Chapter One
Wednesday was my favorite day of the week.
Monday had come and gone and Friday was right around the corner. It was a day of possibilities. I still had two days to handle my responsibilities at work before the weekend, but I could also look forward to my plans for Saturday and Sunday. This weekend my plans included Lucy’s wedding, something I’d been looking forward to for months. As one of my best friends, I was incredibly happy for her.
It was also the day for a new episode of Homicide Hunter. Lt. Joe Kenda was my kind of guy. Tenacity and intelligence were two traits I admired in a man and he had them in spades.
Yes, I loved Wednesday.
Usually.
Today was not a typical Wednesday. To start, my alarm didn’t go off. Or if it did, I didn’t hear it. So I barely made it to work on time and on zero coffee and no breakfast. The coffee maker at the office crapped out in a shower of sparks and tendrils of smoke. Thank God no one was there to witness my squeal of surprise or see the weird flailing dance I performed.
My boss, Chris Barden, had meetings all morning and needed me at my desk, so there was no hope of running downstairs to the little coffee shop in the lobby of the building. Chris didn’t need caffeine. Sometimes I wondered if the man was a cyborg. Or advanced AI. He was like a machine, working long hours with almost no sign of fatigue. I don’t think I’d ever seen him break a sweat either. It was downright irritating.
Despite all of this, I tried to focus on getting Chris’ schedule in order for the day. I glanced at his appointments and managed to overlook one. Or maybe I was just in denial. This particular client had never been my favorite and I think my caffeine-deprived brain blocked out his name to protect me from acknowledging his existence before I had the appropriate amount of legal stimulants in my bloodstream.
Either way, when he walked into the office, it caught me off guard. It was ten a.m., I was frazzled and in serious need of a caffeinated beverage. Even weak coffee would do, though a triple espresso would be better.
Instead, I was faced with arrogance personified.
“I’m here to see Chris,” he stated, leaning a hip on my desk and staring down at me.
Landen Weber was the worst part of my job, which was saying something. Chris was a fair boss but he was also demanding and he could be harsh. Until he hired my friend, Lucy, he hadn’t been able to keep an assistant for longer than a year. His stern exterior and workaholic tendencies didn’t bother me at all. Unlike my previous job, I always got credit for my work and he paid me extremely well. I preferred his stoic demeanor to the whiny, melodramatic supervisor I’d had before.
I bit back a sigh as I stared at where Landen parked his ass. Didn’t he know it was rude as hell to sit on someone’s workspace? Plus, he was rubbing his butt cooties all over my desk.
I lifted my gaze, preparing to tell him to haul his ass off my papers but the sight of the disposable coffee cup in his hand distracted me. As soon as I saw it, the rich scent of espresso hit my nose and my mouth watered.
Then Landen spoke again, bringing my attention to his face. “Is he free?”
I swallowed as he lifted the cup to his lips and sipped, wondering if I would get fired for kicking him off my desk and stealing his coffee. A short fantasy of doing just that filled my mind and I smiled at the images.
I gave myself a firm mental shake and focused on his question. “He’s on a conference call right now, but he’ll be finished in a few minutes.”
Landen scowled at me as he set the coffee cup on the desk. “Our appointment is at ten sharp.”
Glancing pointedly at the clock, I replied, “Well, it’s 9:55, so he’s not late yet.”
His frown deepened. “Do you argue with all his clients?”
I swear the man lived to give me crap. I knew that he didn’t care that Chris wasn’t free. He might say something about running behind to my boss, but he never seemed angry when he did. It seemed more like friendly banter than actual offense.
It took all my willpower not to sneer at him. I hated sneering. Hell, I even despised the word sneer. It was such an odd word to spell and even say. Still, that was the only way to describe what I wanted to do.
“Only the ones who don’t listen,” I replied primly, folding my hands in front of me. The more he tried to rile me, the more I tried to remain unruffled. Though he wasn’t easy to read, I knew my lack of reaction got under his skin as much as his nitpicking did to me.
