“What did you think, then?”
The question was more loaded than a smoking gun. Millie’s eyes shot back to mine, studying me with intent.
“Don’t be coy,” she told me. “It’s not cute when girls, and I don’t love that look on you either. I know we had… a spark, a connection, or whatever you want to call it, and you looked plenty eager outside the library this morning. That’s why you were so shocked just now. It’s not like this is some morality issue.”
“No,” I admitted. “Morality has nothing to do with it, but I’ve known Caleb for a long time. He’s a great guy, Millie.”
She looked up and caught my eye, her voice direct and surprising when she spoke. It was the kind of question I couldn’t escape.
“What about you?”
My heart skipped for a second. “What about me?”
As quickly as she stared me down, Millie broke the gaze. She ran a hand over her hair, the place where that man had just touched, and her eyes searched the stuffy office air for some better answer. Her gaze glanced up and around as if I’d said something wrong. After what I just saw, I was sure that she couldn’t be serious about me, no matter what I felt that night at the restaurant. No matter what Millie acknowledged between us, I thought my chance was about as good as a snowball’s in hell, yet I felt a smile toying at the corner of my mouth anyway. I stepped closer, eager to see if I had a better shot than I knew.
“That man, Vladimir, he’s not my boyfriend, my husband, or anything like that,” she swore then and there. “I’m not beholden to any man, and I don’t intend to be. Vlad only offered to take me out to lunch.”
That was what I had intended on doing.
“So, you’ll let just anyone kiss you?” I taunted her.
She laughed under her breath again. “Oh, no. I didn’t say that.”
“But you won’t pursue Caleb as long as you’re working together?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “It’s complicated.”
“Then… what do you know?”
I knew I was inching closer to her. I knew her perfume smelled like vanilla, and her face still held the rosy flush of being kissed. It shouldn’t have been so appealing. I shouldn’t have found a certain thrill in watching somebody else the woman I craved, but here we were… in Caleb’s office… mere inches apart. I half-expected her to deny me and let me down with some level of grace. Even as I stood there, my foolish ego collided with seemingly dashed hopes.
She didn’t push me away. Still perched against the desk, I watched as her fingers curled against the wooden top. With her head tilted up, it would have been so easy to find the space that man just occupied. I could have done so many things, but I wanted to hear her answer first.
“I know Caleb could return any minute,” she murmured through one long, ragged breath. “If you really care about him, I don’t think we should do this here.”
“That didn’t stop you outside.”
“No,” she agreed, “but I meant what I said. Nobody is going to win me. Just because one man kissed me outside doesn’t mean I can’t want… somebody else.”
Something in how the words rolled off her tongue sent a thrill up my spine. My fingers ached to touch her. She looked so beautiful and willing, and for a second, I almost succumbed to my greatest need. I held my breath, at war with myself. Did I dare to give in and claim what she was offering, or would I hold back and risk disappointing her?
“So, if I kissed you now… if Caleb weren’t on his way back here….”
“Yes,” she agreed, seeming to know the words I left out.
“And Caleb? What if he were standing here?”
“I don’t think he would be as brazen about it,” she teased me.
“But… you would let him, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes,” she confessed, her face unchanging.
I swallowed heavily. If I was Caleb, my hands would be all over her. If I was that Vlad, I would probably have her pushed up against the desk, but I was my own man. I would forge my own path with Millie. I wasn’t going to get sucked into these selfish desires, especially if it meant losing my chance in the long run. Even with her eyes half-closed, I couldn’t give in.
“Warren,” she murmured, my name sounded like honey on her lips. “What happened outside… it doesn’t change things. It really doesn’t need to change things between us or with me and Caleb. It’s all so new, anyway. We… we have time to work things out.”
Reading between the lines, I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but I finally understood why Millie didn’t think this was the time or place for a full conversation. She only wanted me to know that she wasn’t beholden to Vladimir. She wanted me to be sure that the feelings last Friday or the ones this morning hadn’t gone unnoticed or unreciprocated.