Page 46 of Not As Advertised

For all the willpower I thought I’d previously possessed, I made it one business day before crossing the line with Abbie in my office.

I couldn’t stop myself, not even when I had her pinned against my desk at 6:00 p.m. on a Monday evening when she came to tell me she was leaving. I was about to obliterate our common sense with a kiss.

“Are you sure?” Abbie whispered. She peered into my eyes, searching for uncertainty.

She should have been looking for insanity instead because it was utterly insane to kiss my employee in my office with a few stragglers working late to catch up before the morning. Not to mention, the office cleaning staff would come through within the hour.

“Yes.” I leaned down to put my hands on my desk on either side of her body. “Is that okay?”

Abbie nodded, biting her bottom lip with a hint of shyness. Considering we’d seen all of each other already, I found it terribly endearing that she was still finding her feet when it came to me.

She could snap her fingers and have me on my knees. Happily.

She was too damn sexy for words. The moment she figured out how much power she held over me, I was doomed. I’d never get anything done again.

Closing the distance between our mouths, I took her lips in an aggressive kiss. I thrust my tongue along her closed ones to get her to open to me. A cross between a rumble and a groanemanated from my chest, the lust and want I’d held in all day escaping my body.

My reservations from this morning were already lost to the passion between us.

I moved my hands from the desk to her hips, giving her curves a firm squeeze under her tight skirt. God, it was a fantasy come true for me to put my hands on her in her prim work attire. I wanted to make a mess of her: her hair loose from its bun, her shirt wrinkled with buttons askew, and that goddamn skirt hiked to her hips.

Before I could indulge myself in making good on my fantasies, Abbie pulled back, already breathing heavily from our kissing.

“Aiden, we shouldn’t do this here. We said.” Her gaze darted between my eyes and my mouth.

I rested my forehead against hers, closing my eyes. If I kept looking at her, I was going to convince her to let me take her right here on my damn desk. That would really put us both in danger.

“Shit. I’m sorry. You’re right.” There was resistance in each of my fingers as I pried them from the fabric of her skirt and the soft flesh below.

Taking that first step back from her was harder than it should have been for a man as disciplined as I prided myself on being. It shook me a little how fast my defenses had crumbled.

“Let’s sit.” I gestured toward the chairs in front of my desk. Unlike the first day we’d met in the office, when I’d forced myself to stay in my chair on the opposite side, I chose the chair next to hers, guiding her to a seated position by taking her hand.

I couldn’t make myself sever that last bit of skin-to-skin contact, so I sat leaning toward her so I didn’t have to let go of her hand.

“What are we going to do?” She’d surprised me by being the first to speak. Abbie’s expression was open and guileless as she clung to my hand. It warmed me that she didn’t want to let go of me either.

Huffing out a breath, I tried to think reasonably about our situation.

“Honestly, I don’t know.” It was foreign for me to be so out of my depth on anything. I was the type of man who only put himself in circumstances where I could control the outcome. Or, if not in my control, I had a reason to believe the end result would be in my favor.

It occurred to me that I hadn’t asked her about the outcome of her chat with Ethan. She’d said she would talk to him about filling the leave for his team’s admin.

“Did you have a chance to talk to Ethan today? What did he think?” It certainly seemed like something she would enjoy more than what she was currently doing. I felt regret that she’d spent her degree and years since college doing something she didn’t feel any passion for.

Abbie deserved to do something she loved.

If she was surprised by the quick subject change, she didn’t show it.

“Yeah, I did.” She looked down at our joined hands before meeting my eyes again. “Ethan was confused as to why I would ask when I’m working for you, especially because it’s kind of a step down. But once I told him you had encouraged me to try it out, he was fine. I can pull together a portfolio of photos for him to have a look at. So, I’ll be heading home to have a nervous breakdown about that shortly. He wants it by Friday.”

“Well, good. I’m glad he’s giving you the opportunity. I’m sure you’ll get it, and I can tell you it won’t be because you’re currently working for me. Ethan isn’t the least bit intimidated by my position. He and Avi are the best design and copy teamin the company, and he knows it. So he’ll only give you the trial period on the team if he sees you have the potential required to succeed.”

Some of the tension in Abbie’s shoulders seemed to lessen with my comment. Had she been worried that I was going to use my influence to get her a position she wasn’t qualified for? As much as I found myself addicted to Abbie’s presence, I’d never manipulate anyone using my power within the company. Besides being unethical, if she wasn’t a good fit for the job, she’d suffer in the end anyway, and I didn’t want to set her up to fail.

“Okay. That makes me feel better.” Her smile wobbled a little. “I don’t like the idea of getting anything I don’t earn. It feels yucky.”

“Yucky? Very professional, Ms. Summers.” I had to laugh at her word choice.

---