He lifted the coffee cup to his lips again and my gaze strayed to his mouth. I ignored the small flutter in my belly when I noticed the defined curve of his bottom lip and focused on where the plastic lid touched his skin.
When he lowered his hand, my eyes lifted back to his and narrowed at the devilish gleam in his irises. That was never a good sign.
Just as Landen leaned forward, likely to say something provoking, my computer made a loud beeping sound. I looked at the monitor and put my hand on the mouse. The pointer didn’t move. I tried clicking on the tabs to close them out but nothing happened. The screen remained frozen.
I bit back a frustrated scream. Great, this was exactly what I needed to top off my shitastic morning.
“Computer issues?” Landen drawled, bringing my attention back to him.
He arched one brow at me and I once again ignored the flutter in my belly. He might have an attractive exterior, but his personality frustrated the hell out of me.
My eyes moved back to the monitor and I didn’t answer him. I tried several things but the computer refused to follow my commands. While I understood several office programs and handled spreadsheets for Chris, I was not an IT genius by any means.
In my determination to ignore the irritating man in front of me, I didn’t notice when he set the coffee cup on my desk and walked around behind me. At least not until I felt the warmth of his arm come around me and his hand rest on top of mine where my fingers held the mouse.
I went still. I didn’t tense, but I couldn’t move either. Something similar had happened to me the first time I met Landen Weber and I shook his hand. The moment his hand gripped mine, a spark shot from my fingertips, traveled up my arm, before settling in my chest and making my nipples perk up. I’d been unable to do more than smile woodenly at him as Chris introduced us. I hadn’t even been able to release his hand, my body refusing to follow my brain’s commands. At the time, I was grateful that he gave my hand a single firm shake and let me go because that situation would have become awkward quickly.
At the time I chalked it up to static electricity. But now that his hand touched mine again, I couldn’t deny it any longer. Despite the fact that I thought he was an asshole, my body reacted to him. Strongly.
Sexual chemistry was the ultimate bitch.
Landen lifted his other arm and rested his palm on top of my desk. His chest brushed the back of my hair. Heat surrounded me and warmed my skin. That same spark I felt when I shook his hand the first time returned, but more intense. Goose bumps broke out all over my body and my nipples hardened. My heart thudded against my sternum at the overwhelming sensations.
I was so caught up in my body’s reaction to him that I didn’t hear a single word Landen said as he clicked the mouse a couple of times. When nothing happened, he lifted his hand and reached around me with both arms to place his fingers on the keyboard.
I licked my lips as I watched his long fingers move over the keys. My lungs didn’t want to expand properly and I fought the urge to pant. I felt his jaw brush against my hair as he continued to speak, his deep voice low near my ear.
Holy shit, what was happening to me?
It had to be the caffeine withdrawal. It was making me hallucinate.
I sucked in a deep breath, preparing to tell him to let me up, that he could have my seat while he fixed the computer, but that only brought his scent into focus. He smelled clean and a little tangy, as though his deodorant or cologne held hints of citrus. I could also smell the coffee he’d been drinking. In short, he was all of my favorite scents in one place.
This was bad. Really bad. I didn’t need to develop a hardcore sexual attraction to the most annoying man I’d ever met.
“There,” he murmured near my ear. “It’s working now. Think you can remember the process?”
I couldn’t help myself. I shivered. With his chest all but resting against my shoulders, I could feel the vibrations of his voice throughout my entire body as he spoke. As for remembering the process he spoke of, I could barely remember my own name, much less what I was supposed to be doing right now.
He turned his head and I felt his warm breath against my cheek. “Chelsea?”
Who was Chelsea? Oh, yeah. Me. That was my name. God, I liked the way he said it when his lips were so close they brushed my ear.
I got my brain back on track with a firm yank and a bitch slap to my wayward hormones. One problem down, one to go. I managed to unstick my tongue from the roof of my mouth and reply.
“Yep. I can remember,” I lied.
Mercifully, he believed my fib and stood, putting distance between our bodies. It took a moment for my brain to register the fact that he was no longer close to me and I blinked at my now working computer.
