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And I just about die when it makes Charli gasp and stretch her neck for more.

“Fuck, you taste so good,” I groan into her skin. My next nip is harder and a little more frustrated. All it does is make Charli squirm in my arms.

“Hold still,” I command in a deep growl. Moving my hand back to her throat, I hold her in place as I kiss my way back to her lips. To my surprise and delight, she does exactly as I say.

I hum thoughtfully against the corner of her mouth. “I had no idea you could be so agreeable,” I muse. “Who knew you just needed to be kissed.”

At this point, I want to see more of her reactions. I can feel her reacting in my arms, but I want to see what she’s thinking. So I pull back the slightest bit, just to get a glimpse of her face.

She’s panting, her eyes wide and her pupils blown completely black. When my gaze drops to her lips, pink and swollen from my kisses, my pants grow tighter.

“Fuck you,” she gasps in response to my teasing. But there’s no heat in her words, not really. She’s just trying to keep her everyday armor in place.

I tsk and shake my head in mock disappointment. “Such a foul mouth,” I scold, placing one finger over her lips to mime the instruction be quiet. “What have I done to deserve being talked to like that?”

But to my surprise—and absolute delight—Charli parts her lips and takes the tip of my finger between them. I watch, mesmerized and completely speechless, as she suctions her lips around my digit, her eyes never leaving mine.

There’s a flash of hesitation in her gaze, but it only lasts for a moment, replaced quickly by the same desire that’s been there this whole time. Once again, I find myself wondering if it’s due to inexperience or something else.

But then her cheeks hollow as she sucks on the tip of my finger, and all remaining coherent thoughts disappear from my brain.

“Fuck,” I whisper.

The word ignites the air between us. I pull my finger from her mouth at the same moment she presses up onto her toes, her lips searching for mine.

But before they can meet again, before I get the chance to absolutely devour her mouth, the sounds of construction fill the elevator.

I stumble back from her, my brain a jumble of fluff and her. I have no idea what century it is or how I ended up here.

It isn’t until the sounds of the elevator doors creaking as they’re pried open filter into my consciousness that I remember what’s happening.

Charli and I got stuck in the elevator.

Charli, my new freelance employee.

Charli, the girl a decade younger than me who has never shown even an ounce of interest in me.

…Fuck.

ELEVEN

CHARLI

It takes the two maintenance guys a grand total of ten minutes to get us out of the elevator.

Thank God they pried the doors open right after they started making noise, because I couldn’t bring myself to look at Lucas.

Lucas, the man I just kissed.

Lucas, my employer who just kissed me to within an inch of my life.

My head is still spinning, from the kiss and from the panic that led to it, to wrap my brain around what just happened. All I can do is watch as the maintenance guys pry the doors open to reveal one of the halfway-visible floors, then extend a hand to me to pull me out.

I pretend not to see Lucas’s fist clenching by his side, as if he wanted to offer his first.

The guy who pulled me out starts talking before I can make a decision on whether it’s rude to run off after being trapped in an elevator with your kind-of boss—and spending half of that time making out. It vaguely registers that they’re talking about how this happens sometimes, but it’s no big deal, that they’ll have it fixed right away. In the meantime, we just need to use the other elevator to get to our floor.

Thankfully, we’re only three floors below the office. Which means I can squeak a quick thank you and take off toward the stairs.