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I bit my lip. Every law student in Boston would be tripping over themselves for this kind of opportunity. But my instincts hadn’t changed. Sterling Grove wasn’t the right place for me. Especially if I was going to be working for someone with a penchant for over-the-top gifts that would do nothing but start a bunch of rumors.
“I haven’t changed my mind,” I said much more confidently than I felt. “But that doesn’t mean I can take these from you.”
“Sure, it does.”
“No, it doesn’t!” I sputtered.
I picked up the box and thrust it into his lap. It slid helplessly to the rug, and the sleek red shoes fell out. Sterling glared at me, his eyes now a dark blue. This time I glared right back.
We maintained our silent standoff while the fire popped. His knee just barely touched mine, sending heat up my leg that couldn’t completely be from the fire or my temper. They did say there was a thin line between love and hate. It was all too easy to imagine us throwing the shoes across the room—maybe at each other?—before falling onto that soft rug. Naked. Wrestling. He would lean over me in the firelight and pin my hands over my head just as he eased himself between my…
“Skylar?”
I blinked. “What?” Christ,thathad gone from zero to sixty in record time.
His scowl had transformed into a knowing half grin. He knewexactlywhat I was thinking. “Your cheeks are red again. Are you feeling all right?”
Goddamn my Irish complexion.
“I’m fine,” I said, reaching for my tea. I made a big production of taking a sip, rotating the cup in the saucer, and holding it in my lap so I could regain my composure. “Are you always this stubborn?”
“As an ass,” Sterling confirmed. With one toe, he kicked the shoes out of sight. “Usually it gets me what I want.”
Something about the way he said that had me flushed all over again.
“Mr. Sterling, why am I here? Somehow I don’t think it was just to enjoy a cup of tea or argue about shoes.”
He sat back and rubbed a big hand over his face. “Haven’t I told you yet to call me by my first name?”
I shook my head. I would have remembered that.
“It’s Brandon,” he said. “You should call me Brandon. Especially since I asked you up here because I’d like to fuck you. Tonight, if that works.”
I nearly dropped my cup. I must have imagined it. Was he that stupid? Making sexual advances on an intern? At work? In hisoffice?
“Let me be clear that this is in no way work-related,” Sterling continued—I couldn’t yet bring myself to think of him as Brandon. “And since you have already turned down a job offer here multiple times, I don’t expect this can be constituted as sexual harassment. Are we clear?”
So, he wasn’t stupid, just daring. The safer move would have been to wait until I was no longer an employee of his company. But…he hadn’t. Maybe because he knew the undeniable attraction I was feeling. Maybe, a small voice said, because he felt it too.
“Um, okay. I suppose we are,” I said, finally finding my voice again. “You’re not going to jump me here, are you?”Please jump me.
Sterling leaned back and laughed from his gut. “God, no, Red. Sorry, but no. Although it’s a soft rug…”
Did he have ESP? Sterling scooted closer so that our legs were now flush together. There was a subtle combination of soap, laundry detergent, and some unique scent that belonged just to him—something vaguely metallic mixed with almonds. It smelled…unique. And disturbingly good.
We were close enough that I could see the small creases at the edges of his eyes and a few frown lines across his forehead—the first obvious signs of our age difference. The eleven years should have deterred me, but they now seemed inconsequential. His cheeks already had a tiny bit of stubble, suggesting he shaved at night, rather than the morning. And his lips were fuller than I had initially thought—soft and ripe.
“Seriously, though,” he said. His eyes were vast, watchful pools of blue. “It’s a cliché, I know…but since Friday, I…I can’t stop thinking about you…”
A tentative finger touched the curve of my jaw. It traced down to my chin and up to rest on my lower lip, which was tucked firmly in between my teeth. Sterling’s eyes were now almost dark as the night sky, pupils dilated with lust.
I released my lip and pulled away, but only a fraction, since he had already pushed me into the corner of the couch. His hand dropped into his lap, and he cleared his throat.
“Sorry,” he said. “I’m putting the cart before the horse. It’s...a bad habit of mine.”
Sterling stood and walked to the fire, which he poked before sitting on the edge of the hearth.
“You’re a law student,” he said. “Motivated. Busy. I don’t know why you don’t have a job yet, but I’m guessing Sterling Grove isn’t the first place to court you. I’d bet my stock portfolio you’ll be spending most of the next semester networking along with your regular classes, clinic, maybe some other extracurriculars. Am I right?”
