One Night with the Boss. Teresa Southwick
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so.”
“You’re too damn cheerful, Brady.” Her eyes flashed with frustration. “You do realize that in another week I’m leaving. Whether or not you’ve hired anyone to replace me. This isn’t a joke and I wish you would stop treating it that way.”
She was being incredibly stubborn about this, and he blamed Leonard. “Why do you have to go?”
“You know why.”
“Don’t you think it’s incredibly selfish of Leonard to insist that you move away?”
“He’s not insisting.” She met his gaze as if she expected a challenge.
“Okay, then. Why doesn’t he relocate from...” He waited for her to fill in the blank with a city or state and when she didn’t, he was peeved. “He should be the one to move, find a job in Blackwater Lake.”
She blinked up at him for several seconds. “It’s a small town and there’s nothing here that would utilize his particular skills,” she said after some thought.
Brady recognized the expression on her face. It was the one she wore when she had to think fast, to come up with an explanation or particular spin. The truth shouldn’t take that much effort.
“What particular skills does he have?”
Her chin lifted in that stubborn, familiar way, just before she got defiant. “Well, for one thing, he’s a good kisser.”
“Is that right?”
That might get him a volunteer job at the charity fund-raiser kissing booth, but gainful employment was questionable. He was aware of the edge in his voice and the tight knot in his gut. It was the first time he’d thought about her actually kissing Leonard. Or in Leonard’s bed. A man touching her, any man. He didn’t like any of the above, not even a little bit.
This sensation had all the characteristics of jealousy but he couldn’t believe that’s what it was and didn’t care right this minute. He still had questions. Like...
Were there other men? Wouldn’t he know if there were? Who were they and why hadn’t he met them?
He hadn’t known about Leonard and suddenly, with an intensity that surprised him, he wanted to know everything.
“How many men have you kissed, Liv?”
“That’s none of your business.” Annoyance and indignation looked really good on her.
“I’m making it my business. You’ve worked for me a long time and I don’t know who you hang out with. You say Leonard is a good kisser. How many men have you kissed to compare him with?”
“Enough. Ask anyone.” The pulse in her throat fluttered frantically. “Unlike you, I don’t have a reputation for not being much in the kissing department.”
That was a semidesperate attempt to create a diversion but Brady was intrigued, in the mood to push the advantage. And he couldn’t stop looking at her mouth.
“I’ve never had any complaints about my technique. You shouldn’t believe rumors.”
“That’s hard to do without any contradicting data...” She shrugged, but it was uneasy, not the nonchalant gesture she was going for.
“Well, then, with my reputation on the line, I feel obligated to provide you with the necessary information.”
Her mouth dropped open and Brady forgot about his reputation and everything else except the need to taste her lips. He closed the distance between them in one step, then threaded his fingers into her silky hair with one hand and pulled her close with the other.
“Here goes.”
Chapter Four
Olivia couldn’t believe this was happening. She’d wondered forever how it would feel to be in Brady’s arms, with their bodies pressed together from chest to knee. The reality was so much better than anything her imagination had cooked up.
If this was a dream, she never wanted to wake up.
For one thing, she hadn’t thought about his fingers threaded through her hair and how exquisitely romantic that would feel. Or the intensity darkening his eyes. The expression did things to her insides, things she couldn’t put into words because the feeling was simply AWESOME. All caps!
His mouth hadn’t officially touched hers yet and it was already the best kiss she’d ever had, proving that it wasn’t how you kissed, but whom.
“Liv,” he whispered, brushing his thumb across her cheek and then her lips.
The touch had heat mixed with shivers racing over her shoulders and arms. So near yet so far, she thought as his warm breath caressed her lips. It taunted and teased and she’d already waited years for this. She was so over being passive. On tiptoe, she closed the infinitesimal distance between them and softly pressed her lips against his as she slid one arm around his waist and the other hand up to his chest.
His heart thundered beneath her palm, making her heart thunder, too. His mouth was soft and met her own just before his tongue lazily skimmed her bottom lip. The flash was like tissue paper igniting and threatened to make her go up in flames.
Worse, the touch made her anticipate. She wanted his hands to find their way to her breasts, to settle on her hips and slide possessively over her stomach.
He nibbled the corner of her mouth and worked his way across her cheek to her ear. When he took the lobe gently between his teeth, she nearly gasped from the delicious sensation, came close to dissolving in a puddle at his feet. The touch almost made her forget that he was her boss. He was simply a man—who made her ache for so much more.
Olivia wished that she’d been the one to pull away first, but that wasn’t the way it went. The only small satisfaction she got was that Brady looked surprised. And his breathing was definitely not steady. With luck that would keep him from noticing that she was having a bit of trouble pulling enough air into her lungs. Or that she was quivering with reaction and wanted more.
“So...” He took a step back. “What’s the verdict? Are the rumors true?”
She blinked up at him and the words sounded like a recording played back on slow speed. That was because her brain didn’t have enough oxygen to process his question at more than a crawl. “What?”
“You know. The rumor that I’m not much in the kissing department?”
Olivia snapped to as surely as if he’d dumped ice-cold water over her head. Her mind kicked into high gear as she put a thoughtful expression on her face.
“I can’t speak for your other women,” she said, “but as kisses go, that was adequate.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” She tapped her index finger against lips still throbbing from the all-too-brief, way-above-adequate close encounter. “I think that’s a fair assessment.”
“Adequate?” He sounded shocked and annoyed in equal parts.
“Yes. It was nice. I think the rumor must have come from someone who had expectations of more.”
Technically that was true because, she’d made it up when he started pressuring her about Leonard being the one to relocate. Where Brady was concerned, she couldn’t quite suppress expectations. In her own defense, she’d had to think fast, something that was becoming a necessity of late.
“Adequate? Wow. I never thought I’d say this, but that makes me wish you’d said it was fine.”
From that she guessed he hated it when a woman used less than glowing adjectives about his performance. She couldn’t resist messing with him, just a little.
“That works too,” she agreed. “It was fine.”
He groaned. “You’re killing me here, Liv.”