Page 22 of Craving Her Christmas Boss

More.

Desire wasn’t whispering to her, it was shouting.

More,more, more!

Goaded by her body’s flare to his magnetism, she raised her own voice. ‘What areyoudoing?’

He kept stuffing his feet into socks and shoes. ‘You don’t think I’m going to let you walk out in the middle of the night and go home alone, do you? I am seeing you to your door.’

‘You don’t have to —’

‘You might be happy to treat me as a no-name one-night stand, but that’s not how I’m going to treatyou.’

‘Ryan—’

‘That’s right. Ryan.’ He rose, towering over her. ‘That’s my name. You breathed it, youscreamedit, not that long ago. So what’s changed?’

Alternating waves of heat and humiliation washed over her. Shehadscreamed—and begged and pleaded and panted. had been like a toy for him to handle however he pleased. And yet pleased, all right—the most dynamic, delicious lover a woman could ever have the pleasure of knowing.

All too latesherealised she couldn’t handlehim. How could she possibly admit to the fear and the overwhelming feelings burgeoning inside? How on earth could she say,Hey, Ryan, you just made me fall for you—I don’t just want an affair, I want the whole package. She couldn’t ask that of a man who had no idea of what that meant to someone like her.

‘I made a mistake.’

‘That was many things, but it wasn’t a mistake.’ He walked closer. ‘Your mistake was in thinking we could get away with doing this just the once.’

He was right. Being with him had simply made her want more—from a man she couldn’t possibly trust. He was George on steroids—more powerful, more monied, and much, much riskier. ‘My mistake was in doing it at all.’

He shook his head. ‘You’ll be making a bigger mistake if you leave now.’

For the second time that night their stares clashed. Finality versus merciless magnetism.

‘You don’t want to enjoy what we have? You don’t want to make the most of this incredible chemistry?’

In her head she shrieked her denial, but the sound refused to emerge from her mouth. It would be both truth and lie. She didn’t want what she wanted more than her next breath. So she aimed for avoidance—scrambling for her shoes, trying to slip them on.

He was watching her all-thumbs clumsiness with an air of remote disbelief. ‘You don’t even want the rest of your one night?’

Chemistry. Sizzle. Va–va–voom attraction. That was what this was to him—a physical thrill.

Coward like, she kept her gaze turned away as she forced an answer as firmly as she could. ‘No.’

How could she had fallen for him? That known each other such a short time. They’d flirted then. They’d had sex now. They didn’t then skip straight to for ever and ever. If she told him he’d laugh himself silly—then run a mile.

She was pathetic.

It took only a couple of minutes for a taxi to pull up in front of the hotel. Every interminable second shredded her insides.

‘You don’t have to —’ She broke off. He’d already climbed in after her. There was no point saying it.

Her aches were worse now. She was regretting everything she said and done since waking up. So much of her wished she just snuggled into his arms for the rest of the night and let it happen. But better a little pain now than a lot of disaster later—and there’d be disaster for sure.

The silence hung heavy for the ten minute ride. When the driver pulled up outside her tenement block she got out immediately, knowing there was no point in fighting Ryan over the fare.

She was at her door when she heard the car leave and his footsteps follow hers. Turning, she confronted him. ‘Why did you send the cabbie away? Now you’ll have to walk back to the hotel. You wouldn’t letmewalk home alone.’

‘I’m a big guy. I think I’ll be okay.’ Short. Definitely ticked off.

‘Ryan…’ She hadn’t meant to any of this to happen.

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