Adrenaline courses through my veins like a battering ram, and my pulse thrums as I drop my gaze to her lips. They’re full and pink, and if I could just touch them, I know they’ll be as soft as rose petals.
She licks her lower lip, dragging her tongue over the tender flesh, and I’m a goner.
I’ve never been so desperate to kiss a woman in my life.
To touch her. Taste her.Devour her.
“I’m going to kiss you, Scarlett. The way you deserve to be kissed. Slowly. Deeply. Thoroughly.” Her breath hitches, and fuck if that doesn’t just stoke my fire. “If you don’t want that, walk out the door right now.”
I count to three in my head. It’s the longest three seconds of my life.
Scarlett meets my stare but makes no move to leave.
Because this was always going to happen.
We’ve been on a collision course from the moment she marched into my boardroom.
I cup her cheek, relishing the feel of her soft, supple skin as I pull her in, closing the distance between us. Her eyes drift shut, and she shivers when I tangle my fingers in her hair, gripping those golden strands possessively. I tilt her head as I lower my mouth to hers, and when our lips brush, a jolt of electricity blazes up my spine.
Christ almighty.
I’ve barely touched her and already my body is aching for more. I slant my lips over hers. They’re just as soft as I’d imagined. Like rose petals. She gives a breathy little moan and I deepen the kiss, sliding my tongue along the seam of her mouth.
She opens for me, her tongue brushing against mine as I taste her, savoring the combination of Riesling and spice with a sweet undertone that can only be hers. We fall into a seductive rhythm—kissing, tasting, teasing—and I slide my free hand under her ass, pulling her onto my lap so she’s straddling me. Only the thin fabric of our pants separates us, but when she rolls her hips, grinding against my cock, even that’s too much.
I break off the kiss and tip my head to the sky as a groan rips from my throat.
“Christ, Scarlett.” My voice has gone gravelly, but I can’t bring myself to care. Not when she’s riding my cock like it’s an Olympic sport. Like she needs this as badly as I do. “I need to be inside you. To feel you underneath me. To hear you scream my name.” I lower my gaze to hers, our eyes locking. “Tell me you want that, too.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Scarlett
“I do.”
Of course I do. Nick’s kisses are intoxicating. Scorching.Addictive. I want to feel his mouth gliding over every inch of my body, that sexy scruff scratching my tender skin. Feel him buried between my thighs as we explore this explosive chemistry. There’s just one problem. “But…”
He drops his forehead to mine, disappointment palpable.
“But?” he rasps, breathing hard.
For an instant, I lose myself in the feel of him. In the press of his muscular thighs against my backside. In his warmth, which soaks into my skin like summer sunshine. In the clean scent of soap that clings to his skin.
Then it’s back to reality.
“I work for you,” I remind him, just in case he’s forgotten. “I can’t afford to risk my job for a night of hot sex.”
Adulting is the worst.
This shit is hard—literally.
He pulls back, brow furrowed. “You don’t work for me, Scarlett.” God, I love it when he says my name. “You work for Miles.”
I roll my eyes. “Same thing.”
“No, it’s not. I have no influence over your career, nor would I attempt to interfere with it in any way.” The corner of his mouth curves up, and my stupid heart—which clearly didn’t get the memo that this is an important conversation—flutters as a devastating smile stretches across his face. “I can assure you Miles would never fire you based on my suggestion. As you know, I’ve proven incapable of holding on to an assistant myself.” He chuckles and the sound hums across my skin, raising goose bumps on my flesh. “Miles is so stubborn he’d probably promote you and double your salary if I so much as breathed wrong in your direction.”
I want to believe that’s true.
