Page 63 of The Ice Queen in the Corner Office

He scrunched his face up. “I remember something about that, thought it was some macramé crafting shit.”

Noah’s eyes appeared in the rear-view mirror as he glanced back at me. “You took self-defense classes in college, right? I didn’t realize you’d continued training.”

Hadn’t I told Noah about that? We’d worked together every day. Were my guards so high that I hadn’t even talked to my brothers about the most basic aspects of my life?

Clearly, I was as much to blame for them not knowing anything personal about me as they were. “I did stick with it,” I said. “I’ve been teaching a beginner’s class for just over a month now.”

“And she’s an amazing teacher,” Alex said. “She might be teaching a beginner’s class, but most of her students are more like intermediate level, they just don’t want to be taught by anyone else.”

I looked at Alex, surprised. I mean I knew my students were awesome and I’d advised several of them to move on to a more advanced class, I just hadn’t realized they’d stayed for me. “Really?”

His brows rose. “You really didn’t know that?”

“I’m holding them back,” I said, mostly to myself. “I’m going to have to convince them to move on.”

“Wait,” Cody said. “Krav Maga is some sort of self-defense? Or martial arts?”

“It’s both,” I said. “I can show you some moves when we get home if you want.”

“Show Kayla. I don’t like the guy she’s been hanging out with lately.”

“I’d be glad to.”

We spent the ride home talking and catching up on the minutia of each other’s lives. Getting to know each other better for the first time in way, way too long.

***

“Nope, you’re coming with me,” Alex said. He grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the inn. I’d been following Cody and Noah inside, but neither of them looked back.

“But I’m hungry,” I said.

Alex pulled me closer to his side and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “I promise I’ll feed you. But I watched you almost die today, I need some alone time.”

I wrapped an arm around his waist giving him a side hug, biting back a laugh and a feeling that bubbled through me like the most wonderful effervescent champagne. I’d never felt anything quite like it. “Thank you. I know it was hard on you to watch, but I’m glad you were there.”

He spun me so he could look at me. We were in front of his cabin now, but he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to go in. “I wasn’t about to let you do that without me. Who would have caught you if you’d fallen?”

A hard lump dropped into the center of my chest and my eyes stung, because I believed he would have caught me. I trusted him enough to believe he’d always catch me. “I think I’m falling right now.”

I wanted to take back the words as soon as I’d said them, but his expression softened and I couldn’t lie to him. He leaned forward and brushed his lips against mine. “Me, too.”

He slapped my ass. “Now, let’s get inside and celebrate the fact that you’re still alive.”

I laughed as he hobble-dragged me inside, feeling more alive than I’d ever felt. He shoved the door shut and limped with me over to the bed. “I need to sit. My ankle is killing me.”

“So sit.” I dropped to my knees in front of him and reached for his fly. “I’ll do all the work.”

“You are such a hard worker. That’s one of the things I love about you.”

My heart stopped for a second before I assured myself it was just a figure of speech. I slid his pants down over his hips and massaged him through his boxers. “I’m the hardest worker you’ve ever met.” Then I pulled his boxers down and took him in my mouth, all my barriers down, giving him everything I had. He lasted a surprisingly short time and I was about to be disappointed, until he pulled me up by my shoulders and pushed me back on the bed. “Sorry, baby. All that adrenaline and watching the way you owned that course has had me on the edge all day.” He smirked. “Lucky for you, I’m a hard worker, too, and I’m about to make it up to you several times over.”

He slid down between my legs and kept his promise in a way that had me seeing stars and feeling like the top of my head might blow off.

Later, after we’d both had our fill of sex and some leftover takeout for a late lunch/early dinner, my head on his bare chest, feeling drowsy, those weird champagne bubbles still floating around in my belly and my chest, I smiled up at him. “What happens when we go back to work?”

He smiled down at me, brushing the hair out of my face. “That’s up to you, but what I’d like is for us to keep working together like we always have, but for your ass to be in my bed every night.”

My eyes popped wide, my earlier resolve fading. “That’s intense. Don’t you want to take it slow? Go out a few times a week?”

“Nope,” he said. “I’ll take you out on amazing dates, but I don’t want to take things slow. I’m crazy about you, Jill. I don’t need time to think about what I want.”

I bit my lower lip. His confidence was amazingly sweet, but also terrifying. “I need to take it a bit slower than that,” I said. “But I do want to buy that stock, if the offer’s still on the table.”

His grin was so wide that his eyes glowed with happiness. I had done that, I had made him that happy.

No one had ever looked at me that way and I felt like the most beautiful, luckiest woman in the world. “Of course, the offer’s still on the table,” he said. “You can have the whole damn company if you want it.”

I knew he wasn’t serious, but I loved the sentiment.

I snuggled closer to him and he kissed me, hard, pouring so much emotion into the kiss that I felt it down to my soul, through every part of me, down to my toes. The kiss heated quickly, and I was lost to sensation, to his hands on me, to his mouth on me, tasting him and feeling him. He was all I could see or feel or hear and I was more okay with that than I’d ever thought I’d be.

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