Even though I’d tried calling Kylie a couple times over the weekend to check up on her, she hadn’t picked up my calls. Nor had she returned them. It had taken all the strength I had not to march over there and see for myself the kind of condition she was in. But I knew that type of approach wouldn’t work with an independent woman like Kylie, especially one wrestling with her emotions the way she was. Which meant we hadn’t talked about the kiss, or anything related to what had happened after that kiss.

“You being at work early either means something went seriously wrong or seriously well,” Doug said.

“And the fact that you’re here early means you’re about to ask me something,” I said as I looked up from my paperwork.

I grinned at my best friend of three decades before he came in and shut my office door.

“This board meeting we’ve got tomorrow at two—”

“Yes,” I said. “You need to be there.”

“Kylie is going to be there though, right?” Doug asked.

“She is. We’re all going to be there. It’s an important meeting, the first one of the summer quarter.”

“So it’ll be mostly numbers, projections, discussions of new projects—things you’ll need Kylie’s brain for and not mine.”

“You have to be there, Doug.”

“Are you introducing any new projects?” he asked.

“Doesn’t matter. A united front always needs to be presented at the turn of a new quarter.”

“But those damn meetings take at least three hours. Are you going to cater it this time?”

“Is that really why you don’t want to go? Because there won’t be food to stuff your face with? I put it after lunchtime so I wouldn’t have to have this conversation with you again.”

“I spend a lot of time in the gym, Ryan. I need the calories at certain points during the day, not just at designated mealtimes,” he said with a grin.

“Bullshit. You’re seeing someone, and you’ve agreed to take her somewhere for an early dinner tomorrow, haven’t you?”

“I guess I could bring her here. Have her wait until the meeting’s over.”

“No,” I said. “The last time that happened, one of our investors almost caught you in a compromising position.”

“He did catch me in one. But my desk is high, and that beautiful young woman fit perfectly underneath it.”

I shook my head and chuckled as I stood up from my chair.

“It was her idea, not mine,” Doug said.

“And you expect me to believe that.”

“Trust me, it was her idea. And it was a wonderful idea at that.”

“You have to be at the meeting, Doug. Take the woman out to a regular dinner. Take any woman out to a regular, eight o’clock dinner. Real, intimate dinners don’t solidify anything. It’s not a commitment.”

“They’re too romantic, Ryan. You know how I feel about them.”

“Then send her some flowers. Or a nice necklace to smooth over rescheduling. But you’ll be at that meeting if you want to keep your job.”

“Thirty years of friendship and that’s all I get? A threat on my job?” he asked with a smirk.

“And a seven-figure salary. And stock in this company. And a beautiful view from your office that the women you date seem to have a kink for.”

“Fine,” he said with a mocking eye roll. “I suppose a woman can’t turn down a nice diamond bracelet.”

“That’s the spirit,” I said as I came around from behind my desk. “Anything else?”

“Just one. You’re a slave driver, Ryan, an absolute slave driver.”

I chuckled as I put my hand between Doug’s shoulder blades and escorted him from my office. If there was ever one man I’d declare any sort of love for, it was him. He had helped me build this company. He had helped me through the shock of Adam’s mother getting pregnant. He had helped me plan our wedding and helped us move in to our first home. Hell, he had even helped me through the divorce so I could try to shield my hurt from my son. And now he was the one coaxing me to get back out into the field and start batting around a bit.

Little did he know I had my sights already set on someone.

The elevator doors opened at the end of the hallway, and a grin crept across my cheeks. Those familiar heels began clicking down the hallway as Doug looked back and tossed me a wink. I nodded my head in a fashion that told him to get the fuck into his office. Then I leaned against the doorway of my own and stuck my hands in my pockets.

It was the only thing I could do to keep myself from reaching out for her.

“Morning, Kylie,” I said.

“Morning, Mr. Tucker.”

