Page 32 of Rescued By the Mountain Man

“Jesus,” I whispered.

His lips thinned. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Pity,” he said tersely, “I hate that more than anything else.”

“I’m not looking at you with pity,” I resisted while rolling my eyes, “To me, you’re nothing but a survivor. Why do you think you are anything else?”

“Because as the days go by, I don’t feel like one,” he sighed. “It’s hard to see your dreams slip by and know you’ll never be able to regain them.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Tell me about it.”

He didn’t call me on that, but I knew he had heard it and had filed it away to bring it up later. Shaking my head, I reached out and rested my hand atop his free one. “You survived something that few people do. You should be beyond proud.”

Warrick didn’t reply for a moment but looked at my hand. After a long, exaggerated moment, he turned his hand up and touched mine palm-to-palm. “What is the lowest point in your life that you didn’t think you came away from?”

“If I told you, you’d never believe me,” I whispered.

“You know, some of the guys here think that you would like to have a different relationship with me than we already have,” he murmured.

“What do you mean? Like when you are being a grumpy, surly, one-word answering caveman,” I asked. “Well, I could do with less of the caveman routine and more of an open-minded?—”

His hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me onto his lap; the second hand went around the back of my neck, and his lips met mine. I felt the texture of his lips, hard yet velvety, and it made me feel swoony. Overcome by giddy desire, I instinctively let him in when he licked the seam of my mouth.

He made a muffled sound, his arms closing around me like iron bands, and our kiss caught fire, the new sensations incinerating my capacity for thought. All I could do was fall into the experience: the heat melding our mouths, the powerful sweep of his tongue.

My heart raced, and the kiss turned slow and lazy and scorching, all heavy breath and bodies pressing together. I wrapped my arms around his neck, wanting—needing—more. And it didn’t seem like I was the only one.

He pulled the tie out of my hair and sunk his fingers into the chaos in my hair, slanting his lips over mine. My breasts pressed against his chest, and my hips notched right on top of his. It was perfection, pure, utter perfection.

I didn’t want it to end.

Warrick changed the kiss from rough and intense to slow, deep. And it went on and on until I was sure it would never end. The way he commanded my mouth told me he certainly never wanted it to end.

I couldn’t leave; he wouldn’t let me even if I wanted to because he was kissing me like a drowning man begging for air. Speaking of air, my lungs were burning, and reluctantly, I broke the kiss off first, my chest rising and falling rapidly as I slugged in air while I ignored his moan of protest.

His eyes were dark pools, while my lips were swollen, and while I had no words to say, he had some. “I’ve told myself time after time that this was a bad idea, that crossing lines over from employee to…”

“…something else?”

“Something else.”

Chapter Eleven

Warrick

“I’m usually stronger than this. I haven’t let temptation dig so deep into me that I can’t let it go,” I admitted.

Normally, I’m not the kind of man who would even consider blurring the line between boss and employee, but Zara was a goddamn walking craving. I laced my fingers into her thick hair and massaged the back of her neck.

God, what would I get if I allowed the suddenly awakened lust in my belly to come to the fore and break the one golden rule of being a boss? All this time, with all the assistants whom I had, not once had I ever felt the urge to fraternize with them.

Be truthful, Warrick. When was the last time you lived like a man and not a machine? When was the last time you kissed a girl, much less took one to bed?

Regret darkened my heart, and it echoed in my voice, even while my erection throbbed. “We can’t do this, Zara.”

I fully expected her to resist, but she easily slipped off my lap and didn’t sit; instead, she pressed her hand to my cheek. “Remember what I said…you’re a hero.”

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