She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. She kept it professional at this meeting, but she was having dreams about wanting to rip off his clothes after work tonight. There was nothing like a hot, steamy office fling. She wasn’t even sure where they stood exactly. But she knew one thing. By pursuing this relationship, Luke was an absolute risk to her heart and her career. She still dove right in. She just hoped she didn’t get burned by the flames of passion.
Paige grinned as she left the boardroom. Maybe it was the thrill of getting caught. Maybe it was the adrenaline rush. Maybe it was because they were both just plain crazy. Or maybe it was because they had crazy chemistry and couldn’t keep their hands off each other.
When they secretly met in the stairwell, he smashed her up against the wall, hiking up her dress and hitching her leg around his waist as his lips found hers. His mouth explored hers, his tongue dancing around hers in perfect harmony. He devoured her with a kiss so deep...that she swore she was seeing fireworks. She fought to stay in control but she couldn’t help but let herself go.
She was consumed by every thrust of his tongue. Tasting him like this felt so natural, so damn right. She tangled her hands through his carefully combed hair and wrapped her other leg around him. Heat shot through her as his lips traveled down her neck.
She was so caught up that she couldn’t remember all the reasons why this was so wrong. She hadn’t been kissed with such intensity or passion in a long time. And as much as she was enjoying this amazing kiss, she snapped back to reality. She was playing with fire. She was playing with her career. She could be fired for this kind of behavior. What was she thinking?
“We can’t do this,” she said, gasping for breath.
His fingers trailed through her hair. “Why not?”
He pressed his lips against her mouth and they started kissing once again. His kiss was hungry, hot as hell, demanding, and intense.
She moaned as his tongue slid down her neck. “You know why.”
It was almost impossible to break off the addictive kiss, but she broke away.
“We can’t,” Paige said. “You know this will change everything. I’m madly attracted to you. I am. And I want to keep going...desperately. But I know we can’t.”
She could feel him hardening beneath her, but before things could go any further, they both abruptly stopped.
“I’m sorry,” he panted, “I’m sorry.”
She tried to catch her breath. “No, it’s okay. It’s just—”
“We can’t,” he finished. “I know we can’t.”
He took the words right out of her mouth, but she suddenly realized that she didn’t want to hear him say them, any more than she wanted him to stop. She wanted them to be right back up against the wall, picking up where they left off.
One look in his eyes told her he was thinking the same thing. But he restrained himself, summoning a strength of will instilled by years of professionalism.
He stared at her hungrily once more, before turning his back and opening the door from the stairwell. “I’m sorry again—I never should have done that.”
“Don’t worry,” she tried to reassure him as she followed him inside. “We’ll just forget it. It’ll be like it never happened.”
But as she started to walk away, she felt suddenly certain.
There was no way in hell she could ever forget...
Chapter 9
FOR WEEKS, THE REASON she sprang off the couch before her alarm went off, the bubbly energy coursing through her was all from the excitement of seeing Luke, of running into him and exchanging a few words. How long could they manage to flirt at work under the radar?
They tried to fight it, they did. But it was like destiny had other plans that neither could ignore.
Flirting with him, brushing his hand with hers or bumping in to him on the stairs. They found a way almost daily to run into each other, to encounter one another by pure coincidence—or by design. Once it was at Starbuck’s down the street. He’d been behind her in line. Paige had thought she smelled his cologne. So, she held up her phone and saw his reflection in the screen. He’d laid a hand on her shoulder then, squeezed once as if he were about to give her a massage, about to release all the tension built up in those muscles. Then he’d released her.
It had been a decidedly sexy shoulder squeeze, if such things could be rated. She’d let her cappuccino go cold at her desk as she stared at the screen blankly, reliving the moments in line again and again, the familiarity and possessiveness of that hand heavy and large on her shoulder. He had paid for her coffee—insisted on it, and she’d turned to say thank you to him. He’d given a smile, the sort of obligatory polite smile that had nothing to do with happiness.
“You look even grumpier when you try that fake smile,” she’d whispered, and had gotten a real smile of amusement from him as her reward.
Paige could think of little else but seeing him. It was, she couldn’t help but think, like sitting in algebra waiting for your crush to walk in so you could stare at the back of his head for an hour until the bell rang. Only she was an adult with real responsibilities now.
She put in long hours at work to make sure she didn’t slack off on her workload due to distraction. Between worrying about Paxtyn and imagining Luke Conners kissing her, Paige didn’t have a lot of extra brainpower to use on her job. It didn’t hurt that she thought every night she stayed late that it might be the time Luke put in extra hours as well. That she might run into him at a vending machine or in the elevator. A lot of her stray and unproductive thoughts had to do with the elevat
ors at the Conners building these days.