Page 40 of On the Edge

I practically barreled at her full force, my paw of a hand roping around the back of her neck, pulling her to me. She lost her footing and landed against me, her hands on my chest. Her soft lips came to mine, pliable and open, ready for the taking.

My hard-on pressed against her stomach. The woman was pushing me to the brink of control, my body tensing as the blood rushed south.

“Jesus,” I whispered after breaking our kiss and backing up.

Her eyes wandered down to my sweats, where my erection was obvious. “I should go.”

I couldn’t use her. I couldn’t do it.

“Adam?”

My back was to her now. “Aye?”

“Can we forget this ever happened?” Her voice was low.

I opened the door and stole one last look at her over my shoulder. “We can pretend it never happened . . . but I won’t forget.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

ANNA

“More coffee?”

Rick was standing before me with a steaming hot mug of liquid fuel. “Yes. Thank God.” I grabbed the mug from him, my eyes drawn to the capital blue letters scrolled across its face. “McGregor,” it read.

“How’d you get on?” Rick settled in next to me at the conference table.

I had learned by now that this was lingo for “What’s the news?”

I set the mug down and stared at the table in front of us, which was covered in mock-ups of the ads we had created. “John said he’d stop by after lunch.” Since we had nailed our marketing pitch on Friday, we now needed to smooth out the details. We’d be presenting to upper management next. Fortunately, I had learned that upper management was not Adam. No, there were many more layers between Adam and me, which was probably a good thing.

I wondered where Adam was—I hadn’t seen his Porsche or bike in the parking lot.

My fingertips brushed over my lips at the memory of his kiss. How had I let that happen?

I wished I had never panicked and called him. Once I had calmed down that night, I realized he would have probably swooped me out of the hotel and put me somewhere else, or even send me back home if he thought I was still in danger. It was most likely a coincidence that the guy from the apartment had been at the bar.

Although I couldn’t regret that Adam had shown up at my hotel door. That kiss . . .

“You okay, love?” Rick’s hand was on my forearm, and I stared down at it.

“I—” My words remained stuck in my throat when I glanced up and spotted Adam. He was walking by the conference room, sunglasses perched on his nose like a rock star. Why was he wearing sunglasses inside? Was this another Irish thing?

He looked over his shoulder, right at me, as he walked past. No wave. No nod. Nothing.

Then he was gone.

Seeing Adam rankled my nerves. I retracted my arm from Rick’s touch and pushed back in my chair. “Rick?”

“Yeah?”

“I need to go do something. I just need five minutes.”

“Sure.” He pulled the laptop closer to him and began checking his email.

Rick and I didn’t normally work on the top floor, which was the same floor as Adam’s office, but all the other conference rooms had been booked, and we had needed a large space to spread out our layout boards, photos, and index cards. Our cubicles were like Japanese micro hotels—only large enough to accommodate a computer desk and a chair.

I left the conference room and walked down the hall, making a beeline straight for Adam’s office. I needed to hurry before I lost my nerve.

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