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  “I pay you to get to the point, so what is it?” I roll my hand in the air to move the conversation forward.

  She eyes my desk. “I ordered lunch for you and Ms. Faye. It will be delivered and served in conference room A. Your plan was to have that poor woman eat lunch at your desk, right?”

  Wrong. I want to eat that woman on my desk. The catered lunch is a polite gesture. If I had my way, I would be feasting on her pussy as my main course.

  I just need to remove Roland from the equation before I dive between her legs. I won’t touch a woman who is fucking another man.

  That’s a hard limit for me.

  “Take an extra hour for lunch today, Blythe.”

  She perks one brow. “Why?”

  “Because today I’m a kind son-of-a-bitch who wants his assistant to treat herself to a nice lunch.”

  She glances back over her shoulder at her desk. “Something isn’t adding up here. You’re going to pack up my stuff while I’m gone, aren’t you? I’m about to get fired because of the raise I gave myself.”

  What the fuck?

  “How much?” I lean back against my desk.

  I don’t have time for this shit right now. I should reprimand her, but whatever amount she’s banking still isn’t enough. We both know it.

  “Enough,” she answers with a smile. “You still make more than me.”

  “I sure as hell hope I do.” I laugh.

  “Excuse me?”

  Blythe turns at the sound of the feminine voice behind her. “Hello, Ms. Faye.”

  “Come in, Linny. I’ve been expecting you.” I take a measured step closer to the doorway. Closer to her.

  Blythe moves to the side and I get an eyeful.

  Linny is dressed in a navy blue wraparound dress that hugs her curves and accentuates every part of her gorgeous body.

  She turns to look at Blythe. “Will you be joining us?”

  “No.” I toss back. “Blythe is leaving. It’s just you and me, Linny.”

  Her chest heaves and my gaze is drawn to her nipples. They’ve furled into tight points under her dress.

  “Close the door on your way out,” I call after Blythe.

  She does, leaving me alone with the woman I’ve desperately wanted since she left my bed in Las Vegas.

  ***

  Linny takes a seat in one of the chairs in front of my desk and slides a notepad and a pen from her bag. “I thought we could start with the guest list for the launch party.”

  I lower myself into the chair next to her since she’s made herself at home. “Put the notepad away.”

  She shakes her head softly. “I need to take notes. I prefer writing them out by hand as opposed to saving them to a tablet. I know it’s old-fashioned, but it works best for me.”

  I ignore all of that because I didn’t hear the name Roland yet. I need to hear that name one last time in the context that he’s gone to hell and won’t be coming back.

  My jaw clenches. “Tell me you dumped him.”

  She takes a deep breath. “Who?”

  “Who the hell do you think?”

  She looks at me, her eyes narrowed. “Are you asking me if I dumped Roland?”

  “Yes,” I answer succinctly. “Did you dump him?”

  “That’s a highly inappropriate question to ask me during a business meeting.”

  I reach forward to snatch the notepad from her hands.

  She gasps when I toss it onto my desk.

  I watch her carefully. “Our business meeting is over.”

  “I can’t do this, “ she says through a ragged breath. “We have to forget about what happened in Vegas.”

  “Why?” Tension grips my shoulders. I reach back to squeeze my neck, warding off the stress headache I know is about to bear down on me.

  Her hands shake. “I can’t have anything to do with you right now, West.”

  “Because of Roland?” I draw his name into two long syllables. “Dump him, Linny. He’s not right for you.”

  “You don’t know me.” She turns in her seat to face me. “We spoke on an airplane for a total of ten minutes and then we fucked. Once.”

  Technically, she’s right, but I feel connected to her in a way that can’t be measured in minutes or seconds. It surpasses that. It makes no sense, but I know that she feels it too.

  “It was special,” I say the words even though I know they sound cliché. “I told you I’ve thought about you daily since then. I wasn’t lying.”

  “It’s not as simple as that.” Her hand goes to her forehead. “It’s complicated, West.”

  “It’s not,” I argue. I never argue with women over this shit. If one decides she’s had enough of me, I move on. The same is true if I’m tired of a woman. I’ll say my goodbyes, wish them well, and forget about them.

  That hasn’t happened yet with Linny. I haven’t stopped thinking about her since we were together in Vegas. I don’t know how to handle that.

  “Dump Roland, have dinner with me and take me home with you.” I lean closer to her. “It’s as simple as that.”

  She shifts in her seat, pulling back from me. “I dumped him on Saturday.”

  Thank Christ.

  “That doesn’t mean anything can happen between us.” She’s quick to add. “We have to forget about Vegas. This needs to be strictly professional.”

  “We’re past that.” I rest my palms on my knees. “You can’t tell me that you’re not feeling the same pull to me as I am to you.”

  She closes her eyes briefly, her neck craning back. “West.”

  My name comes out of her soft lips like a plea, a wish, a needy request.

  “Linny,” I whisper. “Just let yourself feel. We were good together that night. We can have more of that.”

  “We can’t.” Her eyes fly open and lock on mine. “If I sleep with you again, I’ll lose everything.”

  Chapter 27

  Linny

  That was melodramatic. That’s not who I am, but every word is true.

