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Except I couldn’t bring myself to regret it.
“Not making tea today?” As soon as she’d mentioned her ‘secret admirer’, the urge to take credit for what I thought were decent starter gifts had taken a firm hold. But I—just as strongly—had been assaulted with a desire to know what she thought of not only the items themselves but the person cloaked in mystery who had sent them.
She held up a silver travel mug that said, ‘And yet, despite the look on my face, you’re still talking’, and tapped the metal with her perfectly manicured fingernail. “I’ve got it covered—and half done with it already.”
I shook my head slowly. “There has to be some sort of twelve-step program to deal with your addiction.”
Leah arched a single brow as she took a long drink from her cup. “There are some people who find my affinity for tea charming.” A smile, a soft, gentle smile that seemed to make her entire countenance glow, spread across her face. “Even gift-worthy.”
The admission that I was the one behind it all danced on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed back the words. Maybe it wasn’t the wisest decision, but I wanted the mystique to last just a little longer. I stood and rounded both of our desks and rested my rear end against the smooth surface of hers, close to where she sat. “Have you figured out what I’m addicted to yet?”
She looked up at me with mischief and amusement lighting her eyes. “That brown swill you call coffee?”
“Not even close.” I hooked a finger beneath her chin and lowered my face near hers. “Watching your ass sway every damn time you walk away from me.” I ran my thumb along her lower lip. “And imagining how your lips taste every time you speak.” I moved my mouth until it hovered a breath above hers. “Can I kiss you?”
A soft, whimpering sigh was quickly followed by, “You better.”
That was all the invitation I needed, so I closed the small space between us and finally satiated some of the cries of my body, claiming the woman who had consumed so many of my waking and sleeping moments in a kiss I had to temper. No way in hell was I going to push her even faster than I already had. More and more I was certain that as much as I wanted to explore every damn inch of her body, I wanted to make it just as clear that I wanted something deeper.
Every fantasy I’d had wasn’t even in the same stratosphere as the reality of having her mouth on mine. After the briefest hesitation, her lips parted and she gripped my wrist, stroking the pressure point where my pulse was pounding out a rapid rhythm. Her tongue welcomed mine inside with the seductive flavor of honey, cinnamon andherwith a tantalizing stroke.
Despite the protests screaming from every atom of my being, I pulled back, but rested my forehead on hers. “My God, how do you do that?”
“Do what?” Her whispered question tickled my already-sensitive mouth—the all-too-brief taste of her heightening my desire and making every cell of my being simultaneously tender and ravenous.
“Outshine every dream of you I create.” I ran the back of my hand down her cheek and sat back on the top of her desk. “Make no mistake about it, Leah. The last thing I want to do right now is stop. I would much rather rip the buttons of that sexy-as-hell outfit and lick every single inch of your flesh.” I linked my fingers with hers and realized she was trembling. I could help but grin, knowing I’d created that. “But I also don’t want to do anything to embarrass you in front of everyone, and we all have a hell of a lot on our plates today.”
I ran my tongue along my top lip, silently praying to every god I could think of that some of her flavor would linger there. “However, I would love to take you out to dinner tonight.”
A crease formed between her brows, and she stood, her hold on my hand tightening. “Dinner? As in a date? You…want to date me? You don’t just want to—?”
Something primal and possessive reared up within me, and I nearly snarled at her questions. Instead, I took ownership of her mouth again in a far more passionate and decisive kiss to dispel any thought in her head that I wanted nothing more than her body. The woman may be the dictionary definition of wickedly sexy, but the sassy, sarcastic mouth and friggin’ brilliant brain that lit up her blue eyes was so much more enticing than her luscious curves.
“Just in case that wasn’t a definitive enough response for you, Chief…” I sucked in a lungful of the air I’d lost devouring her far too delectable lips. “Hell yes, I want to date you. And I will even promise to keep my hands in very G-rated places the whole time to prove it.”
She fisted my shirt and yanked me even closer until her nose nearly touched mine. “Don’t you dare, Golden Boy.”
Chapter Seven
Leah
For what seemed to be the fiftieth time that day, Brendan’s lusty gaze collided with mine over the desk, and I sucked in a lungful of oxygen. Lunch had been the worst with nothing to distract me and my certainty that he had eaten his sandwich slower than necessary on purpose. The flick of his tongue to collect the drop of mayonnaise clinging to his top lip was, without question, an intentional move. The depth of passion and desire radiated out from what were emerald-green irises in that moment had me pulling up my search engine.
Is spontaneous combustion real?
I snorted when my results told me that it was almost certainly a ‘no’. Clearly, whatever scientists had been involved in that research hadn’t had to sit across from a very determined and motivated Brendan Lanza. I shifted once more in my seat and attempted, yet again, to focus on the proposal I was drafting.
“Oh shit.” Brendan cursed seconds after an alarm sounded on his phone. He glanced at me with an unreadable expression written on his face. “Ah, give me a second.”
Before I could respond, he all but sprinted through the door, his finger swiping across the glass screen as he went. “Good,” I murmured to the empty room around me. “Maybe now I can focus.”
But as distracting as his presence was, his absence was even worse. There were a million and one reasons why I shouldn’t be falling for him and the overwhelming chemistry that practically consumed me, but common sense seemed to evaporate when it came to Brendan Lanza.
The doorbell camera app on my phone alerted me to someone on my doorstep, and my stomach clenched. For some reason, I had started looking forward to the anonymous deliveries, and I snatched the device from my desk to see if it was another package. As much as I definitely did not want to admit it, I wasn’t hating the holidays quite as much since this Secret Santa had popped up in my life. Unfortunately, this time, it was just my normal mail delivery.Nothing special.
Yet another inconvenience when there was a stranger inexplicably worming their way into my heart at the same time as Brendan was tempting every single part of me. I snorted and attached the finally completed document to an email and hit Send. It would be so much more convenient if Brendan were the one behind the presents.
Slowly but surely we were saving the special by adding some new talent to the lineup to, hopefully, offset our losses. Despite the potential disaster, I couldn’t help but smile. Brendan used his natural charm to soothe the agitated superstars and attempted to earn a little extra time to work out the issues facing us before they completely decided to distance themselves from our project, although part of giving them time was agreeing not to publicize their affiliation, which resulted in a ton of lost promotional time.
