Page 486 of Savage Bosses

Stephen squeezed her hand gently. “We already have begun.” He kissed her lips lightly. “I went into a deep depression, and it took me a few years to get my life together. I buried a lot of that shit deep inside and when I saw you…,”

“It brought it all back to the surface,” Deja finished his statement. “My mother always said that Asia and I looked so much alike we should have been twins.”

He felt the warmth of Deja’s hand on his face. “My sister never got the chance to apologize, but I want to say I’m sorry for everything you went through.”

Stephen placed his hand over hers, brought it to his lips, and kissed it softly. He gripped her face with his hands and pulled her lips to his, pressing against them lightly before pulling back and looking into her eyes. “I’m sorry, I know that wasn’t appropriate, but I couldn’t resist.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t report you to HR,” she joked. They both smiled before their expressions turned serious.

He pressed his lips against hers again. “I guess we’ve both had shitty teenage years.”

Deja tapped her glass against his. “You can say that again.”

“Can we start over?” he asked as he ran the pad of his thumb down her jawline. “I’m so sorry for how I’ve treated you since you began to work for my company.”

“I forgive you and understand why now. While you were very mean to me, you still had a caring spirit, always making sure that I got home safely. Why?”

“I wanted to hate you, Deja, but there was something about you that I’m attracted to. As much as I tried to fight it, I couldn’t.”

She kissed him again. “I feel the same way. You’ve been so mean to me and I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to fight you or fuck you.” She said as she looked in her glass before realizing what she just said and covered her mouth. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…,”

“It’s okay, I’m hoping at some point we get to the latter,” he smirked.

“This was a lot,” Deja said as she let out a breath.

“I’m going to go. We will continue this conversation tomorrow.” He couldn’t resist the urge to kiss her again. “I will see you tomorrow.” He needed to leave because he wanted to be inside her, but he didn’t want to ruin what they just experienced together. Stephen grabbed her hand as they walked towards the door. “I want to talk more and explore the possibility of us.”

Deja smiled as a tear rolled down her cheek. “I would like that.”

Stephen kissed her again before walking out the door and into a waiting car.

Chapter Nine

T

he next day Stephen and Deja met in the office early. She walked into his office,

Stephen closed the door and pulled her into an embrace before kissing her forehead. “I couldn’t sleep last night thinking about our conversation.” He released her. “How are you this morning?”

“Emotionally spent, but now have a better understanding of why you acted the way you did.” The feel of his body against her caused her skin to heat up. She instantly felt the loss when he let her go. “Is this going too fast? Yesterday you hated me, now today…,”

“I don’t hate you, but we do have this presentation today, and I guess neither of us need any additional distractions.”

“What does that mean?”

“Have a seat. We can talk about that later.” He turned to sit at his desk. “I emailed the client, and they will be here at three o’clock this afternoon. So, we have this morning to tighten up the proposal.”

“I know that Jeff and Angie are coming in early. We can make sure we are prepared.”

Stephen nodded. I will meet you all in the conference room at eight o’clock.”

Deja looked at the clock on the walk and it was seven forty-five. She had a few minutes to get coffee before they started.

“There is something missing, but I can’t put my finger on it,” Stephen said as he looked at her. They began discussing possible solutions over cups of strong coffee, the tension between Stephen and Deja morphed into something different. They were in sync with ideas and changes.

“Wait,” Deja said suddenly, her eyes lighting up. “What if we combine our ideas? Your design with my analytics—it could be exactly what we need.”

“I think that could work,” Stephen replied.

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