Page 29 of Tempting Her Forbidden Boss

He chuckled. ‘I don’t believe that.’ He stepped closer again. ‘Maybe you just need some provocation.’ He leant forward and kissed her again, his mouth seeking, demanding.

She bit back the moan. He wasn’t touching her anywhere else but she ached to ride him, to rock her hips back and forth and take him inside her. If they were alone she would do just that. Shed her clothes and his and have all of him hard and fast and rightnow.

She tore free of his kiss and gulped in air. But no matter how many breaths she took she still felt dizzy. She stared at him, shocked at the need still rampaging through her defences. So easily he had won this from her. So much for staying away—so much for either of them having self-control.

‘What do you think about a truce?’ She was panting too much for the question to come out as tart as she’d have liked.

He lifted his hand and ran the tip of his finger over her lips. She gasped again.

‘We can delay a little longer if you like. But this is inevitable.’

She wanted to shake her head but it felt heavy and she couldn’t move it. Passion shone in his eyes, pleasure and satisfaction broadened his smile.

‘We’re flatmates,’ she finally managed. ‘We can be friends but we can’t...’ She trailed off as he laughed.

‘Honey, we can’t be friends. Not ’til we’ve burned this out.’ He nudged her chin with his thumb. ‘After that we can—I get on well with all my ex-lovers.’

Oh. Was that so? ‘Regular Lothario, aren’t you?’ Dani drawled, sarcasm dripping.

‘Well, you have yourjoyboys—right?’ His smile had sharp edges. ‘Nothing wrong with liking sex, Dani. It’s natural.’

Slack jawed, she could no longer cope with his subtle-as-a-brick sensuality. Because the worst thing about it was that it made her body burn hotter. ‘I need to freshen up.’

‘Coward.’

* * *

How long was it possible to live with an Empire-State-Building-size erection? Alex wondered whether there was an entry in the Guinness Book of Records and knew with certainty that if there was, he was going to beat it.

‘You’re taking her home?’

‘To her separate little bedroom, yes.’

Lorenzo laughed. ‘That won’t last long.’

Alex leant his shoulder against the wall. From here he could see when she exited the bathroom. ‘It’s complicated.’

‘Yeah. The whole viral video, invent her a job, move her into your home kind of complicated.’

Alex shook his head. Lorenzo didn’t know the half of it. He didn’t know the whole I-just-found-out-who-my-father-really-is nightmare yet. And it was a nightmare. Alex swept a quick glance around the room, couldn’t see the bastard. How dared Patrick just appear like that—what was he trying to do? What did he want? Well, whatever it was, he wasn’t getting it.

That was really what was eating Alex alive, not some five-foot-nothing sexy piece of a woman. He sighed as the thought of Dani made his whole body ache with need. ‘It was your dumb idea to move her in to my place.’

‘Thought it might be convenient.’ Lorenzo chuckled.

Alex shot him a filthy look and drained the last of his juice. Okay, so she was eating him up too. But he could deal with lust, couldn’t he? Wasn’t he Alex Carlisle? Didn’t he have a phone full of names and numbers of wannabe dates? If he wanted sex he could get it, no problem.

But he’d happily fling the thing in the harbour. Normally he did a few dates, a few laughs, never anything complicated and certainly not committed—a two-months sort of man, that was him. Women were for fun, nothing more—he was never having anything more. But now he wanted sex with only one woman. The scent of her incited an untapped depth of hunger in him. He didn’t know how he was going to assuage it. There were so many options, so many fantasies swirling in his head all the damn time.

So much of it was the game, wasn’t it? The hunt, the chase, the challenge she threw at him. Since when had he had to work for it like this—or to wait? Usually he didn’t bother if someone was giving him the hard-to-get routine. He wasn’t that desperate. But Dani was different. She didn’t want a ‘relationship’. Fantastic. But her determined denial of a fun fling bit him hard. This time the game was everything. Oh, yeah, he was getting off on every minute of it and doing everything he could to aggravate a response from her.

He straightened as he saw her appear. If he were to judge by the look on her face he wasn’t getting any further with her tonight, but, judging by the tension in her body, he figured he had another shot. And he was damn well taking it.

Dani waited with him for the lift and focused on her breathing—the last of her Alex-induced heat doused by the fear of the few seconds to come. So stupid to be like this. But every time she got into a small space her stomach knotted and all the oxygen vanished. Every time she remembered the darkness, and the silence—the terrifying silence that had been shattered by that vicious thud.

Alex pulled her into the hideous rectangle. ‘Look at me.’ He pointed to his eyes. ‘Look right here.’

She glared at him. Cross with his patronising attitude. ‘Look, I’m not some mad cow and you’re not some animal whisperer with a mesmerising gaze.’

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