Page 78 of More Than Pen Pals

“Hmm.” She taps her lips with her pointer finger, which nearly makes me hurdle the desk and pull her up out of that chair again. “I used to prefer Big Red, but I’ve changed my mind.”

I push off the door and approach her desk. Her eyes widen like they did the last time I did this, but I force myself to stop before I get to her and shove my notepad and pen back into my briefcase. She breathes heavily as she watches me, and I don’t know how I’m going to leave this office without kissing her again.

After a few seconds I decide I’m not going to. I tilt her chin up with one finger, lean down, and capture her lips with mine once more. I rip myself away after much too short a time, snatch up my suit coat and briefcase, and leave without looking back.

If I look back, I’llgoback.

Wendy is chatting with the receptionist when I pass her on my way out. She gives me a knowing look but says nothing. I’m certain she’ll be in Leslie’s office within seconds.

I walk back to my office in a daze. Not five minutes after I sit down at my desk, my door opens.

“Do you ever knock?” I ask my brother. “And do you ever work?”

“Why are you back?” he asks. “You said you’d be over at Carter-Jenkins for the rest of the day.”

“How do you know that?” I didn’t tell anyone but Annette.

“I know everything.”

“I doubt it.” For instance, there’s no way he can know what happened with Leslie fifteen minutes ago.

“You kissed her.”

My jaw drops before I can stop it.

“Ha!” He points at me. “That was a guess, but I’m right! You’ve got a deer-in-the-headlights look about you.” He cocks his head. “Is that why you’re back already? She kick you out?”

“In a manner of speaking. But she wasn’t mad about it, that’s for sure.” She was the opposite of mad. The little sounds she made while we kissed keep replaying in my mind.

“It was too soon, wasn’t it?” I barely register Randall asking.

Focus.I need to focus instead of recalling the heat of Leslie’s body pressed against mine, the feel of her fingers sliding through my hair. I force out, “Says the man who wants to date someone else three days after his girlfriend broke up with him.”

“So yes, then?”

I sigh. “Yes.”

“She give you a timeline?”

“At least until her brother comes to visit a week from Saturday. He wants to meet me.”

“The twin brother? The guy you thought was your pen pal?”

I nod.

“Good luck with that. Can I come watch?”

I snort. “Nope.”

“I’m coming.”

“You’re not invited.”

“So her brother gets to come, but I don’t? I saved her life! You owe me, man. She’d be dead if it weren’t for me.”

My chest constricts at the thought, but I hate giving him credit for saving her. “Lots of people know the Heimlich.”

“Including you, my friend. You took the same lifesaving course I did when we were teenagers. But did you save her? No. That’s all on me. You’re welcome.”

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