Page 18 of Never Bed the Boss
I sink into my chair, staring at the swath of chest Lilah’s revealing to me. The sensual curves. Delicate collarbones. My mouth’s watering as I consider dragging my tongue across her skin.
“You always do,” I rasp.
“I know how much you like this outfit, Mr. Blacke.”
I lean forward, adjusting my collar roughly as Lilah smoothes out her skirt.
“Lilah…” I mutter hoarsely as my cavernous office feels like a sauna.
“But I’m sure you like it better when it’s on the floor.”
Jesus. Lilah behaved herself the entire thirty days. Professional if a little distant. There were moments when this side of her crept through. Glimmers of it during our shared lunches. During our trip to Cherry Ridge. The Oscars. But right now I’m seeing Lilah at full blast.
She reaches beneath her skirt, the hem crossing her mid-thigh before she shimmies and then steps out of her lacy panties.
“I’m warning you, Lilah.”
She walks over to my desk slowly, heels clicking against the floor with each step as she dangles her underwear on her finger.
“Areyougoing to report me to HR, Mr. Blacke?”
She drops her panties on my desk.
“Or will you reprimand me, personally?”
My fingers are gripping the edge of my desk so tightly that I’m surprised it hasn’t splintered yet.
“I’ll see to it that you are dealt with appropriately.”
“I was hoping you’d deal with me inappropriately.”
She drags her teeth across her bottom lip and I barely resist the urge to launch myself over my desk and take her right then and there.
“My penthouse.” My jaw flexes as I feel my tenuous grip on my composure slips. We’re staring at the finish line and Lilah is pulling out all the stops. And she thought I was the one who would need reining in during these thirty days. “5 PM.”
Lilah hums, turns on her heels, and then walks slowly out of my office, pausing at the door to give me one last look over her shoulder before slipping through the door and closing it behind her.
I stare at the panties she left for me, palming them tightly a few moments later. They’re still warm. Damp too. I tuck them into my pocket alongside her bucket list and then check my monitor.
I watch her sink into her chair on the video feed. A few moments later she blows a kiss at the camera and then smiles. My girl’s known all along.
“Vacation?”Adrian frowns. But then that frown twists into a smile. “I’m picturing you in a bathing suit at the beach.”
“Never realized I was your type.”
Adrian leans back into his seat with a sigh as he knits his fingers behind his head. “Drinking a Piña Colada from a coconut shell. One of those pink umbrellas. A nice relaxing afternoonbefore another round of beach volleyball. Maybe a round of mini-golf. Karaoke to finish off the night.”
Adrian pauses for a beat, pressing his lips firmly together as he turns his attention back to me, a deep laugh booming from him as he leans forward in his chair.
“You’ve quite the imagination,” I say once he settles down.
“And so do you if you think you’ll last more than a day. You haven’t taken a single vacation day since I’ve known you. On your sick days, you’d still call into meetings, hacking up a lung. I’d get emails at odd hours that made little sense because you were hopped up on cough medicine. In other words, youcan’trelax. You can’t stop working for more than a few hours.”
I lean back in my chair, glancing out at the skyline, glass and metal rising out of concrete. When I close my eyes, I see the image of the buildings silhouetted in my mind. But then they melt away and Lilah enters the scene.
I can’t help but smile, and when I open my eyes and glance back at Adrian, he seems to be more than a little confused.
“There’s more to life than work, Adrian.”
