That goddamn dress.
The way the sage green fabric clung to Delia’s lithe form honestly should’ve been a crime. The top suctioned to her breasts and torso before the skirt flared and swished around her toned thighs, showing off her long legs, her feet slipped into a pair of gold, open-toed stilettos. If I was a weaker man, the skirt would already be shoved up around her waist as I bent her over my desk.
God, I wanted to punch myself in the face. This woman was mypartner, and my sort of employee. I’d seen the bullshit she dealt with from men online, and witnessed firsthand the way that jackass Clarke treated her. The last thing she needed was another man thirsting after her—least of allme.
I rose from my chair, intent on gesturing her inside, offeringher a seat and a drink, but my arm got away from me and knocked over the two fingers of whiskey I’d poured myself when the noise from downstairs reached a fever pitch.
Yeah, I’d taken to drinking instead of simply closing the door.
First, I needed the cacophony of my guests to drown out my errant thoughts. Second, I needed the liquor to loosen my limbs after spending nearly two hours earlier inhaling Delia’s scent and letting her warmth seep into my body. Only, I hadn’t even managed a sip before my sexy as fuck business partner appeared like a gorgeous mirage in my doorway.
I’d been a certified dumbass not to have moved away from her at dinner, and I was paying for it now in the form of tension in my shoulders and a half-hard cock.
The dress wasn’t helping.
The liquid spread slowly, instantly soaking all the papers I had on my desk, including the to-do list I’d been working on when Delia appeared.
Seriously, what the fuck was this woman doing to me? We’d been in this office alone together countless times since getting into business together, and I’d never acted like this before. I’d been fully in control of my body, like I always had been. In that moment, though, I’d felt an awful lot like I’d magically reverted to my gangly preteen, brace-faced self. That awkward kid who’d stumbled over his feet on the way to ask the pretty girl in class to be his date to the upcoming homecoming dance.
I supposed there was something different about the circumstances. Beyond the windows, instead of the midday sunlight, there was nothing but blackness broken only by streetlights. The music from downstairs provided a steady, thumpingbackground rhythm, matching my heartbeat. My skin felt too tight for my body, my breath loud and rapid.
Suffice it to say, my mind was giving me all kinds of ideas, the kind I needed to stay far away from. As though it had all played out on my face, when I looked at her again, Delia’s expression was bemused.
“Want a drink?” I croaked, leaving the mess on my desk to move around to my drink cart.
Delia shook her head, those dark chocolate locks brushing against the exposed swells of her breasts over the collar of her dress. It was so long that I could wrap it around my fist a few times before tugging her head back and zeroing my attention in on her throat. Settle my lips over her pulse and lightly scrape the spot with my teeth…
I shook my head. Fuck, I had to get it together. If I popped a boner in front of her, it’d be obvious what I was thinking about, and I refused to put her in that sort of uncomfortable position.
“At least come in and sit down then.”
A moment later, the door clicked shut behind me, cutting off the worst of the noise from downstairs. For the first time since she’d arrived, though she’d further secluded us in here, I could breathe, could hear myself think. For all my anxiety over being near her earlier, her presence suffused the air with a warmth and safety I wanted to bask in forever.
“Why did you offer me your land?” I blurted. I needed to regain control, to steer the conversation toward business. The situation in my pants was seconds away from growing dire, and I’d do anything to prevent that.
Thankfully, Delia had taken a seat on the couch—the one I’dcome to think of ashers—those perfect, tanned stems of hers crossed in a way that had the dress riding precariously high. I sat simply to give myself a worse vantage point. I settled my own arm awkwardly on my thigh, using my hands clasped in front of me to hide my crotch. It took every fucking ounce of willpower I had to meet her eyes instead of look my fill at her beautiful body.
She shrugged again, and I found myself growing irritated with her nonchalance. First shrugging when she said she wanted to see me, as though that knowledge didn’t have my heart swelling in my chest, sending satisfaction zipping through me. And I understood not wanting to appear too eager, but…we were becoming friends, weren’t we? She was allowed to come see me, whenever she wanted.
But I didn’t understand how she could remain so calm and collected when I was fucking losing my mind over her.
“You didn’t want to build your forever home for your future family?” I asked, hopefully prompting a verbal response.
Those whiskey eyes met mine, something I couldn’t read flashing across them. “I guess I never imagined that for myself. I want a family, but…” she trailed off, that goddamn shoulder hitching up again. “Plus, I love my farmhouse, and I put a lot of work into updating it.Thatis my forever home.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question.”
“I guess I was waiting for the right project to come along.”
“And that project was me?”
“That project ended up beingourdistillery,” she corrected.
“Fair enough.”
Delia glanced around the room, doing everything she could to not look at me. When she noticed the photos I’d hung aroundthe room, she got up, offering me a view of her posterior, of the groove of her spine and the smooth skin of her upper back.
Of her ass, which was round and perfect under the hem of that dress.
