Page 14 of Breaking All The Rules

“It wasn’t all my fault. My family has a really old toaster that is built into the wall. You pull the side of it out, pop the bread in, then press the lever down and it makes the toast.I,however, thought it was a good idea to push the side back into the wall after I pressed the lever down. There was nowhere for the heat to go other than in the wall.”

I reached up and smoothed a hand down the scruff on my face as I struggled to hide my grin. The look on her face wasadorable, and I could picture her as a naïve little girl attempting to make toast without realizing what she was doing.

“Okay, that’s pretty bad,” I said as I laughed. “But we all do silly stuff when we’re kids.”

“That was just last week,” she said, her tone serious and her face straight as she watched for my reaction.

I closed my eyes and bit the inside of my lip to keep from laughing.

“You’re kidding, right?” I asked quickly before I lost control.

“Yeah,” she said playfully, her voice still raspy. “It was two weeks ago.”

I shook my head and laughed, loving that her playful side had returned.

Eight

Eva

Almost everything from the past forty-eight hours felt like a blur. I knew that it had been my fever that had made me feel delirious and caused me to question my sanity because I could have sworn that Ethan had stopped by my apartment and insisted on taking care of me. It had to be a fever dream because there was no way that we ended the day together, enjoying a warm bowl of soup and laughing when things between us had been so strained.

When I rolled over and woke up, I felt slightly relieved that I was alone and somehow had managed to get myself to bed safely last night. I got out of bed and slid on the plush, warm robe that I loved to ward off the chill I felt. My body still ached, which meant I hadn’t gotten better overnight like I had hoped.

I made a quick note to check in with Regina to see how Kate was doing and to let her know that I would be out another day. I also needed to let Ethan know that Brent was planning to come by this morning to discuss things with him. But that could wait until I was actually functional this morning.

I walked down the short hallway into the living room, getting ready to head into the kitchen for a much-needed cup of coffee. I stopped in place, my heart skipping a beat, when I looked over and found Ethan stretched out, asleep on the couch. He was still wearing dress slacks, and his button-down shirt was now wrinkled and rolled up to his elbows. The jacket that went with it was hung on the back of the chair across from him, with his shoes neatly tucked underneath it.

I took a few minutes to admire his gorgeous face as he slept. For once, he looked peaceful. He wasn’t frowning, and the vein in his forehead was nowhere to be found. I wondered if this was what he might look like on a good day when he was happy and not stressed at work. My mind quickly wandered back to the night when I first met him and how calm and collected he looked sitting in the VIP lounge. He definitely had a charisma about him that made people notice him, but he didn’t seem to intimidate anyone the way he did when he was at the office.

A strand of his dark hair rested on his forehead, and my fingers itched to reach over and brush it away. To run them through his thick mane and feel how soft it was. While I took good care of my hair, I was also quite envious of his and wondered how much work it took for him to get that slightly mussed look. I sat down on the arm of the chair, continuing to stare at him, when suddenly his eyes fluttered open, and he looked at me. He smiled and sat up, rolling his head back across his shoulders.

“Good morning,” he greeted, his voice low. “How did you sleep?”

“Good, I think. Maybe too good,” I said with a soft laugh. “For a minute, I thought I had dreamt that my boss came by my apartment and fed me magical soup that healed me.”

“It was better than burnt toast.” He laughed and raised an eyebrow at me. I could feel the heat rush up the sides of my face, spreading quickly as I remembered a sliver of the conversation about my cooking abilities last night.

“I did NOT tell you about the burnt toast,” I moaned, covering my face in my hands.

“Oh, you sure did. Amongst other things.” He smiled a crooked smile, one that I hadn’t seen before. It was sexy and sent a rush of warmth through my body as I imagined him grinning at me like that as he hovered over me and brought me to climax.

I waited a few minutes to see if he would tell me on his own. Instead, he got up and grabbed his cell phone from the coffee table, checking his messages while wearing a smug smile. I racked my brain, trying to remember as much as I could, but everything was really fuzzy in my head. After all, I thought I had dreamed that he was at my apartment taking care of me, and yet here he was, standing in front of me while the empty take-out containers that sat on the counter by the door. He slid his phone into his pocket and turned his attention to me.

“What else did I tell you?” I asked nervously, chewing on my fingernail. “If it was anything personal or inappropriate—I apologize now.” I held my hands up in front of me.

Once the wordinappropriatewas out of my mouth, I felt the energy shift between us. We both had been avoiding talking about what had happened in the file room as much as we had avoided talking about the night we hooked up at the club. The playful side of him was gone, and I was immediately greeted by the rigid Ethan that everyone at work feared—everyone except me.

“Look, about Tuesday,” he said, raking a hand through his hair as he started to pace in front of the couch. “That shouldn’t have happened, and I’m sorry that it did. We work together, and our relationship needs to stay professional.” His eyes went wide with embarrassment when he saidrelationship. “Not that there could be a relationship— I’m not that kind of man,” he hurriedly assured me.

“Got it,” I said with a hint of annoyance in my voice. “But just so we’re clear—youcame on tomein the file room. Not the other way around. And while it was enjoyable, I was not hired to be some booty call. I expect that we can put this behind us and that you will step aside from your ego and train me on how to do the jobyouhired me to do.”

“Technically, Regina hired you,” he said with a smirk that perfectly highlighted his dimples. I rolled my eyes and looked away, though I was happy to see the playful side wasn’t too far from the surface after all.

“I thought you called in and were avoiding me because of what happened,” he admitted, rocking back on his heels as he looked at me.

“Unfortunately, no. As much as I would have hated the guaranteed awkward tension between us, I wasn’t going to put my job at stake by calling in just to avoid you. I would have been there if I could have seen straight and didn’t feel like death. Which you got to see firsthand when you showed up and refused to leave.” I gave him a pointed look accompanied by a playful eyebrow quirk.

He nodded in agreement.

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