BAD DECISIONS PLUS A HOT SECRETARY

   I am still reeling from the fact that he sucked off the chocolate from my skin, my upper lip still tingles, and then he goes ahead to say he never saw me as a kid??

 What does that mean??

Is that a good thing?

I mean, not seeing me as a kid should be good right?

 He takes the jacket from my fingers, my hand falls back to my side.

With his hands on my shoulders, he steers me to the sofa in our shared office.

 “The light won’t be enough for both of us to get any work done, and we know we’ll be here all night, so you should rest.”

 I sit on the sofa.

“And you’ll work through the night?”

He drapes the jacket over my shoulder, this time I know I won’t be ripping it off for any reason. Even if I wee hot and sizzling, and I hate to sweat.

 “You hate to do research.” he says simply.

So he knows then. Of course he did, every time I had to do research I pushed it until the very last minute.

 He goes to my table to pick up the used cup. I watch in slow motion as he drinks from the cup.

 Asher drank from the cup I used.

He never did that.

He never used cup other people might have used. That’s why he doesn’t eat out.

 But he drank from my cup.

I almost let out a squeal.

“You should rest too, it’s going to get even colder without the heater.” I say as he drops the paper cup in the trash.

I am trying not to panic, trying to act nonchalant, cool.

 “The research…”

“Can wait. Nobody will be working with the storm anyway.”

He hesitates for a beat, and finally he sits beside me.

My heart is beating too fast, too hard.

 “We can share the jacket, it’s very large for just me.”

Exhaling, he warms his hands instead with his breath.

I roll my eyes at him.

 “We’ve worked together for what, five months?” I ask even if I know perfectly well that it’s been five months, three days and a few hours, I only lost track of the hours because my phone is all the way over there giving us light.

 “And we’ve never spent any time together except while working, I think the universe is asking us to slow down and breathe.”

 “I would believe that if you didn’t slow down and breathe every time you had to do research.”

I narrow my eyes at him and he shrugs.

My mind goes back to the fact that he drank from my used cup.

 Eva would join in my delusions for a total of five seconds before bringing me back to reality.

Still, it happened.

 He breathes warm air into his open hands and before I think better of it, I shuffle closer to him, sharing the jacket with him.

But I can’t get it right because his shoulders are very wide, so it hangs on his back awkwardly. Embarassment crawls up my spine.

 Even more when he pauses, turns to look at me, as if wondering what the heck is going through my head.

 I would like to know too.

“You’re obviously cold…” I trail off, keeping my eyes off his.

Our arms are brushing against each other and I am getting very warm now, actually hot. The heat that wraps around me does more than the jacket ever would.

 “Carson, that’s my jacket. Do you think it’ll be big enough to cover both of us?”

The slow way he asked the question might have just screamed, stupid, stupid boy.

I graduated top of my class in law school, earlier than most, my office is decorated with certificates, more than my age mates can ever comprehend, but the brain that did all of that couldn’t think about this simple fact.

 I blame our proximity.

“Well no one asked you to live at the gym.” I mumble, pulling the jacket to myself.

He catches my arm, my eyes widen.

Literal sparks fly from where our skin makes contact.

 “We can share… but it’ll be strange.”

Strange? I swallow.

Clearing my throat, my eyes dart everywhere.

 “How strange?”

He blinks, lips pressed together, brows dipping downwards.

“Let me show you.”

My hands fall to my sides, already giving up the reins.

I am such a bottom, always ready to have him lead whenever. Needing to please him, wanting him to use me, take from me what he needed.

 Even if right now it’s just a jacket.

He puts his arm on my shoulder, I press my mouth to stop the squeak that nearly slips out.

 Pulling me to him, so that my body is half across his

I think I stop breathing.

We’re so close that I can hear his breathing, and if I listen really close, I would hear his heart almost beating right through his chest.

 “This is… strange.” Comfortable, my dream, I would live here forever, here’s where I want to be buried.

Of course I don’t say that.

He exhales slowly.

“I apologize,” he says, pulling away.

“I have a new idea.” I say before he could pull away completely.

Taking control of my breathing, this move, if it works or not, will take a lot of courage to even voice.

 “It can’t be stranger than this.”

It is actually.

“We can share body heat.”

“I’m sorry what??”

I feel heat crawl up my face. Great, if I keep embarrassing myself like this, I wouldn’t need to use the jacket, I’ll be warm all night.

 “I mean, we can lay together,”

“Fully clothed!” I add when he looks at me, I mean look at me.

God. If I had a time machine, I would go straight to the moment before I was conceived and get my parents something to do so this doesn’t happen.

 “Okay, I see what you’re saying…”

It’s not even too cold for us to do that, why would I suggest this??

“We’d have to push the sofas together.” he says getting to his feet.

I gape at him. He was taking my crazed idea? I mean, it was nuts. We’d go to sleep in each other’s arms.

 No straight guy would want that.

Okay, those with fragile masculinity wouldn’t want that. He wasn’t like that, which is good.

 He doesn’t wait for me, he goes straight to work, pushing the sofas together so it forms a makeshift bed.

 “Show off.” I scoffs when he comes back to the sofa.

He glances at me, a small smile on his lips.

My jaw drops and there’s a choir singing in my head.

 He smiled.

Asher Hall knows how to move his facial muscles.

 His smile is the most attractive thing I have ever seen.

Even as we lay down side by side, the jacket on top of us, I am still replaying the smile in my head.

 I need to make him smile more.

“If this is going to work, we have to be closer.” he tells me.

I hum in agreement.

His hand circles my wrist and he pulls me close to him, so my face is on his large chest, legs tangled with his.

 I try to control my breathing.

“Are you okay?” his voice rumbles in his chest and I have to shift my waist so he is not pressed against the evidence of my attraction and how much of a bad idea this is.

 “Hmm.”

He says nothing.

The warmth radiating from him is so hot and delicious that I don’t need the bloody jacket anymore, I don’t dare move though.

 But I need a distraction.

Or I’ll beg him to touch me.

“Your tattoos are pretty.” I end up saying.

They aren’t pretty, they are hot.

 He looks down at his hand like he was just seeing them for the first time.

“Thank you.”

“Tell me about them.” I whisper, eyes on his tattoos, once again wondering if they ran in a straight line around his body.

 Where did they stop?

He sucks in a breath.

“It’s a prayer, a prayer I needed to be answered desperately.” he answers, his tone raw.

I wonder briefly what he prayed for so fervently.

“Has it been answered? That prayer?”

He looks at it for a while, and then up at me. His grey eyes give me a jolt.

And I pray I will be able to sleep tonight.

 “Yeah… although there’s another thing I’m praying for at the moment.”

Swallowing, I sense this is a private prayer, so I leave it.

 It occurs to me that he hadn’t said something else.

“You said, first off, you didn’t think of me as a kid. What’s the second one?”

He blinks, chest rising and falling as he breathed, I am mesmerized by the movement.

 “Oh, the second one was, who said you could call me by my name.”

The light goes off the same time, darkness swallows us.

I swallow trying to wrap my mind around what he said.

 “Carson, when last did you charge your phone?”

I blink, still disoriented.

 “The last time you charged it.”

He groans lightly, the sound goes straight to my dick.

Great.

The light is gone, and Asher Hall is breathing like this is normal.

It is not.

This is how bad decisions start.