“That’s an image I didn’t need to be seared into my brain.” He made a disgusted face.
“Mmm. If I recall correctly, you’re the one who just brought my lack of orgasms into the conversation.”
“I wasjust saying.” He gave me a flat look. “It’s been a while, and that paired with the fact that you’re going to have to see the man you probably think about every time youtake care of yourself…” he trailed off. And shuddered.
I nudged him hard in the ribs with the bottom of my foot, causing him to grunt and slap me away.
Ugh.He was fucking right. But I would die before admitting that to him—or myself, honestly.
“I wasn’t around Sammy allthatmuch, and when I was we almost always had Amelia there. She will still be in the office, and I know I can count on her to be a solid buffer between the two of us. She’s too fucking nosey to leave us alone for long.”
I loved Amelia, but truer words had never been spoken. She was central to our business, the thread that held Messor’s together. She dealt with all the things the rest of us had no interest in dealing with—particularly thelivinghuman bodies that came and went from the funeral home. And the phone calls.
She was kind and personable and a great asset to the business. She knew everything about everyone and made it her mission to always have her nose in everyone else’s business. Which I could have found annoying, but didn’t because she was endearing and somewhat like a grandmother to me at this point.
And sometimes it came in useful.
Owen looked at me as if he was reading my mind. I hated when he did that.
“Amelia is going to have a field day with the two of you,” he said, almost gleefully.
“Amelia has no freaking clue about our history. She has no reason to believe anything is going on between us,” I said. Then added, “Nothingisgoing on between us.”
He chuckled quietly and tipped my feet out of his lap as he stood. “Oh, she’ll know. I have no doubt about that.”
Fuck.
He was so right.
This unexplainable energy crackled around us every time we were in the same room together—something that hadn’t dissipated in the time we’d spent apart—and I was certain a person would have to be completely oblivious to anything to not notice it. And Amelia noticedeverything.
Great.
INDIE
The fact that Kiernan was my new boss was shocking, to say the least. I knew that working alongside him would be torture and that it would be best to keep him at arm’s length. As…everythingas he was, I loved my job and couldn’t let the attraction I felt toward him interfere with my work. I’d already lost one job I’d loved. If we spent any amount of time together and things went south... I just couldn’t risk that happening again. Us becoming involved and subsequently going through a horrible breakup that resulted in me losing this job would be my worst nightmare come to life.
I had formed a solid plan within my mind to only communicate with him regarding my work, and to keep things as short as possible. But, there I was—only one day after forming thissolid plan—being forced to reach out to him for help.
And while it was kind of work-related—I needed to be able to get there—it would put me in closer proximity with him than I trusted myself to be.
It was unavoidable because the universe seemed to be desperate to fuck everything up for me. I knew how to change a flat, but I didn’t want to deal with it first thing in the morningorbe late for work, so I needed a ride.
Fingers tapping against the keyboard, I cringed at the question I had no choice but to ask before finally hitting the 'send' button. I collapsed back onto the couch, rubbing the sides of my neck anxiously.
Indie
Any chance you could give me a ride this morning?
Kiernan
That depends. Any chance you could give me a ride this morning?
Great.I don’t know why I expected him to make this easy for me. Forus. He seemed like the professional type, but there was really no denying the pull we felt toward one another.
Indie
All those in favor of forming an HR dept. to which I can file sexual harassment complaints say aye.
