I pull back to look at her, to gauge her reaction. Her eyes were still closed when I pulled back; that was all the invitation I needed to press my lips back on hers.
Chapter Fifteen
Fiona
Itossed and turned on my bed, willing myself to stop thinking about it and to go to bed. There was nothing I could do about it now because the only option, the best option, I had was to go off to some faraway town, change my name to something hard enough for the average American to spell, and then live off the remainder of my life tending to goats.
Why did I run? More specifically, why did I let him kiss me? It wasn’t like we talked about it, but I was supposed to know what would happen when his eyes dropped to my lips.
I buried my face into the pillow and screamed into it. There really were some good benefits to living alone. I couldn’t express how grateful I was to have no living human witness the embarrassment I put myself through.
The second his lips left mine, I sat there like a damn fool touching my lips. I might as well have sat on his lap and kissed him more. I shut my eyes tightly and shook my head, shooing away the memory of me doing just that.
I felt hot all over, and my skin was screaming at the testaments of his hands on my skin. I needed to go to bed. Allison was traveling tomorrow, and I had no excuse to not show up even though her brother, whom I spent time kissing and having his tongue dip into my mouth, was going to be there.
I was doomed in more ways than one.
The smile crept back onto my face because, by the heavens, I kissed Christian Carr.
*******
Sending Allison off was a quick affair full of tears and hugs. Christian and I weren’t the only ones who showed up to send her away; her parents also decided to share in the farewell.
On any other day, I would have been trying my best to stay out of their way, trying to get Allison’s mother to look at me with something other than annoyance, but today, I was grateful she was there.
The interaction between Christian and I was nearly nonexistent, and if the parents were paying attention, they would be beaming at this new development. Allison did notice, but her parents were all over her, that she didn’t have the time to comment on it.
I would be receiving a phone call, and without a doubt, Christian would be getting one, too. I just hoped it wouldn’t be a two-way call because I would move away to avoid discussing what happened last night.
Christian wanted to talk about it; I could tell by the way he kept looking at me. I needed to find a way for us not to go back to the office together. We needed to keep the distance between each other for our relationship to maintain the energy it has always had.
And who is to say that if he wouldn’t ask me to forget that anything happened when we spoke. I just wanted to jump ahead of the schedule and do that for us. There was no need for us to talk about it.
“I’m going to miss you so much,” I told Allison as she hugged me goodbye.
“And I’m going to miss you more. I’m going to come and visit soon, or if Christian plays the role of the good boss, he could give you a vacation, and you can come to spend it with me.”
Her words invited Christian into the conversation, but I only rewarded it with a laugh. It’s Christian who spoke.
“I also need a vacation, so maybe we could both take one and then head over to visit you.”
“The boss and his secretary on a trip together, sounds like a plot for a romance movie,” Allison said.
My heart rate picked up, but I played it off by rolling my eyes and shoving Allison a little. I didn’t tell her how I felt about her brother for her to keep mentioning it around him. I said I would speak to him about it, but I was no longer confident that it would happen.
“It sounds like a horror movie, in all honesty,” I said, following it up with the most awkward laugh ever to leave my mouth.
Allison most definitely saw through it because she squinted her eyes at me before shifting her gaze to look at her brother, who I’m certain was already looking at me. I wanted to look over to their parents and beg them to join the conversation because the children were having a secret conversation I didn’t know how to join.
“It won’t be horror,” Allison said finally, “maybe melodrama. A lot of people are into office romance these days.”
Which was the absolutely worst thing she could have said at that moment. “Not us, though. We like to keep things professional, right?”
Christian looked at me like I’ve grown two heads since I last spoke. I nodded a little to urge him to back up my claim. Allison looked between us again, and when Christian spoke again, it felt like there was no reason.
“Yes,” he said, nodding, his eyes never leaving mine. “We like to keep things professional.”
And I followed it up with a little, “Yay.”
Allison opened her mouth to say something, but the call for her flight came through, cutting her off.
“Oh baby,” her parents were around her again. “It’s time for you to go.”
Allison hugged all of us again, with me being last.
“ I’m going to call you immediately when I land, so make sure you stay by the phone, and don’t miss my call.”
**
Avoiding someone you worked directly with was a fine art, but I managed it gracefully. It’s not something any other person could do, but because I had access to all of the schedules, I knew when to be somewhere, when to slip out, when I was needed, the amount of words needed to not go overboard and slip into informal settings.
If there was some type of award for this type of thing, I would have broken the previous record and set a new one that would be hard to beat. Christian had tried to talk to me, but the walls I’d built up specifically to control this situation were impenetrable.
I was a force to be reckoned with.
Christian had a meeting to attend in the boardroom. On any other day, I would have gone in at least five minutes early to inform him about it, but now, I planned on going in a whole minute before the time so there would be no room for small talk. Only rush, rush, rush.
The key to surviving this whole situation was to avoid looking in the general direction of what led you to this position in the first place. In this case, that would be Christian’s lips.
