“Fancy seeing you here,” she said as though she’d known the whole time I’d show. She bit her lip as she stared at my mouth. She exhaled, and I felt the heat of her breath envelop me.
“Yeah. I probably shouldn’t have come,” I confessed. Her brow furrowed with confusion.
“And why not?” she asked, tilting her head, trying to figure me out.
“Well, you are the boss’s daughter.”
“So?” she arched her brows pointedly. “I don’t plan on telling him, do you?”
“No,” I replied, pausing to take a sip of whiskey. I was nursing it, but my throat felt impossibly dry.
“Well, then. We’re on the same page there. Next issue?” she asked, almost as if delegating a legal document.
“I’m not in the place for a relationship,” I repeated the words from two weeks ago, wondering if they sounded as hollow as they felt.
“I never asked for a one,” she replied, blinking once.
“What do you want, then?” I asked, looking at her dead on. Reading the curve of her lips, the vulnerability in her eyes, and the hesitation in her movements.
Her white teeth sunk into her bottom lip and she shrugged. “A casual sex friend, maybe?” I chuckled, shaking my head a little, thinking she was joking. “I’m serious. I want some no-strings-attached fun, and, well, I had a lot of fun with you…if you know what I mean.”
“I know what you mean,” I said, my voice a little gravelly, remembering how much fun we’d had together. I glanced longingly at her lips, considering my options. “What’s the likelihood of you father dropping in unannounced?”
“One percent?” She shrugged. “I mean, you’re more likely to run into Kelsey, and she wouldn’t blab about this to our dad. Trust me.”
“Who’s Kelsey?”
“She’s my sister...the girl that just left? She was there the night we met? Obviously, she knew we hooked up before I knew we worked together,” she replied. “Kelsey’s just happy to see my interest in men is somewhat restored.”
“You have an interest in me?” I cocked a brow, fighting off a smile.
“Duh.” She rolled her eyes playfully, her dimples flashing. “You’ve got an incredible body, and you know how to use it, so I’d say I’m definitely interested. But honestly, I can’t handle a relationship either. I just want…casual.”
Gwen was offering me up rare liberty, one that I selfishly wanted to take advantage of. “All right, Gwen. We’ll give it a try.”
“Your place or mine?” she asked, tilting her head and giving me a sultry smile. I barely had to think about it.
“Your place is closer,” I said, and she nodded in agreement before standing and turning for the door. Abandoning my whiskey, I followed her onto the street.
“Kelsey drove. I told her I’d find my own way back.”
“Seems you did,” I joked, my stomach churning with nervousness the closer we got to my truck. I wanted her, desperately, and yet my adrenaline surged, my nerves tingling with the impending storm. Instinct told me to tread carefully, but the hesitation faded when she slipped her fingers through mine.
She dragged me down a narrow alley between two stores, turning to press her hand against my chest and backing me up against the nearest brick wall, as if she sensed my internal pause and wanted to chase away my apprehension with her touch.
Her hands dropped down my torso, her fingers pressing the thin material of my shirt into my flesh. She lifted the hem, her nails raking against the space between my lower abs and hip flexors.
Encompassed in the dark, we were alone, the only sound was our bated breath. A thousand unspoken secrets lingered between us. I lowered my head, capturing her lips and kissing her. My hands tangled in her hair, and I deepened the kiss.
“It’s strictly a thing of convenience,” she assured me—or maybe herself—when I pulled my lips from hers to look at her, to give her another chance to rethink what we were about to do, her hands brushed against my straining erection, applying just a touch of pressure, enough to drive me beyond reason. “At work we’re colleagues, and after hours…we’re booty-call friends. If you’re otherwise occupied, I’ll find something else to do with my time.”
“Such as what?” I growled, my eyes narrowing in on her face. Her words were offhand, and they should have soothed me. But I didn’t like the idea of her occupying her time with another guy in the slightest.
“Does it matter?” she retorted, arching a delicate brow at me, her smile playful and chalk full of delicious sin. I swallowed my answer as her lips found mine again. She tugged at my bottom lip with her teeth, elevating my worries and fueling my urgency.
I hadn’t been able to chase her from my mind in two weeks, and I was tired of fighting it. Having to see her frequently and not do a thing about the burning need I felt to bury myself in her again was exhausting, and she was propositioning a solution that could work.
It was a dangerous game, but I wanted to at least try to play it. I knew it’d be worth the risk.
