Page 42 of Keep Him Like Secrets

“Oh. Right. Thanks,” I said, giving him a nod. “We will, uh, just finish up,” I said.

Bass ducked out of the room, seemingly unaware of what had just happened a few feet away from him.

As soon as Bastian left, Soren turned back from the window, looking calm and collected. While I felt like both my mind and my body were buzzing and pulled apart at the edges.

Soren went to the desk, collecting his tablet.

I made my way to the door, knowing I needed him out before Renzo came up.

Soren walked closer, then stopped, reaching out with his free hand to grab my chin, tilting it up, his touch firm, maybe a little possessive.

There’s no way, so close, that he didn’t see the way my lips parted and my eyes went heavy-lidded.

“I keep trying to tell myself to stay away,” he said, his thumb teasing across my swollen lower lip. “But then you look at me like that, and I forget every reason I had.”

His words, and the meaning beneath them, had my belly flip-flopping.

“And in case this wasn’t already abundantly clear,” he said, leaning down to press a quick, deep kiss to my lips, “we’re nowhere near done.”

With that, he pulled open the door and strode out, leaving me to rely on the wall to keep myself upright.

I loved the concept of girls in books getting all weak-kneed and swoony. But I’d always figured it was, you know, fiction. Just something to get people to keep turning pages.

I’d definitely never felt anything even akin to swooning or wobbly legs from a man.

Until Soren.

“The fuck you doing?” Renzo’s voice asked, appearing suddenly at my side, making me jerk hard and gasp.

“I, uh, have a headache,” I lied, turning away from him as I did it, so he didn’t see the guilt.

Sure, there were times I maybe withheld some truths from my boss. But I never actuallyliedto him. And now? Now, there was going to be a lot of lying.

Which gave me all the more reason to not allow things to continue on with Soren outside of professional interactions.

“You getting sick? You’re… red,” he said, gesturing toward his face.

Of course I was red.

I just had an orgasm that let me see through time and space for a moment.

Then I… snuggled the guy who gave it to me.

I was not a snuggler.

I was a ‘that was fun, now get off me’ kind of woman.

“I think I’m allergic to these stupid business casual outfits,” I said, going behind my desk to sit down.

“I dunno. They’re kind of nice,” Renzo said, shrugging, then dropping down across from me.

“Are you here to check up on me?”

“Didn’t realize you had Vale here.”

“We were discussing design plans.”

“The papers signed yet?”

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