Excerpt: Spring Blossoms
A door at the end of the hall opened and Miles peeked his head out. “Spring? You okay?”
“Yes. Wait, don’t…” Miles came out of his office and the door slammed behind him. “…close the door.”
He frowned and then his expression turned to anguish as he tried to open it. “Shit.”
“Did ‘Mr. Perfect’ just curse?”
“Not the time, Spring. We’re locked out of our offices.”
“Well, just use the code to get us out of here.”
He closed his eyes warily. “I don’t remember the code.”
“Wait, so not only do you not know the code, neither one of us has a cell to call out?”
“You’ve been here longer than me. Why don’t you remember the code?” Miles placed his hands in his pockets, clenching his jaw which under normal circumstances I would find sexy as hell. Now, I was livid as I quickly donned my earring.
“I’m not upper management. You’re always supposed to have the code. How could ‘Mr. Perfect’ not know the stupid alarm code? We can’t be stuck here all night. I have plans.”
He responded sarcastically, “Of course you do.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Miles stomped off in the opposite direction of me.
Hurrying behind him, his long strides making it hard for me to catch up, I demanded, “What does that mean, Miles?”
He muttered, “Nothing.”
“Be a man and tell me what’s your issue with me. It’s like we’re back to day one. Why can’t we be professional and friendly?”
Miles tried several office doors as he continued to walk to the lobby. All doors were locked, and he sighed with frustration. He turned abruptly around and looked down in my upturned face. “Can you come up with a solution to getting out of here instead of questioning my manhood?”
I yelled, “You were my solution.”
“Lower your voice.”
I said even louder, “You can’t make me.”
“How old are you? ‘You can’t make me’,” he mimicked me as he strode back down the hall.
“Stop making fun of me.”
He tossed over his shoulder. “You can’t make me.”
“Miles, I’m so serious.”
“About what? My manhood or making you do something because I definitely can’t ask you to do anything without getting mouth from you. If I have any issue, it’s that even after we talked about it, you continue to question every request I make.”
“Request? More like demand. You don’t know how to talk to people.”
“I shoot straight forward. In business, everything is black or white.”
I stepped faster to keep up with him. “But we’re people Miles. How can you be head of HR and not be able to talk to people? I keep thinking as time goes on, you’ll relax and loosen up like you were starting to do before our ‘indiscretion’.” It had been almost a month since my birthday and that night at the concert.
He glared at me as he opened the staff lounge door for me. “Is there a phone in here?”
Unsure if I wanted to be this near him and risk rejection again, I reluctantly walked past him. “No or I would’ve used it to get out of here. What are you doing here so late anyway? I thought everyone had gone home hours ago.”
Miles headed to the refrigerator. “I’m hungry. You want something?”
“I don’t have any food in there. Do you?”
“There’s a bunch of food in the refrigerator and freezer.”
“We can’t steal other people’s food.”
“Spring, we’re stuck here overnight. I’m not about to starve so people won’t curse me out for eating their hot pocket. I’ll replace whatever we eat.” He rummaged through the refrigerator. “There’s lean cuisine, French bread pepperoni pizza, and my personal choice…an unopened gallon of Blue Bell ice cream.”
“Ice cream for dinner?” I rested my back against the counter next to him. “I don’t eat pork, but I can take off the pepperoni.”
He smirked. “Chicken alfredo lean cuisine it is.”
Shrugging, I watched Miles unwrap my dinner and place in the microwave, admiring his firm ass and biceps visible through his business attire, wondering why I didn’t have an effect on him like I did with other men? Yeah, we’d had that mad crazy make-out “indiscretion” but since then no matter how sexy or stylish I dressed lately he never gave me a second glance. Some days I wondered if I’d imagined that night, he’d been so formal with me since then. Quite simply, he seemed to view me as a colleague. No more. No less.
I repeated, “What are you doing here so late?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“Finishing up that survey that you ordered me to complete before tomorrow, though you won’t even be here.”
Miles shook his head slightly. “Ordered? You don’t think you’re exaggerating.”
“Nope. Your tone is way harsh all the time.”
He grabbed two plastic spoons and held one out to me to take before he placed the butter pecan container in between us. “You just mean my tone is too harsh with you.”
“Nope, I mean everybody.”
Miles laughed. “It’s just you.”
I crossed my arms. “You need to work on talking to your staff better.”
“Have you taken a poll?”
I jabbed my spoon at him. “You know I haven’t. But I hear things.”
He challenged. “Like what?”
“I’m not telling you…sh…nothing.” I quickly amended. He was still my boss.
“Go ahead and curse,” he said quietly before scooping some ice cream and surprising me by holding the spoon close to my mouth. “I stayed late because I knew you were here alone, and I wanted to talk.”
“Talk about what?”
His gaze drifted to my cleavage and back to my eyes. “Since we’re stuck together for the rest of the night. Let’s call a truce. Between now and six tomorrow morning when the building opens, anything we say or do is off the record.”
“Anything we do?” I asked and slowly licked my lips before I opened my mouth to receive the ice cream. I could tell by the heat rising between us, I would not be rejected this time.
He quickly put the spoon back in the tub and grabbed my chin for a delicious pecan flavored kiss. After a moment of feverish kissing, tongues mating, he pulled back, warm hand now on the back of my neck, his steady gaze so damn sexy. “I talk to you the way I do because I hate that I find you fucking adorable.”
I pouted. “Adorable? I’ve heard sexy, beautiful, captivating, hot. But you only find me adorable?”
Miles looked up at the ceiling, exasperated. “You’re all those descriptions too.”
“No woman wants a man who she desires to see her as cute or adorable.”
His finger traced the soft hairs on my nape, sending thrills through my body. “Oh, you desire me more than other men?”
“So much more.” I put my spoon in the sink and found the button at the top of his shirt before slipping it out the hole. “I hate that I can’t stop thinking about you, how I can’t wait for our morning meetings just so I can see your face as you piss me off with your lofty goals and unrealistic demands. I especially hate how much I want to finish what we started that night you kissed me because since then I’ve been going crazy trying to figure out how you can remain so calm, so steady in my presence like I don’t matter.” I continued to unbutton his shirt.
Miles stopped my hand right above his abs and moved it inside his shirt against his bare skin, his heart. “Is there anything steady about the way my heart is racing? I think it’s adorable that you try your best to get under my skin, that you bite on your pen when you’re concentrating, that your smile wakes me up better than a cup of coffee first thing in the morning. That I see how frustrated you get when I ignore you or you think that I don’t want you because I have to hide it from you.” He lowered his head until his lips were within an inch of mine. “I have to think of you as adorable, because if I think of you as the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen in my fucking thirty-seven years on this Earth, you would be bent over my desk every single time you walk in my office.”
“Well, damn Miles.” Surprised by his words, the passion in his voice, the trembling in his body, I stood on my tiptoes, wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing my softness against his hardness. “Now, you have to fuck me.”
The corners of his brown eyes crinkled as he lifted me onto the counter behind us and placed my legs around his waist. “We have until six in the morning.”
*****
While you’re waiting for the release of Spring Blossoms, check out the first two books in the A Love for All Seasons now available on Amazon!
https://www.amazon.com/Autumn-Falls-Love-Seasons-Book-ebook/dp/B07YVNV8GM
https://www.amazon.com/Winter-Date-Love-Seasons-Book-ebook/dp/B082NZ2V6B
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