Page 1 of An Illicit Seduction

CHAPTER ONE

The Before

“Hey, Seraph. Do you have a minute?”

Looking up from the spreadsheets covering the surface of her desk, Seraph twisted in her chair to face the woman standing in the doorway of her office. She pushed her thick passion twists out of her face, flicking the ends over her shoulder, and smiled. “Sure, what’s up?”

Jaime settled into one of the chairs in front of Seraph’s desk and sat forward. “Well, as you know, my annual pajama party is coming up, and I was thinking about inviting Damon.”

Seraph nodded, hoping that Jaime didn’t think she needed to ask her permission to extend the invitation. “I’m sure he’d love it.” She didn’t know a man who wouldn’t.

Jaime nodded. “Right. Well, the thing is he’s so quiet that I haven’t really had a chance to talk to him, and I was wondering if you could just bring him with you.”

Tilting her head as if she didn’t understand the question, Seraph observed the woman whom she’d worked with for over twelve years. This was an uncharacteristic request. Jaime had such a bold personality that she rarely met a person who didn’t immediately fall under her spell, so this hesitance threw her for a loop. And—not that Jaime would know—asking Damon to attend a party like Jaime’s Pajama Jam with her would be awkward as hell.

“I don’t understand how his being quiet would keep you from inviting him…” she trailed off as a sheepish look crept onto Jaime’s face and a light bulb clicked on. Seraph laughed, shaking her head at her coworker and friend. “Oh my gosh! You like him. Is that why you’re in here with this crappy excuse?”

Covering her face, Jaime giggled as she nodded, her wash and go curls bobbing with each movement. “Yessss. He’s so fine I can’t stand it, and those damn dimples get me every time!”

Jaime’s voice had taken on a high-pitched tone, and her tawny cheeks were tinged pink at her revelation. Seraph was tickled by her reaction. Jaime had a new office crush every other month, and it was hilarious that Damon was the latest object of her affection. Jaime had started with the company the same year as Seraph, but while Seraph was an account manager in the sales department, Jaime was an event coordinator from marketing, and she excelled at her position. A couple of years younger than Seraph’s thirty-six, Jaime had come to the company straight out of undergrad and started as a receptionist, eventually working her way up the corporate ladder.

“That still doesn’t explain why you’re telling me how you’re thinking about inviting him instead of just…inviting him.”

“Oh! Well, I wanted to run it by you first…just to make sure I wasn’t stepping on any toes.”

“Stepping on toes?” she repeated, confused by Jaime’s words. What in the world did that mean?

Fake-pouting, Jaime asked, “You’re going to make me say it?”

Seraph shrugged her shoulders. “I’m afraid so; I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Jaime sighed then licked her lips. “Well, I kind of assumed that you two might have something going on…”

Seraph’s eyes ballooned as Jaime’s meaning hit her. Then, she began shaking her head emphatically. “What?! Girl, no. We do not—are not—we’re just—” She stopped talking before she could say too much. Laughing a little at herself, she rolled her eyes and made eye contact with Jaime. “Damon and I do not have anything going on. There are no toes to step on over here.”

Jaime eyed her skeptically, and Seraph wondered what, if anything, had Damon been saying that this was even on anyone’s mind. He had been a programmer for the company for maybe three months, but their departments didn’t interact at all, so they barely saw each other. They occasionally had lunch together but always opted for an off-site restaurant instead of the cafe in the lobby of their building. Seraph knew the few minutes of them walking to and from the elevator didn’t give off any romantic vibes. It couldn’t. So, what was going on?

“Are you sure? If that’s you, I won’t mind—hell, I’d understand!”

Seraph’s laugh was loud in the small room that felt larger than it was because of the wall of windows on her left. “Jaime. Girl. No. I’ve watched him play video games for hours with a pair of underwear on his head. I can promise you that I am not in the way of whatever you want to pursue with him.”

For anyone else, this would have been the weirdest conversation they’d ever had, hands down, but for Seraph, this was just a regular Tuesday. Damon drew attention and whenever Seraph was with him, women felt bold enough to ask her about him. She figured that was usually because they could tell that he wasn’t her man. This particular incident was a new one, but the sentiment was the same.

There was a short knock on her door before it swung open to reveal the very man they were discussing. Speak of the devil, she thought as she raised her brows in question. It didn’t take much thought to deduce the reason he’d come to her office, but after Jaime’s questions—and skepticism—Seraph was wary of how things between them came off.

With just one look, it was clear why Jaime—and many other women around the office—wanted him. With his smooth, sepia-toned skin, perfectly round bald head and connecting beard and mustache, he was pure perfection. Add in cavernous dimples that only appeared when he smiled, thick thighs, and a strong back, Damon was the literal existence of fantasies. Seraph could objectively agree that Damon was attractive, but she still couldn’t reconcile his current grown man status with the little boy she had known since she was a teenager.

It didn’t help that when she left for college, Damon was nine-years-old, but when Seraph returned six years later, he was nowhere to be found, having gone to live with his mother in Dallas. He’d attended high school in Dallas and then immediately left for a local university in that area. Seraph didn’t see him again until he was twenty-three when she ran into him at her mother’s house on a random Saturday. That was four years ago, and she hadn’t seen him consistently until he relocated back to Houston shortly before he started working for Seraph’s company. It was only recently that she began seeing him regularly and that was because they worked together. She didn’t witness his rise to adolescence and puberty, so her brain still held on to the image of him as a nine-year-old.

“Sorry for interrupting.”

Damon’s low voice pulled her out of her thoughts, and Seraph shook her head and smiled. “It’s alright. How can I help you?”

“I—uh,” his eyes flickered from Seraph to Jaime then back to Seraph. “I stopped by to see if you wanted to join me for lunch…but it looks like you’re busy, so—”

“Hey, Damon,” Jaime cooed, looking back and forth between him and Seraph.

Seraph pursed her lips at the knowing look that Jaime was aiming her way. Jaime didn’t know anything and had been far off base, but this didn’t help make Seraph’s case. Any other day, she would have agreed without hesitation, but since Jaime was present—and currently staring an eager hole into the side of her face—she simply gave Damon an apologetic smile.