“Why?”
“I’m fi?—”
“Why?” he repeated so firmly, I stiffened.
Then, despite the multitude of reasons I had to stay silent, my words tumbled from my mouth. Exposing myself, my insecurities, and my vulnerabilities in one breathless rush. “Because I might want to be here, but I don’t belong here. I’ve never even thought about a place like this. I’m not this kind of woman, and I don’t mean that in a superior way. It’s the opposite. I’m not this interesting. I’m boring. No, I’m whatever is more than boring. And I don’t want you to see that.” I gave a small laugh, but even I could hear the harsh, humorless edge to it. “Though, now I’ve told you all that, which isn’t much better. And it’s also another crazy meltdown for the second night in a row, so I’m going to shut up now.”
I honest to God expected Tripp to recoil. He would hide it behind one of his forced smiles as he took the out and graciously let me think it was my choice, but we would both know the truth.
I was wrong, though. He didn’t look horrified. He didn’t back away. He didn’t even look surprised by anything I’d said.
“You’re far from fucking boring, siren. And if you think you don’t belong here, then you’re wrong.” He pushed in closer, backing me against a wall until his body was pressed to mine. Trapping me there. Letting me feel the long stretch of his hardness against my stomach. As if I hadn’t unloaded a bucket of crazy. “But that just means I’m the lucky bastard who gets to show that to you.”
He’s turned on.
I mean, of course he’s turned on.
We’re surrounded by sex.
But he’s really,reallyturned on.
And really, really,reallymassively huge.
All that cocky charm suddenly seems humble compared to what he’s equipped with.
“Show,” I started, but the word came out too airy to hear. I licked my Sahara-dry lips and tried again. Since his hooded gaze was locked on my mouth, my question didn’t come out any steadier. “Show me what?”
“Anything. Everything.” He slowly dragged his eyes up to meet mine. “What you like.” He rocked against me. “What I like.”
Oh hell.
That was already enough to reignite the battle between my body and my common sense, and it made it far too tempting to agree. So much so, in fact, that I was having trouble remembering why I should say no.
Say yes. Be a good employee and say‘Yes, boss.’
Oh.
Right.
That’s why I need to say no.
“I really like working for you, and mixing business with…” Disappointment sank so low in my belly, I thought it would drag me through the floor. “This isn’t a good idea. Any of it. I should go.”
I said the words, but I made no moves to actually leave. Even if I had, I wasn’t sure Tripp would let me.
“What do you think is going to happen?” he pushed.
I’m going to make an ass of myself and have to quit.
Or you’ll see that I’m right and there are no hidden layers to my basic desires, and you’ll be disappointed in me—and that makes me want to have a panic attack just thinking about it.
I didn’t want to beat him over the head with the insecurities I’d already laid bare.
I went with a third truth. The reason why I’d been hesitant to simply have a friendly dinner with him.
“You already don’t delegate enough work to me. If we blur these lines, you might feel weird telling me what to do.”
With his body still tight to mine, there was no mistaking the twitch of his cock against me. “Trust me, baby, that’ll never be a problem.”
