Page 25 of Craving Her Christmas Boss

‘And why is that?’

‘Would you please excuse me? I have to —’ She didn’t bother even thinking of the reason, just left the desk and hurried across the shop floor to the staff stairwell, wanting to get back behind her desk—or cry in the bathroom—or something.

‘Imogen.’

He was right behind her.

‘Imogen, stop.’

She did. She had known this would happen—that it would affect her work. But worse than that, she couldn’t look at him for fear he’d see the longing that just had to be written all over her in indelible ink.

‘Talk to me.Now.’ He climbed to the step below hers. ‘You come to me, you say you want me, and so we—’ he stopped, and then growled at her, ‘I refuse to believe that what happened the other night was so awful you can’t even look at me now.’

‘No!’ It took a couple of tries for her to say more. ‘Of course it wasn’t awful,’ she mumbled, feeling terrible he’d thought that. ‘It was…amazing.’

She heard his release of breath. Then his hand took hers. She closed her eyes—dumb move, because all the power of sense was transferred to touch, and she could feel him so much closer.

His fingers squeezed gently. ‘Precisely why we should spend some more time together.’

Hewascloser. She could feel the length of his body—only a couple of inches away.

Trembling, she pulled her hand free. ‘Precisely why we shouldn’t.’

But he moved faster, hands gripping her upper arms, stopping her from climbing farther. ‘All I want to do is get to know you better.’

His eyes were level with hers. She saw the light in them, chose to interpret it as one thing only. ‘All you want to do is sleep with me.’

‘You’re making assumptions.’ He gave her a small shake. ‘You need to get to know me, too.’

For what purpose? What more was there to know that she didn’t already? He was a fantastic lover, able to take her into another realm with just one touch. He was bright and funny and charming, and all too easy to fall in love with.

She knew that about him.

But she also knew that they held different priorities, and had different views on what was precious in life.

Ultimately they were on different trajectories—and he had the power to make her veer off and crash. Her one other affair had done that. She couldn’t let it happen again.

He lifted one hand from her arm, brushed the back of his fingers down her cheek. His blue eye were intent on hers—so damn tempting.

‘All that one night proved was that it wasn’t enough. Not for me. And not for you.’

‘But that was the agreement—one night.’ She heard a desperate wobble in her voice but had to try and hold fast anyway. ‘You can’t go back and renegotiate now.’

‘The hell I can’t,’ he said softly. ‘All’s fair in love and war.’

‘This isn’t either of those things, Ryan.’

He didn’t answer, just kept gazing deep into her eyes, as if he was searching for something right in her soul. She watched, shaking all over, until she bear it no longer. She dropped her gaze to his mouth, so close to crumbling—knowing how good his kiss was, how kind he was, how close he was. It would only take the slightest step towards…

Suddenly she felt the pressure of his fingers on her arms tighten.

Had she swayed forward? Just the tiniest of millimetres? Surely not. She looked up to read his eyes.

His expression had lightened—he was almost twinkling, the corners of his mouth quirking up. With a lift of his brows he dropped his arms, turned and walked back down the stairs.

SEVEN

Someone was pressingher buzzer and not letting it go. Half dozing on the sofa, the Saturday papers scattered around her, Imogen finally realised it wasn’t a dream. She staggered to her feet, picked up the intercom handset by the door.

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