I laughed, grateful he’d been the one to break the sexually charged silence. “Glad I wasn’t the only one who got a flashback.”
“I’ve been getting those a lot,” he said, eyeing me as he trapped his lower lip between a row of straight white teeth. “Flashbacks.”
“Oh?” I was too, but I didn’t think admitting it would help us to keep things professional. Not that we were doing a great job of that. He walked into a room and all my girly bits tingled with awareness. The sexy man-beast.
“You can’t tell me you haven’t thought about it,” he said, leaning in. “It was hot as hell, Charli. Like…” His voice lowered to a whisper when he said, “The best I’ve ever had. You?”
He must be joking. If he’d given me one more orgasm, I was pretty sure my heart would have short-circuited. “Uh yeah, you could say that. My previous lovers haven’t been known for their… generosity.” I couldn’t believe I was sitting at a table in my boss’s kitchen talking about the crazy-hot sexy we’d had. Another first for me.
“That’s a damn shame.” His lingering gaze was setting my body on fire as his eyes sparked with renewed interest. “You have a body that deserves to be worshipped.” He licked his lips, lowering his lids slightly when he cast a look at the fabric clinging to my thighs like a second skin. “By a real man, who knows how to pleasure you. Not a boy who’s more concerned about getting off than making sure you’re… satisfied.”
There was sexual tension and then there was this. It was like we were in a lust-induced stupor where the air was thicker and everything was more pronounced. The rasp of his voice. His shallow breathing. The hint of cologne still clinging to his skin. The darker shadow covering his square jaw. I forcibly tore my eyes away from his, looking at my plate.
“I should clean up.”
“Let me help you.”
When I stood, he reached for my hand before I could start clearing the plates. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I’ve never been intimate with a woman who works for me before, so I guess this’ll take some getting used to.”
I nodded. “It’s fine. I get it. This is new to us. We’re still feeling things out.” And if I had my way, I’d be feeling out the arousal hiding under his black sweats.
“I don’t wanna cross any lines,” he said, dipping his head. “Or make you feel like you have to do anything you don’t want to do, just because you want to keep your job.”
My heart started racing when I realized he was propositioning me. Again. Oh God. I didn’t know how I felt about this. When I accepted this job, I assumed sex was off the table.
“What’re you saying, Dade?” I didn’t want any confusion or misunderstandings. No regrets. And I definitely didn’t want to be called a mistake again. If we were really going to do this, I wanted us both to have our eyes wide open.
“I want you.” He linked his hand with mine. “Jesus, Charli…” He lowered his head, the stubble on his chin brushing my cheek. “It’s crazy how much I want you.”
“But you said what happened between us was a mistake.”
A flash of remorse crossed his handsome face before he said, “The mistake was calling it that. I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”
I flattened my palm against his abs and felt him clench in response. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “I was reeling too. Waking up with you was…”Amazing.“Kind of unexpected. I mean, it’s not that I was too drunk to remember what happened—”
“Every detail?” he asked, skimming his lips down my cheek. “Do you remember every little thing I did to you? The way I made you feel? ‘Cause I wanna make you feel like that again, baby. Over and over again.”
Baby? Oh God, I was melting. Never in a million years did I think Dade-freaking-Jarvis would be calling mebaby.Was this really happening right now?
I tipped my head back, letting his lips graze my neck. This might be the best or worst decision I’d ever made, but I wassogoing for it. “That night is burned in my memory, Dade,” I whispered in his ear as my hand drifted over his chest and curled around his neck. “How could it not be? You were my fantasy.”
“I don’t want to be your fantasy,” he said, brushing his lips over mine. “I want to be your reality. I want the things I do to you to feel so real my hands are branded on your skin. When we’re not together, you feel me—” his thumb glided over my peaked nipple, making me suck in a sharp breath—“here.” He nipped my earlobe. “In the ache between your legs, that only I can satisfy.”
This man was killing me. Slowly. Deliciously. Every word he uttered felt like sweet torture because he wasn’t doing the things he promised.
“Please,” I murmured, sliding my hands under his shirt. “I’m dyin’ here.”
“Jesus,” he growled, sweeping me off my feet with a yelp of surprise before I curled my arms around his neck and let my mouth trail across his bristled jaw.
I’d never been a passive girl in bed. I loved sex. And I liked the man I was with to know he didn’t have to treat me like a delicate flower just because I was petite. What I lacked in size I more than made up for in enthusiasm, especially with someone like Dade, who seemed to enjoy every aspect of intimacy as much as I did.
He bypassed his huge master suite and headed straight for the ensuite bath.
Shower sex? Hmm, I wouldn’t mind christening every surface of this huge house with my sexy new boss. As dirty as that sounded.
Dade kissed me dizzy before he reached into the shower and turned the overhead spray on. He reached for the hem of my tank and pulled it over my head before groaning when he spotted the black silky bra underneath.
“You are so sexy,” he sighed. “It would be too damn easy to get addicted to you.”