I cleared my throat and kept my eyes on my desk as he moved around to the other side. My gaze fell on his coffee cup, which was scant inches from my keyboard, and I was suddenly very aware of how dry my mouth was.
Without giving it a second thought, I snatched up the cup and took a gulp. I nearly moaned as the liquid trickled over my tongue. It was still warm and it wasn’t just coffee. It was a latte, a strong one, flavored with caramel.
I drank down every single drop without stopping. When I lowered the cup, I found Landen watching me, his dark blue stare intensely focused on my lips. Abruptly, my mouth tingled as though his gaze had a physical weight.
I felt a stray drop of coffee on my skin and, once again without thinking, I swept my tongue across my bottom lip to remove it.
I could swear that Landen leaned forward, as though he intended to reach across the desk, but the sound of Chris’ door opening broke the spell. When I blinked, Landen was still in the same spot he’d been in before and he was looking at me with a gleam of annoyance in his eyes. I chalked up the crazy sexual tension I’d experienced moments ago to another withdrawal-induced hallucination.
“That was my coffee,” Landen stated, his voice low as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Still feeling off-kilter, I shrugged. “It was on my desk.”
His eyes narrowed at me. “What does that mean?”
“You leave it on my desk, it’s fair game,” I replied.
Before he could respond, Chris approached, a small smile on his face. As much as Landen irritated me, he brought a smile to my boss’ face. The only other time I saw him show any sort of happiness was when he was with my friend, Lucy. Lucy had been his assistant before me and though she never realized it, he’d been head over heels for her for a long time. Now they were engaged and the wedding was this weekend.
“Giving my assistant a hard time?” Chris asked Landen.
Landen turned toward my boss, giving me a reprieve from his laser-beam stare. “She stole my coffee.”
The corner of Chris’ mouth twitched, but beyond that, his facial expression didn’t change. However, I could see the amusement shimmering in his eyes.
“Is that what you left on her desk?” he asked.
Landen squinted at him and nodded.
Chris shrugged. “Then it was fair game. Office rules.”
I grinned smugly. Chris might not be demonstrative, but he did have a wickedly dry sense of humor, one that I appreciated. Some people might find his acerbic wit off-putting, but it mirrored mine, so we got along just fine.
Landen turned toward me again, his brows arching, but even I could see the show of exasperation was just that. A show. I could see the amusement just beneath in the way his mouth quirked up at the corners and his shoulders relaxed.
“You owe me a latte,” he stated.
“If you say so,” I replied nonchalantly.
Once again his lips jerked as though he was fighting a smile. I smirked at him and the curve of his mouth flattened.
He turned away from me and looked at Chris. “Ready? It’s five after ten.”
Chris rolled his eyes. “I was on a conference call on your behalf, so don’t give me any shit about it. Go have a seat in my office. I have to talk to Chelsea for a second and then I’ll be in.”
Landen shot me one more glance but I couldn’t read his expression. Then he disappeared into Chris’ office.
Chris waited a moment then moved closer to my desk. “You’re playing with fire,” he stated, his voice quiet.
I grinned. “I know.”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t think you do, but it’ll definitely be interesting when you figure it out.” Before I could ask him what the hell that meant, he tapped the desk. “I’m set for the next couple of hours. Run out to the store and grab another coffee maker. Use the company card. I can’t have you stealing client’s coffee. You’re going to need it this afternoon. We have to work late before I go on vacation next week.”
Unable to resist poking him a bit, I said, “You mean go on your honeymoon where you’ll spend ninety percent of your time naked?”
Chris shook his head and didn’t answer me. “Behave yourself,” he admonished.
I laughed. “You know better than that,” I retorted. “But thanks. I’ll be back soon. Want me to order lunch from the sandwich shop too?”
He nodded. “Have them bring it up at noon.”
I got to my feet and grabbed my purse out of the bottom drawer of my desk. “No problem.”
I didn’t glance into Chris’ office as I walked around my desk and toward the door, but I felt that same tingling on my back that I’d felt on my mouth earlier and I knew Landen watched me leave.