Wife and Girlfriend

Chapter 22

Hunter

We'd been sitting downstairs at her apartment for around twenty-five minutes, and I knew she hadn't left yet because I'd been texting her to be sure.

The limousine had been overkill, but I didn't care.

I wanted tonight to be special for her, for us.

Not having a clear sense of where I stood with her was driving me a little mad.

She wouldn't let me transfer her to another editor so that we'd avoid the HR rules about relationship disclosure and the prohibition against managers having intimate relationships with their direct reports.

I knew it was a fair rule to have in any office, especially in one of our size, but I'd give anything to go back to the day that we'd voted these rules into existence to be the one hold out to require a loophole.

Adjusting my bow tie, I knew I'd been ridiculously unfair to her earlier today by springing this on her. But when I saw her flawless figure emerge from the lobby doors and step out onto the sidewalk, it took every effort not to burst out of the car and run over to her.

She was breath-taking in a figure-hugging, all-white gown that draped effortlessly around her curves.

I tried to act cool as I exited the back of the vehicle, but I slipped and called her beautiful instead of addressing her like any other work colleague.

"Well, you don't look so bad yourself. You clean up very well, Chief," she said with a smile that melted everything hard in me.

But there it was. She'd called me 'Chief' instead of 'Hunter.' She was doing that more often now these days when it was just the two of us in the office without anyone around. It felt like she was pulling away from me, and it made me desperate to do something.

"I knew there was something sneaky going on when you wouldn't stop texting and asking whether I was still at home," she said knowingly.

"Please, allow me," I said, watching as she took my hand and lowered herself into the backseat.

I'd gotten a front-row seat to her shapely behind and the beautiful dark skin exposed by the dress cut out on her back. The dress was both sexy as hell and yet tastefully appropriate for a black-tie event such as this with corporate leanings. There wouldn't be a better-dressed woman in all of Charlotte tonight.

When she was fully seated, I went to pour her a glass of sparkling water and placed the glass in her hand without even asking whether she needed or wanted it.

"Thank you," she nearly gasped as she took one gulp and then another.

"Slow down. If this is how you treat water, I may have to limit your consumption of alcohol tonight," I laughed.

She laughed, too.

I couldn't get over how beautiful the contrast was between her skin and the dress. And the lights in the vehicle's interior illuminated her features, making her seem almost unreal to me. Not a blemish or a mark. She was flawless. Even the jewelry she'd chosen to adorn her neck was unmatchable in its distinctive beauty.

"Is that something you bought today?" I only asked because I'd never seen her wear that type of jewelry to the office. Granted, the sheer size of it meant that it was probably more for fancier affairs like tonight, but it had an 'old world' quality about it that made me think it was either a family heirloom or perhaps something vintage that she'd collected.

Either way, it was stunning, and I logged it into the back of my mind as something I'd like to find elsewhere to gift her something similar.

"I borrowed it from sister. It was the only thing she'd let me get out of her closet with. You know, sibling stuff," she added. And I was sure that if my younger brother and I had ever fought over anything other than toys when we were younger and girls as we got older, I certainly wouldn't be too keen at letting him get away with taking something away from me either.