Page 30 of The Fix Up

“Okay then, we didn’t sleep together, we had sex,” she said. “Let’s not get hung up on semantics.”

“I’m not faulting your word choice. Just observing that no sexual intercourse took place. I went down on you, you came, end of story.”

The flush in her cheeks told him the story was far from over, and Ben was inclined to agree. Still, he pressed on. “Look, we can still maintain a professional relationship here.”

“Ben—”

“Please, Holly. I need you. Having you there coaching me through the event tonight was a godsend. I can’t do this CEO thing without you. Not yet, anyway. I still have a lot of work to do before I’m fit to fill my father’s shoes.”

She frowned, which Ben felt like doing, too, as his own words echoed in his ears. The last thing he wanted was to be his father, but that’s exactly what he was counting on Holly to help him do.

If you’re trying not to emulate the worst of your dad, hooking up with a woman you hired is probably not the best move.

Dammit. Okay, he could still fix this.

“Look, I can be good,” he said.

“No kidding.” A ghost of a smile crossed her features, but she bit her lip and dropped her gaze. “Sorry, not helpful. Also, I’m really sorry about leaving you high and dry. If you want, I could—” Her voice trailed off, but he caught her meaning as her gaze shifted to his crotch.

“It’s okay. You’re right, we should keep things professional between us. Please—let’s give it a shot.”

She looked down into her lap and fiddled with the tie on the front of the cashmere pants. “No more fooling around?”

“Scout’s honor,” he said, raising his hand with his palm toward her, thumb extended, fingers parted between his middle and ring finger.

Holly stared at his hand and frowned. “What the hell kind of Boy Scout were you?”

“I wasn’t. That’s a Vulcan salute.”

“Star Trek?”

“Yep. Much more meaningful to a geek than any Boy Scout pledge. As Spock is my witness, I’ll do my very best to keep my hands off you.”

She stared at his hand a few beats, and he wondered if she was pondering the magnitude of his geekiness or remembering how his fingers had felt sliding in and out of her.

At last she raised her hand, moving her fingers into her own version of the Vulcan salute. “Well okay then,” she said. “Live long and prosper and grope no more.”

* * *

“You slept with him?”Miriam raised her palm in a gesture Holly wished didn’t leave her thinking salacious thoughts about Ben’s monster paws and his Vulcan salute. “Come on,” Miriam urged, waving her hand in Holly’s face and jingling the gold bracelet on her wrist. “This calls for a high five.”

“I’m not high-fiving you,” Holly whispered, glancing toward the conference room door. She’d had it soundproofed when she and Miriam first took over the space and had it built out to their specifications, back when they were just starting out with First Impressions. Even so, she didn’t want to take any chances. “Besides, as Ben pointed out—we didn’t technically sleep together.”

“That’s right, he follows the Bill Clinton definition of sex.” Miriam waved her un-high-fived palm dismissively and grinned at Holly. “Come on, this is a big deal.”

“It’s not a big deal, and it’s not happening again,” Holly said, pretty sure she meant it. “Come on, we can’t go knocking boots with our clients any old time we feel like it.”

“We own the company, hon.” Miriam scooped up a spoonful of Greek yogurt while Holly took a nervous sip of her iced tea. “We can pretty much make the rules.”

“Right. And I think the rules of professional conduct are pretty clear on the fact that it’s a bad idea to get romantically involved with someone who’s paying you to rebrand his corporate identity.”

“I’m pretty sure there are no rules for that particular arrangement,” Miriam pointed out. “Didn’t you kinda make up that whole thing? It’s not like there’s a user manual for rebranding aperson.”

Holly sighed. “Hooking up with a client would be bad under the best of circumstances. Hooking up with the one client whose fee is going to get us out of this mess with the bank is just idiotic. I don’t want to blow this.”

“You didn’t blow anything, which is kinda too bad for Ben.” Miriam grinned. “That was very generous of him.”

“You’re impossible.” Holly forked up a bite of her salad, not sure if guilt or lust was winning out in her carousel of moods this morning. Part of her wanted to be ashamed of herself and committed to never, ever getting intimate with a client.

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