to leave the restaurant. He adds a kiss to my cheek as Gloria moves in for hugs, an absolutely horrid prospect if Rafe’s face is to be taken seriously.
“Lemans will certainly be in good hands,” I assure them both.
“Darling anything in that man’s hands would be good,” Gloria states nailing down the way I feel when I’m in his arms. I can’t stop the light laugh that tickles my throat and the day suddenly feels perfect.
I did it. Okay…we did it. Rafe and I. Wow that sounds good, Rafe and I.
