Page 23 of His Secret Virgin
“Nothing.” Putting my hand on the small of her back, I walked with her up to the front. “Look, the special today is my all-time favorite.”
“Oh, mine too.” She leaned forward to ask, “Is the jelly on the sandwich strawberry?”
My heart shouldn’t have swelled over that, but I couldn’t stop it.
Yollie answered with her usual boisterous voice, “Is there any other kind?”
“Not in my opinion,” Emma answered. “Can I have one of those and a fruit cup with extra pineapple, please?”
“I’ll take the special, too, Yollie.” I looked down at Emma as she stood beside me. “I think a glass of milk would be good too. How about you?”
“I do think that would be good.” She looked at Yollie. “Can I have a glass as well?”
“Sure thing,” Yollie said as she went to work making our snack.
“Put it all on my tab, Yollie,” I called out and then took Emma by the elbow, steering her to a small table for two. “We can eat right here.”
She looked a little wary. “Will Mrs. Kramer be okay with that?”
“Tell her you met me here, and I insisted you eat with me.” I couldn’t help but smile. “She won’t give you any trouble if you say that.”
“I bet you’re right.” Taking the seat right across from mine, I noticed how close our knees were to touching. I swear I could feel the electricity sparking between us.
“I guess I can forgive you for not coming to my place on Saturday.” I had really wanted her to come, but I understood why she didn’t want to. “The fact is, my daughters may not even be there. And another fact is that they’re nothing like you. They’ve never worked a day in their lives and don’t plan to. They may not understand why you’re working at all. I don’t want them to make you feel bad about yourself.”
“Thank you, sir.” She started to drop her head then stopped herself halfway. Her eyes came up to meet mine, practicing what I’d just talked to her about. “I don’t know that we’d have much common ground between us, since they come from such a wealthy family. But I understand why they don’t work. They just don’t need to. And taking the place of someone who really needs that income would be selfish. But that’s just my opinion.”
I’d never considered it that way. “You know something, Emma—I mean Miss Hancock—I’ve never thought about it that way.”
She reached across the table, putting her hand on top of mine. “Really, I don’t think you need to call me that outside the office. Do you?” She moved her hand away from mine, leaving my skin tingling.
My cock began an ascent as my heart raced. Swallowing hard, I said, “If you’d rather me not call you that outside the office, I won’t.”
“It’s just that you and Dad are such good friends. It’s inevitable that we’ll be around each other outside of work, and that would feel weird, you calling me Miss Hancock.” She ran her hand through her hair.
“Well, then how about this,” I knew I was treading on thin ice, “How about you call me Christopher when we’re outside of the office? You know, since we’ll be around each other more than most bosses and employees?”
Her pretty green eyes went wide. “Um, I don’t know if Dad will let me do that.”
“I’ll tell him that I insist.” I decided to add, “And I don’t think it’s his decision to make. But if he gives you grief, I’ll tell him it’s because my daughters never call anyone by their last names. That’s a habit they learned from their mother. She raised them, for the most part. My job was to bring home the bacon, and hers was to rear the children. Old-fashioned, I know. That’s just the way it was in our marriage, sham that it was.” And there I was again, talking about my marriage. “Sorry.”
“About what?” She looked clueless.
“I don’t need to be talking about my marriage with you—you probably don’t want to hear anything about it.” I looked at the counter as Yollie put our order on it. “I’ll get that for us.” Jumping up, I went to grab our food.
“Let me,” she said as she tried to get up.
I put my hands on her little shoulders. “No. I’ll get it, Emma.”
Every touch fired my blood, and I knew it was all wrong.How can I keep my distance from her?
As I went to get the food, I wondered if I should start seeing a shrink or something. What I felt wasn’t right at all.
“Thanks, Yollie.” I picked up the tray as she eyed me with a little smirk. “What?”
“You have never, in all these years, eaten with anyone here, Mr. Taylor.” She jerked her head toward Emma. “So, who exactly is she?”
“She’s one of my friend’s daughters, and she’s working for me now. She doesn’t know anyone in town or at the company yet, and we just happened to meet up on the way out to grab a snack before lunch.” I didn’t know why I felt the need to explain everything to her, but there I was, explaining it all.
I have to nip these feelings in the bud before I do something that could destroy my friendship with Sebastien.
