“What isn’t going to happen?” she asked quietly. And maybe it was his imagination, but it seemed like she was leaning a little closer to him.
“Um…you know…the whole fake relationship thing.”
“Oh. I thought we were talking about whether or not you found me attractive and you were saying nothing was going to happen there either.”
Wait…what?
Swallowing hard, Gage’s eyes locked with hers. She looked soft and a little sleepy and…incredibly kissable.
“Do you want something to happen?” he found himself asking, his own voice a little gruffer than it was a minute ago.
“I don’t know. Maybe.” Now her voice was little more than a whisper, and she was definitely moving closer to him. If he leaned forward even a little, they’d…
“Truth or dare, Gage?” she whispered before her gaze homed in on his lips.
“Dare.”
“I dare you to kiss me.” Her lips were practically against his and Gage more than willingly closed the distance between them.
The first thing he noticed was how soft her lips were. Then, it was the arousing humming sound Hannah made. Sitting on the floor the way they were was mildly awkward, but they each began to slowly move around to get comfortable. Before he knew it, they were reclined against their coats with him stretched out beside her. She was warm and curvy and tasted of wine and chocolate. Everything about her felt so good that he felt himself melting against her. There was no rush; their kiss was slow and leisurely. Right now, he couldn’t care less if they got rescued any time soon.
Hannah wrapped her arms around him as she pressed even closer and in the back of Gage’s mind, he knew they would have been able to fool anyone and everyone with a fake relationship. The attraction was real and there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that he would have fully enjoyed any and all PDAs with her.
Only…it wasn’t going to happen.
Dammit.
Carefully, he maneuvered them until she was lying beneath him as he took the kiss deeper. His tongue touched hers and he felt the slight hitch in her breath as well as another throaty hum as he slanted his lips over hers again and again. She was trembling in his arms–or maybe he was the one doing the trembling–and it was the oddest sensation. He wanted to ask if she was okay but was reluctant to stop kissing her.
“That’s my phone vibrating,” Hannah said breathlessly against his lips. “Maybe…it’s…Shawna.”
With a small moan of disappointment, Gage rolled off her and stared up at the ceiling.
“Hello?” Hannah said as she sat up. “Oh, hey, Shawna!” She paused. “Really? Oh…wait…” She swatted Gage’s arm and gave him a thumbs-up. Off in the distance, he heard voices and knew they were about to be rescued. “The power’s still out though, right?” Another pause. “Oh, that’s great!”
Rolling away from her, he got to his feet and figured he should start getting his stuff together since it sounded like help was definitely on the way. He was sure things were going to be awkward and he kind of wished they had gotten the call five minutes sooner. Now that he’d kissed Hannah, he wanted to do it again.
Then he remembered how busy her schedule was about to get and knew this was all they were going to have.
And he hated it.
“Thanks, Shawna! And no worries, we were fine. Your wine really helped,” Hannah was saying. “All I want is to get to my place and take a shower and go to bed.” She laughed and wished Shawna a good night just as the lights came back on and the elevator groaned back to life.
“So,” he said as he picked up his coat and satchel.
“So,” she repeated as she scooped up her own things. Once she had it all, she faced him and smiled. “Thank you for helping me not freak out.”
Ah, so they weren’t going to address the fact that they’d been rolling around on the floor, wrapped around each other only minutes ago. He tried not to let his disappointment show again.
“And thank you for helping me come up with a reasonable way to survive the holidays.”
The elevator came to a stop on the fourth floor and the doors slid open to reveal a team of maintenance guys waiting for them. Hannah stepped out with all her luggage and two of the men immediately reached out to help her while asking if she was okay.
“I’m fine,” she told them. “Just tired.” Then she turned and smiled at Gage. “Thanks again. You made a truly awful and scary situation fun.”
He couldn’t help but smile. He was about to say more when the maintenance crew all piled into the elevator with him. “We need to make sure everything’s okay with it. You’re going up to the fifth floor, right?” one of them asked, and all he could do was nod.
Then, with one last look at Hannah, he waved as the doors slid shut.
Chapter Three
The next day, Hannah was completely blindsided.
Not only didn’t she get the promotion, but she was essentially put on an extended time off until the middle of January. Fortunately, it was all with pay, but it didn’t matter; she was numb. The medical complex job went to Don Reese. Apparently he’d been secretly schmoozing the project manager and superintendent heading up the job. So, she had to sit through the rest of the damn Zoom meeting with a smile on her face and act like she wasn’t devastated.
As soon as the cameras were turned off, her boss called and apologized and listened to her yell and cry at the unfairness of it all.
Not her finest moment.
That’s when it was decided that she could take the month of December off to regroup and work on plans for another project they were hoping to pitch in January.
In Tennessee.
It would require her moving for at least six months–or staying at a hotel during the week and coming back to Raleigh on the weekends if she wanted to. All for an office building that–from everything Hannah had been told–was pretty much textbook and uninspiring. Did she really want to uproot her life for something like that?
And as if that wasn’t enough, she was reminded of the big annual company Christmas party next week and how they all hoped she’d be there.
At that moment, she wanted to quit, to tell her boss she could take her consolation prize of a month off and shove it.
But…she didn’t.
As much as it killed her, she would be a professional.
And possibly take the time to look for another job.
With nothing else to do–literally–Hannah spent the bulk of her day simply sitting on her sofa watching the TV and just zoning out. It didn’t matter what was on because she wasn’t even paying attention to it. If anything, her mind was a complete blank. She’d turned off her phone and closed the window blinds and just wanted to curl up in a ball and wish the world away.
At some point, the sun started to go down and her stomach started to growl. There was no way she was going to cook anything and opted to pick up her phone and scroll through one of the meal delivery apps to order her dinner. “Not pizza, not Chinese…” She continued scrolling. “Do I want a sandwich? A burger? Tacos?” While she knew burgers and tacos didn’t necessarily travel well, she was willing to take the risk and order one of them anyway. “And not just a taco or two–let’s go with the biggest burrito they have with a soft taco on the side.” Grinning, she added them to her cart before deciding to add chips, salsa, and guacamole. Feeling satisfied, she paid and placed the order. The only downside was that she would have to go down to the lobby to get it.