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Emily opened her eyes. Jake watched as the blur of sleep gave way to awareness. A delicate blush rose in her cheeks.
“Jake,” she whispered.
“Yes.” He kissed her. Her mouth was warm and soft under his. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Is it morning?”
“Uh-huh.” He kissed her throat, inhaling the sweet woman-scent of her skin. “The storm’s over.”
“Then, we can head back to—” her voice broke as his mouth found her breast “—to New York.”
“Not yet,” he said softly, and drew her nipple gently between his teeth. “We’re still snowed in.” He lifted his head and looked at her. Desire had turned her eyes dark. Slowly, he moved over her, kissed and licked his way down her body.
“Jake,” she whispered, “Jake, what—”
“I just want to kiss you. Here. Right...”
She cried out, put her hands in his hair, arched towards him. Jake groaned, slid his hands under her bottom touched his mouth to her again, and she tumbled with him into a whirlpool of dazzling sensation.
It was late morning before Emily stirred again.
She knew it was late. Sunlight filled the room; she could hear the steady pit-pat of the icicles melting from the eaves.
She was alone in the rumpled bed. The bedroom door was open... and she could hear a male voice singing downstairs.
Emily smiled, rolled onto her belly and took Jake’s pillow in her arms.
She didn’t know much about rock and roll but either the radio stations in this part of the northeast featured really bad artists or Jake was singing his heart out. And, if he was, there wasn’t a singer in the world who had anything to worry about.
Jake was no threat to them... He was only a threat to her.
Emily’s smile faded. She sat up, her knees tenting the blankets, and ran her fingers through her tangled curls. The reality of morning sent the dreams of the night skittering into the shadows.
Sleeping with Jake hadn’t been on the agenda. Neither had falling in love with him. But both had happened, and now...
And now, what? What was a woman supposed to do, the morning after she’d slept with a man?
“Oh, Lord,” Emily whispered, and laid her head against her knees.
What had she done? Falling for Jake wasn’t just foolish, it was disaster waiting to happen; He didn’t love her. He didn’t even want an affair with her. He’d been perfectly clear about that. He’d wanted to show her what sex was all about....
And he had.
The weekend would end, and so would everything else. Monday morning, she’d show up at the office. So would Jake. And...
And?
And, nothing would be the same. Jake would look at her but not the way he always had. He’d look at her the way he’d looked at Brandi. With sadness, or maybe with embarrassment...
Emily fell back against the pillows.
A woman who slept with her boss was a liability, but a woman who fell in love with him was a calamity. How many times had she heard the same story? Secretaries, assistants, falling for the men they worked for. It happened with pathetic frequency, and always ended the same way, with the woman not just nursing a broken heart but doing it while she stood on the unemployment line.
Who was she kidding? The job was the least of it. It was Jake’s inevitable rejection that would be what would kill her. She’d laughed at the way Brandi had pursued him but it wasn’t quite so easy to laugh, now that she’d been with Jake, now that she’d fallen in love with him.
Okay. Emily drew a resolute breath. The thing to do was to end this, quickly. The snow had stopped. Even here, in the middle of nowhere, the roads would be clear. She’d dress, phone for a taxi, thank Jake politely for—for all his efforts...
“There you are, woman.”
Emily sat up. Jake was standing in the doorway, a rakish smile on his lips. He wore jeans and a black T-shirt; his feet were bare, his hair hung over his forehead and the stubble on his jaw was dark and sexy-looking.
Just seeing him made her feel dizzy.
“I figured you were going to sleep the day away.”
She drew the blanket to her chin and looked at the bedside clock. “I didn’t—I didn’t realize it was so late.”
“Yeah.” His voice softened, his smile tilted. “Well, you were tired.”
Her eyes flashed to his. He was coming towards her, and the way he was looking at her made her blush.
“Jake,” she said quickly, “I’m getting up.”
“Yes, you are.” He sat down next to her, on the bed. “You’re absolutely getting up, considering that I’ve spent the past thousand hours making pancakes, bacon, sausages and toast.”
