To Capture A Bride

Chapter 43

✿ Reid's POV

A week later, I freely admit to myself that I'm going insane.

I wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not. I also didn’t think Aileen had a manipulative bone in her body. But rather than the silky negligees I knew she liked to sleep in, she’d been wearing enormous, over-sized sweaters and track pants around the house, as if by totally hiding her body in far too much fabric, she would quell the unmistakable desire that raged between them. But it only makes me want her more.

Maybe I shouldn't have dismissed the flirting idea.

I lose myself in imagining bunching all that excess cotton in my fists and pushing it off her body, kissing her all over, tasting her, making love to her slowly, determinedly blowing past all of her barriers until she was recreated as someone entirely new and different, someone so much more aware of her body and what it was capable of.

Only, Aileen is off-limits, and she has to stay that way. When she comes by my office, God, it's worse.

And when I see the way she is with people, the way she's honest and open and friendly, I can’t help but marvel at how genuinely nice she is.

And I’m sure I’ll never know anyone like her.

Then, there's the way people are with her.

Particularly men.

I see the way they look at her, just a little longer than is necessary. The way they laugh at her jokes, and offer to do things for her. It's obvious to me that there are at least ten guys in senior staff who’ll date Aileen in a heartbeat if she gives them the time of day.

Even with me there, her purported fiancé, it doesn’t curb the way men interact with her.

And I hate it.

“Wow. Do you even have days off?”

I blink and look up from the mountain of paperwork I'm blankly peering at.

“Lee.”

“Doing a bit of light reading I see,” she says in jest, setting a coffee tray and takeout bag down.

I chuckle and look at the coffee tray and takeout bag and then back at her as if trying to understand the correlation.

“What's this?”

“Coffee,” she replies smugly then smiles a wide smile that makes her dimples appear, making something heavy thump in my chest.

I swallow hard and try to cover it up with a smirk.

“I come bearing gifts from the coffee and pastry gods.”

“Meaning you” I chuckle, reaching for the coffee cup labeled with my name. “Thanks, Lee. But you know you don’t have to bring me coffee every day.”

“What kind of a fiancée would I be if I didn’t help you indulge in your caffeine addiction?” she asks, opening the bag to pull out the cream cheese Danish I've come to love and lays it on a napkin.

I hum and stand to get up to get myself some water.

“Caffeine is what keeps this place running.”

“I thought it was the excellent employees who kept it running.”

“Right, them too” I chuckle, turning back from the water dispenser to find her in my seat.

I laugh softly and move over to pick up my Danish. I lean against the edge of my desk. The first bite is always the best, and I groan softly as the flakes of buttery crust hit my tongue.