Page 33 of Perfect Pairing
Those gorgeous green eyes flew open, though I couldn’t read the emotion swirling in their depths. “I…”
Fuck. I pushed too hard, and now she was going to take it all back.
“I am,” she promised. “But…we shouldn’t have done this.”
I jerked like she’d slapped me. How had we gone from the connection of a moment before to this being a mistake?
“What happened to being reckless? What happened to ‘best orgasm I’ve ever had’?”
I couldn’t stop myself from asking. I couldn’t explain what had happened between us these last few hours—hell, since I’d first seen her those months ago—and how it felt last night to have her back in my orbit, but it was…well, the only way to describe it wasmagical. As though the snowflakes falling softly outside were fairy dust, turning this normal New Year’s Day into something extraordinary.
Damn, Hansen and I had been watching way too many movies on Disney+ lately. That was someFrozenlevel thinking right there.
“You’re my dad’s employee, Ezra,” she said as she sat up and slipped off the counter. I held back a groan as she turned away from me, giving me a full view of her perfect ass as she stepped back into her panties and leggings and hauled them up her delicious, golden-brown stems.
Fuck, I was in a bad way.
I didn’t respond as I watched her skirt the island to the stove, where she removed the blackened chunks that should’ve beenher cheese and apple danishes, dumping them right into the trash. The acrid scent of smoke hung in the air, quickly bringing me back to reality.
Still, I tried to hold onto the magic we’d found together a moment longer.
“I’m also thirty years old,” I told her. “I make my own choices.”
When she looked at me again, the regret in her eyes was obvious, but I couldn’t tell if it was from what we’d done or the fact that we couldn’t do it again.
If I had to guess? Probably both.
Amazing how quickly pleasure could sour.
She gave me a sad smile and said, “I’m not going to be the reason you lose your job. You have a child to worry about.”
And there it was—the only thing that could’ve stopped me from fighting her. Nothing in the world was more important to me than Hansen, and Brie was right. I had a hefty savings account, so I wasn’t entirely reliant on the job to support us, but I needed this job because it kept me sane. Without the ability to escape into the kitchen, I wasn’t sure I would’ve survived the shit life had thrown at me.
And then where would Hansen be? Without both of his parents?
No, that wasn’t something I could stand for. His mother was gone, and I was all he had left. I’d do everything to ensure it stayed that way.
I swallowed hard and extended my hand to Brie. “Fine,” I said. “Friends?”
Her lips twitched as though she wanted to speak, her eyesglassy, but she slipped her palm into mine. “Friends.”
Or as friendly as we could be after the orgasm I’d just given her and the way, in a single day, she flipped my entire world upside down.
JANUARY
“Hello?”
God, his voice.
I hadn’t heard it in nearly a month, but it still undid me exactly as it had that first time.
“Ez, I need help,” I said without preamble, not giving myself the chance to back out. When we’d exchanged numbers after our…tryst, it felt like more of a formality than anything.
I never expected to use it.
But there I was. Calling him. Asking for help.
“What’s wrong?” he asked instantly. “Are you okay?”
