Trying to be all covert about it, I pushed myself up on the foot rest again and tried to sit on it sideways so it would look like I was actually sitting comfortably on the stupid thing.

As my arms started to burn from trying to balance myself, I gave up and jumped down before I fell off again.

After taking off my leather jacket, I rounded the huge island and came to stand next to Jason.

Peering into one of the boxes, I asked, “Oh, chicken chow mein, do we have beef, too?”

“Thankfully, we have two beef chow mein and two chicken chow mein, and all this extra stuff.”

“Great. Can I help with anything?”

“I’m trying to find the chopsticks,” he muttered as he emptied all the bags on the counter. “Can you check the drawers to your left? I should have some extra ones somewhere in there.”

“Sure.” Picking up all the empty paper bags and setting them aside, I leaned down and tried to figure out how to open his drawers. Since there were no handles, I lightly pushed at the first one, and it opened automatically.

I rolled my eyes.

Rich people.

It was full of knives, impressively organized by size, but no chopsticks, so I pushed it back.

When I lightly touched the second drawer, suddenly the third one snapped open, hitting me just below the knee. I gasped in pain and had to take a step back with the unexpected force of it.

The only problem was, instead of finding my balance like the graceful human being I was supposed to be, the back of my thighs hit another drawer Jason had opened behind me, and I lost my balance. In that split second, I accepted the fact that I was about to fall right on my ass; I just wished it didn’t have to happen right in front of Jason fucking Thorn.

However, instead of feeling my ass hit the floor, I felt one hand firmly close around my left boob as an arm hugged me right under my breasts. For a moment—for a looong moment—both of us stood still, my bottom parallel to the floor. Jason’s hand flexed on my breast as if he was checking the size of it, and the other dropped lower toward my stomach.

“Fuck,” he cursed in a raspy voice right next to my ear, and the word sent shivers down my spine.

Please, how could I have not closed my eyes to live that shiver to the fullest? And so what if I did arch into his touch just a little bit? Maybe barely held back a moan? Who could blame me? I was just a human, after all.

When he suddenly pulled away his right hand from my stomach as if touching me had burned his skin off, my legs shook and I reached for the first thing I could grab on to.

His hand.

The one that was still covering my boob.

And fine, if you really need me to admit it, at some point I might have kind of squeezed his hand and that might have inadvertently forced him to squeeze my boob. Or maybe I had groped myself with his hand? Who the hell knows, and more importantly, who the hell cares? Hands touch boobs all the time, all over the world. I bet, at that exact moment, a lot of boobs were being touched.

“Little one.” He growled and his chest—oh, dear god, his chest—hit my back, holding me firmer against him.

One deep breath.

Two deep breaths.

His hand was still on my boob, and my hand was—not so surprisingly—still over his when I said, “I’m so sorry. Just…just give me a second to get my balance back.”

His arm wrapped around my middle again and he hoisted me up.

When I was no longer parallel to the beautiful hardwood floor and felt like I could master standing straight all by myself again, I reluctantly let go of his hand, which was resting comfortably on my breast.

As soon as he made sure I was okay, he lifted both his hands off me and slowly took a few steps back.

Not knowing what to say, I looked down and saw the damn chopsticks sitting in the open third drawer.

I cleared my throat, a few times actually. “I found them.”

“Great,” he said a few seconds later, his voice all rumbly.

Jesus! Talk about dreams coming true.

Not having the courage to look at him, I snatched up two sets of chopsticks, pushed the freaking drawer closed, and walked back to the glass panels.

Even though my face was probably as red as a frigging tomato, I was grinning like crazy. When I noticed there was no way I could figure out how to open the panels, I decided it would be wiser to wait for Jason before I brought the house down on us.

Two takeout boxes in his hand, he came to stand beside me with a small remote control.

When all the glass panels surrounding the living room and the kitchen area opened up, I took my first step out to heaven and took a deep breath of the crisp air.

“It smells amazing,” I said in a low voice, not quite having the courage to look at his face yet.

“It smells…like grass,” he said.

“I know. I love it.” I took a few more steps. “Can we sit by the pool?”

“We have a table.” He pointed toward a big table on the patio.

“I saw that, but I want to dip my toes in.”

His hand touched my back and he guided me toward the pool.

Pushing the chopsticks into my pocket, I took off my shoes, bent down, and rolled up my jeans. When I was happy with the length, I straightened up and stood at the very edge of the pool.

“It’s amazing up here, Jason.” When he didn’t answer, I glanced back and saw him taking off his shoes and socks. I bit down on my bottom lip to keep myself from smiling and turned back to face the amazing view.

Taking the chopsticks out of my pocket so they wouldn’t break when I sat down, I lowered myself to the ground and dipped my legs into the pool.

I closed my eyes and turned my face up toward the sky with a small smile on my face. There was a quiet splash of water, and I knew Jason was sitting down too.

“Thank you for inviting me up here,” I said finally, opening my eyes to glance at him.

His eyes were already on me. Smiling back, he shook his head and handed me my dinner, grabbing his chopsticks before I could hand them to him myself.

“You are different from what I’m used to, little one. Different from the little kid I remember,” he said as we started eating our dinner in a comfortable silence.

“Different how?”

“I don’t know yet.”

I thought about it for a minute, then in a conversational tone said, “Maybe it’s the boobs?”

Choking on his food, he coughed for a good minute while I sat there serenely, looking straight ahead.

At last, in a strangled voice, he said, “Yeah. It might be the boobs.”

Yup, he had noticed my boobs.

Score one for my boobs!

***

When Tom finally came around, it was almost nine o’clock.

“I’m sorry I’ve kept you guys waiting for so long. I was with another client.”

“Please, I should be the one thanking you for sparing time for me in your hectic schedule, and I have no idea what percentage you take for these kinds of things, but please let me know so I can—”

“That’s been taken care of, you don’t have to worry about it,” Jason cut in.

“But—”

“It’s okay Miss Taylor—”

“Please call me Olive,” I interjected as I reached out for the papers he had pushed in front of me.

Smiling, he continued. “Olive, it’s a pretty standard contract, but we’ll still go over it so you can decide if there is a clause you aren’t feeling comfortable with.”

I nodded. I knew nothing, nothing at all about this stuff.

“The first good news is,” Tom started as Jason got up from his seat next to me to get Tom a drink. “This project is never hitting the ‘development limbo’.” When I stared at him blankly, he explained in a bit more detail.

“After a producer or a studio options the movie rights to a book, the timeline is usually around twelve to eighteen months or sometimes even longer to get the production started, and even after that, there is no guarantee that it will ever happen. In your case, they want to capitalize on the buzz that’s been going around your book, meaning since they’ve already secured a big name like Jason, the rest of it will come through quickly.”