Page 31 of The Boss's Forbidden Assistant

Salvador’s eyes flared. ‘To trial room service?’ he said quietly, one side of his lips lifting in a half-smile. ‘That does make sense.’

‘Yes,’ she agreed, because it absolutely did.

CHAPTER NINE

HEDROPPEDHERhand when they stood and left the hotel bar, but once they were in the lift their hands brushed and his fingers sought hers lightly...seeking reassurance? Or looking to give it to her, more likely, because Salvador wasn’t the kind of man who’d need reassurance.

Except Harper felt the magnitude of this.

Whatever ‘this’ was.

It was new territory for both of them, and she barely wanted to exhale in case the sound of her breath knocked them off-course. Now it wasn’t enough to consider Salvador’s concerns, but her own as well, because she’d been running for years from the mistake with Peter, and she didn’t want to make another one. She worked for Salvador, not just for this fortnight but back in Chicago, and she needed to be sure this wouldn’t become public knowledge. She needed to know it wouldn’t change anything for her.

‘Salvador?’ She turned to face him and her stomach dropped to her toes because he was so devastatingly beautiful. When she looked at him, nothing mattered. She’d lose her job. She’d quit. She’d sacrifice almost anything for this one night with him.

But there was her mother to consider, and everything she’d worked for.

‘You were right, the other day,’ she whispered. The lift doors pinged open and another couple stepped in. Harper went to pull her hand free but again Salvador held onto it, his eyes meeting hers, charged with an electrical current. She sucked in a breath, tipping towards something, unable to think clearly.

She didn’t speak until they reached their floor and they stepped into the corridor, walking side by side towards the room. Salvador swiped his key, the door clicked open and Harper stepped inside, her pulse raging in her eardrums.

‘What was I right about?’ he asked, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar to reveal his neck. She tried to move her mouth but found it almost impossible.

She pulled her hair over one shoulder, toying with the ends. ‘My last job, I was involved with someone. My boss.’ She dropped her hands in front of her, wringing her fingers together. ‘It was a very, very bad decision.’ She blinked into his eyes. It felt a little like looking at a solar eclipse.

He moved closer, lifting her chin. ‘What happened with him?’

She chewed on her lower lip. She didn’t really want to bring Peter into this situation. He was part of her past, a part she didn’t like to think about often, except as to the lessons she’d learned from it all. ‘It was a stupid mistake.’

He waited silently.

‘We spent a lot of time together. I liked him. He asked me out on a date, and I knew I should have said no, but it was all so hard—stuff with Mum—and I was lonely. I agreed, reluctantly at first. But it was so good to have someone to talk to, even though, looking back, he did most of the talking.’ She shrugged. ‘I liked not being alone.’ Her voice cracked. ‘But it was all a lie. I was totally naïve and inexperienced, Salvador.’ She groaned. ‘I wish I’d been able to see what kind of man he was—or that not wanting to be alone wasn’t a good enough reason to sleep with him.’

‘When you say totally inexperienced, do you mean that literally?’

Harper’s throat shifted as she swallowed, suddenly self-conscious. ‘Caring for Mum, the worry, it took all my time. I never had a chance to meet anyone.’

Salvador’s expression changed slightly. ‘Did he know?’

‘That he’d be my first? Yes. He got off on it, I’m pretty sure. If only I’d known he was married,’ she said witheringly. ‘He promised me the world but all the while he was going home to his pregnant wife every night.’ Bitterness tinged her words. ‘Thank God I found out about her after just a few weeks. I can’t bear to think how long he would have strung me along for.’

Salvador cursed, wrapping his arms around her waist, drawing her against his body. ‘Any man who can behave like that isn’t worth an ounce of your time.’ He ran his thumb over the base of her spine. ‘Did he fire you?’

‘God, no, I quit. The same afternoon I found out about his wife. I couldn’t bear to be in the same building as him, let alone the same office. I hated him, Salvador. Whatever my feelings had been beforehand, they were unmistakably filled with hatred then.’

‘Good. I’m glad. And now?’

‘I still hate him,’ she admitted. ‘Not with quite the same passion, but that’s only because I realise he’s probably a serial offender. He lied too easily...it was all too smooth. There’s no way I was his first affair.’

‘More than likely.’

‘After that, I swore I’d never get involved with someone I worked with. Come to think of it, I didn’t really see me getting involved with anyone.’

He nodded slowly. ‘We don’t have to do this.’

‘Don’t we?’ she prompted with a small sound, something like a sob, shaking her head a little, because this felt as inevitable to Harper now as it had back on the island that first day in their shared office space.

‘I don’t want to hurt you, Harper. I don’t want to be like him.’

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