Page 18 of Scoring a Sweet Thing

Please say yes.

“Obviously!” He rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling like I’ve just said something cute. “What time shall I come over?”

“Maybe like five?”

He nods enthusiastically. “Okay. I’ll be waiting!” He spins around to face the rest of the studio. “Bye, everyone! May your day be blessed with cool tattoos and Bailey’s cute face!”

Then, he cups my face with his hands and kisses me. My eyes fall closed. Every nerve ending instantly lights up, and I practically melt into him. I walk him to the door, promising to see him later.

When I turn around, I’m greeted by my colleagues’ amused expressions, and my face heats again.

“Okay, I love him,” Stormi says the second the door closes behind him.

“You better marry him, or I will,” Trevor threatens.

“He’s like a precious puppy,” Reggie coos, and their client nods in agreement. “So cute.”

“I hate you all,” I grumble, but I’m unable to wipe the smile from my face.

With Lian still on his cruise, Remi and I have taken over the living room. There are discarded takeout boxes scattered across the coffee table, and I’ve hooked up my second monitor so we can game together. Something we spoke about doing while he was away.

“Ooooh, look over here!” Remi crows, and then his character dashes out of view on my monitor. “It’s so nice!”

I quickly glance over to the TV, where his character is running off the safe path. “Uhh, I wouldn’t go over there if I were—” but my warning falls flat when he shrieks in terror.

“AHHHH!”

His character begins to run away, a horde of zombies following him. “Oh my god! AHH! I’m gonna die! Bailey! Save me! AAHHH!”

Snickering, my character runs in his direction, and I start taking down the zombies. I end up chasing him around the map as he tries to outrun them, only he ends up gaining more because he runs into the gathering hordes in the outer fields quicker than I can kill them.

“Remi, you need to stop running,” I say, chuckling.

A terrified “AHHHH!” is the response I get.

“Remi!” I choke out a laugh. “You need to help, otherwise I’m gonna run out of ammo, then we’ll both die.”

He presses all the buttons on his controller in no clear order. At one point, he swaps his gun for a medical kit and starts hitting the zombies with it.

My stomach aches from laughing. I can’t find it in me to be mad because he’s genuinely trying his best, and he’s so fucking adorable.

By the time we—or I should say, I—have taken all the zombies down, tears are streaming down my face. He lets out a heavy sigh of relief and flops back into the couch cushions.

“Wow, that was close. I nearly died,” he says, exasperated.

I wipe my face with the sleeve of my T-shirt and give him a pointed look. “You’re welcome.”

He grins, then tosses the controller onto the coffee table and launches himself at me. For the tenth time today, I’m engulfed in his strong arms, blanketed by his warmth. He smells so fucking good that I can’t stop from taking a deep inhale.

“Did you just sniff me?” he mumbles into my neck.

“Maybe.”

He’s silent for a moment, and then he chuckles without loosening his hold on me. “I’ll let you smell me because you saved me.”

“Gee, thanks. Best reward I’ve ever received,” I deadpan.

He lifts his head, but we’re still so close, our noses almost touch. “If we were in a real zombie invasion, would you save me?”