Page 9 of Size King

“You like what I’m wearing?” she asks me.

“I like everything about you,” I say, as if in a trance.

She rolls her eyes and chuckles to herself. She sips her drink, even looking sexy doing that.

“I think you’re amazing,” I profess. “You’re outrageously beautiful, smart, brave, intelligent.”

“You already said I’m smart,” she says playfully.

“You’re so smart, I had to basically say it twice,” I say, trying to cover my mistake.

“Very well,” she accepts. “Anything else?”

“I think my company and I are going to owe you a lot when all of this is through,” I predict. “I just hate that you’re so goddamn hot.”

“I just hate that you probably talk like this to all the girls,” she jousts.

“You won’t believe me, but I’ll say it anyway,” I babble drunkenly. “I can’t stop thinking about you. I want to have asteamyoffice romance with you. I don’t want to treat you like a whore when you’re so much more. Unless you’re into that.”

“Oh my,” she gasps.

“I know better than to get involved with anyone I work with,” I say. “I’ve been guilty of it too many times already, and I need to get better. I can’t let my legacy be determined by Sarah’s lies.”

“Don’t think that I don’t want you, too. I want every one of those things you mentioned, but we can’t. It’s just like you say. We just can’t do it. It would be wrong.”

“It certainly wouldn’t be wrong, milady.”

“When you say you want romance, what do you mean?” she wonders.

“I want to take you to more nice places like this,” I elaborate. “I want to take you with me on expensive flights to distant places that you’ve always wanted to see. We could literally do anything in the world right now, and I think that sounds enticing with you at my side.”

“This kind of talk isn’t exactly going to help younotbe involved with me,” she reminds. “You’re certainly not making it any easier on me. I want you, too.”

“Perhaps we shouldn’t fight these urges… maybe we should indulge them,” I propose. “I know I have to fight my feelings, but they can’t be denied. I will think of you, and all of the things I want to know about you until I drive myself insane.”

“I didn’t realize that your feelings were this strong,” she says. “Is it really that hard to fight them?”

“It’s so hard, you don’t even understand,” I say suggestively.

“So, which is it? You’re sending mixed signals, boss. Do we not fight our urges, or do we? You sound indecisive.”

“I don’t know what the right thing to do is,” I admit. “There’s something about you thatpullsme to you. I’ve only known you for a few days, and already, you’ve become my obsession. This is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, Kate.”

“You’re certainly coming on stronger than I’d anticipated, Aiden.”

“Just wait until we get to the limo, little lady.”

* * *

After dinnerand drinks are concluded, I follow through and have my limo driver take some of my employees home. We all sit together in the back, continuing to drink and listening to music while we cruise the streets of New York.

Oddly enough, Kate is the last stop on our journey. She lives the farthest away out of everyone in the limo, and it’s the longest trip when traffic is factored in. As each subsequent employee is dropped off at their designated homes, the desire continues to bubble and build up between Kate and me. I imagine that we might finally burst once we are the only two people left in the back of the limo.

After dropping off Adam and the date he picked up at the restaurant, and one of our head engineers at their houses in the Hamptons, Kate and I become aware that we are alone in the limo. We don’t say much during the first few minutes of the drive on the way to her place.

“I’m sorry that I’m the farthest away,” Kate says.

“There’s no need to be sorry at all,” I assure her.