Page 32 of Nothing to Fear

She yanked her hands free and flattened them on the wall. Looking at him, acknowledging what they were doing, erased her good sense and sucked away her inhibitions. Her eyes closed, her chin rose, and she exhaled.

“What the fuck is wrong with me?”

“The same thing that’s wrong with me.”

Obviously not, if she was propositioning men in what turned out to be a darkened stairwell.

“This is a bad idea, I can’t—I would never…” Though she didn’t trust herself to open her eyes, she did steady herself on her feet again, without using the wall for support. “You’re my boss and I need my job—”

“I am not your boss and your job is not at risk. My family don’t work that way. Can’t you tell already? Haven’t we conducted ourselves with integrity?”

“Yes,” she said, her eyes springing open. “Oh, God, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.”

“But you still think we’d fire you if this relationship didn’t work out?”

“No, it’s—the people I work with—”

“You want to keep this between us, I heard you. This doesn’t have to be public knowledge until we’re ready.”

“If we go out somewhere for dinner, everyone will see—”

“Private dining, baby. We can eat in private. Or you can come to the house, no one else has to know.”

“Except your entire family.”

“You’ve seen how big the house is.”

Which meant what?

“I don’t know, it’s—this is happening too fast, I need to… I need to think.” Acting based on heated desire wouldn’t put her on a reliable path. “Give me your number, I’ll call.”

Would she? Maybe. The pondering fled when he stepped back.

“I… don’t give out my number.”

Another quick cool moment. “Okay,” she said with an incredulous brow raise. “Well, that was an easy decision.”

Striding past him, she ignored his plea for her to wait and went back to their group just as applause died down.

“Where did you go?” Yvette asked, joining her. “You missed the end.”

“It’s okay. I’m ready to go home.”

“There’s talk of the Breckenridge guys taking the two teams out for drinks. The older ones.”

Sure, the older ones.

“You have my blessing, but I need to stand in the shower for an hour.”

“You and your showers.”

“I think better in there.”

“Okay, you can go have your shower, after they call the Breckenridge head-to-head.”

Shit. Right. The exciting part. Apparently.

Alice stood at the head of the Luxe Leathers lane. Caber was at her back and moved aside to let Darroch stand beside him when he showed up. In a heartbeat, he zeroed in on her.

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