Free Heart Ache (Bound by a Touch Novels #1) by Morgan Kearns

wall. “It is 5:32, Mr. Kottke .”
    “ Ah, I guess it is. And since it is 5:32 in the evening, may I ask why you are sitting at your desk, reading?”
    “ Niko asked me to stay until 6:00. I’m just doin’ my job.” She shrugged and popped her feet back on top of her desk. She maintained eye contact with him as she opened up her book again.
    He groaned. “Come now, Gabby girl, surely you can find better things to read than that trash.”
    “ Trash?” She gaped at him. “I’ll have you know, I have read this trash three times and—”
    “ Three times ?” The mortified disbelief on his face was comical, but she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. “Has the bookstore got nothing else you’d rather read? Maybe you should try shopping online.”
    “ Actually—” She couldn’t help but sigh as she thought of the sexy man with the sinful canines. “—I’ve discovered that I am completely in I love with this one.”
    “ Are you now?” He sounded blasé, bored, patronizing.
    “ Yes, the guy’s dreamy .” She fanned herself with the book, deliberately pushing the buttons of the straight-laced vice president. She dropped her feet to the floor. They met the mat in a clunk. She leaned forward and stage whispered, “And haven’t you heard; vampires exist?”
    He choked and coughed, spit and sputtered. His eyes watered. He bent at the waist, hands on knees, breathing deep. Not willing to let him die, she jumped to her feet, grabbed a water bottle from the table next to her desk, and handed it to him. He broke the seal on the bottle and guzzled half of it, swallowed hard. Twice.
    “ Oh my gosh, are you okay?”
    When he nodded, she took a step toward him. She loved to push Vincent’s buttons, to tease him whenever the occasion presented itself. For whatever reason her reading a stupid vampire romance novel made him manic. She grinned up at him.
    “ They exist, Vincent. Deny it, I dare you.”
    He suddenly looked very much like an animal stuck in a trap. His Adam’s apple bobbed with another swallow. His dark eyes darted a glance at Niko’s closed office door. When she took hold of his forearm the look in his eye said he considered gnawing it off to get away from her.
    Laughter bubbled in her gut. She tried to contain it by pressing her lips together. It didn’t do any good. Her amusement came out as a raspberry and continued until she was nearly hysterical. Her lungs burned for breath. She gasped.
    “ I’m not mental, Vincent.” Another round of giggles cut off her explanation. After a few moments to get it out of her system, she continued, “I know vampires are figments of insane people’s imaginations.”
    Vincent’s laugh sounded like his balls were in a vise, all high-pitched, tight and strangled. He handed her a twenty. “Listen, Gabby, do me a favor and get another vampire to love.”
    “ Wow! I can have more than one? I’ll be a vampire whore.” She snatched the money from him and shoved it down her cleavage before plopping down in her chair and returning her feet to the desk top.
    His reaction was exactly what she’d hoped for; he laughed. A deep, dark belly laugh that made her smile. He winked at her before opening the door to Niko’s office and disappearing inside.
     
     
    Laughter rang out on the other side of the door and Nikolai stopped pacing. He listened to Gabby’s giggles accompanied by a male’s low rumbling chuckles and fought the drive to put his fist into the male’s jaw.
    He would drive himself insane if his surprise didn’t arrive soon. He walked over to the window and looked down at the darkening landscape. Damn. Where were they?
    The door to his office opened and Vincent’s scent wafted in. He was still chuckling. “That female is one in a million.”
    Nikolai attempted a smile, but it was more tight lips pulled back to expose clenched teeth. Vincent frowned.
    “ You okay, man?” His amusement melted into concern. He gripped the door to close it