Page 17 of Foreplay with the Boss

His firm chest rose and fell against my palm. “Well, they’re adding up rather quickly, aren’t they?”

I nodded.

His lips returned to my ear, and when he spoke, they brushed the shell and sent shivers down my spine. “It’s just that it’s been a long time since I was this attracted to someone. And I know you’re attracted to me, too.”

I curled my hands around his arms because even with the building behind me, I felt like I was going to melt to the ground. “Of course I am. That’s like saying that women are attracted to sexy sports stars, tattooed musicians, and Scottish dudes in kilts— it’s universal and well-documented.”

He dragged his fingers across my collarbone, eliciting a trail of goose bumps. “Maybe we should just give in, then. Get it out of our systems so I can actually focus at work, instead of thinking of every way I could rid you of your clothes and make you scream my name.”

My pulse pounded through my head, hot and heady. The temptation was so strong that I trembled a little. “I’m afraid that would most likely end in disaster. I’m guessing you’re not a relationship guy…?”

He pulled back and looked me in the eye. “Not really, no.” “And I’m not a hookup type girl. I’d like to say I could pull it off without getting attached, especially since I’m only here a little while anyway. But I’ve never managed it yet, and I always tend to be the one who ends up hurt when things fall apart, and it’d make it really hard for me to work with you. Plus, part of coming here was to prove that I am good at this. To get people to see me as more than the boss’s daughter. I’m not sure that having everyone—including myself—wonder if I got this job because I’m sleeping with you is any better.”

“You already have the job, and we’d keep it out of the office, but I can tell you already made up your mind about it.”

I reached up and twisted a strand of hair around my finger. “I’m sure I’ve been sending mixed signals with the flirting, and to be honest, I didn’t mean for half of it to come out, especially the lingerie thing…”

He groaned, and I was close enough to feel it vibrate through his chest.

“But I really did come here to learn from you.” I cleared my throat. “Learn business from you.”

“So you’re saying that we need to stick to the no-touching guidelines?”

I hesitated longer than I should’ve, but then I nodded. “This would be a bad idea.”

“It would definitely be high on the unethical scale, as most fun things seem to be…” He glanced around and seemed to notice we were out in public, in a quite intimate position. He blew out a long breath, slowly straightened, and backed away.

As we returned down the path toward the office building, he reached out like he was going to put his hand on my back again before dropping his hand to his side.

Clearly we both needed to get our thoughts on something besides how we couldn’t touch. Even after my decree, I still missed having his hand there. From here on out, I’d stick with business topics and put a kibosh on the flirting.

“So, congratulations on landing Randall Walker as a client.” “Couldn’t have done it without you.” He opened the door to the building for me, and I stepped into the lobby, my heels echoing against the tile.

“See, despite my many flaws as a boss, I’m actually really good with clients.”

Jameson pressed the up button for the elevator, his gaze on the light board at the top. “And with marketing stats. That’s why I brought you along. I said that you’d be beneficial. What did you think that meant?”

“That you thought I didn’t know how to land clients.”

He shook his head. “I never thought that once. I do hope not all of them leer at you the way Randall did, but I wouldn’t be surprised.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that, even though warmth filled me at the roundabout compliment. Internally I wished for the elevator to hurry up and get here already because then we could have other people in the way to help cut the sexual tension.

Only we climbed on the elevator and we were the only people.

No one got off or on.

I certainly won’t be getting off for a while, at least not with a partner.

Who’s fault is that? I couldn’t tell if that was my body accusing me or my brain hating me, but a whole lot of me was super bitter. Maybe this time I could keep my feelings out of it.

I’m only here for a little while—not long enough to fall in love, really—and then I could tell him all of my darkest desires without worrying I’d run into him in the aisle of the supermarket and feel awkward about it.

Hell, it was still awkward when I ran into Neil, and we’d only had less-than-vanilla, tofu sex.

The loud bing of the doors made me jump.

Jameson’s deep chuckle echoed through the small space, sending a pleasant chill down my spine—and yeah, I know I was going to call him Stone from now on, even in my head, but considering he’d had a sizeable erection pressed against me moments ago, we’d already passed go and racked up about $200 in innuendos.

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