Page 35 of Until Joy

Graham’s eyes opened slowly. They were almost all green, all dark and dreamy.

“Yeah, I put you here. I like you here. You snuggle up nice.”

I melted into him even more as his thumb flicked back and forth over my lace-covered nipple.

“Love how you respond, Doll,” he muttered. “A man could get addicted.”

He kissed me behind my ear, then bit gently on my lobe. Graham had moves. Actual moves. And I enjoyed every one of them.

I pushed up at his shirt so I could get to his shoulders, but it wasn’t working, not with where his hands were. I let out a huff of aggravation.

“Take off your shirt,” I demanded.

“No darlin’,” was his gentle answer, and it pissed me off.

“What do you mean, no?”

“Joy, the first time we get to second base is not going to be on a plastic chair, under fluorescent lights, in your company break room.”

So considerate. So damn caring.

I blinked a couple of times and looked around, the HR posters on the bulletin board catching my eye. Yep, this was definitely not appropriate.

“Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! Let me up!”

“What’s wrong, Joy? Are you messing with me again?”

I nearly face-planted as I scrambled off Graham’s lap, but he caught me just in time. I frantically scanned the ceiling, my heart racing.

“Thank God.”

“Joy, you’re freaking me out again. What in the hell is wrong?”

“I thought there was a CCTV camera in here.”

He frowned down at me from where I was hanging from his arms.

“Baby, there is no way I would be kissing you in here if there had been a CCTV camera. Trust me, I checked.”

“You checked? Why would you have thought about checking? I know we have those cameras for our security and I didn’t think to check. Why would you?”

“Old habits die hard,” he muttered.

“Huh?” Oh yeah, military.

“Long story, Doll,” he sighed. “Let’s eat.” He pulled me up and gave me one last short, hard kiss.

The way he said that made me want to push for information. Only because I sensed pain. But I knew this wasn’t the right time, but one day soon, that would change. I intended to show him that he could trust me with his pain. Because I really began to think Graham just might be a man I could trust with my heart.

Chapter 10

It had been a week since our kiss. I’d seen Joy just once since then. There was a backlog in the repair shop that I needed to help with, and at her place, the other kennel assistant was out sick with the flu. So, when our schedules finally aligned for Saturday night, I wasn’t wasting the opportunity to do things right.

It started with taking Joy to a steak place in the Historic District, with soft lighting, cloth napkins, and a chocolate dessert I knew she would love. I planned to end the night back at my place, away from the world, where we could explore the fire that had ignited the night we kissed.

“You’re sure concentrating hard,” I noted as I watched her take another slow bite of her chocolate mousse.

“It’s just so good,” Joy moaned. “It has something special in it. I’m trying to figure out what it is.”