Page 91 of Twisted Knight

But I know damn well how it did. I willed it to happen, didn’t I? I told myself that never in a million years would I sleep with the man who’s taking over my company, and in the process I lost sight of the sexual tension that kept thickening between us.

But I wanted it to happen. Hell, I even dreamt of us breathless and tangled in sheets. I just never thought we actually would. I never thought I’d cross that line.

I never thought I’d allow myself to “live in the gray” with him.

Shit.

The plus side? Reality was way better than dream-ville.

Drawing in a deep breath, I realize the bravado I had when I walked up and kissed him earlier tonight is gone. Vanished right along with my sense, so it seems.

Panic has surfaced. Hell, it set in the minute the orgasms faded and reality prevailed.

How are we to work together after I just obeyed him? How am I supposed to pass him in the hallway at work and not hear that rumble of his voice telling me what a good girl I am? How am I to face him in a boardroom and not envision him standing before me with his cock in his hand, looking at me like he wants to devour me?

First-time sex is awkward enough. Throw in the fact that it was with him and that just complicates matters more.

A little too late to wonder these things now, right, Row?

And even later to realize I didn’t think through my escape to the bathroom to clean up very well. I don’t have any clothes in here to put on. My towels that I could use to wrap around myself are still in the dryer where I loaded them this morning. So now I’m naked, having regrets, and needing to go out to face Holden and set things straight.

Talk about splashing water on a burning fire.

With a fortifying breath, I open the door and move back into my room. I don’t know why I expected the lights to still be off. Even worse, I don’t know why I thought Holden might be dressed and getting ready to leave. Maybe because he’s efficient and professional when it comes to all other matters.

Not this time.

When I step into my room, Holden is lying in my bed, arm propped behind his head on the pillow, bicep bulging from the position and a reflective smile on his face as he studies me.

Jesus. The man is … something else. Usually, you have sex and the allure is altered some—lessened. Not with him. Not even a little bit.

“Look,” I say, preparing to lay it all out there.

“Uh-oh, here comes all-business Rowan.”

“Stop. Just let me—”

“You know she turns me on too, right? With her tight sweaters, her no-nonsense attitude, and how she sways her hips really hard when she stalks away after I piss her off? Why do you think I enjoy making you mad at me?”

I sigh and walk to the foot of the bed. He shifts to show me I have his undivided attention—eyes roaming over my naked body—and in the process, the sheet slides off some and bares his hip and stomach.

The dents. The dips. The perfection.

If I didn’t see it happen with my own eyes, I would have sworn he did it on purpose. A distraction from the sendoff I’m about to give him. His grin when I meet his eyes says that he notices that I noticed.

Needing a distraction, I pick up the first thing on the floor I find to put on—of the mind that he’ll take me more seriously if I have clothes on. Of course, it’s his dress shirt, but that doesn’t stop me from slipping my arms through it and wearing it like a suit of armor.

“This happened. Tonight happened. It was … a mistake of epic proportions on both our parts,” I say, getting more than flustered. “It can’t happen again.”

“Epic?” He twists his lips and bobs his head from side to side, completely ignoring the last part. “I think that’s a good way to describe it. Phenomenal. The best you’ve ever had. Sexsational works too. I mean, those would all be more appropriate adjectives.”

“You’re not cute.”

He lifts the sheet so he can see his cock beneath and scrunches his nose up as he shrugs. “It is kind of cute. But this is where we can get hung up on adjectives again.”

I shake my head and fight a laugh. How can he be this relaxed? This okay with everything? It seems sex brings out a side to Holden that I was thoroughly unprepared for.

Aren’t guys like him supposed to be cold and aloof after? Treat sex like a transaction?