Page 42 of Pucking Daddy

She’s my employee. She lives in my house.

This is already a complication I can’t afford.

And yet—

My hand is still at her jaw, thumb brushing just beneath her ear, holding her there as I deepen the kiss just slightly. Testing. Waiting for her to pull back.

She doesn’t. She leans in.

Soft breath, quiet sound, and something in my chest tightens in a way I don’t have time to unpack.

We haven’t done much, but I’m already hard, aching in my pants. I don’t know what it is about her, but she gets to me in a way no one ever has.

Hell, I don’t want to stop. I want to take my time with her, peel her out of those clothes, get her into my bed and make her say my name.

Just as I’m about to act on it, my phone rings.

The sound is sharp, jarring. Completely out of place.

Reality crashes back in hard and unforgiving.

I pull back.

The space between us feels wrong immediately. Too cold. Too empty.

Her breath is uneven. Mine probably is too.

We just look at each other for a second.

The phone keeps ringing.

“Sorry,” I mutter, already stepping back.

She nods, but her eyes don’t leave mine right away.

I turn away, dragging a hand through my hair as I pull my phone from my pocket.

It’s my lawyer. There’s no one I want to talk to less—she rarely brings good news—but I don’t have a choice.

I swipe to answer, forcing my voice back into something controlled.

“Halberg.”

“Jaxon, we need to talk.”

The tone is enough to put my entire body on alert.

“What happened?”

I step further into the kitchen, turning slightly away from Zara without fully leaving the room. I don’t look at her. I can’t.

Not right now.

“There’s been a development,” Rebecca says. “Her legal team filed a supplemental argument this morning.”

My jaw tightens. “About what?”

“A shift in strategy.”