Chapter 23
“Mm–hmm.” I nodded, avoiding his gaze.
Cherry seemed to notice. She stared at me with a curious, almost suspicious expression.
I switched to a longer tape and requested, “Please lift your arms and level them, Mr. Kenway.”
+25 BONUS
As he complied, I circled behind him and realized he was nearly 6’3” tall. I was lucky to be 5’8” myself. Otherwise, I would have needed a stool just to measure him.
1 finished measuring his upper body quickly, but when it came time to measure his waist and hips, I felt a bit
unsure.
Should I measure from the front or the back?
What was even more striking was that every woman in the room had stopped talking and was now staring at us.
1 suddenly felt very nervous. The tips of my ears were burning–maybe even turning pink.
Soren noticed my hesitation and asked, “What’s the matter Miss Jones?”
“Uh… You’re… tall!” I blurted out.
“Should I crouch?”
“No! I mean, there’s no need,” I replied hastily.
I bit my lip, steeled myself, and decided to measure him from the front. To do so, I had to wrap the tape around his waist, which meant I had to hug him.
Disclaimer: I had never been this close to any man except Edward.
Yes, I had worked with male clients before, but I was never the one taking their measurements–that was always done by other designers!
He looked down at me as I “hugged” him. The warmth of his breath brushed across my ear.
My heart began to race irregularly, as though it had been spiked with something. The scent of pine forest and musk washed over me.
It smelled just like his handkerchief.
For some reason, my heart was pounding faster. I felt like I was embracing a ball of flames. My body was heating up!
But my job wasn’t finished yet. I still needed to measure his hips…
God, doing this from the front felt far too intimate. I couldn’t handle it anymore, so I decided to measure him from behind.
Unfortunately, my mind was already in chaos. The tape slipped from my hand, and I tried to catch it in midair.
I grabbed something, all right.
It wasn’t the tape.
I realized what had happened the moment Soren stiffened.
I was so dead! I had never made such an elementary—and utterly ridiculous–mistake in my entire career!
Chapter 23
What would he think of me now?! A lustful fool who took advantage of her work as an excuse?! A shameless opportunist who copped a feel in public by feigning a slip?
I abandoned my measurement attempt, quickly stepped away from hi
and gasped. “I’m sorry!”
The women, still stunned, approached to check on us.
+25 BONUS
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Did Soren do something to you? Was he being mean?!”
“N–No, Mr. Kenway was very compliant. I was just clumsy! I stammered, gripping the tape without looking at him. I wanted to disappear.
He suddenly turned to me and asked, “What happened, Miss Jones?”
Stunned, I looked up into his confused expression.
I understood then–he was pretending to be as bewildered as I felt, giving me an out to save face
I sighed in relief and regained my composure.
“Do you need more measurements?” he asked.
Yes!”
I tried again, and this time I succeeded.
Boy, he had a very… shapely hip.
