As shop chatter swelled outside, it felt like Lachlan and I were enclosed in our own little world. I popped one little button free from its hold, then another.
“Are your hands shaking?” Lachlan’s voice near my ear went soft as the shirt’s silk.
He smelled like spicy shampoo and man. “It’s been a few hours since my last Red Bull. Probably need another hit.” I willed my hands to cease their quivering while I slipped another button loose. Then another. It was hard to remain steady when I’d just realized I adored my soon-to-be-ex-husband, yet could not, should not have him.
In a matter of four shallow breaths, I finally finagled that silk shirt halfway undone. Lachlan’s hair-speckled chest was on display, and I couldn’t recall my own name.
“Olivia?”
That name sounded familiar. Probably mine.
Not removing my hands from the planes of Lachlan’s chest, I slowly...slowly...raised my eyes to his.
And instantly noticed he didn’t look so impassive now.
The gold flecks in Lachlan’s eyes burned bright against the backdrop of green, and the intensity there would’ve knocked me back a step if there had been room. “Yes?” My voice came out parched, as if I’d been walking the desert in search of an oasis.
Lachlan’s palm skimmed down the back of my head and trailed lightly against the length of my hair. “I’ve been wanting to say something to you for a while.”
Did he know? Did Lachlan know I had ocean-deep feelings for him I must deny? “Go ahead.” My eyes dipped back to his torso, but I quickly recovered. “I’m listening.”
“I know I should’ve said something sooner, but…what you did for me on my birthday meant the world to me.” Now Lachlan’s knuckles traced a bold line above the neckline of my dress, skimming across bare skin and leaving a trail of shuddering awareness. “It was thoughtful and generous—the best present I’ve ever gotten.”
“I’m…” Sometimes it was hard to tell if you were looking at the best thing ever or your next big regret. “I’m glad.”
Lachlan’s voice softened. “I wanted to tell you that night at home, but when I went to your room, you were asleep. And then with all my interviews and appearances, we haven’t had a chance to talk much this week.”
I released one more button and kept my grip on the opening of Lachlan’s shirt. “You’d already thanked me.”
“But it wasn’t enough. Words couldn’t adequately convey what that night meant.”
My next line was “Then what could?” but I found myself unable to utter it. We were headed somewhere in this moment, two people in a canoe racing toward the waterfall. If we pitched over, it would either be the greatest thrill…or our demise.
“I think about you in that bedroom beside me.” Lachlan stepped into what was left of the meager space between us. His body bumped mine, sending shock waves along my limbs. “I think about you all day, actually. Wonder if you’re chewing on your pen like you often do. Or if you’ve wound your hair in a bun using that elastic thing you keep on your wrist.”
When Lachlan reached for that wrist and pressed a kiss to the pulse that thudded beneath my hair tie, the bones in my legs dissolved. I was no longer a solid. I was a mass of gelatinous want and feeling. The only thing that could hold me up, the only one who could save me was Lachlan.
“I need you to know that you’ve come to mean a lot to me,” he said beside my ear, before grazing the same spot with his lips. “So much that I’m consumed. On fire with it. I can hardly work for thinking of you. And wondering”—lips hovered over mine, taunting, teasing, and daring me to accept—“if you feel the same.”
This man was a risk greater than any I’d ever faced. He held the power to ruin my career and crush my heart. Yet in this moment, closer than two bodies could be without combusting, I could only say, “Yes. I think I might.”
He considered this. “I’ll take it.”
I wanted to trace his smile and memorize it with my hands. But mostly, I wanted to kiss it and go right over the edge, risking the fall.
Lachlan rested a hand over my head, his palm flat against the wall. Trying that again, were we?
“It’s almost nine o’clock,” he said. “I checked your schedule, and do you know what happens now?”
“I can’t even tell you who the president is right now.” I needed Lachlan’s lips on mine and soon.
His head dipped, and his nose trailed against my cheek. “It says I kiss you.”
“Does it?” My heart presently floated somewhere in the stratosphere, and I wondered if it would ever come back down. “I don’t recall penciling that into the itinerary.”
“I’m working off the edited version.” Lachlan slid his hand into my hair before his fingers gently traced a silky strand. “Yes or no on this calendar amendment?”
There was really only one answer here. “Yes,” I whispered. Not one to let opportunity pass me by, I rose on tiptoe and pressed my lips to his.
