Page 11 of Tempt

How could we possibly know so much about each other when we’d spent so little time together?

“Because,” I started and stopped, searching for a way to explain the fact that I was turned on and upset about something I had no right to care about. “Because I’m not used to being kept in the dark.”

He frowned. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t my intention. It was just—”

“Business as usual.” I finished for him, and then turned to address the information I’d taken so much care and effort to put together. There was a dull ache in my chest, as ifbusiness as usualwas not something that should be used in the same sentence with me.

He was behind me in a second, not quite touching me, but well inside my personal space. I could feel his warmth and energy as it connected with mine. It was overwhelming how intensely it hit me.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, softer. “I don’t know why I feel like I need to say that a hundred times. I just…”

I closed my eyes and took a breath before I turned to face him, craning my neck up to look into his eyes. He didn’t make a move to step back and I swear he almost grabbed me and kissed me right then. I wish that he had.

“You just what?”

He swallowed. “I don’t know how to feel about you.”

That made two of us.

I arched an eyebrow. My gut told me to push Theo. “I think you want to kiss me, but something is stopping you.” If he felt even a fraction of what I was feeling, then kissing me was just the top of a very long list.

He nodded slowly. “You’re right about that. Idowant to kiss you.”

I took a shaky breath. It was hard to think straight with him so close. The room was spinning a little and I was almost shaking. It hurt to have him so close but not touching me—as if I were going to fly apart if he didn’t put all his weight on top of me while he buried himself inside me over and over again. “So what’s stopping you?”

“Everything.” His eyes dropped to my lips.

“That’s an awful lot.”

He nodded slowly.

I wondered what Theo’s definition of “everything” was. The fact that we’d only spent ten minutes together, total, was certainly a big one. This wasn’t a dark bar on the wrong side of town where two lonely people lock eyes and decide to do it in the bathroom. Random, nearly anonymous sex certainly happened all the time, but not like this.

We knew each other, or at least who we were. There was a trail. This was a conference room. He owned the building we were standing in. People like us didn’t just suddenly kiss simply because we were standing inches apart. People like us didn’t rip each other’s clothes off and have quick, easy sex and walk away the same.

Or maybe we did.

I had no other explanation for what was happening between us. So I decided to confess. “I wanted to kiss you when you caught me on the dance floor.”

His breath hitched again. “And what stopped you?”

“That look in your eyes.”

“What look is that?” His breath whispered across my skin.

“Confusion.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Is there something wrong with confusion?”

I shook my head. “No. Sometimes confusion is fun. But whenwefinally kiss, I want you to want it.”

“We’re working together now,” he said. He wasn’t moving. Not toward me, but not away from me either.

“I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.” If Theo was worried that I only wanted to kiss him to get in his pocket or on the front cover of a tabloid, he was sorely mistaken. Secrets were good with me. It would make my life much less complicated. “Besides, I’m not your employee.”

“You’re quite sure you want to cross that line?”

Oh there were so many lines when it came to him. Which line would he like me to pick? The ethical one? How about “no turning back”? Or maybe how once wasn’t going to be enough.

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