Page 63 of Accidental Groom

I tilt my head back and forth. “I might’ve made a call.”

She’s across the pathway before I can brace myself.

I knew she’d behappyto see Sarah. I knew it would at least bring her spirits up after what happened last night. But not a single part of me is expecting it when she throws her armsaround my neck, standing on the absolute tips of her toes, and hugs me.

Genuinely.

Adorably.

I don’t even manage to get a word in or my arms around her in kind before she pulls back just enough to pull me down to her instead.

Static. Static is what plays in my ears as her lips meet mine.

It’s not intense. It’s not desperate or fiery or needy. It’s not evenlong.

But it’s sweet. It’s soft, full of something unspoken, something grateful, and it rattles me far more than anything George said last night.

My hand finds the back of her waist, holding her there for a second, just giving myself enough time to catch up with this and breathe in the scent of her hair, enough time to feel the quick and quiet thump of her heartbeat against my chest.

“Thank you,” she says quietly, her face just barely flushed.

My fingers twitch against her hip as I lean forward just enough to press my lips against her cheek. “Of course,” I murmur, nudging her temple once with my nose before letting go. “Go spend time with your sister.”

She grins as she steps away, a smile that comes across as genuinelyhappy, and my heart nearly lurches at the sight, my jaw tensing just enough to keep my face in check.

Sarah asks her something I can’t quite hear the moment Elena’s back within earshot, and Elena laughs, inviting her into the cottage, saying something about how they candefinitelydo that after she has a shower — and god, the way she looks like that, grinning ear to ear and giddy in her pajamas…

Fuck.

It’s not what it does to my body. It’s not the way I can picture her pleasure-drunk in my arms, it’s not the want in my handsto drag down her sides and dig into her skin, it’s not how I can already taste her on my tongue. It’s not the flirtation or the banter or the body that haunts every goddamn thought.

It’s everything else.

It’s the falling.

It’sher.

It’s the way she still thanks me for things. The way she kisses me like she means it, even when I don’t deserve it. The way she talks about the baby as if it's a miracle—not a scandal.

I shut the sliding door behind me, staring at the ground as the feeling settles over me, wide-eyed and more than a little mortified.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Did I want to touch her? Yes. Did that want follow me every waking second until I did it, and only grow since? Yes.

But I wasn’t expecting to want her likethat.I wasn’t expecting to fall for her.

Shit.

I exhale sharply and force myself to move. I’ve got a meeting in ten with Chiara, the manager for the Milan location, and although the timing isn’t great with everything going on, I need to keep some kind of grip on my work.

————

“Heard about the Switzerland problem,” Chiara says, the cold tone in her accented voice lightening for the first time in the last forty-five minutes of restructuring discussions.

“You mean thesolvedSwitzerland problem,” I correct. I lean back in my office chair, hoisting my feet up onto the desk, andshift my computer to the left so she still has a decent view of me through the camera.

Chiara tucks her hair behind her ear, the blunt black bob rustling as she chuckles. “Yes,” she says. “Your newwifeseems to have quite the brain.”