The Kiss That Launched 1,000 Gifs (26 page)

“Great show, you two,” Jan said, giving Ash a hug. “I’ll honestly miss it.”

“Me, too,” Ash said, looking as confused at their sudden entourage as Grace felt.

Frank walked up to Grace and pulled her into a side hug. “I’m going to miss working with you, kid. You really made this show fly.”

“It was a good ride,” Grace said, leaning into him as she watched Layla present the cupcakes to Ash.

“From The Morning Show,” Layla said brightly. “We’re excited to have you.”

“Thanks,” Ash beamed, his smile a bit plastic looking as he eyed the cupcakes. “But I don’t eat desserts.”

“Oh, they’re vegan,” Layla said. “You’re safe.”

Next to her, Frank laughed. “I can see Ash is going to have fun on The Morning Show.”

Grace shook her head in disbelief. “You’d think a hipster would be the first to wrap her head around the difference between vegan and paleo diets.”

“Or she’s looking to convert him,” Frank offered. “Vegans are always recruiting.”

Grace let herself laugh as her dreams of kissing Ash in the booth faded. Clearly kissing Ash was just as likely as Ash eating one of those cupcakes—

Grace froze, not believing her eyes. Layla was shoving one of her cupcakes in Ash’s face and he was taking a bite. There was no reason for this small act to infuriate her, and yet it did. She should have been standing where Layla was standing and kissing Ash, but instead, Layla was standing there feeding him a cupcake.

“It’s good, right?” Layla said after Ash had chewed a few times.

“Mmmm,” Ash said, raising his eyebrows even as he eyes glanced at the garbage can.

Spit it out, Grace urged him and felt a pang of disappointment when he swallowed. “That was tasty,” she heard him say.

Layla beamed. “See? I told you.”

“Are you okay?” Frank asked from next to her.

Grace shrugged and decided there was no reason not to be honest. “I would like it better if it was just you, me, and Ash in here. This is our show… our moment. Layla can welcome Ash to The Morning Show on Monday.”

“Agreed,” Frank said as Emily went in for a hug from Ash.

“Congrats on a great last show,” Erik said, coming up on the other side of Grace. She did her best to send him a smile.

“Thanks, Erik. Although I’m looking forward to working with you full time.”

He laughed. “You have to say that.”

“True,” she agreed. “But I don’t have to mean it. But, in this case, I do.”

They both laughed then, and Grace used the moment to glance across the room where Layla was still monopolizing Ash in conversation. Grace’s world came to a sudden halt when she heard Layla say, “I was thinking that we could meet up for dinner tonight and talk about it.”

“Sure,” Ash replied without hesitation. “I’m pretty sure I could make that work.”

In an instant, Grace’s smile disappeared. But before she could react further, Frank clapped his hands together to get everyone’s attention.

“Hey, how about we move this party to the conference room?” he said in a loud voice. “Everyone is expecting us there.”

A moment later, they were all headed for the door.

It was just after 5:00 p.m. when Ash headed back to his desk. Alone. For the past hour, he’d spoken to everyone in the conference room—except Grace. He’d gotten a hug or a congratulatory handshake from everyone. Except Grace. It had been like a conspiracy to keep them on opposite sides of the room. Grace had been annoyed, too. Ash had seen it in her eyes, but in the end she’d left without a word to him.

It was the last day of their last show, and he hadn’t even gotten a goodbye from the only person that really mattered.

Ash had tried to keep his expectations low for the day, but they hadn’t been this low. He had definitely thought he’d get another hug out of her, but no dice. In the end, Grace had simply ducked out and left him with the stragglers.

She could have stayed until it was just the two of them. It wouldn’t have killed her. And didn’t they owe each other at least that much?

Ash thought so, but apparently he was wrong. Grace could leave an unofficial company party at any time, and she had. Thus ended their two-year stint as cohosts. It didn’t make for a good story, but it was what it was. Ash might as well gather his stuff at his desk and get ready for his dinner date with—

A hand reached out and yanked him inside Frank’s office as he walked past it.

