Page 32 of Seducing Her Scarred Boss

Clearly fuming, he enlightened her. ‘You can set up in here. Work the rest of the day, half the night if you need to. To get your jewellery done for the show. This can be your workroom.’

She stared at him. ‘You’re kidding.’

‘No.’ He walked further into the room, turned his back to her so she couldn’t read his expression. ‘I’m vaguely useful. If you need to use power tools or something, I can help.’

‘You mean you can plug them in?’

He grunted then—almost a laugh. ‘Yeah.’ He faced her, his hands on his hips, still looking like a warrior about to launch an offensive any minute. ‘I just thought you could work here in the afternoons. You’d be around if the temp needed help but you’d have the time to work on your own stuff. You can stay later. You don’t have to pack it up at the end of the day, just spread out and get it done.’

Calm descended over her, her earlier anger soothed by a new suspicion. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

He looked even grumpier. ‘It was supposed to be a surprise.’

She blinked. Well, it had been a surprise. But he’d meant it as anicesurprise. ‘Why did you want to surprise me?’

He looked away. ‘I don’t know.’

Yes, he did. She waited.

‘You’ve done a lot for the fund,’ he muttered. ‘I thought it was a way of saying thanks.’

And that was all it was? She didn’t think so. She walked right into his personal space, her heart hurtling inside but trying to keep her efficient cool look on the outside.

He stiffened but didn’t move away.

‘Did you want to do something nice for me, Lorenzo?’

He looked to the side but still didn’t step back.

She smiled and took another pace closer. And closer still.

His hands were suddenly on her arms. ‘What are you doing?’

‘I thought I’d say thank you,’ she breathed oh-so-innocently.

His gaze dropped to her lips. His fingers tightened that extra notch but the rest of him stayed rigid.

Bingo.

The guy still wanted.

Well, the guy would get.

But not yet.

She reached up on tiptoe, brushed her lips ever so gently against his jaw—that inch too close to his lips to be purely platonic as he had once done to her. She stayed there a second longer, whispered in a way she’d only ever fantasised about, ‘Thank you, Lorenzo.’

She tried to move back but his hands were keeping her there now. ‘Sophy.’

Part warning, part what? Sophy couldn’t decide. But the whisper seemed to have gone down quite well.

He sighed—part groan—and his fingers softened, smoothing over her skin. ‘You smell good.’

‘Do I?’

He nodded. ‘I smell you everywhere.’

‘Cheap shampoo. Everyone uses it.’

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