Page 3 of Unwrapping Their Christmas Present

He looked puzzled. “Why wouldn’t it be a good idea?”

Have I gotten this entirely wrong?My stomach rolled uncomfortably. I was sosurethat he had been flirting with me just as much as I had been with him. His hands were branding-iron hot through my bridesmaid’s dress. Was I the only one feeling that? I took a breath. I was a big girl. I could tell him. “I’m attracted to you,” I confessed.

Jake looked so pleased with himself. “You flatter me,” he said.

“I know you’re older, and I might be totally out of line,” I rushed on, “but it would be... difficult working under you when I want—” I felt heat rush to my face.When I want tobeunder you.

I didn’t have to say it. Jake understood. His grin only grew. “You don’t think we could control ourselves in a professional environment?”

Relief speared through me. So, it wasn’t just me. That was slightly less embarrassing. “We’re adults,” I said. “I’m sure that we could, but—” The music shifted into something faster, but we kept our arms around each other. “It would make things awkward, right? Besides, I wouldn’t be comfortable just taking a job from you. You’d have to at least let me interview for it. Prove my worth and all.”

Jake seemed to consider that. “I would be happy to set up an interview. I’m sure Tinsley would provide a hell of a recommendation.” It was true. She would. Tinsley had already promised to help me get any job that I wanted if I didn’t want to be her assistant any longer.

“I’m still not sure...” But of course, I had already decided that I was going to let him interview me. “We’d keep it purely professional?” I asked. “If I worked for you?”

He nodded. “Strictly professional,” he agreed. “It would be... incredibly complicated to be involved if we worked together, especially if you were my direct subordinate.”

We kept dancing, and almost on their own accord, my arms slid around his neck and my fingers tracked up into his hair. Our eyes met and held, and heat jumped between us. There was something incredibly... naughty about being in his arms after we’d discussed needing to keep things professional.

Jake’s hands couldn’t seem to find a place to settle, either. He traced the curve of my hips, over my waist, and back again. Every time his hands moved, things low in my tummy clenched. The ache made me bold. “That ‘strictly professional’ would start the day of the interview, right?”

His eyes practically glittered. “That sounds about right,” he said.

“So... tonight we’re just a single man and a single woman dancing together, right?”

“Correct.” I felt his breath brush against my cheek, and I wanted it to be his lips. “Just two single people who are sharing a... connection.”

Looking into his eyes, I could see that he wanted me. I felt the same. One of us had to actually say it. “I’m staying in the guest room tonight,” I said. “Doing the house-sitting thing when the wedding party leaves.”

“I could stay and help with that,” Jake said almost immediately, looking relieved.

I grinned. “Meet me upstairs?” I asked. “Ten minutes?”

2

JAKE

What the hell was I thinking? Iwasn’tthinking, not with my brain, anyway. That was precisely the problem. I was letting my body do my thinking for me.Blame it on the wedding ambiance, I thought as I slowly worked my way through the crowd and back into the house.

Alex had done the same not ten minutes before, and even if my mind was screaming at me that following her was a bad idea, nothing would stop me. My skin still tingled from our dance, and we hadn’t even kissed. We hadn’t done anything but dance, but my body had been on high alert ever since.

You offered her a job, I thought.She’s officially off-limits.

Except that she hadn’t accepted the job, only an interview, and the interview hadn’t taken place just yet. It was a loophole that I was holding onto with both hands.

I waded through the small crowd that had gathered in the living room, smiling and nodding along when people called to me. I watched for people to be sufficiently distracted, or at least not looking my way, before I headed up the stairs, trying not to take two at a time like an overly-excited kid.

I hadn’t been upstairs in my son’s house more than a handful of times, but I knew the rooms to the right were for Ryan and his family. Everything to the left was guest space. I made the left and didn’t get too far down the hall before a door opened and I was pulled inside.

Alex let me go, unfortunately, just as quickly. Her courage was a fleeting thing. “Sorry!” she mumbled. She had taken her blonde hair out of the complicated twist that all of the bridesmaids wore, and it fell in messy, luscious curls around her shoulders. Her big brown eyes were lit with something akin to panic. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just remembered that I didn’t tell youwhichroom, and—”

I cupped her cheek and tilted her face up to mine. “It was hot,” I told her before pressing my mouth to her cupid’s bow lips. The kiss was chaste, just a brushing of our lips, but she sighed and melted against me.She’s such a sweet thing, I thought and flicked my tongue out against her bottom lip. She tasted a little like the wine she was drinking earlier and a little like her lipstick, and it was wholly intoxicating.

Alex let her mouth open to me, and we stood just inside the bedroom door for a long minute, kissing deeply. She shivered against me. “You have no idea how long it's been since I’ve been kissed like that,” she said softly.

Well, that just wouldn’t do, would it? “Tell me,” I said. “Tell me how long it’s been since you’ve been with a man who truly satisfied you.”

Alex shivered again. “I haven’t been with anyone in six months or more,” she said.

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