Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
“Sebastian…”
A shiver ran through me at the sound of my name on his tongue. After hearing an unsexy “sir” all day, my name falling from his lips was heaven.
“Your hand keeps inching closer to mine,” Byron observed.
My gaze darted across the table to where my right hand was resting, and he was correct. My fingers had inched closer to his while we talked about our movie preferences. It was just that his hand was sitting there, so tantalizing. It would take so little effort to slide my hand those last few inches to run the tips of my fingers down his, to thread our fingers together.
“I take it you like to hold hands,” Byron said.
I blinked at him. The spell he had me under was broken temporarily. “Actually, no.”
He chortled. “I don’t believe you.”
Who could blame him? “I’m serious. I have never been a fan of holding hands or even felt the desire to hold hands. Or rather, until you…I didn’t.” His brow furrowed. I hadn’t even noticed the difference. He’d had to call attention to it, but it was the truth.
“I’ve never been one of those cuddly, touchy-feely guys. There’s never been someone in my life that I wanted to curl up with, to hold their hand or keep my hand on their knee. In fact, I dated someone like that once, and we didn’t get more than two dates before I ended it. Every time we were together, I felt like I had zero personal space.”
“He made you feel claustrophobic,” he supplied.
“Yes!” I threw my hands up in the air. When I brought them back down, the fingers on my right hand brushed his. “But it’s different with you. I want to touch you constantly. There’s never enough.”
Byron gave his head a tiny shake. “Don’t you think it might be because it’s forbidden to touch me during the day? Maybe that’s your entire infatuation with me? It’s got nothing to do with me, per se, but just that you want something you’re not supposed to have.”
“Yes. And no. Yes, I think being around you all day but not allowed to touch makes me want to touch you more, but I’m not sure that’s going to disappear even if I could touch you all the time. You look very huggable.”
Byron’s entire body shook with suppressed laughter. “I do not. Every guy I’ve dated has said I’m all hard angles, like a triangle. There’s nothing huggable about me.”
“I can’t wait to prove them all wrong. Also, I don’t think the forbidden is linked to my infatuation. The day you came to interview at Courtland, I spotted you sitting in Fountain Square, reading over some papers as I was returning from lunch. I thought you were adorable then, and I think you’re adorable now.”
“You can’t help it, can you?” he asked.
“What?”
“Flirting.” The word drifted from his lips, and Byron’s fingers caressed mine. My entire body froze as I soaked in that phantom-light touch as it sent a spark along my arm and across my chest. “Every word out of your mouth is flirty.”
“Do you mind?”
Byron paused for a second, and I hung there like a worm speared on a hook, dangling above a fish as it debated whether to bite.
A heartbeat later, his smile widened, and his fingers threaded with mine. “No, I don’t. It’s been far too long since someone flirted with me.”
Oh yes, he was all mine.
“You know, you don’t have to walk me up to my apartment,” Byron said, his voice full of laughter.
I caught his hand as I joined him on the sidewalk after giving some instructions to my driver. “Of course I do. I’m your date, and it’s my responsibility to make sure that you arrive safely home. There’s no way I’d be able to sleep at night if I didn’t know for a fact that you’d made it inside your apartment unmolested.”
Byron grunted as he pulled open the door to his building. “You mean unmolested by any strangers. By my date? That’s an entirely different matter.”
“I like to believe that is negotiable.”
We held hands on the way up to his floor, and I loved every second of it. I’d loved our entire date. The food had been great, the conversation even better. Ground rules for our dating had come up briefly, but for now, we settled on not acting inappropriately in the office and no kissing in public. That did not rule out kissing in private locations.
As the night wore on, Byron relaxed more and more. At the office, he rarely made a witty quip or teasing remark, but when it was just the two of us after hours, he was full of snarky comments and jokes.
There was only one thing that was going to make this evening perfect—a kiss good night.
Byron knew what I wanted. I could tell by the smirk resting on his lips. But he was determined to make me beg and work for it. Just the idea of him teasing me like this had left me with a semi-hard cock pressing against the front of my underwear.