Page 42 of Fumbled Beginning

Leaning forward,I glanced at the screen, ensuring everything looked good. “I’m sending over the document now,” I told Miles, our VP of Finance. We’d been on a conference call for the past hour, fine-tuning some attendance projections with his team.

“Great!” he said into the speakerphone. “I’ll look it over one last time tonight to make sure we didn’t miss anything.”

“Sounds good.” I unglued my eyes from my computer screen and sipped my water. “I hope you guys have a safe flight. I’ll see you all back in the office tomorrow.”

“Can’t wait,” Miles grumbled. “Chicago is fucking freezing.”

I laughed, hung up the phone, and typed out a quick response to our customer service team with an update.

We were hosting a good-sized medical conference next month in the main ballroom at our Tennessee location. The managing director who was in charge of events was out on maternity leave. I was asked to step in and make sure that every detail had been attended to and that our client would be happy with their experience.

Pulling this stuff off was never easy; you had to hustle, be flexible, and manage the vendors and their teams. If you messed things up, word got around, and you lost events. And losing too many events would eventually put you out of work. Fortunately for me, I was good at what I did. I loved the fast pace of the business and the idea of impressing my clients.

I glanced up when I heard a knock on my office door.

“Come in.”

My face broke out into a huge smile at the attractive man I had the pleasure of getting to know pretty damn well over the weekend, standing in my doorway.

“Hey, gorgeous.”

“Wow! This is a surprise.” I blinked rapidly as JP quickly shut the door behind him.

“A good one I hope.” In his arm, he held a lovely bouquet of colorful flowers.

“Only the best.” I couldn’t stop smiling. “Those are beautiful. Are they for me?”

“Actually, I bought them for the receptionist out in the lobby.”

“Funny.” I fidgeted under his stare. After everything we did over the weekend, I couldn’t believe I was acting so shy. I smoothed a hand down my blouse and did my best to get my nerves under control. My hair was pushed back in a ponytail, my heels were on the floor near my desk, and my shirt was slightly wrinkled. Not my best look, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

Meanwhile, he was just a few steps away and looking pretty damn good in a simple pair of dark jeans and a white hoodie. I stared, not knowing what to do with myself. Was I supposed to greet him with a kiss? A hug? A handshake? I had no clue.

When he brought his free hand up to his stubbled chin, I had to close my legs at the memory of how good it felt between my thighs. I took a minute to gather myself and wished I could have snuck in a quick coat of mascara or worn a different outfit to work today because JP looked hot without putting an ounce of work into his appearance. Impressing people wasn’t his style, but apparently, making me lose self-control was.

“Are you just going to sit there and ogle me all day or come over and give me a proper greeting?”

Busted!

I pushed my rolling chair back and sauntered toward him. He closed the remaining steps between us with a smirk playing at the corner of his lips that I couldn’t wait to kiss off. I slid my hands up his arms and gripped his face, forcing his mouth on mine. The kiss was greedy, impatient, and probably sloppy, but all I could focus on was how much I needed it. It was ridiculous how addicted I had become. I’d never felt like this before—ever.

“Damn.” He brushed his lips against mine, soft and sweet. “Let me leave for a second and come back in because that was one helluva welcome.”

My arms wrapped around his neck as his hands went to my ass. He trailed his lips to the shell of my ear and brought the lobe into his mouth with his teeth.

“Feel free to stop by anytime.” I sighed, backing away slightly before I got too comfortable. I wasn’t sure how I would be able to focus on work after this.

His hands dropped to the side, and he took a step back. If you had told me a week ago that I would be making out with my brother’s best friend, let alone in my office in the middle of a work week, I would have thought you were crazy. It was mind-blowing how much had changed in the last seventy-two hours.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, taking my reading glasses off. I forgot I had them on.

“I came here to take you to lunch.” He pointed to my glasses. “You look hot as fuck in those. Why did you take them off?”

“I only wear them when I’m working or reading.” I set the glasses on my desk and straightened my blouse. “How come you didn’t tell me about these lunch plans? Not that I’m complaining,” I quickly added.

“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you, would it?” He winked and placed the vase on the edge of my desk. “Plus, I wanted to check out your office.” He glanced around the small room. It wasn’t much, just a desk with two small chairs and a few filing cabinets. On the plus side, it had a bay window that overlooked the courtyard. It wouldn’t be long before the cherry blossoms and dogwoods would be in full bloom.

“Knock. Knock,” I heard a voice call out. “Hey, Ry, I wanted to…” Dominick’s feet paused on the carpet when he realized I wasn’t alone. “Sorry, am I interrupting?” His eyes narrowed, and I didn’t like that one bit. Dominick was also my ex, whom I avoided as much as possible.

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