“Can I borrow you for a second?” Grace’s voice said a moment before Ash’s eyes landed on her.

She did not look happy, but it didn’t matter. She hadn’t ditched him. She’d just found a different venue where they could talk. Good. Because Ash had a few things he wanted to say.

“Sure,” he said, not fighting Grace as she pulled him into the empty office and shut the door behind them. The first thing he noticed was that they were standing too close to each other. He could feel Grace’s body heat through his clothes, a fact that had him stepping back and clearing his throat. “What’s up?”

To his surprise, Grace looked flustered.

“What’s up?” she echoed, her tone much less friendly. “How about we start with your new girlfriend hijacking our goodbye party. Did you invite her?”

Layla? His girlfriend? Ash didn’t have enough energy for this. Not today. “Uh, I’m pretty sure the email blast went out to everyone in the company.”

Grace did not look placated. “And yet Layla chose to start the party in the booth with a tray of freshly baked cupcakes that Mr. Eats-No-Sugar actually ate. What’s that about?”

Ash shrugged. “Being polite, I guess?”

“Polite?” Grace said, as if the word tasted bad to her. “Is that why you accepted her date, too?”

Okay, now he was getting mad.
This
was what Grace wanted to talk about? Since when?

“It’s a dinner, not a date. And why in the world should you care either way?”

“So now you eat cupcakes
and
date girls from work?” Grace said, stepping back into his personal space. “Is that how things are going to be now?”

“I don’t know,” he said, leaning in to give Grace a sense of how close she was getting to him. “Maybe.”

Leaning in totally backfired on Ash. The heat rising off of Grace seemed to surround him as he gazed into her dark, furious eyes. His skin felt electrified and he was having a little trouble breathing as their eyes locked while he inhaled her perfume.

“And it’s Layla you want to take to dinner tonight?” Grace asked, her words barely registering in Ash’s consciousness. He was staring at her lips now… the way they moved when she ranted. It was adorable… and provocative. The way her chin tilted up, her lips parting as she gazed up into his eyes. For a moment, Ash couldn’t breathe. It took everything in him to hold position right where he was and not lean in and take the conversation in an entirely new direction.

“Or would you rather be with me?” she whispered, the meaning of her words not registering until Ash felt her hand slide up his neck and into his hair. Then she stepped in and pulled his lips down to hers.

Time stopped. Everything stopped as Ash’s mind did a reality check. They were in Frank’s office—check. He was kissing a woman—check. The woman was Grace—check. And the moment Ash realized that he wasn’t kissing her back his body finally snapped into the moment.

Ash wasn’t sure what he did next. He should have thought it out—maybe. But maybe whatever he did that led them across the room and ended up with Grace’s back pressed into the wall was just fine. He’d started out cradling her face in his hands. He knew that much. But his hands were now tracing along the flair of her hip and itching to reach around the back and pick her up to go… where? They were in Frank’s office, but at the moment Ash totally didn’t care.

Everyone else they worked with would care, though.

Ash gripped Grace’s hips in an effort to keep his hands in one spot while he dialed things back. Only then did he realize where Grace’s hands were—one hand still threaded through his hair, pushing his mouth to hers, and the other firmly gripping his left butt cheek and pulling them flush.

If Ash had a prayer at dialing all this back, he really needed to Grace to let go of… everywhere. She needed to let go and stand still while he stepped back. It was a move only he could make since she was the one backed up against the wall. Grace had nowhere to go, and that was just how he liked it.

Ash spent a few more moments exploring the feeling of his mouth on hers. It was a different kind of kiss that wasn’t trying to impress or seduce. It was more vulnerable than that, and the invitation was so much bigger—at least for him. But what he got out of the moment was the sense that he wasn’t the only one who had feelings between them.

He wasn’t the only one who wanted more.

