Page 50 of Tempting Her Forbidden Boss

‘Maybe,’ he answered calmly. ‘I want to know who and how.’

‘I haven’t been put off completely,’ she said brazenly. ‘I wouldn’t be sleeping with you if I had.’ She turned and started to run. ‘Race you to the car!’

She had a good head start, but she knew he was fast. As she ran ahead of him the old memories flashed faster than her feet. Yes, she’d had a boyfriend. After almost making it through her teens without becoming a statistic as her mum had, she’d finally fallen for one of the neighbourhood guys—the older brother of another of her employer’s cadets. He’d pursued her so hard and so sweetly—or so she’d believed. Only she’d been determinedly single for so long she hadn’t known she’d become a sport to the gang of them—the ultimate challenge. It had taken him six months of occasional dates, but he’d won a crate of beer for being the one to bed her. He’d bragged and betrayed her intimate secrets.

She’d been such a naive idiot it was embarrassing and she didn’t want to tell Alex a thing about that one. What was she doing going all Oprah-sofa-open anyway? He’d heard more than enough already.

He overtook her in the last five metres to the car—easily striding out, and she knew he’d been holding back to let her think she could win. She leant against the door, trying to catch her breath back. But it was impossible. She couldn’t touch the bottom of this pool they were swimming in anymore. She was way out of her depth. She didn’t want them to just be bed buddies. She didn’t want this ever to end.

So she was just like every other woman who’d slept with him—once bitten, his forever. That was why all his old flames stayed friends with him—because their hope sprang eternal, that he’d go back to them. And she couldn’t blame any of them. Because when he turned his full attentiveness on?

All-consuming delight.

She shivered. Was this the feeling that had made her mother act so stupidly time and time again? To get so stuck on someone that she became blind to all those glaringly obvious faults?

Except what were Alex’s faults again?

Oh, that was right. He didn’t want arelationship.He just liked sex. And she was merely his current playmate. But what about last night? It hadn’t been a night of pure physical pleasure and release. It hadn’t been that at all. It had been much more. There’d been no physical intimacy, but total emotional honesty. She’d opened up to him, cared for him—shown him. But hadn’t he opened up to her too? She couldn’t help hoping he had—because although he didn’t know it, last night he’d got that last little pocket of her heart too.

‘Let’s go to the movies.’ Alex hadn’t been to the movies in years. It’d be like a date—following on from the afternoon in the park. He was still smiling about the sight of her running ahead of him and the basic instinct that had risen in him—driving him to overtake her. Really he’d just wanted to catch her close, for he was still feeling vicious about what had happened to her years before. He could hardly bear to think about it.

They went home to shower and change, then went to a pizza restaurant where she had one of her egg-and-spinach numbers. Then the movie.

If he’d hoped that taking her to a spooky thriller would have her pouncing into his lap halfway through, he’d have been disappointed. But as it was he’d have been disappointed if shehad.No way was his wannabe street fighter going to be scared by some movie. No, it was the more subtle things that set her on edge. Like him calling her Danielle.

‘It’s such a pretty name.’ He spread his hands peaceably when she glared at him across the table at the cafe after, her forkful of cake suspended mid-air.

‘I prefer Dani.’

‘Dani like a boy?’

Her chin tilted.

Yeah, that was it. As if an abbreviation of her pretty name could possibly desexualise her. She was feminine—soft and curvy, short and sweet—though she’d probably kill him if he said so. But he understood why she’d wanted to hide from the succession of men in her mother’s life, why she made out as if she were Ms Aggressive Man Eater—she didn’t trust people. And who could blame her? Hell, he knew how hard it was to trust—and Dani had every reason to be as wary as him. Like him she’d been betrayed by someone she should have been able to trust completely—a parent.

But if he’d decided to be some kind of a chivalrous gent, planning to take the time to woo her—to win her trust and then win her completely—he supposed he shouldn’t take her to bed tonight. He should just kiss her softly good-night—hold her close and then gently break away. Bide his time and all that. But Alex hadn’t conquered the finance markets by being slow. Alex won by seeing opportunities and seizing them.

And this was one advantage he knew he had and he was going to play it for all he was worth. Besides, he just couldn’t help himself.

Once inside the door he turned her into his arms. But as he kissed her, a whole new depth of feeling arose. Really, he could kiss her for hours and instantly resolved to. He loved the promise of everything that he felt when he was with her—the feeling of such rightness. He didn’t want to sleep with anyone else. But much more importantly than that, he wanted to see her happy. Hell, how he wanted that for her.

ELEVEN

Danipushed back soshe could look at Alex. Really look at him. He said nothing, but he met her gaze—unwaveringly, openly, devastatingly. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, could only stare at the warmth, the promise of absolutely everything in his eyes.

He moved to kiss her again, so slowly, with almost unbearable restraint. The gentleness seemed to flay her skin raw. Slow kisses, kisses that grew deeper and deeper still. Kisses that—she suddenly realised—were filled with infinite tenderness.

She started to shake.

His hands smoothed down her arms, settled on her waist and gently pulled her closer.

‘We have all night,’ he murmured, kissing her eyelids closed.

He made her feel as if they had forever.

Dani moved uncontrollably, absolutely undone by his slow sweetness. He kissed her, kept kissing her—raining them all over her face and neck and shoulders and breasts and returning, always returning to her mouth, for such intimate, deep caresses. She met him with the infinite, yearning need of her own. Her hands lifted. She too needed to touch, to caress, tocare.She found him so beautiful.

They moved slowly, working their way upstairs. No words interfered with the beautiful bliss of the moment—the magic between them too powerful to allow anything but truth in their actions.

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