“Hey,” I say, rolling on my side to face him. “Get naked,Penn.”
“I want to hear more about the interviewfirst.”
He turns onto his side as well, his blue eyes capturingmine.
“You could have me bent over backwards right now and you want to talk about an interview?” Ilaugh.
“Yeah,” he replies, grinning. “Weird, isn’t it? I’ve been finding myself...thinking about you. Alot.”
I can feel my pulse hammering in almost every part of my body rightnow.
“Oh?” I manage, my voicesmall.
“I don’t think you can truly appreciate how hard it is for me to say this, but I...I like you, Christina. I like you alot.”
For some reason, hearing those words with his eyes locked on mine, our bodies so close that I can feel the heat of his skin and his breath on my neck, fills me with more of a thrill than any of his kisses everhave.
I inch my body closer, letting just one of my fingers hook into the front pocket of hisjeans.
“Why is that hard for you tosay?”
“I just, um, for awhile I haven’t been so great at letting peoplein.”
“Well,” I say, moving my finger to trail the bottom of his t-shirt, “maybe if your ego wasn’t so big, you’d have more room for otherpeople.”
He laughs. “I mean, that’s kind of thepoint.”
I’m trying to puzzle out what he means by that when he asks me to tell him about the interviewagain.
“Here.” I sit up to grab my purse where I let it drop at the edge of the bed. “This is what theysent.”
I dig out my phone and pass it to him after opening up the email exchange with Jim Sanders. I watch his eyebrows contract, two furrows appearing between them as hereads.
He passes the phone back to me. “I don’t know. That guy still sounds like a sleaze who just thinks you’ll look good in a bathingsuit.”
“Seriously?” I demand. “He said our work was refreshing and engaging,andhe said I’d be capable of creative advertisingstrategies.”
“He said theimagesof you were refreshing and engaging, and to be honest, the creative part sounds like he just wants you to take nice Instragram bikinishots.”
“Why are you being like this about it?” Isnap.
He props himself up on his elbows. “What? Honest? Because I didn’t like how they treated you and I think you deserve more value and respect. I mean, this is P&T. Sure, they’re huge, but they’re not known for being particularly modern, and clearly that holds true for the roles they give women in advertising.” He sighs and tugs at his beanie. “I just don’t know if this is such a good idea, Christina. Career-wise, aren’t they kind of the complete opposite ofEpsilon?”
“It’s just an interview,” I grumble. “And is it so hard to believe they might actually want me because they think I’msmart?”
“This isn’t me having a bad opinion ofyou. It’s me having a bad opinion ofthem.”
“Guess we’ll just have to see how the interview goes, then.” I flip onto my back and cross my arms over my chest, looking away from him before the argument can get out ofhand.
“Hey,” he says, his voice dropping an octave the way it does when he’s turned on. “Who said you could hide your boobs fromme?”
He reaches over to uncross my arms and shifts himself on top of me. I let my eyes fall closed as he brushes his lips over mine, and then trails them down along my jaw line and right to the sensitive skin behind myear.
My hands twist themselves into his hair and I wrap my legs around his waist, pulling his hips into mine as he runs his tongue over the shell of my ear. I gasp at thecontact.
“Aaron,” I whisper, as he tugs my earlobe between histeeth.
“Mmm?”