  West is rubbing his temples. He hasn’t said anything in response to my declaration that I can’t sleep with him again.

  I owe him more of an explanation than what I’ve given considering I just spent almost an entire week pretending I didn’t know him.

  “West?” I say his name softly. “I’m sorry.”

  He looks down, avoiding eye contact with me. “For what?”

  I want to reach out and touch his shoulder, but if I do that, I’ll feel that same addictive rush of electricity that charged through my body that night in Las Vegas.

  I rest my hands in my lap, clasping them tightly together to try and mask how badly they’re shaking.

  “I was wrong when I pretended not to know you,” I say the words that I should have said a week ago.

  He finally looks at me, his expression impassive. “Why did you do it?”

  I wish the answer were concise and straightforward, but it’s complicated, so I go right to the core of the issue.

  “Faye & Sons has a strict policy about employees having sex with clients. It’s not allowed.”

  His brows perk. “I’ll hire another firm to work on the campaign. You’re fired.”

  I can’t tell if he’s joking or not, so I laugh. “You don’t mean that.”

  He skips past that to ask me a question. “We fucked months ago, Linny. You can’t get in shit for that, can you?”

  Technically, no, but if my dad knew about it, I would have been excluded from the Rizon campaign altogether which would have been another notch in Mitchell’s belt.

  There’s more to it than that, but it’s personal and I don’t know West well enough to bare my soul to him.

  “My dad is retiring next year and I’m up for the position of CEO when he does.” I pause to consider my next words. “Mitchell is a candidate too, so every action counts right now.”

  West’s gaze scans my face. He studies me carefully. “You were worried that your dad would be disappointed in you for fucking a
stranger. That’s it, isn’t it?”

  I swallow hard, my throat chalky and dry. I’m twenty-six-years-old. I should be able to make my own choices, and mistakes. I want to and need to, but as long as I’m fighting Mitchell for my dream job, my dad’s opinion still matters.

  “That’s part of it,” I answer honestly. “I’m trying not to give Mitchell ammunition that he can use against me.”

  West’s hand drifts to the armrest of my chair. I stare down at it. It’s large and I know I’ll find comfort in it. I want to reach for it, but I stop myself.

  “Why the fuck is Mitchell up for the job?” His jaw tightens. “He’s not a Faye, is he?”

  I shake my head and sigh. “His mom married my dad a few years ago.”

  “He’s your stepbrother?”

  I lean back in the chair. “He’s my competition.”

  He nods knowingly. “I see what’s happening here. Dear old dad has pitted the two of you against each other in a death match. Whoever is left standing at the end, gets to take over the company.”

  “In a nutshell, that’s about right.” I half-shrug. “You would think since the company bears my surname, that I’d have an advantage, but that’s not the case.”

  “Do you have any brothers?”

  I straighten. “Just me and my sister.”

  “Where did the Faye & Son’s name come from?” He turns in his chair, so he’s facing me directly now.

  “My grandfather wanted his sons to work with him. One did.” I wave one finger in the air. “My dad. He hoped to have a son or two to keep that legacy alive.”

  His eyes narrow. “Your grandfather was Lincoln Faye? I saw his portrait hanging in the reception area when I came to your offices.”

  “I’m his namesake.” Bringing my hand to my lips, I sigh. “There were complications during my birth. The doctors told my parents that my mother would never be able to carry another child, so my dad insisted on naming me himself. He always wanted a son, so he named me after his father.”

  A flicker of something washes over his expression. It’s not pity and I’m grateful for that. I felt sorry for myself for years when my dad would joke about how I was supposed to be a boy. I always knew that he loved me, but it stung and bearing the name of my grandfather is a constant reminder of who I will never be.

  “Your name is beautiful.” He gazes into my eyes. “Everything about you is beautiful.”

  It would be so easy to lean forward to kiss him.

  “You want to make your father proud.” He pauses for a minute and then continues, “I get that.”

  It’s an invitation for me to ask about his family, but that’s not my business. I can’t open any door that will take me a step closer to him. “I want the CEO position. It’s not just because the first thing I’ll do is fire Mitchell.”

  That pulls a hearty laugh from him. “That guy is an asshole.”

  “You have no idea.”

  He reaches to touch my hand and I don’t stop him, even though I know I should pull back.

  “I understand discretion.” He brings my hand to his lips, resting it there, as he goes on. “We can be together and keep our business relationship separate.”

  It’s so tempting. The thought of being in his arms again sends a shiver of desire up my spine.

  “It was good that night,” he growls as his eyes scan my body. “Jesus, Linny, it was so fucking good. You can’t deny that.”

  He’s right. I can’t. “It was good.”

  “The best you’ve ever had.” His brow lifts.

  I smile at his arrogance. “Was it the best you’ve ever had?”

  He presses my fingers to his lips and closes his eyes. “By far. I’ve come so many times thinking about fucking you. I ache for you.”

  I feel lightheaded. His words offer me something I didn’t know I was craving.

  It’s surreal that a man I only spent a few hours with could feel the same things for me that I feel for him. Doubt seeps in so I ask the question that’s been on the tip of my tongue for days. “When you first saw me in the conference room last week, what did you think?”

