I find myself blushing.
“Is your work done, then?”Katherine asks me, before turning to Zach.“Can I get my marketing assistant back?”
“No,” Zach replies evenly.“I’ve got more for Maya to do on this.”
The muscles in Katherine’s face harden.
“Let’s talk about this some more,” Cecil suggests to her, before thanking us.They both leave, and I start packing up my laptop.Zach stays behind.I feel him before I see him, every nerve tingling with an awareness of him watching me.
“You were very good.Just like I knew you’d be,” he says.
“Thanks.”I can’t bring myself to face him.I glance over my shoulder.“I wish you’d given me time to prepare.”
“You did just great.Sometimes it’s better to work under extreme pressure.”
“You want me to thank you for that?”
“No, I should thank you for doing this at such short notice.I wanted to give you visibility.You’re good at this, Maya.You shouldn’t be hiding.You should be up there with the spotlight on you for a change.I didn’t need to present it because I knew you were more than capable of doing it.”
I shrug because I’m nervous around him, unsure how we’re meant to act at work, and fighting the pull between us.“Thanks,” I say.“I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I stood up there.I was so nervous and so unprepared.”
“You’re never unprepared.”
“I was unprepared for you to walk into my bathroom and see me in the bathtub.”
His mouth falls open.I look down, and see a slight tent in his pants again.
“You always do this to me,” he murmurs.
“I could help you take care of that.”I can’t believe I said that.He and I, we didn’t do anything more than kiss, but those feelings bottled up for so long, and now reignited, have driven me to distraction.
His eyebrows lift and his surprise quickly turns to desire.He reaches for my hand and pulls me to him.I hesitate, knowing that we’re at work and could get caught.The door opens and I spring away.Cecil pops back in, doddery as ever.He apologizes as he retrieves his favorite Mont Blanc pen.He doesn’t notice a thing and leaves.
The second the door closes, Zach and I move towards one another, kissing hard, frantic, hands everywhere, restrained and wild at the same time.We keep kissing, breathless and out of control.
I barely register the boardroom anymore.It’s just me and him.His mouth crashes onto mine again, a little softer this time, and we slow down, as if we’re both trying to pretend we’re in control.
“We shouldn’t,” I murmur, though I don’t mean a word of it.My body wants him, needs him, and it overrules my brain as my hands skate down the inside of his jacket, running along his sides, feeling the hardness of his well-defined body.
“We shouldn’t,” he agrees, though his dark hooded eyes tell a different story.
“We could get caught,” I whisper, tilting my head up to give him better access as my hands slide up his chest.
His breath hitches.“I don’t care.”He kisses me deeply then, a kiss I feel in every erogenous zone, blood coursing through my veins, turning my breasts heavy.He smiles into the next kiss, a quick, crooked one.“I could kiss you forever,” he murmurs, his hands moving between my waist before gently cupping my bottom.
My heart stutters.“I would hope we could move on from that.”
He thumbs my jaw, light as a feather, eyes dark with desire.“Oh, we can move on to anything you want.”
I murmur against his mouth, my need for him barely contained as I kiss him harder now, the edge of the table pressing into the backs of my thighs, his body heat everywhere.
I keep glancing at the door, scared that someone might walk in.At least the walls here aren’t windows.
We steal a few more kisses, breathless, dizzy, until reality creeps back in and he moves away first, smoothing his hands down my arms, grounding us.
“We should go,” he says quietly.
I nod, still flushed, a dull ache inside me.We straighten ourselves, smooth down our clothes and hair until we look the epitome of professionalism.Then we walk out, side by side, like nothing ever happened.
