Page 1 of One Wild Kiss

One

Breathe in. Breathe out. He’s just a guy.

Just a devastatingly handsome guy wearing an impeccably tailored navy designer suit.

Just a guy whose eyes were the color of bourbon enjoyed fireside.

Just a distractingly gorgeous guy whose hair was the perfect rumpled pattern of his own fingertips—or maybe some lucky woman’s.

Just a guy who’d taken up residence in her heart and mind and soul for the past year who also happened to be her boss so he was Off Limits.

He’s just a guy.

Addison Abrams started each of her workdays reciting that mantra before stepping into the ThomKnox building, entering the glass-walled elevator and zooming to the top floor of the multibillion-dollar tech company where her office was located.

When she accepted the position of executive assistant for the president of the company one year ago today, she’d expected said president to be older. Much older. Not six months older than her and closely resembling a model on the cover of GQ magazine. Granted, she hadn’t done a ton of research on who she’d be working for. She saw the opportunity to work for a higher-up at ThomKnox and sent in her résumé so fast her own head had spun.

“I couldn’t resist,” that guy said now, setting a lone cupcake—vanilla with buttercream frosting, her favorite—in front of her. He lit a single gold candle with a match and then shook out the flame. She followed that trickle of smoke up to the face she saw every weekday. Once again, his sheer male beauty floored her. Seemed unfair to every other man on the planet that this one was hogging the good genes.

“Should I sing ‘For She’s a Jolly Good Executive Assistant’ or ‘Happy Workiversary to You’?” Brannon Knox gave her a wide smile, which disarmed her completely.

She’d been trying—fruitlessly—to stop admiring him, to stop longing for him, to stop looking at him like she wanted to take a bite out of him, for goodness’ sake. Thank God for her poker face, because she hadn’t yet been successful at getting over the crush she’d been harboring since the moment he extended his hand in greeting during her final interview.

Hi, I’m Brannon Knox. You can call me Bran.

“Singing is below your pay grade.” She bent forward and gently blew out the flame. “This was unnecessary, but I appreciate it. Thank you.”

Brannon Knox wasn’t only the most beautiful man she’d ever laid eyes on, he was also kind and ruthlessly intelligent. Funny, tall, charming...and damned sexy. As if she hadn’t thought about that enough already.

“I’m lucky to have you.” He shoved his hands into the pants pockets of his suit and glanced over his shoulder as if making sure they were alone. “I should have thrown a big party, but I’m hopeless at doing anything without you.” He winked, and even sitting, she felt her knees grow weak. Oh, how she wished that was true. That he needed her in other rooms besides the boardroom.

Like the bedroom. Yum.

“I’m happy to hear I’m indispensable.” Practice made it possible for her to keep her smile cool and her fidgeting to a minimum. The throbbing heat working its way from her chest to her lap was the hardest to ignore, but she was doing her best. She’d convinced herself she couldn’t help her physical reaction to him, since looking at Bran and wanting him came hand in hand.

But recently, she’d had a wake-up call. Her mind was made up. Even if her body was slower on the uptake.

“I’d give you the day off if we didn’t have ten million things to do.” His brow crinkled. “What am I doing today, anyway?”

She rattled off his schedule from memory: a conference call and two meetings.

“Plenty of time to grab a cup of coffee before the day starts.” Once again, he peeked over his shoulder. “I don’t see any sign of the big bad CEO. Let’s get out of here.”

The big bad CEO was Bran’s older brother, Royce Knox. A few months ago, Royce and Bran had both been contenders for the position when their father retired. Bran insisted that Royce won out because he was older, and she supposed that was true. Bran was amazing at what he did and every bit as capable as his older brother. In her eyes, he was the obvious number one choice for everything.

Once CEO, Royce had received more exciting news. He was going to be a father. The mother of his child, Taylor Thompson, was ThomKnox’s COO—better known as a childhood friend to the Knoxes and the woman Bran used to date.

True story.

Addi had behaved like a jealous girlfriend during the short time Bran and Taylor dated. Though “dated” could be in quotation marks for as tepid as the romance had been. She would lay money on the fact that those two had never shared more than a kiss—though she’d never seen them kissing, either.

That unbecoming version of Addi was the old her. She was moving on with her life—disassembling the crush she had on Bran one swoony sigh at a time. She had to. Her job was important. Her pride was important. She wouldn’t spend another moment longing for a guy who was uninterested in her.

“Coffee sounds amazing, but I really should return these emails.” Best to keep work at work. They spent a lot of one-on-one time together discussing schedules and pertinent business information—a given for an executive assistant—but whenever she’d seen Bran outside these walls she began thinking of him as accessible. And, as she’d recently learned, he wasn’t accessible. At least not to her.

“Come on, Addi.” He leaned both hands on her desk, his jauntily patterned tie dangling between them. When he added an entrancing “let me take you out of here,” she caved.

Old habits died hard.

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