But she didn’t.
As soon as the door closed behind him, she reached for him. And then she kissed him. She kissed him how she’d wanted to kiss him in the car the week before, how she’d wanted to kiss him every day for the last month. Her lips on his, her body pressed against him; her desire for him, her sheer want for him, no longer hidden, but there for him to see, to feel, to taste.
He kissed her back immediately, at first with a sigh of relief that made her smile, then with determination. His hands moved slowly, possessively up her body, first skimming over her breasts, her waist, then gripping her hips and pulling her closer to him. She could feel the imprint of his fingers on her skin, through the thin silk of her robe. She held on to him tighter.
Finally, they broke apart, gasping for air, and she rested her head on his chest. After a moment, she looked up at him.
“Do you know what?” she asked him.
He smiled down at her and traced her eyebrows with his finger.
“What?”
“You don’t work for me anymore.”
His smile got wider.
“No,” he said. “I don’t.”
And then he kissed her again, kissed her like he’d dreamed of this, or maybe she just thought that because she had. It felt like coming home, with his hands on her and his body against hers and that way he sucked her bottom lip, just the way she’d thought of and fantasized about for weeks.
Eventually, they stumbled to her couch and sat down. He took her hand and played with her fingers.
“I hated the way I had to leave today,” he said. “With you and Elliot both there, I mean. I was glad that I could tell him directly, and that he didn’t seem to be pissed at me—”
“He’s not,” she interrupted. “He meant what he said.”
“Good,” he said. “But to be honest, I don’t give a fuck how Elliot felt about me leaving. I only care how you felt.”
She touched his cheek.
“I was . . . I didn’t . . . I wasn’t sure how to feel, actually. I didn’t know if you’d—”
He laughed, and pulled her closer.
“Are you kidding me? I have wanted you since the moment I first saw you, and then every single moment since, and you didn’t know what I was going to do as soon as I wasn’t working for you anymore?” He traced the neckline of her robe with his finger. “When you answered the door in this,” he said, “and you clearly weren’t expecting me, I was consumed with jealousy, you know. I thought you were expecting someone else.”
She laughed softly. That would have never occurred to her.
“That’s very flattering, but I haven’t thought about anyone but you since that night.” She kissed him softly. “I shouldn’t say that, I know, I should play it cool, pretend I haven’t been thinking of you, of that night, for so long. But I’m not good at that.”
He dropped light kisses along the neckline of her robe.
“That’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told, Margot Noble, because you’ve seemed excellent at it to me. Here I’ve been staring at you all day at work like a lovesick puppy, and you barely glanced my way.” He loosened the tie of her robe and pushed it off one shoulder. “I know you didn’t look at me, I was checking.”
She couldn’t believe she was really allowed to do this. Kiss him, like she was doing now. Slide her hands up and down his body. Breathe in his scent. Luxuriate in the way he looked at her, touched her, with his hands, his lips, his tongue.
“I had to pretend,” she said as his fingers circled her nipple. “But my God, I wanted you. I wanted this.”
He pushed her slowly back on the couch.
“I just need to look at you,” he said. “Then I’ll believe this is really happening.”
She should feel self-conscious, with all the lights on, as she lay here, half-naked—more than half, really—with him staring at her. But she didn’t feel that way at all. Maybe it was because they’d done this before, maybe it was because she felt so comfortable with him, but all she could do was glory in the way he looked at her. That look of pure need. He’d looked at her like that in her office the day they’d kissed. She’d almost thought she’d imagined it until now.
She reached for the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up over his head.
“Until that time in my office, I really wasn’t sure that you—”
“That I wanted you—that I want you—so much I could barely function?” He lowered himself on top of her, and she reveled in the feeling of his body on hers, his warm and smooth skin against hers, his breath on her chest, her cheek, her neck.