Cooler Kisses

Jaden was hard at work in the back room of the grocery store where she worked. She was at one of the shelves where they stored the overstock items. Jaden was currently trying to reach a box of overstock items that was just out of her reach by about an inch. She needed to get it off the shelf and out on to the sales floor so that it could be sold. Even standing on the empty pallet next to her didn't quite put the box within her reach.

It was at that moment that Angus walked into the back room. Seeing Jaden, this short 4'10" tiny girl, precariously perched on a pallet trying to reach something made him grin. This was how he always seemed to find her when he came into to work. There was a determination and fire in her that intrigued him.

He walked up to her getting very close and effortlessly lifted the box down for her. Angus knew that his presence unnerved the beauty in front of him; So he made a habit of going out of his way to be around her.

"Thanks, Angus" Jaden managed to say, stammering out the words as she stepped down from her precarious position. She was very aware of just how close Angus was to her. She took a small sidestep to try and create more space between them. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy the closeness of him, in fact, the opposite was true, she enjoyed it too much. When he was this close Jaden could smell just how good his manly scent was.

Angus smiled at her and said, "You're going to hurt yourself one of these days if you're not more careful, why can't you just grab a ladder?" His tone was playful, yet there was concern laced in with it. Not hearing his concern Jaden simply smiled.

"Well, the ladders are clear over there and I was goin' to get one but I thought I could manage without one," Jaden said, she always felt like she needed to explain herself to him. She knew she should have grabbed a ladder, yet she wanted to be able to reach the box without one. It was one of her flaws, she wanted to do things by herself without the help of others or tools like ladders.

"Well just be careful, we wouldn't want to ruin the stores 158 days accident-free now would we," he said as he walked off to get his own work done. His smile broadened as he heard Jaden let a little giggle escape when she thought he was out of earshot.

Jaden took a deep breath, her eyes closed, she needed to keep her focus on work and not on the extremely handsome boy that had just helped her out. He was the picture of tall dark and handsome, and his eyes were a stunning blue. Jaden shook her head, getting back to her work. There would be time to think about Mr.yummy when work was over.

Angus closed the cooler door behind him, then leaned his back against it sighing. He needed to pull himself together if he was going to get any work done. This petite redhead with a dazzling smile was going to be his undoing if he wasn't more careful. He wondered if that fire and determination he found so intriguing were present in her kiss. Shaking his head trying to put Jaden out of his mind Angus got started working.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

With only an hour left in her shift, Jaden smiled as she looked at her handheld system. There were some tasks for her to do in the cooler; she knew that Angus was out on the sales floor stocking items. She'd seen him pull them out of the cooler about 10 minutes earlier. She figured that there was little chance of him coming back in before she'd finished doing what she needed to in the cooler. Yet there was part of her, the crazy part she decided, that hoped he'd come into the cooler push her up against the wall and steal a not-so-sweet-and-innocent kiss from her.

Jaden was so caught up in what she was doing she didn't notice the cooler door open. Angus, when he walked in, noticed that she hadn't heard him come in. 'This is too good to pass up' he thought to himself. He quietly walked up behind Jaden then quickly before she could move he wrapped one arm around her waist and used the other to cover her mouth in case she screamed.

Jaden was startled out of her focused work mode when she all the sudden felt a strong arm cover her mouth, and one wrapped around her waist. Panicking she tried to wiggle free, but it was no use the arms around her were strong. It was during her struggle that she recognized the scent of the person holding her. She stopped fighting not sure what was going on but decided to go with it. Plus she was really enjoying having his arm around her waist.

Angus removed his hand from her mouth when he felt her relax. Using the hand he had just removed from her mouth he put it on her shoulder and turned her around to face him. He still kept a grip on her waist to make sure she didn't try to bolt on him.

"Angus?" Jaden asked she was confused yet that crazy hopeful romantic part was hoping that this was the part she'd been dreaming of for weeks. Angus put a finger on her mouth to silence her. Then he put the hand he used to silence her on the back of her neck. He pulled her in close to him he leaned down close to her ear and whispered

“Jaden can I kiss you?” his question shocked and excited her. She wanted so badly to feel his lips on hers. How could this be happening, this handsome guy actually wanted to kiss her

“Yes,” she finally managed to get out. With that he pulled her in closer to him and gently started kissing his way from her ear down her cheek to her mouth, pausing when he got to the corner of her mouth. He let his lips hover a centimeter away from hers. Then he pressed his lips to hers, it was a soft kiss, just a simple innocent kiss. He pulled back just barely enough to look into her eyes. She was looking at him with eyes that were beaming with joy. His smile got bigger than to his surprise he felt her arms wrap around him.

Jaden had her arms around his neck she pushed up on her tippy toes her determination coming out she pulled him closer to her and planted a fiery kiss on his lips. Angus responded to her kiss pushing her up against the wall behind her. Pulling him closer so that there was no space between them Jaden sank deeper into his arms her legs became useless at holding her up so she relied on his arms and the wall to hold her up. Angus broke the kiss moving his lips to her cheek kissing his way back to her ear.

"We need to get back to work" he whispered in her ear. Jaden sighed and said in a very out of breath voice

"I know" she ran her fingers thru his hair before he pulled back looking into her eyes once more

"But how about I take you out for dinner after you get off work tomorrow night?" He asked

"That would be nice" Jaden responded as she rested her head on his chest. After a moment of enjoying hugging him, they both pulled apart and got back to work although neither one of them could concentrate now.