Julia locked the door to the shop as the smell of freshly brewed coffee filled the room.

If she and Alex were going to be here for the next few hours packing orders, they'd need the caffeine boost.

When she walked into the back room of the print and photo studio, she was caught off guard

by how handsome Alex looked.

The dim light half-shadowed him as he stood over the desk, sliding a ruler against one side of a fresh

print. His thick, wavy brown hair was tousled. She wondered if Alex ever thought about the date

they had had last month. They decided it wasn't good to mix business and pleasure, but Julie

would be lying if she said she didn't think about it often. The lingering kiss at the end of the

date, or what could have been. As if on autopilot, Julie walked past the coffee pot and stood behind Alex.

She hovered her hands over her shoulders and then brought them down, squeezing his tense muscles.

Alex instantly groaned. Oh, that feels good. How did you know I needed a massage?

Julie laughed softly. Just a feeling. We've had a long day "'She squeezed the stress from Alex's shoulders

"'for the next few minutes,

"'breathing in the woodsy, warm scent of his cologne.

"'Finally, after a painstaking amount of time,

"'alikes turned around,

"'his dark green eyes holding Julie's eager gaze. Julie, if we do this,

she shook her head. No, I get it. It's crossing a line, but is that so bad? Just one time? Alex scanned her face, clearly trying to

decide what to do. The decision seemed to come at him all at once, because he wrapped his arms around Julie's back and pulled her in

against him. Her face was already lifted in his direction, and his lips quickly connected to hers.

He picked her up and sat her on the countertop, only barely pushing the print out of the way in time.

Let's get these off of you.

...