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Dark side.My mouth falls open. Then snaps shut. “Terrible thoughts?”
“Yes.”
“Please be more specific.”
“Clover—” And then he cuts himself off.
All right. My turn. I lift my chin. “I also have a confession. I didn’t know what I was walking into tonight. Part of me thought you had hired someone to be your fiancée. I couldn’t figure out why, but I was so jealous, I thought… I should show you a sexier side of me. But another part of me knew you wouldn’t do that, you wouldn’t be able to actually put another human being through that kind of act, and you’d make an excuse for her absence.”
His brows are almost to his hairline. “You…knew that?”
“You’re a very good man, Rufus. You care about the people you do business with. You care about your employees.”
“Full disclosure, I was a bit of a bear of a boss before you.”
I prop my hands on my hips. “Uh, you’re still a bear of a boss. But I like bears. And I like you. A lot. More than I should, strictly speaking.”
“More?” He eases his hands out of his pockets. They’re so big, just like the rest of him.
Terrible things.
I’ve missed out on almost a year of those big hands doingthingsto me because neither of us thought to confess anything before tonight.
We are fools.
“So much more,” I say in a rush. “And I have for as long as you’ve thought about doing…things to me.”
“Terrible things.” He repeats the two words gravely. “I shouldn’t—”
“You should.”
The words hang between us. Not for long. Just enough time to suck in a breath.
Then he crosses the gap in what feels like a single, explosive stride, and pulls me into his arms. Heat races up my back, tingling my spine and blazing against my bare skin where his fingertips press into my flesh.
My fingers find his tie and tug. His throat moves, like he’s just swallowed hard, and then he hitches me up against his body, banding one his arms around my lower back.
His other hand cups my face, his thumb rubbing along my jaw, to the corner of my mouth. “I want to make a mess of this lipstick,” he growls. “To start.”
I manage to smile around a trembling exhale. “Go for it.”
He groans and drags the pad of his thumb across my lower lip, his gaze darkening as I feel my lipstick smear.
I expect him to crash his mouth down against mine.
Instead, I get a slow lowering of his head, then a soft, surrounding breath against my lips. His hand slides around to cup the back of my neck as he lays a tender butterfly kiss on the corner of my mouth.
We both go still.
Can he feel my pulse jack hammering in my neck?
Can he sense how inexperienced I am?
Is that why he won’t kiss me—
“You’re such a sweet little thing, Clover.” The words drag out of him, his voice a rasp. “And you were the best girl tonight. Do you know that?”
“I really wasn’t sure…”
