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“That’s the gist of it, yes.”
She pulled in a breath through her flared nostrils. How, exactly, was this her problem? Like Gia said, Taylor wasn’t the only one in that closet. “Did you regret it, Royce?”
He’d clung to her that night. Pulled her in and drank her kisses like his life depended on them. The way they fit together, even in their formalwear, suggested they’d fit together a whole lot better wearing a whole lot less.
“Of course I regretted it,” he answered in the same bland tone.
“No you didn’t.” He might have shown zero interest in her before that fated closet run-in but not so now. She’d witnessed him taking a painfully slow perusal of her from head to toe in the financial review meeting. “You brought the wrong report to the financial review.”
“Thanks for the reminder of my incompetence.” He sounded peeved, which peeved her. He wasn’t upset about the kiss, but oh-ho! He brought the wrong report! Scandal!
“You seemed distracted at the meeting,” she reminded him. “Was there something—” or someone “—keeping you from thinking clearly that morning, Royce?”
“Yes.” His low growl of affirmation sent her heart into a twirl. She knew it. She knew there was more to that kiss than proximity. “It won’t happen again.”
It was less of a promise and more an assertion. How could he be so sure? She wasn’t sure. She stopped shy of blurting, You looked like you wanted to lick my legs from Achilles to inner thigh.
An involuntary shudder shimmied up her spine as she imagined Royce’s mouth on her legs. His tongue climbing her leg, tickling behind her knee before going higher. It was bad enough she knew what his lips felt like on hers. It’d only made her want more.
Speaking of...
“Did you mention to Bran that after I threw myself at you in a fit of ‘panic’ and ‘confusion’ that you swept your tongue along mine until neither of us could think straight?” Heart thudding heavily, she waited. He didn’t respond right away, which made her feel smug. She was absolutely right about the effect of that kiss. It’d surprised both of them in the best way possible.
“I was carried away,” he murmured.
Satisfied, she smiled as she brushed her hand along the soft suede arm of the love seat. So she had rocked his world. Not bad, Tay.
“ThomKnox is facing a very big transition in the coming weeks and months after my father retires. As top brass, our focus needs to be on our shareholders and investors. You don’t have to worry about my mouth on yours—on any part of you—again. We can continue at work the way we have in the past. I trust you agree that it’s best we appear as one cohesive management team.”
The shift from such a personal comment to words as impassioned as a cardboard cutout pissed her off. Royce valued control. This much she knew. But acting like another kiss might disturb the otherwise perfect harmony at ThomKnox? Come on. How cocksure could one man be?
Denying the real attraction that existed between them wasn’t only a fabrication, it was cruel. She hadn’t had a man in her bed for nearly two years. Two years! She’d put her attraction, her desire for another person, on hold. She’d funneled every ounce of her remaining energy into prayers and good vibes and meditation and research on alternate medicines for her father. Anything to give him another year—another twenty years—on this planet.
None of her efforts had changed what fate had so cruelly set in motion. Her father was destined to die no matter what she did to stop it. It was unfair, and she’d wailed those words at the blank white ceiling of her bedroom on more than one occasion. And now Royce thought he’d come along and mansplain away how she was feeling when she kissed him? And worse—claim he hadn’t felt the attraction she damned well knew was there.
What a load of crap.
“You can lie to me about that kiss,” she told him, “but you know the truth deep inside.”
“The truth, deep or otherwise, is that it shouldn’t have happened. I’m willing to forget it, and I suggest you do the same.”
