Page 39 of The Honorable Texan
She nodded.
“How about making a fresh pot of coffee?”he asked.
“Regular?”
“Half and half,” he replied, averting his eyes.“Too much caffeine isn’t good for me.”
He went out the door, leaving Violet with her jaw dropping.
“I told you he missed you!”Libby whispered mischievously as she followed the boss onto the sidewalk.
* * *
As the daywent on, Kemp found himself looking for excuses to go to the front of his office.He went through two pots of coffee, because that was the best excuse he had.Violet was wearing a sassy blue dress that emphasized her nice, rounded figure.It was fairly low cut in front, and with her frosted dark hair and her improved use of makeup, she was enough to turn any man’s head.
Libby and Mabel noticed his sudden interest in the coffeepot with subdued humor.They didn’t want to embarrass Violet, who flushed every time the boss came close.
It was almost inevitable that Violet stayed just a few minutes longer than Mabel and Libby at the end of the day.
She tidied up her desk and slowly gathered her purse and sweater.Blake came out to the front office and stood, openly staring at her, with his hands in his pockets and an odd, intent look in the blue eyes behind his trendy spectacles.
“Are you in a rush to get home?Can you phone your mother and tell her you’ll be a few minutes late?”he added.
“Of…of course,” she stammered.The way he was looking at her made her tingle from head to toe.She fumbled the phone to her ear and dialed, her eyes eating her handsome boss all the while.
She told her mother she’d be a few minutes late, trying not to react obviously to her parent’s amusement.
Blake held out his hand.Violet dropped her purseand sweater on her chair and went to him, letting him lead her back to his office.
He closed the door and pulled her hungrily into his arms.She sighed with pure delight as his hard mouth found her lips and he lifted her into an even more intimate embrace.
“I’ve missed you,” he ground out against her responsive lips.
“I’ve missed you…too,” she whispered back.
“Come home with me,” he suggested huskily.
She knew what he was really suggesting, and it wasn’t supper.She wanted to go with him.She wanted to be with him.But she was hesitant.
He felt her hesitation.He let her slide down his hard body and he stared into her eyes hungrily.“Well?”
She swallowed.Her gaze was on his broad chest, because she couldn’t look him in the eye and refuse him.
“What are you offering me, Blake?”she asked quietly.
He scowled.“Are we bargaining for sex?”
She stared up at him, dumbfounded.“Is that all you want from me?”
He was confused.Usually logical and cool in his thinking, now he was like a young man on the brink of his first affair.
“I don’t want to get married, Violet,” he said gently.“You know that.”
She swallowed hard.“Yes.You’ve already said that.But I don’t want to be your mistress.”
His jaw tensed.“I don’t recall asking you to be.”
“What would you call it, then?”Violet asked sadly.“You want to sleep with me, with no ties, isn’t that the truth?”
