Thursday
“Did you ask him yet?” Sierra said when she returned to her desk with a cup of coffee.
I looked up from my computer screen. Earlier this morning I had texted Melissa about hanging out tomorrow night, but I still hadn’t heard back. Every day her silence weighed on me more and more. It was getting hard not to think about it. “I’m sorry, Sierra, I keep forgetting. We’ve been so busy with…”
“Ask him during lunch today.”
“Yeah, okay, thanks for reminding me.” For the past few days my fellow interns had been nagging me nonstop about meeting up with James and me after work one day this week. And the more they asked me about it, the less I wanted to ask James. It was pretty clear that they didn’t care about getting to know me. They just wanted to meet him. But I couldn’t really blame them. Who wouldn’t want to spend time with James? “What day are you guys all free?”
“I could do tonight,” Tavon said and put his hands behind his head. Sometimes he leaned back so far in his chair that it seemed like it was going to tip over.
“Tonight would be great!” Sierra said. “But I’m free pretty much every night.” She laughed awkwardly after saying it, which just made me feel bad. She was new to the city. I should be helping her out, not avoiding her. What did it matter if she had a crush on James? Every single girl in New York probably had a crush on James.
“We have a cake tasting after work tonight, but maybe tomorrow…”
“How about after the cake tasting tonight?” Zach asked.
“Yeah, I already have plans tomorrow. Come on, let’s do it tonight, it’ll be so much fun. We promise not to embarrass you,” Tavon said.
I laughed. “I guess that could work.” I glanced down at the time. It was a little early, but I was already hungry. “I’m going to take an early lunch. And I promise to ask him.” Tonight would be the best time to do it this week. Even though I was free tomorrow night since Melissa and Tyler weren’t talking to me, James still had plans with his friends. And I’m sure he wasn’t going to cancel on them to hang out with a bunch of interns that were obsessed with him. I bit the inside of my lip to prevent myself from laughing. I was an intern that was obsessed with him too. He didn’t seem to mind my obsession at all.
Sierra clapped her hands as I walked toward James’ office. She probably thought I was out of earshot.
I wove my way through the different departments. Tonight I thought I’d play up the student/professor role playing idea I had come up with. If anything could get James to cave, it was whispering Professor Hunter seductively in his ear. That dynamic between us never got old. It reminded both of us about when we first started our relationship. And no matter what anyone else said, I loved how we met. I could relive our first time together in his office over and over again. I absentmindedly licked my lips. Sex seemed to be the only thing on my mind recently.
The blinds on James’ office windows were open, so he saw me approaching before I even knocked. He immediately smiled and waved his hand, gesturing for me to come in. I walked in and closed the door behind me.
“Sounds good,” James said into his desk phone. “Reach those numbers and then we can discuss it.” He smiled at me as he listened to whatever was being said on the other end of the line. He stood up, eager for the phone call to be over. “Thanks. You too.” He immediately hung up the phone and grabbed my waist, pulling me close to him. “I was just thinking about you.”
“I’m always thinking about you.” I stood on my tiptoes, drawing my face toward his. James’ lips were immediately on mine as his palm pressed against the small of my back. The past few days had been filled with the sexiest make out sessions imaginable. Apparently we were both addicted to sex, because not taking it further than a kiss always took all of my restraint. I laced my fingers behind his neck, making the heat between us almost palpable.
He groaned and grabbed my thigh, lifting it around his waist.
I laughed and pulled back, but he kept my thigh in his hand.
“You’re killing me,” he whispered. “I need you.”
“I need you too.” I looked up into his eyes and ran my hand down the side of his face. “It’s just going to make our wedding night that much better, you know.”
He smiled and kissed my forehead. “There’s no way you can wait until then.”
“There’s no way you can wait until then,” I said and poked the center of his chest.
“You’re right. I can’t.” He grabbed the back of my neck and kissed me hard. When he pulled back, I was completely breathless. He released my thigh and smoothed my skirt back into place. “And neither can you, baby.”
I pressed my lips together and shrugged. “Are you hungry?”
His eyes gravitated down my body. “Starving.”
I laughed. “For lunch, James.” I sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk.
“In that case… I guess I could eat.” He grabbed our sandwiches out of the small fridge and sat down beside me.
“So, the other marketing interns want to go out for drinks tonight. And they were hoping my fiance could come too.” I smiled at him as I slowly unwrapped my turkey sandwich.
“Should we meet up with them after the cake tasting?” He took a huge bite of his sandwich.
“You actually want to go?”
He shrugged as he finished chewing. “If that’s what you want to do. You keep saying you want to bond with them. Wasn’t that why you didn’t want them to know we were together in the first place?”
“For some reason I thought you were going to say no.”
“When do I ever say no to you?”
I smiled at him. “You usually don’t say no. You just do whatever you want regardless. Or else I wouldn’t even be eating lunch with you right now. I’d have a different internship.”
“Fair enough. But I think it’ll be fun. I should know all my employees better. It will be good for me too.”
“Are you sure?”
James laughed. “If you don’t want to, we don’t have to.”
“No, it’s not that.” It’s just that Zach jumped to conclusions because of the bruises on my face and Sierra has a crush on you. “I don’t want to force you to do things you don’t want to.”
James leaned forward and kissed me again. “All I ever want to do is hang out with you. And I’m excited to meet your new friends.”
“Just to give you a heads up, I’m pretty sure Sierra is going to try to steal you away.”
“I love how jealous you get.”
“I’m not jealous.”
He smiled back at me. “And maybe after drinks we can go home and reevaluate this whole no sex before the wedding thing?”
“You’re incorrigible, James Hunter.”
“Is it working?”
I shook my head, but we both knew he was wearing me down.