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“Or vanilla,” Cos said, his voice husky. “Like your perfume.”
I was becoming flushed even before taking a single sip of wine.
“Now what?” I asked, to break the silence.
“Taste.”
He didn’t move. He didn’t pick up his glass. He didn’t drink the wine. He held it, stem between his fingers, watching me.
“We use our tongues to observe the wine,” he said, very much in a tone that made me imagine how else he could use his tongue. “Once you swallow the wine...”
I pushed aside a vision of me on my knees in front of him.
“...the aromas may change.”
I wanted to kiss him.
I wanted him to kiss me.
I wanted to know what it was like to see Cosimo Grado lose control. And I was pretty sure he knew I wanted that, and I thought he wanted that too.
Hell, he admitted to being attracted to me.
“Go ahead,” he prompted. “Taste.”
Trying hard to hold the glass steady, I took a sip. It was sweet. The kind of wine I might have liked when I’d started my wine journey, but not one I was a fan of now.
“You didn’t taste it,” I accused. “Why?”
He didn’t blink. “Because I’d rather taste you.”
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
cosimo
In termsof inappropriate things you could say to an employee, that was a doozy. Not like we hadn’t had pretty women working at Grado before. But never, not even when I was in high school, had I found myself unable to separate the person from the position.
“I’m sorry—”
“Do it.”
We talked at the same time. Which was why I needed Brooke to repeat herself. “Excuse me?”
“Do it,” she said again. This time, her words were crystal clear.
“Brooke, I can’t,” I said with a headful of regret. “We agreed not even a half hour ago it was a really bad fucking idea.”
“We did,” she admitted, setting the glass aside and jumping from the stool. With every step she took, I could feel myself getting harder and harder. I could feel the noose of my parents’ expectations tightening.
But most of all, I could feel Brooke, even though we weren’t touching. She was close enough. If I reached out, she’d be in my arms.
“I’ll be leaving in two months,” she said.
“But this is still incredibly inappropriate.”
“Agreed.”
We were at an impasse. Then, out of nowhere, Brooke reached up and clasped the rim of my glasses. With a deft hand, she pulled them off. Which wasn’t at all what I’d been expecting.
