Page 54 of EverGreene
“Locking me with you in an elevator against my will to get me to talk to you is a pretty funny way of showing that.”
“But it’s effective, right?” He chuckled. “I should have done this sooner.” His smile faded, erased by the scowl I saw reflected on my face in the polished surface of the elevator wall. “Or not.”
“It’s one thing to trade barbs with each other, but it’s a whole other thing to be vicious about it.”
“What are you talking about?”
Heat flooded my face in a kind of embarrassment I hadn’t felt since high school when Tim Connor, my longtime crush, read a love note I’d written to him to the entire class. I had felt small then, and I felt even smaller now, airing my insecurities to a man who could be on the cover ofGQ.“You can’t seriously not know what I’m referring to.”
His eyes searched mine, ending with a shrug of his shoulders when he didn’t findanything. “I don’t.”
“You aren’t jealous of anyone being with me? Come on, Loche. There’s going low and then there’s scraping the bottom of the barrel. Pretending you have some sort of feelings for me for a laugh is just dick behavior.”
His eyes remained focused on my face, reflecting what I could only interpret as pity. Great. The last thing I wanted was Loche Greene to pity me. Pity from people was a chapter I thought I’d closed a long time ago with a strategically placed dick drawn on Tim’s yearbook photo.
“I’m not pretending.”
My pulse quickened so unexpectedly, I had to tighten my grasp on the railing even harder to keep myself upright. Had I heard that correctly? “What did you just say?”
He took a step closer to me, leaning in. “I said that I’m jealous of anyone who gets to spend any amount of time getting close to you. I said that guy you’ve been seeing is the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet. And I said that you, Ever Moore, have the fullest, most kissable lips I’ve seen in my lifetime.”
The Hoover Dam couldn’t hold back the gasp that fell from those same kissable lips that would now be the focal point of my morning beauty routine for the rest of my life. What in the fresh hell was this? I had V. Well, sort of. Honestly, I wasn’t so sure I really had V. But Loche Greene?
I hesitated, staring into his eyes, wondering whether the thoughts that were going through my head would qualify as cheating and whether it was even possible to cheat on a man whose real name you didn’t know or whose face you’d never seen.
“Loche.” It was hardly audible, but in my shocked state, I was able to say his name.
“Ever.” A rasp had taken hold of his vocal cords, which in turn was doing interesting things to my lady parts.
“There’s a camera in here.” I nodded at the circular lens that was filming us like a voyeur.
“Let them watch.”
Fuck. Me.
Quite literally, actually. What kind of alternate reality had we fallen into where I was ready to hike up my skirt and let my coworker rail me in view of lord only knew who was watching us? God, what if it was Sylvia?
Oh, maybe it’ll be Sylvia.
No, Ever. Giving Sylvia a stroke is not something we want to do.
Speak for yourself.
Loche leaned in, his lips hovering just inches from mine as visions of V flashed through my mind like some disembodied cock block.
Goddamnit.
I reached for the emergency call button, hit it and then pressed the button for the floor to get the elevator moving again. “I’ve never been one to be able to perform for an audience.”
Loche smirked. “Never say never.”
We broke eye contact for the first time since Loche entered the elevator with me. When the car reached its destination and the door slid open, I stepped off into the building’s lobby with him on my heels. “I thought you were going to the pub?”
“The pub isn’t going anywhere. I can go another time.”
A blast of cold air sucked the air from my lungs as we walked outside to the parking ramp. I would never begin to get over how brutal the air here could be.
“You need a heavier coat, Nevermore,” Loche observed when I visibly shivered.
