Page 4 of Courting the Consequences

Johnny’s hands came up in surrender and he slowed his approach.

Kevin groaned internally. He already missed the heat of her soft body pressed against his.

“Didn’t mean to startle you,” Johnny said slowly. “I thought you might be upset after the call from your father.”

Kara looked slightly unnerved. “I’m fine,” she muttered. “I’ll meet you back in my office in ten minutes,” she said with a more authoritative air.

Johnny nodded and slowly lowered his arms.

Kara nodded, then stepped past Kevin without looking at him and exited the stairwell using the door to the twenty-seventh floor.

Once the door was closed, Kevin turned back to his best friend. “What the fuck happened?”

“Fucking bullshit. Some old fucker cornered a woman in the bathroom. She went to HR, he was canned, but he came storming into Kara’s office bitching a fit,” Johnny shook his head in disbelief. “She’s tough as shit, though. I’ll give her that. She never backed down when he came in screaming, and she stood up to him for being a sleaze. Started spouting back at him about bylaws and shit. Dude, it was fucking hot.”

Kevin rolled his eyes. “And the choking?”

“I was in the hallway, so I couldn’t hear all of it, but he said something that made her laugh, and she said something back that pissed him off. I was trying to get closer when she saw me. She looked away from the guy and he wrapped his hand around her neck. She kneed him in the balls before I could even get across the room.”

“Jesus Christ,” Kevin swore and ran a hand through his dark hair.

“She’s a feisty thing,” Johnny smirked. “You hittin’ that?”

Kevin narrowed his gaze on his friend. “No, and neither are you if you know what’s good for you.”

Johnny’s shoulders squared and he took a moment to assess Kevin. “I’m just admiring from afar,” he drawled.

Kevin rolled his eyes. He knew his buddy all too well. Riling Kevin up was what Johnny lived for. “Don’t you have a meeting to get to? Papers to sign?” he prompted.

Johnny grinned. “Sure do, bro. I should go make sure the little spitfire isn’t all hot and bothered. That hug looked tempting.” Johnny patted him on the shoulder as he walked by. He exited the stairwell through the same door Kara had, a slight pep in his step.

Once the door was closed, Kevin sighed. It would be just his luck if Johnny took interest in Kara too. After all these years Kevin had never made a move, and now he might not get a chance.

Johnny found Kara back in her office ten minutes later. She was sitting at her desk, the contract between their companies on the desk before her. He waited until she finished signing the papers before he made his presence known.

He could see from the doorway that her cool composure was back, the mask of indifference firmly in place. He decided right then and there that he didn’t like it. The mask. He’d seen her fiery and passionate. He’d seen her drop her walls and seek comfort.

Thisindifferencewas not what he wanted to see. At least not while he was around.

“That happen often around here? You and Kevin?” He went straight for the jugular. He was a grab-life-by-the-balls kind of man. There was no sugarcoating with him.

Her eyes snapped to his, and that passionate anger flared to life behind those sky blues. “Excuse me?” she shot out. Her eyes narrowed. Her pouty pink lips pursed.

“You looked awfully cozy down in that stairwell. How do I know you’re not taking advantage of my employee?” Johnny goaded, knowing damn well it wasn’t like that.

Kara composed herself. That fiery bit of anger he had witnessed was pulled back behind the curtain of indifference. “Kevin is free to go whenever he’d like,” Kara stated.

“Not if he’s worried that he’d cost his company a big client,” Johnny tossed back.

Kara stood from her desk and rounded on him, that mask of indifference slipping. Johnny smirked.Goddamn, she is hot.“I know you aren’t actually insinuating I would have forced your employee into anything against his will just moments after firing a man for doing the very same thing to one of my employees.”

Johnny grinned wickedly, loving how riled up she got. A flush rose over her chest and neck, and her breasts heaved. His cock stirred in his jeans. She had no idea how hot she was all pissed off. “Insinuate? Sure. Believe it? Not a chance. But it was worth it to see that mask you’ve got in place fall. The ice-queen bit is overplayed,” Johnny goaded.

His head snapped to the side from the force of her slap before he even registered that she had moved. A growl ripped out of his chest, and he stepped toward her. Her eyes widened in shock a moment before he grabbed the side of her face and pulled her into a claiming kiss.

She resisted for half a second before she opened those pouty lips and slid her tongue against his. Her hands slid up his chest and neck before they slid through the short hair at his nape. He groaned when she nibbled on his lower lip. His hands wrapped around her trim waist and he lifted her.

She tried to wrap her legs around him, but the damned knee-length pencil skirt she was wearing hindered her.

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