Page 99 of Love Off-Limits
I froze.
She loved me.She. Loved. Me.
She spun toward the window, that same hand back on her forehead. “I realize the timing is terrible. You have this amazing job. You set out to make a future for yourself and you did, and now I’m saying this thing like I expect you to leave your job for me, and I don’t. I would never ask that. Which is why it took me so long to come. Because it just felt so selfish. But I also don’t know how to not love you . . .”
I moved around the table so quickly, she turned, her expression startled. But then my hands were on her face, my lips on hers, and suddenly the world made sense again. She tilted her head, her hands sliding from my chest to my waist as she pulled me even closer. Fire erupted in my veins, pulsed in my fingertips, gathered in my heart until I thought I might explode. She was here. In my arms. And she loved me.
I broke the kiss and lowered my forehead to hers. She wore heels, giving her an extra few inches, so for once, it wasn’t hard to close the distance between us. “I love you too,” I said simply. “So much.”
She took a deep breath, and I could almost see the tension draining from her shoulders. “I was afraid to come,” she said. “I don’t...” She shook her head. “Tyler, I don’t want you to give up your job. But my dad, he said if I loved you, I had to be honest with you. I had to give you the choice.” She motioned to the room around her. “But to leave this when you’ve only just found it...I think it would break my heart to ask you to do that.”
I nodded. “I get it. I wouldn’t dream of asking you to leave Stonebrook.”
She bit her lip, her eyes down. “So what do we do? Are we destined to be star-crossed forever?”
Ethan’s words came back to me.
He’d said I would have a question for them. And he’d said the answer would beyes.When I’d first arrived at Ethan Advertising, I’d been surprised to find so few people at the agency. The conversations I’d had with the Ethans via email had led me to believe they ran a much larger business. But it had only taken a few days to realize that theydidrun an enormous business. But they also prioritized family. On any given day, half of their staff worked from home, checking in through Zoom meetings and emails. I’d been showing up to work every day because I didn’t have any reason not to. But what if Ididhave a reason?
I smiled and shook my head. “Did you tell the Ethans why you were here? About us?”
“Not at first. But it didn’t take them long to charm a confession out of me. Why?”
I kissed her gently. “The Ethans love a good love story.”
“That does not surprise me,” she said.
“They also love you.”
“Also understandable,” she said with a smirk.
“And luckily, I’m damn good at what I do.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“Olivia. Ninety percent of what I’ve done in the past two weeks, I could have done from anywhere. As long as I have my laptop...”
Understanding dawned. “They’d let you work from home? From... Stonebrook?”
I smiled. “Honestly, the thought of Penelope growing up without me is just too painful.”
She kissed me again, her hand lifting and sliding across the line of my jaw before she tangled her fingers in my hair. “My hope was that you’d be willing to try something long distance. It’s not that far. I would have driven once a week to see you, but this. . .” Another kiss. “This will be so much better.”
“I’ll have to talk to the Ethans about the details. I’m sure I’ll still have to come in sometimes, and of course, when we shoot, I may be gone for longer stretches.”
“Yes. I’ll take it. As long as I get to spend more nights in your arms than not, you won’t hear me complain.”
A pulse of desire ignited low in my gut. “Nights in my arms, huh?”
She smiled coyly. “Technically, we’ve already spent a night in each other’s arms. If you count the night of the wedding.”
“That night will hold me over for a little while longer,” I said. “But eventually I’d like a do-over.” I kissed her again, this one longer than the last. Long enough that some sliver of reasoning in the back of my brain started to worry someone might stumble into the conference room and find us, lips kiss-swollen and faces flushed.
“I have a feeling the Ethans are hoping we come to see them,” I said when we finally broke apart.
“Oh, they are. They said we could all chat about the ad together as soon as you and I hadfigured this part out.”
“I still can’t believe you’re here.”
