Page 64 of True Colors

CHAPTER 14

Luther

I’m useless all week. Completely and utterly useless.

Every email blurs. Every meeting drags. Every sentence I read or hear collapses into the same relentless thought: I kissed her.

And…she kissed me back.

I haven’t stopped thinking about the way she looked at me afterward—eyes wide, startled, trusting. It did something to me. Made me feel unsteady in a way I haven’t felt since I was nineteen and didn’t know my own limits.

This feels worse. Sharper. More dangerous.

I’m cutting past the elevator bay when I see her step out of one of the cars, and the world shifts just enough to throw me off balance.

Her hair is wind-tousled, pulled into a loose braid. Beige pants. A soft pink blouse. Today’s scarf is pale rose with small black-and-white flowers, knotted carefully at her throat.

“Good morning,” I murmur.

She smiles, shy and warm. “G-good m-morning.”

I don’t mind the stutter today. I like knowing I’m the reason she’s nervous—not because I’m her boss, but because something else is happening between us.

She walks beside me, close enough that our arms brush. Not quite touching. Almost.

That’s how the entire week has been.

Almost.

It’s intoxicating to catch her looking at me from across the conference table, unguarded—curious, wanting—before she looks away.

It’s reckless to let my fingers graze hers when I pass her a document, to feel the faint hitch in her breathing when our hands touch and linger half a second too long.

It’s unbearable to stand with her in a crowded elevator, my hand resting at the small of her back—not possessive or inappropriate, just there—and feel her lean into me.

She doesn’t pull away when I touch her. She exhales. And I have to spend the rest of the ride staring at the floor numbers, pretending I’m not thinking about getting her naked and under me.

This past week has been an exercise in restraint. I’ve gone to meetings I don’t need to attend just to be in the same room as her—like now, dialed into a Novagene call with her and Vijay.

Bob interrupts her. Again.

“Hey,” I snap before I can stop myself. “Bob, can you let Anouk finish her sentence?”

The room goes quiet.

Vijay looks at me, eyebrows lifting.

Anouk flushes.

Bob sputters.

When the meeting ends, I can’t stand it anymore. I haven’t been alone with her since the kiss, and I’m at the end of my rope.

“Anouk, can we talk for a minute?”

Vijay stands, glancing between us. “Bob’s a jerk, but she was handling it.”

I frown. Does he think I’m upset with Anouk for how the meeting went? Fuck!