Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107262 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107262 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“I’m very proud of you,” I tell her sincerely, getting up and coming around my desk.
Raven peeks behind her and closes the door, her simper turning needy. It’s too early, too risky, but I can’t help myself. I want to celebrate this momentous moment with her.
I close the distance in an instant, barely giving her time to shut the door, adrenaline racing though me mixed with my own desire. I wrap an arm around Raven’s waist, cupping her jaw with my other hand, and take her mouth in a kiss. She gasps in surprise, cautious but also floating so high emotionally that she doesn’t stop me when I use her open-mouthed reaction to slip my tongue in to tangle with hers.
“Mr. Sharpe, I just got a call from—”
It’s Tamara, who started talking from my outer office as she opened my door, clearly in a hurry. She’s frozen in my doorway, and Raven rips herself away from me, her expression one of both fear and shock. “Oh!”
“What is it, Tamara?” I question, swallowing thickly and correcting my tie.
Tamara clears her throat, and ever the utmost professional, she jumps straight to business. “Excuse me. Mr. Sharpe, Ms. Nicholson called, said she’s, quote, working on it, end quote. I assume you know what that means.”
“Yes, thank you, Tamara. Good night.”
To her credit, she nods her head at both me and Raven. “Good night to the both of you.”
Once she’s gone and the door is shut, Raven turns wide, concerned eyes to me. “Oh, my God, everyone’s going to know.”
I arch a brow. “Everyone does know, remember? We talked about this already,” I remind her.
Raven breathes out her frustration, as if I don’t get what she means. “It’s different when there’s a rumor going around that we’re making out in your office.”
I smile, reaching out to take her upper arms in my hands. Simply holding her seems to ease the concern etched into her forehead. I hold her gorgeous gaze. “Raven, Tamara is the last person you should worry about. She would never breathe a word about the things she sees, hears, and knows from being near my office.” Raven pins me with a deadly look, and I rush to amend, “Professionally speaking, of course. And she’s known about us for weeks now. She even gave me advice on going slow so you didn’t burn out with your investments… or with me. Seems you’re not the only one who thinks I’m ‘a lot’ to deal with.”
I’m trying to make light of the situation so Raven doesn’t panic and regress, not when we’re doing so well. Because truly, nothing has changed. Tamara already knew about Raven and me, and I trust her implicitly.
Raven nibbles at her lip worriedly. “You didn’t see how she was looking at me.”
Tamara barely glanced Raven’s way, and only to say goodbye. “She didn’t look at you any sort of way.”
It’s the wrong thing to say. Fire rises in Raven’s green eyes. “She might be fine with us, and might’ve known, but seeing it in stark, living proof in front of her very eyes is quite a different thing. And you didn’t see how she looked at me,” she repeats. “She had that mom look, like she’s disappointed in me, like she thinks I’m sleeping my way to the top.”
This again.
“Are you?” I ask, and Raven’s brows furrow together sharply. “Didn’t think so,” I say quickly. “And you and I both know that. It was a surprise, it was shocking, but it’s not a big deal unless we make it one.”
She drops her chin, looking at the floor and thinking. I’m hoping she'll see reason because this truly isn’t the issue she’s making it out to be.
“I thought we were going public?” I ask her, and the look she gives me back isn’t what I expected. My brow raises. “Aren’t we?”
“Not at the office,” she answers, and it takes me by surprise.
“Why not?” My voice is harder than it should be, but I’m on edge.
“I’m embarrassed,” she says finally, her voice quiet.
“By what?” I ask, on edge. “Me?” My voice is harder than I mean it to be, but she’s digging at those scars I thought I’d healed over. The scars that formed over stabbing words like ‘you’re not enough’ and suggestions that I’m too-this or not-enough-that. They came from Olivia and Evan, but also much further back, to my childhood and my parents.
Raven’s hitting on damage I want to leave in the past.
Her mouth opens and closes, but no sound comes out. She’s as gobsmacked as I am… by both of our reactions.
“I don’t want people to think–”
I cut her off, fully fucking uninterested in anyone else. Doesn’t she realize how little their opinions mean? They don’t know us. “If they want to judge, fucking let them.”
“You may be okay with that… but I’m not,” she answers back, exasperated.