Page 54 of The Ice Queen in the Corner Office

She popped her hands on her hips as her face bounced from annoyance to desire and back again.

I loved it when she was off-balance, when her mask slipped and the real Jill shone through.

Finally, her face settled into a wistful frown. “I love the idea of this game. I really do, but I’m seriously going to pass out if I don’t get something to eat. Let me borrow some clothes and I’ll—”

The knock at the door made me smile, and the look of panic on her face made me laugh out loud. “It’s take-out,” I said. “Grab my wallet from the table by the door and pay for it.”

She glared at me, but there was humor under the glare. “It better not be pizza, you know I’m—”

“It’s Thai, no meat anywhere in sight, and no greasy cheese either. Get the door before he gives up and leaves.”

She dropped the towel and laughed at the panicked look on my face, before she grabbed one of my t-shirts from the pile next to the bed and pulled it on. It fell to mid-thigh. It was clear she was naked underneath, but it was better than the towel. She answered the door, paid the delivery kid, and carried the two huge bags to the bed.

“Guess I’m not the only one hungry.”

I pushed myself up to sit. “We’ve got a refrigerator and a microwave. I got enough food that we don’t have to leave or get dressed for at least another twenty-four hours.”

She pulled the shirt over her head, tossed it on the floor and sat, crisscross applesauce, fully nude. I choked on my own saliva.

“What’s the problem?” she asked in a mock innocent tone. She put a finger to her bottom lip and rubbed it like she was worried, then pushed the finger between her lips and hollowed her cheeks as she sucked on it. She pulled the finger out with a pop. “Not feeling well?”

“I’m going to punish you so hard,” I said. “After we eat.”

She laughed and started digging through the bag, pulling out different items and spreading them out on the bed. “Which one’s yours?”

I shrugged. “I like it all. I’ll take whatever you don’t like.”

She took one of the Styrofoam boxes after peeking inside and shoved the other one at me. I popped it open and she tossed me a plastic fork. She dug in and moaned in a way that had my hand shaking as I lifted food to my mouth.

I wasn’t going to survive her.

“This is really good for such a small town,” I said.

She nodded. “Must be because it’s a college town. We could explore downtown if you ever decide to let me leave this cabin.”

The fact that she’d said we shouldn’t have made my throat tight. I’d blame it on the pain meds, but I was only taking aspirin.

“There’s time,” I said. “Don’t think about what we’re going to do tomorrow or the next day, just live in the moment.”

“You mean the moment that involves non-stop sex?”

I grinned. “It’s a good moment.”

She smiled back, her expression softening in a way I’d never seen before. God, she was beautiful. “It is a good moment.” She chewed thoughtfully. “What did the teenage Alex Owings do to pass the time?”

The teenage Alex Owings got high and drunk with his best friends, got into trouble, and spent time in juvenile detention. I could have told her all that, but I wasn’t ready to see fear or revulsion in her eyes after I’d finally made some progress getting to know her. “Typical teenager stuff.”

She rolled her eyes. “The whole point of this exercise is that I don’t know what typical teenager stuff is.”

I thought of the normal stuff I did, when I wasn’t trying to act older. “You know, sleeping all day on the weekends. Eating junk food. Getting lost in a kiss. Watching stupid scary movies and pretending not to be terrified.”

She bounced on the bed a bit. “I love scary movies.”

Her bouncing distracted me enough that I forgot I was supposed to be a tough man who was afraid of nothing. I shuddered. “Why?”

She chewed thoughtfully and eyed me.

I pretended to find our dinner fascinating and focused on shoving as much food in my mouth as I could.

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