Page 31 of Boss With Benefits

Despite the heat of the morning, a rash of goose bumps broke out all over her skin and she found she was trembling. All right, so Adam had blocked the photo’s publication, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that she too had jeopardised everything she’d worked for—not to mention the promotion she’d literally just received—and for what? Sex. A man. Again.

So, what the hell had she been thinking? How could she have let desire once more hurl her off her path? Hadn’t she done enough damage to her career already? Had she learnednothing?

Ella had never regretted agreeing to this affair, but she did now. She regretted it with every fibre of her being. It had been a mistake from the start. She shouldn’t have allowed Adam to persuade her into it. She should have been resolute. She couldn’tbelieveshe’d let history repeat itself, despite telling herself over and over again that it mustn’t.

‘You need to leave,’ he said curtly, his voice slicing through the tumbling chaos in her head. ‘Now.’

He was right. She did. She needed to find her things, pack up and get out of here as fast as she could. Back to the city, back to the plan, with her fingers crossed that this one photo was it. Once there, she would revert to eating, sleeping and breathing work. She wouldn’t so much astalkto a man, let alone touch him, kiss him or lose her mind over him.

Yet, for some reason, she couldn’t move. Her feet seemed to be rooted to the spot. She couldn’t tear her gaze from his, and suddenly she was finding it almost impossible to breathe.

What was going on?

Why wasn’t she moving?

Why was her chest so tight?

More pressingly, why was the realisation that leaving here would mean never seeing him again now the only thought in her head?

Surely that shouldn’t matter. She’d been due to go home the day after tomorrow anyway, and she’d never had a problem with that. In fact, she’d relied on the time frame to keep her on the straight and narrow.

But it seemed it was a problem now because she didn’t want to go. She wanted to stay here. With him. And not because she still had to get him out of her system but because she simply couldn’t contemplatenotstaying.

Which meant what? she wondered, her head spinning and her stomach churning with confusion. That, despite her best efforts, she’d become emotionally involved with him? Well, she had. She’d known that days ago and had accepted it. Only she’d badly underestimated the effect it would have on her. She’d thought she’d be able to stay in control. But at some point she’d clearly lost it completely, and now she was in so deep she couldn’t get out. Worst of all, she didn’twantto get out.

The idea of leaving him cleaved her in two. It made every cell of her body rise up with denial. Was she truly never going to be able to touch him again? To kiss him? To close her eyes and inhale him? It didn’t seem fair. It made her heart physically hurt.

If she was being honest, these last few days, whenever she’d thought about returning home to the city she loved, alone, without him, her spirits had dipped. How would she fit back into her little life after this whirlwind of an experience? It was going to be like switching from Technicolor to black and white. Who would she talk to? Who would she laugh with?

And surely he couldn’twanther to go. He seemed as invested in this as she was. Look at the steps he’d taken to get her here. The control he lost in her arms. He’d opened up to her. He’d given her Aruba. This was no more purely physical for him than it was for her, she was certain of it.

So maybe they didn’t have to go nuclear.

Maybe there could be an alternative solution.

Straightening her spine and fighting the fog clouding her thoughts, Ella swallowed hard. She took a deep breath, summoned up every drop of courage she possessed and said, ‘I agree that we’ve had a lucky escape. And I understand the need to leave. But what if this doesn’t have to be the end?’

Adam went very still, not an inch of him moving, apart from the muscle that flickered in his cheek. ‘It does,’ he said flatly. ‘You know why it does.’

‘We could put this affair of ours on hold until Labor Day. You win the bet. I focus on my job and put some clear blue water between the audit and us. And then we start up again in September.’

He gave his head a sharp shake. ‘It’s out of the question.’

She frowned at the bluntness of his tone. Wasn’t he overreacting? ‘Why?’

‘That was never the deal. We said three weeks.’

‘I know. But am I out of your system? Because you’re not out of mine.’

‘You absolutely are. And there is no “us.”’

Ella inwardly flinched, as if she’d received a thump to the gut. But she wasn’t going to let this go when she believed him to be so wrong, when they didn’t have to destroy something this good. ‘Then, what have the last few days been about?’

‘Sex.’

‘Nothing more?’

‘No. Why? What have they been about for you?’

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