Page 24 of Big & Bossy

She leaned forward, crossing and uncrossing and crossing again. Fuck, she has to stop doing that. “If I say yes, I’d like you to introduce me to potential clientele. Take me to a few networking events. Sell me. Make my business boom, Jackson Big, and we might have a deal.”

“That’s all you want?” I asked. I lifted my glass to my lips, taking a hearty sip and feeling my control dwindle just a hair. “You can have anything, and you want clients?”

“Yes,” she replied as if it were obvious.

“Deal.”

“Wait. Not a deal yet,” she drawled, her lips twitching up at the corner. “I’m assuming that pretending to be in a relationship with you is going to include some… intimate things in public. I want to know how far you expect us to go.”

Jesus. I can’t talk about this with you, not now, not when my cock is doing half of my thinking and my control is slipping. “Don’t tell me you’re already excited to kiss me,” I teased, the words falling from my tongue like molasses, soft and smooth. Too much, but I didn’t care.

She scoffed, her cheeks reddening. “You wish I was. Don’t let your ego get the best of you, Jackson.”

I chuckled as I stood, my mind swimming with far too many thoughts of having her in my arms, my lips against hers, my cock… Stop. Calm down. “It won’t be any more than what you typically see in photos of other couples in the public eye. Kissing, holding hands. Looking at me like you want me, but based on that blush on your cheeks, that one shouldn’t be hard.”

Her blush deepened, this time with what I was sure was irritation. “I’m practicing,” she lied. “Don’t fool yourself.”

“Is that right?” I asked, stepping around the table that separated us. I leaned forward, holding my weight with one hand on the armrest and the other on the back of the sofa, caging her in. I could smell her perfume, see her chest rising and falling, the goosebumps breaking out along her neck. “Just practicing, princess?”

“Yes,” she breathed.

I leaned in a little closer, our breaths mingling, and lifted one hand to her cheek. My heart raced in my chest just from touching her, from being so close to her. “Then I hope you don’t mind if I practice a little myself.”

Her pulse thrummed beneath my fingertips as I brushed them along her jaw, her throat, the back of her neck. So soft, so warm.

“No one’s in here to take our photo, Mandy. You can tell me to stop,” I whispered, brushing my nose against her cheek as I greedily took in more of her scent. I could smell the hint of Lagavulin on her breath, could practically taste her perfume. “But you don’t want me to stop, do you?”

She breathed in, rough and shaky. “You’re an asshole, Jack.”

I rolled my eyes, moving swiftly before she could object, wrapping one hand around the small of her waist. I hoisted her up off the sofa, the little shriek she made only making it that much better and exciting me even more. I carried her over to the large window that separated her personal office from the seating area and pressed her against it.

She looked up at me, confusion blaring in her half-lidded eyes. I didn’t want to step away. I’d take what I could get, even if it was only a drop.

“Jack—?”

I couldn’t stop myself.

I needed her.

I needed this.

I pressed my lips to hers before I could talk myself out of it.

Chapter 12

Mandy

Igenuinely think I’m falling for you, Mandy. Like, really falling.

Please don’t call me panda bear during sex.

I could fall in love with you so easily.

You’re the best thing I’ve ever called my own.

That face you pull when you’re so engrossed in something is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.

You’re going to haunt me forever, aren’t you?

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