“Grace,” he whispered against her lips, his hands sliding up her sides, memorizing the shape by feel. Instinct urged him to keep on mapping out his territory until he knew every inch of it by feel alone, but it was the wrong place and the wrong time. There would be time to learn all the tells she had yet to show him and all the curves she had yet to reveal, but for the moment he really needed to put space between them.

“Grace, I love you, but I need you to let go of me so I can step back, okay?”

She froze in his arms, and not in a good way.

Great. What had he done this time?

When Ash played his words back in his head, he heard it: I love you.

Whoops. Saying it that way had been pretty graceless, but he’d also meant it. He loved Grace. If a preacher appeared before them that very moment, Ash would marry Grace without a moment’s hesitation and figure everything out later. Sure, it would be a bumpy ride. Sure, they were bound to argue like all-out brawlers, but that was just par for the course. And if all that meant kissing these lips every day of his life, well then, sign him up.

“Your mouth is perfection, you know that?” he whispered, pulling away before an unseen force drew him back. The world blurred into a fog that cleared slightly when he felt his back hit up against the wall and realized Grace had switched their positions. He was pinned with her mouth taking his, and now Grace was the one who needed to calm down and dial back.

Yes, there was a 100% chance he would marry this woman.

Luckily for them both, Grace was better at pulling away than Ash was. She didn’t just lean back, she physically walked to the other side of the room, keeping her back to him the entire time.

“Grace,” he whispered, moving towards her. “I—“

“Stop,” she said, raising her hand authoritatively. “We both need you to stay over there. If you can promise that, I’ll turn around.”

That was not going to be easy. Ash’s eyes took in the silhouette of her body in its tailored dress and swallowed. “Okay.”

Grace’s hand lowered and she turned to face him. Only then did Ash see that her styled hair was a total loss. Something he’d done had killed it, but he couldn’t muster up the energy to feel bad. He was too busy feeling gratified at the dark look in her eye and the slight plumping of her thoroughly kissed lips. He’d done that. And she’d liked it.

“So,” she said on an exhale. “I think somewhere in the back of both of our minds we realize that it’s the middle of the afternoon and we’re still technically on the clock.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “I realize that. I’m still working on caring, though.”

The corners of Grace’s lips curved up. “Me, too.”

He glanced up at her new tussled look. “I messed up your hair.”

“I can tell.”

“I want to mess it up more.”

Her dark eyes locked on his in a way that nearly dragged him back across the room. “I can tell.”

Ash’s heart pounded so hard that he had trouble finding his breath.

“I should run, shouldn’t I?” she said, not looking one bit afraid.

“Probably,” he agreed. “Because right now getting fired doesn’t sound like the worst idea ever.”

Ash watched as Grace took a slow, deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment as she did so. “Ash?”

He willed himself to stay where he was. “Yeah.”

“I get off work about 7:15. Will you tell Layla to take a hike and have dinner with me tonight?”

“Yes,” he said without hesitation.

“And I’m talking dinner here,” she clarified. “That’s not a euphemism. We need to talk.”

“Yes, we do,” he said, tucking his hands into the safety of his pockets as he sauntered forward. “We need to talk about whether or not this date makes us exclusive, or if it’s still okay for us to be dating multiple people at the same time, like I’ve heard you say it is.”

Her tongue darted out, quickly licking her bottom lip before her teeth gave it a bite. Seeing her taste him on her lips nearly snapped the control holding Ash’s hands in his pockets. Ash was still fighting to stay in the safe zone when he heard Grace say, “I may or may not have been totally wrong on that particular topic.”

When their eyes locked, she was biting her lip again.

“Run,” was all Ash managed to say. “I’ll pick you up in the lobby at 7:15 sharp.”

“Okay,” she said, but she didn’t run. “Ash?”

Oh, heaven help him. He closed his eyes, hoping it would help. “Yes?”

“We’re exclusive,” she said, and he heard some of the familiar fire returning to her voice. “As of this moment, you’re my territory. I don’t know if you’ve dated a Latin woman before, so maybe you don’t know what that means. If not, you’re about to find out. Do you understand?”