  His eyes meet mine. “I felt like I won the lottery.”

  Chapter 28

  Jeremy

  Her cheeks flush.

  She looks down, hiding her reaction to my words, but it’s too late. I know she felt the same way when she saw me standing in the conference room last week.

  “It looks like we’re at an impasse,” I say to lure her gaze back up.

  It works. “An impasse? How so?”

  I trail her fingertips over my lips before I kiss them one last time. I slip my hand from hers and I hear it. I hear the slightest sigh of regret at the loss of my touch.

  “It’s against the rules to fuck me.” I don’t mince words because there’s no need. “You won’t let me fire you.”

  A soft smile slides over her perfect mouth. “I suppose you could call that an impasse.”

  “You want me, angel.”

  “Yes,” she whispers, the nod of her head confirming her words. “You know that I do.”

  “Tell me how to make this work.” I edge closer to her in my chair. “We can be discreet. We’ll meet at a hotel, or here. You name the place and time and I’ll be there, with a believable work excuse in my back pocket in the event anyone ever questions you about where you are.”

  Her gaze drops to my pants and the bulge that I gave up trying to hide. “You’re talking about finding a place to fuck, aren’t you?”

  “A place where we can spend time together without the threat of exposure,” I clarify.

  She ponders that with a sweep of her hand over her forehead. “You’re suggesting that we meet to fuck under the guise that we’re conducting business.”

  Hearing her say the word fuck over and over is making everything fall away but my need to feel her, taste her and be inside her beautiful body.

  “I’m suggesting that we fuck, soon, and we can do that wherever the hell you want.” I jerk my thumb toward my desk. “I’ll eat you right now on my desk. I’ll fuck you bent over it. I don’t care where I have you. I just want you.”

  Her fingers trace a path over her jaw before they whisper over the skin of her neck, drawing lazy circles.

  I don’t even know if she’s aware of how erotic she looks like right now.

  “Your assistant would hear us.” She laughs like she thinks I was trying to be funny.

  I correct that with one sentence. “I’m serious, Linny.”

  “You’re not serious,” she counters. “We can’t have sex in your office.”

  I push to stand, holding a hand out to her. “Get on my desk.”

  She swats my hand away with a brush of hers. “No, West. I don’t do that.”

  “You also don’t fuck men you just met. Yet, you fucked me. I want you right now.”

  She peers over her shoulder. “Your assistant could come back at any moment.”

  I glance down at my watch. “She won’t and even if she did, she’d know to hold my calls when she heard you screaming my name.”

  She pushes to her feet. “I wouldn’t scream your name.”

  “You did in Vegas.”

  Her feet shuffle to the side to gain distance from me. I don’t give in. I follow every step of hers with one of my own.

  “I had a little too much to drink that night.” She tugs on the front of her dress. “Any other night, I wouldn’t have done it.”

  She starts walking backward toward the door of my office. I stalk her, shrugging out of my suit jacket. I toss it back onto the chair she was just sitting in.

  “Why are you taking off your jacket?”

  “It’s hot in here.” I loosen my tie. “You look flushed.”

  Her hand darts to her cheek. “I don’t. I’m not.”

  She stops dead when her back hits my closed office door. Her hand searches for the doorknob, but I’m on her before she can turn it.

  I reach down and lock it. “Tell me you wa
nt to leave.”

  Her head shakes back and forth. “I should leave.”

  “Do you want to leave?” My arms bracket her, my palms pressing against the door on either side of her head. “Tell me you want to leave and I’ll let you go.”

  “I have meetings, I think.” Her eyes lock on mine. “I think I have other work to do today.”

  I lean closer, breathing in the scent of her. That perfume. I haven’t smelled it since that night; since I had my lips wrapped around her nipple. “God, you smell incredible.”

  “You do too,” she says softly.

  “I’ll never forget our first kiss. Let me kiss you again.” My voice is laced with need. “Just one kiss.”

  “One kiss,” she repeats back in a whisper. Her tongue darts out to slick her bottom lip. “Only one kiss, West.”

  I slide my hand to her neck, tilting her head to just the right angle. “If it’s just one, I need to make it count.”

  I do.

  Chapter 29

  Linny

  His kiss is everything I remember from that night in Vegas, and more.

  It’s tender, soft, and yet, there’s just enough want in it to make my knees weak.

  I weave my fingers through his hair and it pulls a deep groan from him.

  My sex clenches at the sound of the desire in it and in the hunger that’s in his touch.

  One of his hands is cradling my cheek. The other has started a journey down my neck, to my shoulder before it brushes the side of my left breast.

  He pushes himself against me, forcing my back against the door.

  I can feel every hard plane of his body and the rigid length of his cock through his pants.

  “I need to taste you.” His breath breezes over my cheek. “Now.”

  I shake my head, even though every cell in my body is yearning for more. “We can’t.”

  “We can.” His tongue trails a slow path over my bottom lip before he tugs it between his teeth.

  I moan at the burst of pain and the reminder that I did the same to him in Vegas. “Your assistant.”