AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She’s right. “I should reopen this investigation into why marketing got nothing for a half-million expenditure.”
“It sounds like you already have.” She stares into the fire. “What are you going to do if you discover it was actually Viola behind all that fraud?”
A limb rolls out of the fire and I poke it back with my broom handle. “You think that’s how it will go?”
“I can only assume so. It’s beyond what I thought Viola capable of. I mean, she’s been treacherous, like you said, with other men at work. But to get me out of the way? When you weren’t even interested? I don’t know. That’s a lot, even for her.”
“I have the dailies. I’ll get the proof one way or another.” I force myself to turn my gaze to her even though I’m feeling pretty chagrined at how the last two years have gone, and my role in it. “I guess we have to decide if you want to be my employee again.”
“Why would I want to do thatnow?”
“Because you don’t have a job? You just said?—”
“Rhett Armstrong, for such a smart man who runs a successful business, the tech debacle notwithstanding, you sure are thick in the head.” Her eyes blaze with the firelight. “Do I have to spell it out for you?”
“Maybe?”
“Rhett. There is no Maxwell. The only man I’ve been fixated on for the last two years was you.”
Her words wash over me. Two years of working next to this woman, lost. No touching. No suggestive chatter. No outlet for my feelings.
Yeah, I’m done with that.
I lift her by the waist and set her directly on my lap.
She lets out a little, “Oh!”
Then, when I grab the back of her neck and drag her lips to mine, there’s a longer “Ooooh.” She melts into me.
Those lips I watched her gloss for years are finally mine. She tastes slightly salty, like the air here, like margaritas. I take all the time I want, learning her mouth from corner to corner.
The world is filled with interruptions, but we will have none here.
But also, I realize, no condoms. No comfortable bed.
I’ll make do.
My tongue slips between her lips, and she opens for me. Now it’s my turn to dissolve into her. I draw her in, sliding one of her legs around so that she straddles me. My fingers sink into that silky hair I touched so briefly earlier.
I’m drowning in her mouth, her tongue, the heat of her. We’re not wearing all that much, and I know the moment she feels me hard against her because she sucks in a breath, her body shivering lightly.
This is my favorite part, accelerating toward the goal.
Her body pressed to mine is a revelation. I have her alone. No office. No barriers. No damn nonexistent boyfriend.
My hands ache to learn every curve of her body. I reach down and circle her ankles with my fingers, squeezing to memorize the distance around them. I rub my thumb against the tender arch of her foot. She groans, and I work them harder, feeling all the tension ease from her.
She hangs onto me, her mouth seeking mine, arms around my neck.
I squeeze her feet and make my way up. I slide my hand along her calves, measuring the swell of her muscle and knocking stray grains of sand from her skin.
The kiss yawns wide, and we fall more fully into each other.
The urge to rush shudders through me, but I set it aside. Tonight is for exploration. Discovery. For chasing down paths that have been built in my mind for years. Destinations I never thought I would actually get to explore.
My fingers make it to her knees, bumping along the hollows like I am reading her body in Braille. There is nothing about her I don’t want to know. I slide my fingers along the taut tendon at the base of her hamstring. Nothing is too insignificant to map as the terrain of her.
My pulse quickens as I make my way up her thighs. Her mouth goes still on mine, her breath hitching when my thumbs rest on the edge of her bikini bottom.
