He chuckled. ‘You know I’m already up.’
She liked his smile—liked making him smile. Liked making him shudder more. ‘Yes.’
She really did.
He trailed his fingertips all over her with the slowest, languorous, most complete of caresses. He was heart-achingly tender—knowing she was over-sensitive, gently kissing where her skin was reddened from the rougher exertions of earlier. They moaned, barely moved as they reconnected, going searingly slow. She didn’t want it to end. Ever. It seemed he felt the same. But in the end, all too soon, there was no stopping the runaway train that was their lust. She clung, closing her eyes against the tears, and let herself go one last time.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked as they dressed. ‘You’re very quiet.’
She put her fingers on his lips. ‘Words will spoil it,’ she whispered.
‘Spoil?’
‘It was perfect. Just perfect.’
Far too perfect. And she could fall for him far too easily, so it was a good thing she was leaving. A good thing she didn’t even know his last name. Her attraction was all the feel-good hormones flooding her body from thethree timesthey’d just been intimate. That kind of sexual endurance was totally new to her. Actually, day-time sex was new too. As was sex with a stranger. As were orgasms as well, to be completely honest.
* * *
She shamelessly hugged close to him as he drove her right up to the door of the little cottage. But then she moved. Quickly.
‘Thank you.’ She slipped off the back of the moped and handed him the helmet.
‘Am I allowed to speak now?’
‘No.’
He gripped the handles tightly and storminess rose in his eyes—he was more serious than she’d seen him all afternoon. She kissed him the second his mouth opened. Quick, fiery,final.
‘I’m not sorry you ran into me,’ she whispered.
‘Phoebe—’
‘And for the record,’ her heart hammered as she hurriedly stepped back, ‘You didn’t letmedown.’
CHAPTER THREE
Four months later
PHOEBE TWISTED THEring on her finger, mentally cajoling the final page of the report to hurry up and escape the printer. She was helping out her office junior because she had the magic touch with the temperamental machinery but frankly she was feeling pretty temperamental herself. She’d heard rumours that her new company might be a takeover target, but just ten minutes ago her boss George Scott hadn’t just confirmed the fact, he’d told her the deal was done and she was to head to the boardroom together with their top analysts, to meet the new management.
They were even getting a new name. Phoebe was shocked and honestly, scared. She liked this job. She liked old-school gentleman George. He appreciated her efficiency and he was nice, proudly showing her pictures of his grandchildren. She liked being in the smaller, family-feel firm. There wasn’t the arrogant alpha-capitalist boy behaviour she’d endured at the corporate bank where she’d worked her way up from receptionist to highly skilled PA. Making the leap to a boutique firm had been part of her rebalance. But apparently some enormously successful European entity was taking over and a rebrand was merely the beginning. There were bound to be redundancies and, as she was the most recent hire, she’d likely be in the firing line.
‘He’s arrived.’ Megan, the office junior, scuttled back from delivering refreshments to the boardroom, and shot Phoebe a stunned look. ‘Nothinglike I imagined.’
‘No?’
Phoebe didn’t have time to get details. She grabbed the last sheet and strode to meet Felipe Mazzoni, Head of Acquisitions for EDB International—the company she’d not heard of until now and hadn’t had a chance to research. But she was determined to make a good first impression. The boardroom was full but she wasn’t actually late. Just last. She walked in, head high, polite smile in place.
‘Ah, Phoebe, there you are,’ George waved her in. ‘Everyone, may I introduce Edoardo Benedetti—’
Phoebe glanced at the dark-haired man on the far side of the table just as he looked up and caught her gaze on the full.
Short hair. Angular cheekbones—the sort that looked like they’d been chiselled by a sculptor.What?
‘Edoardo is the CEO of EDB International,’ George added.
He waswho? Blood roared in Phoebe’s ears and the floor pitched beneath her suddenly unsteady legs.
