away.
I can’t speak for a full five seconds. My dick immediately went hard at her touch. Her fingers were so tantalizingly close. I clear my throat and try to change the subject. “I can’t believe Lauren sent you all the way out here just to pick up a disk. I could’ve dropped it in the mail.” At the mention of Lauren’s name, Ivy’s face drops, but it buys me some time to collect myself—not like that’s going to help matters as I catch a whiff of her perfume. I clutch the wheel until my knuckles turn white. She has no idea what she’s doing to me right now as the bumps in the road cause her breasts to bounce against her camisole.
“No, it’s okay. I had to run an errand at the movie theater first, but that was a bust,” she shrugs, and I nearly come undone at her choice of words. Ever since I laid eyes on her, all I can think about is sex—and what it would be like with her.
“Why, what happened?” I try to appear interested, and I am, but she’s so damn distracting. The way her body moves. The way she touched me. The way she smells. All of my senses are heightened.
“I was supposed to pick up the payment for their ad, but I struck out. Now Lauren’s going to go nuclear on my ass because the whole upcoming edition revolves around the film festival. It might be too late to change it.” She fiddles with her skirt as I pull up alongside her car.
“Yeah, I heard they’re not doing so well over there. People around here are so used to watching movies at home. The theater’s only been open for a few months. We had a pretty bad winter and no one wanted to make the trek into town on those cold and snowy nights. But now that summer’s here, they need to be reminded that it’s there.” I lean back, straining against my jeans to reach for the wallet in my back pocket. “I’m a huge movie buff and I don’t want to see it fail. I like being able to see a film on the big screen. There’s nothing better. Tell me how much they owe the Gazette and I’ll foot the bill. The arts need as much support as they can get.”
“Eric, you’re being way too generous. You don’t have to solve all my problems in one day.” She shifts, facing me. Instinctively, she lays her hand on my arm as a friendly gesture, but it ignites every nerve ending in my body. I lower my head and take a deep breath, and she misinterprets my response. “Please don’t be mad. I just don’t understand why you’re being so nice.”
“Because I like you, Ivy.” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. Damn it. “I mean…you seem like a really good person, who just so happens to be dealing with a lot of bad luck on her first day on the job.”
“How did you know it was my first day?” She looks at me in amazement, her jaw dropping.
“Because you’re trying too hard.” I’m joking, and for a minute I think she’s going to throttle me, but she doesn’t. The reason I know is that Lauren pretty much has me on her mind 24/7. I’m her obsession. So it’s a pretty fair assumption that she’d make up some excuse to send her new intern up here to spy on me. But I can’t tell Ivy that. She has to work with the nutcase. “Ivy, if you don’t take my money now, I’m just going to ask Lauren to tell me the amount when I call her to explain why you’re wearing clogs.”
“You’re really going to do that? I thought you were kidding.” She sounds impressed by my willingness to go out of my way for her. I’m not looking forward to talking to Lauren, but if it saves Ivy a tongue lashing, I’ll do it. From the moment I held her in my arms, I haven’t been able to shake the urge of wanting to protect her.
“I’m a man of my word.” I look deeply into her eyes, showing her I mean what I’m saying, and she blushes. “Now let’s go fill that empty tank of yours.”
My hand is on the door handle when I feel her pat me on the back. “Thank you, Eric. You’re really something special, you know that?”
And