Page 35 of Her Irish Boss

She passed him a wine opener and pulled two glasses from the cabinets.

“Tell me about the insurance company,” he said.

“Nothing to tell, really. They'll put her in a general care facility—a nursing home. But she needs more than that. I'm trying to get them to cover the cost of a different facility, but they keep saying she doesn't qualify, and they won't pay. So then I took her back to the doctor. He triedanothermedication.” She made a circle in the air with her finger. “And the merry-go-round starts all over again. And I hate it when she changes meds. This one seemed to disorient her all over again, but it was just the first dose. That may change as her body adjusts.”

“I'm sorry. I know that's frustrating.” He poured them both a glass.

She stood there, waiting.

And he didn't know what to do. Should they stay in the kitchen and sit at the table? That's what afriendwould do. Is that what she needed right then? A friend?

He ran a hand over his hair and looked around the kitchen. Worn furniture like the living room. He didn't expect a high class, chrome kitchen judging by the outside of the apartment complex, but he wished she had something a little better. He swallowed a sip of the wine as his next thought rammed into him. He wished he could give her better.

She smirked. “Would you like to go into the living room and sit down?”

“Sure.” Good. He'd let her take the lead on this. He didn't want to have misread her signals. He took a sip of the wine as he sat down beside her, hating Crissy had screwed up his ability to sit next to a beautiful woman and not feel like he was still in grade school. Selena wasn't Crissy.

But if they did give in, and kissed, what happens tomorrow? They'd have to keep it a secret. He'd just firedthose two employees for their supply room antics. He drank his wine, hardly tasting it, and thought about the moment with Selena in the same room. He might need to take that door off the hinges. Supply rooms were trouble for him, too.

Selena sipped her wine, watching him over the rim. He set his wine on the table and folded his hands in his lap. “I'm not sure this is a good idea.” He could always leave. They hadn't crossed any line.

“Why did you come here?”

“I'm not sure.”

She leaned forward and sat her wine glass beside his. “Can I be honest with you?”

He chuckled, releasing a little bit of his nervous energy. “Are you not usually?” No other employee talked to him the way she did.

“I hold quite a lot back, actually.” She pursed her lips together. He'd give anything to know what thought ran through her mind. After a moment, she set her hand on his thigh.

His strong reaction to her confused the hell out of him. It wasn't something easy or simple between them. She was complicated in every way possible. With his job. With her granny. But right then, that disappeared.

“When we were in the supply room, and you held me if I'd kissed you, would you have kissed me back?”

He let go of his pride for a millisecond. “Yes.” And then Katie would have discovered them. “But you work for me. I...this....” He couldn't even get it out.

She shifted closer. His saving grace was the hesitancy he saw in her eyes—the small amount of insecurity about pushing things forward so similar to his relieved him.

Could he really blame her? He found stupid reasons totouch her when they were alone and then pushed her as far away as possible.

“So our job, that's the only thing that's bothering you?”

“What else would it be?”

She looked away for a moment, and he wished he knew what thoughts ran through her head.

“Brogan.” She said his name and then sighed. Slowly, she reached up and skimmed her fingertips along the edge of his jaw. “I want to kiss you.” Her eyes dropped to his lips. “And I'll make the first move, so you have no doubt that I want this as much as you do.” Her bottom lip trembled slightly before she caught it with her teeth. “At least I hope that you do.”

She leaned closer.

He did stop her, with a hand on her shoulder. “Selena.” When he got his first taste of her, it wouldn't be with trepidation in her eyes. He'd bear the weight of it for both of them. He wanted this, and he'd make sure she knew it. “You're fired.”

She blinked and started to pull away. “What?”

Then he kissed her, his lips taking away whatever question she started to ask. His hand slipped from her shoulder, along the slender curve of her neck and into her hair.

He tried to stay in control, but the heat kept slipping through with each little moan or movement she made to get closer.

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