Page 28 of Lucky Laces

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I don’t want to remind her off all the barriers between us.

Don’t want to do anything except draw her close and find all sorts of creative ways to keep us both warm.

But…she’s my boss.

I’m the fuckup on her roster.

Even with all my fantasies, I know this is all we can be.

Thankfully, she doesn’t argue further, just pulls on the tee.

“Better?”

Her cheeks go a little pink, her teeth press into her bottom lip, and she avoids my eyes when she whispers, “Yeah.”A beat.“Thanks.”

God, what I wouldn’t give to see what’s in that gaze of hers.

To hold it close when I go to sleep at night.

But she doesn’t look at me, not even as she says, “And…I, uh, should save the battery.”

“You’re right.”Then when she doesn’t move, I ask, “Want me to get it?”

A jerk, those eyes flashing to mine for the barest bit of contact.“I got it.”

Then she quickly shuts the laptop.

And the room goes pitch black.

Nine

Diana

I’ma strange mix of comfortable and not—wrapped in a spicy male scent, my front warm, my back cold, and my side aches.

Like really aches.

Like I’m lying on a boulder covered with ants that are crawling all over me, biting me.

Wincing, I open my eyes?—

To darkness.

No, it’s not completely dark—or maybe it’s that my eyes have adjusted enough that I can see shadows, can see the outline…

I gasp.

Of a body.

A male body.

Hudson’sbody.

My front is plastered to his, and I’m half laying over the top of him, my arm resting on his belly, my leg tossed over—thankfully—his uninjured thigh.

And my side hurts, the prickles of pain because I’m lying on the hard, industrial carpet, and it’s not exactly a mattress at the Ritz.

It’s probably also because though I’ve cleared up as much of the debris as possible, there are still small pieces embedded into the floor around us.

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