Page 24 of Foreplay with the Boss

Kat wiped her hands on a napkin. “I know everyone has a mom, but I can hardly imagine you having one, simply because that would mean you were a kid at some time.”

“You think I just sprang out of a rock, fully grown?”

“Of course not. Out of stone.” Her grin said she was way too proud of the pun.

“Very funny.”

“I thought so.” She took a drink of her soda, her lips wrapping around the straw in a hypnotizing way. “So, what’s your mom like?”

“Worries about me too much, cooks a mean pot roast, and belongs to a book club full of proper old ladies who read very smutty books—something she probably would rather I not tell my employees.”

I meant the last part as a joke, but the way Kat ducked her head and suddenly became super interested in rolling up her straw wrapper made me wonder about her reading preferences. I liked the thought of her curled up reading a steamy novel. She had this intoxicating mix of sweet and innocent while boasting pin-up girl curves made for sinning, and I once again had the thought of unleashing her inner hellcat. Of seeing just how wild she was, and if I couldn’t shake her cage and make her a little wilder.

“Would you like me to ask her if there’s a slot open in her book club?”

“No,” Kat said, too quickly. Then she looked up at me. “Actually, I kind of do.”

“I knew it.”

“You know nothing.”

If I wanted to unleash the hellcat, I needed to play this right. “Tell me, then.”

Her eyes widened—apparently she thought I was going to interrogate her on her late night reading materials. “Oh, I…Yeah, I can’t.”

She blushed a bright red, and while I loved watching her squirm a little, I decided to circle back around to the conversation we’d been having to put her at ease. “So what about you?

Did your family always live in Hartford?”

“Yeah. I escaped for a little while to go to college, but other than that, it’s always been Hartford. Don’t get me wrong, I love it there. For as big as it is, it feels like everyone somehow knows my family, and it’s just a lot of pressure to live up to the Taylor name, especially since I wasn’t—gasp—born a boy.” She crossed her forearms on the table in front of her, and my gaze snagged on ample cleavage that showcased why I loved the fact that she wasn’t. “But one of the reasons I want to run the branch, and to do it really, really well, is because Taylor-Made Marketing has been in my family for generations. My great-grandfather founded it.”

Shit. In bringing up her family, I inadvertently remembered why having any kind of relationship with Kat was a bad idea. Once she found out the new direction I was taking the company and that it meant closing the Hartford branch, she was going to hate me.

I should care more about her future loathing, but I told myself that as long as I was clear about this being temporary fun and leaving emotions out of it, there was no reason we couldn’t enjoy some fun between the sheets.

Or against the wall.

Oh yeah, I’m definitely going to take her against the wall sometime.

And if she felt more comfortable with that after we knew more about each other, then I wouldn’t mind knowing more about her anyway…Yeah, it was weak, but when it came to fighting my attraction to her, so was I.

“Passion’s a funny thing, you know?”

“I’m not sure I do.” At the moment it didn’t feel very funny, it felt more like an annoying hurdle, one I should avoid but was probably going to rush toward anyway.

“Sometimes I wonder if people only have so much of it, and it’s either got to go to their career or their family, but not both. Like, you have to decide.”

“I’m not sure that’s the case. People seem to pull it off all the time.”

“Yes, they seem to. From the outside, my family looked perfect, to the point that people constantly commented on it. My parents are so opposite, and come from different worlds, so they have a unique dynamic. My mom supports the business as much as my dad does, but more by being out and about in the community and keeping up appearances. And I know that everyone puts on a bit of a show in public, but they’re completely different people at home, both of them.” Kat snapped out of whatever thoughts she’d drifted into. “I don’t mean to make it sound like… They’re still married…”

Even though she didn’t say the but, I heard it. “But?”

She smoothed her sandwich wrapper out, focusing on the motion. “But they live different lives like seventy-five percent of the time. They even have different bedrooms—he snores, she likes to stay up late. She goes out. He stays in. They get along, and I love them, and I had a great childhood and all that jazz…”

This time I didn’t have to prompt her for the rest.

“I just always hoped that relationships didn’t have to be like that, you know. I always wanted more of a passionate relationship, but maybe that’s just not in the cards for me.”

---