Page 79 of Most Eligible Billionaire

I let my lips hover there a split second too long.

She gets a serious look in her darkly fringed eyes. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Shit.” She slides her hand over my forearm, to where I was burned at the forge end of the space. “You should put something on this.”

I put my hand over hers. I don’t care about the burn; it’s the spark of our chemistry that’s torching me. Everything is so fresh and real with her, with her glasses half down her nose and her devil-may-care hair and pink monkey-face T-shirt. She’s beautiful to me like this. So different than anyone I ever date. Unguarded. Natural.

She gets a text. “Hold on.” She shifts in my lap and taps out an answer.

My fingers press into her upper arm, her left hip. Memorizing the feel of her.

Her chest rises and falls, nipples pressing through worn fabric. A T-shirt and jeans is practical for this place, but it feels more right for her than the librarian shit. So why the reserved outfits? She makes her money in an Etsy store, or she did up until last month. She can wear anything she wants.

It’s not like she’s transformed completely, of course. She still wears her brown glasses. And the ponytail I so badly want to undo is still there.

I slide my hand over the glossy hair.

She tucks away her phone and gives me a fun, vixeny look and that little half-smile that I want to kiss right off her face. And I do.

She sighs. “I don’t want to return to the real world.”

Exactly. The current between us feels ancient, like a soul-deep déjà vu.

“But Carly’ll be done with rehearsal soon.”

A couple of guys I didn’t meet walk by and she nods at them. I find myself pressing my hands over her thighs, letting them know she’s mine.

She twists and looks at me. “What did you just do?”

“What?”

“Did you go caveman just now with the glare at those guys and the handsy thing?”

“Maybe.”

She laughs. “You can’t do that!”

“What can’t I do?”

She narrows her eyes. “Behave.”

I lean into her ear, whisper, “Or what?”

She narrows her eyes. “I dunno. Maybe I’ll have all the Cock Worldwide cranes repainted with the face of Smuckers instead of that logo. How would you like that?”

Something in me goes still. Shecoulddo that. One phone call and she could.

Locke’s most valuable asset is stability. A change like that would literally threaten thousands of people who depend on me. And she could do it. She has all the power.

One phone call.

Thousands of people. My responsibility.

The ID is mob-level good. This is a five-alarm fire.

I feel queasy.

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