Page 6 of Kiss of Smoke

“Oh.” He loomed large on the side of the bed, his sweater snug over his biceps. My stomach did a flip.

His gaze moved over me. “How do you feel?”

A rush of self-consciousness swept me. I’d lunged at Josh in the airport, cried in both of my bosses’ arms, and passed out on their airplane. Also, one of them had apparently tucked me into bed like a toddler.

Mortification level? Off the charts.

I cleared my throat. “I’m sorry I fell asleep like that. I don’t know what came over me. I’ve never been so tired.”

“No need to apologize. You went through a trauma. Anyone would be exhausted.”

“Thank you,” I whispered, reality slamming into me all over again. As soon as we landed, I needed to get on the phone with wedding vendors. But with the ceremony so close, I probably couldn’t get out of the contracts I’d signed. Tears pricked my eyelids.

Alec noticed at once. “Hey,” he said, brushing a gentle thumb under my eye. “None of that now.”

“I’m sorry.” My skin tingled where he’d touched me, and I had to take a deep breath before I could keep talking. “It’s just…I can’t believe this happened. Josh and I were together for four years. You think you know someone, and then they pull the rug out from under you.” Bitter humor rose in my mind. “He was bored with me. Hopefully Clarissa can keep him entertained.” Which, of course she could. She was beautiful and accomplished—exactly the kind of woman Josh wanted. They probably fucked and then discussed recent Supreme Court decisions. I was an executive assistant with a typing certificate from a community college in Brooklyn.

“What are you thinking?” Alec asked.

I swallowed. “That I should have seen this coming. Josh is ambitious. I was never going to be good enough for him.”

Alec’s gaze was steady, his big body relaxed and elegant as he watched me. He’d spread his knees, and he rested his hands on his thighs.

He was so freaking hot, with his red-gold hair and chiseled features. Even in dress pants and a cashmere sweater, it was easy to picture him swinging a claymore while Highland mist swirled around him.

Okay, I had to stop lusting after my boss, stat. My gay boss, I reminded myself. Right on cue, the memory of that night in the office rushed back.

Lachlan had grasped Alec’s hip in a possessive grip as his other hand worked up and down Alec’s shaft.

Alec had groaned, sinking strong, white teeth into his lower lip…

Stop it.

I ducked my head and toyed with the bedding. Alec and Lachlan were a couple—a sexy, committed couple. As late as that morning, I would have said my relationship with Josh was just as solid.

Was I boring? Or maybe there was something else wrong with me. Maybe I’d lost whatever spark attracted Josh to me in the first place. He no longer found me desirable, so he found someone else.

Alec made a soft sound that drew my gaze up. “Yer thinking again, lass, and I don’t think they’re good thoughts.”

“No,” I heard myself say, “they’re not, really.”

“You can tell me if you want. The best place for bad thoughts is out of your head.”

That made me smile. “I don’t think it’s as easy as simply saying them out loud.”

His return smile made my stomach do another flip. Then he folded his arms, making his sweater pull even more tautly across his shoulders. “You don’t need to say them. I already know what you’re thinking.”

“Oh, really? You can read minds?” The funny thing was, sometimes I got the feeling he could do exactly that. Like he could peer directly into my brain and rifle through my thoughts like someone opening a file cabinet.

His green eyes twinkled. “Mmhmm.”

“Why don’t you tell me, then, since you already know.” Wait a second. Were we flirting? The thought made a warm, flustered feeling climb up my neck.

He sobered. “You’re thinking you aren’t good enough for Bennington, when that’s not true at all, Chloe lass.”

It was the Chloe lass that did me in. He was so kind and easy to talk to—his concern so genuine—that I got choked up all over again. As the tears gathered, he made another soft sound and pulled me into his arms.

“I’ll get your sweater all wet,” I protested, even as I nestled my cheek against his warmth.

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