Temping wasn’t the most satisfying of jobs, but today, thanks to her boss, she felt as if she’d made a contribution. He’d made her feel welcome, and, more importantly, she felt valued as an employee, even if it was temporary.
‘We’ll call it a day.’ He closed the folder they’d been working on.
‘Already?’ She glanced up, noticing the sky had turned black and the glitter of city lights twinkled below. Where had the time gone?
‘It’s after eight. That’s enough. I’ll take it from here.’
She glanced at her watch, incredulous, and gave a half-laugh as she rose. ‘You know the old saying about time flying.’
‘Thanks for your competent help over the past couple of days.’
Then he smiled. With genuine warmth. And, oh, my, was he drop-dead gorgeous or what? And not only that. How many of the people she’d worked for over the past couple of years had bothered to acknowledge her efforts? She couldn’t help but smile back as she met his eyes. ‘It’s been a pleasure.’
She realised she was still smiling when his eyes turned dark, his pupils expanding till they almost touched that rim of navy. Hotter, spreading warmth over her skin, and she got that he was thinking of pleasure too.
Warning bells clanged in her ears, echoing in the tiny part of her brain that wasn’t focused on the pleasure she had no doubt he could provide. She needed to leave. Now. Before something happened that changed…everything. ‘If there’s nothing else, I’ll say goodnight…’
He didn’t reply and a shivery sensation swept through her. She stepped away from the chair and through the doorway, then grabbed her bag from the drawer in Pam’s desk. With only the reflection off adjacent high-rises, the glow from Jared’s office and a security light at one end of the bank of elevators, the entire floor was cloaked in semi-darkness.
The back of her neck prickling—he hadn’t said goodnight so what might that mean?—she set a brisk pace past the deserted office cubicles. Her pulse rate stepped up and she had to force herself not to break into a run. She was short of breath by the time she pressed the button to summon the lift.
‘Wait up, Sophie.’ His voice was nowhere near far enough away. ‘Where are you parked? I’ll walk you to your car.’
She scowled up at the floor numbers as the lift approached from the ground floor with what seemed like agonising slowness. She knew she’d never make sanctuary before he reached her and she said, ‘A couple of spaces away from where we parked this morning. I’ll be fine,’ over her shoulder.
‘I’m sure you will but it won’t hurt to make sure.’
I wouldn’t count on it. The lift doors opened on a cushion of air and she stepped inside. So did Jared. The doors closed, silence and intimacy surrounded them and their eyes met again.
Her feet moved towards the back of the lift, but her gaze remained locked with his and she realised this wasn’t just about last night’s dream or whether he’d read her dirty diary or not. The glimpse of promised pleasure she saw in his eyes was real—and would have consequences.
She didn’t want a man unless he was the kind that faded with dawn. And yet, standing here within Jared’s aura and being bathed in his gaze was a naked sensation of heat and desire and imminent surrender, stripping away not only clothing, but denials and reasons.
Beneath her blouse, her skin felt slick, tight. Her blood turned syrupy and throbbed through her veins to a place deep down in her belly and she wanted him with every female cell in her body.
Stupido.
She closed her eyes to lessen the impact. It didn’t work because now her senses focused even more acutely on her body’s reaction and her surroundings. She could smell his scent in the confined space and, with all external sound extinguished, she could almost hear him breathing. Worse, she could almost hear him thinking.
‘Sophie…’
Her eyes snapped open and were immediately drawn again to his as if there were some kind of force at work. ‘Did you press the button?’ she asked, and heard her words come out high-pitched and breathless. ‘How come the lift’s not moving?’ And how come she hadn’t noticed that? She leaned against the wall. Were they stuck in here?
His gaze glittered with something like amusement. One elbow and forearm was casually propped against the lift wall. ‘You’re not claustrophobic, are you?’
No, they weren’t stuck…at least the lift wasn’t. ‘I don’t think so.’ Except that the walls seemed to be closing in, or maybe it was Jared’s height, the breadth of his shoulders that made it seem that way. And the air…she dragged it in slow and deep…she couldn’t seem to find enough.