‘Please, Jessy. Don’t. I’ve given Cassie so many chances, I can’t risk giving her another one. It would destroy me.’ Patrick’s voice was little more than a whisper now, but his gaze was unwavering.
‘I’m sorry. About all of it.’ I really was. Embarrassment overwhelmed me as my accusations flooded back to me. ‘I should never have pried; it wasn’t any of my business –’
‘It’s OK. Honestly.’ He leaned forward, brushing a hand down my arm, soothing me. ‘I understand why you were upset. I should have explained.’
‘And I shouldn’t have pushed. Even if she wasn’t your mum, even if it was an ex, or –’ Why did he have to look at me like that? Smiling like that? ‘What?’
‘I mean, now that I think about it, jealous Jessy was kind of hot.’ Patrick stepped forward.
My senses roared to life with every step he took closer,but my brain managed to kick in and forced me to step back, maintaining the distance between us. ‘I was not jealous.’
I wasn’t. I’d just been … shocked, thinking he was seeing someone else, or talking to an ex.
Shock and jealousy were not the same thing.
My back hit the wall just as Patrick said, ‘You were absolutely jealous.’
He was mere inches from me now, his hips almost pinning mine to the wall. My head was spinning – from his closeness or from the rapid change in emotions, I wasn’t sure. I should not have been turned on. A second ago, we had been dumping our parent-related trauma on each other. And now?
Now, I was hot as fuck. And still in my boss’s office.
‘We – we can’t do this here,’ I whispered, looking up into his hazel eyes and wishing they weren’t quite so beautiful.
Patrick’s gaze flickered to my lips, then back to my eyes. ‘Why not?’ I imagined that the want in his eyes was clearly reflected in my own.
My breath hitched in my throat. ‘Because –’
‘Because I really want to kiss you right now, Jessy. Isn’t that what couples do, when they sort out an argument?’ Patrick said, pulling me off the wall and into his arms. ‘Kiss and make up?’
I bit my lips almost without thought and Patrick let out a soft moan.
Slowly, slowly, inch by inch, Patrick lowered his mouth to mine – stopping a mere millimetre before they touched. ‘Do you want me to stop?’
Hell no.
It seemed easier to show him rather than tell him, and he didn’t seem disappointed when I pressed my lips against his.
Quite the reverse.
Before I knew it, Patrick had pinned my shoulder against the wall as he cupped my cheek with his other hand, tilting my face to deepen the kiss, his tongue invading my mouth in a rush of blissful pleasure that was surely criminal to experience in an office.
Fuck, it felt good to be wanted this badly. We kissed like we had hardly drawn breath since we’d been apart – his fingers in my hair, my hands tugging his shoulders closer, my knees weak as the kiss deepened.
Oh, this guy knew how to kiss. More, he knew how to kiss me. His teasing tongue knew all the right spots in my mouth, his lips pressing fluttering kisses that promised more down my neck before returning to my eager mouth.
‘Jessy …’
Dear God, his growl was going to be the end of me. Perhaps it already had been; my eyes closed and I lost myself in him.
By the time we pulled apart, my body felt all soft and loose.
I tried to rein in the need still flickering through me as Patrick pressed his forehead against mine and murmured, ‘If this is going to work, Jessy, you … you have to trust me.’
My heart fluttered. ‘I can trust you,’ I whispered, knowing that it was true.
His lips met mine again, hungrily, desperate for something that I was all too willing to give him. My own desperation matched his; my whole body craved his touch, and I could only thank the heat of the summer that I was wearing another sundress. Patrick’s fingers caressed my shoulder, fluttering along my collarbone, stroking lower until he was cupping my breast, his thumb brushing my nipple through my bra sending heat straight to my core. I let my legs fall apart when –
The door to the office opened. ‘Jessy, I need you to – oh.’
