Page 7 of Nailed

Then I realized what he’d called me.Sweetheart.

I tried to meet his eye, but he was pulling out of the car. My heart pounded even harder than it had been when I thought my life was in danger.

His face was out of view from where I sat. But when he bent down to look at me, the kindness I’d expected there had vanished. His jaw was hard, his eyes not meeting mine.

He was back to being his hard-ass self.

“Out,” he barked.

My senses returned like a splash of cold water. This was Jamie, my boss. The one I was leaving behind because he made my life miserable. Barking commands at me like I wasn’t a person with feelings.

Anger rushed through me as I got out of my car. Not just at the way he’d talked to me, but at the way his demeanor change exemplified how things had become with him. Kind. Sweet. Gentle. Then cold, hard, distant. When he’d first changed, I thought it was something he was going through—he’d recently fired a longtime employee, and everyone knew it had upset him. The guy had been with him from the beginning. But eventually he’d gone back to being our kind boss with everyone else. Except not with me. To me, he’d stopped replying to my emails right away like he used to. He cut off our coffee meetings.

He stopped telling me I was doing a great job and started telling me all the places I was fucking up.

I’d been scared to push back at first. I’d been killing it at work. Coming in under budget on the renovation. Ongoing praise from the hotel owners at how well the reno was going, and almost no worker turnover.

But now, I didn’t care. I was leaving, and I was sick of his shit.

I stood up fast, raising my chin. “Jamie, you don’t get to talk to me like I’m not a human bei—”

“Step away from the car, Cooper.”

“I’m not—” My words were interrupted by a sudden urge to cough.

He clamped his massive hands on my shoulders and pulled me toward him as I coughed, the acrid smoke still burning my lungs.

“This way,” he grunted, guiding me away from Cruella.

I took a deep breath, and this time, I was far enough away from the car—and close enough to him—that I inhaled the clean, woodsy scent of his soap instead of the sharp tang of my burning engine.

My hands, I realized, were pressed against his massive chest. I’d leaned against him as I coughed my lungs up. Now, I was just leaning against him. I looked up with the intention of meeting his eyes, but I only got as far as his throat, stemming from the collar of his coat. His skin was weathered, his whiskers silver over his Adam’s apple and the soft pulse next to it.

“I—” I stammered.

Jamie clearly mistook my stammering for shock, because he kept holding my arms. “Cooper. Are you okay?”

“I’m—” I couldn’t form a cohesive sentence. I needed to move away from himnow. But before I knew what was happening, he’d brought his big, rough hand under my chin and tipped my face up so my eyes met his. “Cooper. You’re okay.”

If him being worried about me had thrown me, his touch turned me to jelly.

I should have moved. But I didn’t. I didn’t want to break this spell; this kindness I saw in his deep blue eyes. I didn’t want his skin to stop touching mine. I pictured his hand spreading, gripping my jaw, his face tilting.

My eyes went to his lips, even as a voice of reason squeaked into my consciousness.He’s checking your pupils, that’s all.He’d had first aid and CPR training.

Jamie dropped his hand.

I did meet his eyes then, or I tried to, but he turned away—fast. He left me standing there, mooney-eyed. Mortification rushed through me. What the hell had I just done?

“Uh, I think someone wants to get out,” Sam said as a car revved to life on the other side of the parking lot.

Oh God. I’d forgotten all about Sam.

“Maybe we should get your car out of the driveway. Looks like the smoke’s cleared.”

“Yes,” Jamie said. “We’ll push; Cooper can steer.”

The embarrassment of having not only Jamie see me look at him like that but Sam, too, made me want to dive into the snowbank next to the parking lot. All I could do was nod.

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