I frowned at the formality of her statement as she walked into her office. I heard a snicker come from Doug’s office and wanted to throw something at him. Then the inner chastising began. This was wrong. That young woman was fresh out of a four-year relationship with my son. What the hell was I thinking? But as I walked around the corner to her office and watched her settle into her chair, I couldn’t help it. It was the beauty of her form illuminated by the morning sunlight streaming through her windows. It was the way she kicked off her heels and made herself right at home in her personal space. It was the way her cute little toes dug into the carpet.

Part of me wanted to tell her people could see the movements she made underneath her desk, but part of me enjoyed watching her motions a little too much to say anything.

“Searching for something?” I asked.

Her head whipped up from her desk before a sigh fell from her lips.

Those beautiful lips I wanted against mine again.

“There are some receipts missing from my files. I thought maybe I’d dropped them in my office somewhere when I took the files home to work on them, but I can’t find them anywhere,” she said.

“What dates are we talking about?” I asked.

“It would’ve been…”

She closed her eyes and bobbed her head with her counts. Holy hell, she was the cutest thing alive.

“Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. Plus any receipts that might have been relevant over the course of last weekend. Not this immediate one, but the one prior to it.”

“I know what you mean. I haven’t gotten around to filing those away. I’ll go get them. They’re in an envelope in my office.”

“Oh good,” she said with relief. “Just set them on my desk so I can get them logged, categorized, scanned into the system, and filed away.”

“I’ll get them to you now,” I said.

I took one last look at her and her flushed cheeks before I headed back to my office. Doug stood in his doorway and grinned at me, causing me to shake my head. He was relentless, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to indulge him in that little moment Kylie and I had shared in her apartment. After ragging on me for two solid years about dipping into a younger pool of women, I’d never hear the end of it—especially after I constantly chastised him for enjoying women of a younger age group.

I slid my desk drawer out and grabbed the envelope, then closed it and headed back over to Kylie’s office.

“Here’s the folder of re—”

My words caught in my throat when I saw her. She was bent over behind her desk, her ass jutting out from the side of it. It was rounded and voluptuous and waiting to be grasped, kissed, massaged, smacked, taken.

My hand weakened just enough for the envelope to slip from it.

“Here, I got it,” Kylie said.

Her voice ripped me from my trance, and I automatically dropped to pick up the folder. I reached for the envelope and watched her hand come into view, her fingers brushing against mine. I looked up and found her face only inches away from my own. The electricity that crackled between us was undeniable. I knew the fire that surged up my arm was due to her touch. My eyes danced between hers, counting the golden flakes that permeated her hazel stare. My eyes trailed down the slope of her neck, watching as her beautiful milky skin disappeared beyond the black ensemble she’d chosen to clothe herself in.

“The receipts,” I said as a cleared my throat.

“Thank you. I’ll get them filed away as soon as I can,” Kylie said.

The two of us pulled back and the tension shattered, like a piece of glass falling from a stained mural. Kylie cleared her throat as she made her way back to her desk, and a familiar voice emanated from behind me just as she sat down in her chair.

“About that meeting tomorrow,” Doug said.

I slowly panned my gaze around and found his eyes filled with absolute delight.

“Yes?” I asked curtly.

“Will someone actually be taking minutes of this meeting? Or do you want me to step into that role since you’ve been defaulting on it the past three times?” he asked.

That…actually wasn’t a terrible question.

“I could take them if you want me to,” Kylie said.

I looked back over at her and saw she was clearly embarrassed. The redness of her cheeks had trickled all the way down her neck and she was eyeing Doug a bit too carefully. I sighed before I turned back to my friend, trying to chastise him with my eyes as much as I could.

“Kylie will take notes,” I said.

“Good. Then I’ll take that off my to-do list,” Doug said.

“You have a to-do list?”

“Every man has one of those,” he said with a wink. “And, Kylie?”

“Yes, Mr. Walter?”

“You look stunning in black,” he said.

“All women do, but thank you,” she said.

“You outshine them, even in the darkest of colors.”

I eyed Doug hard before he held up his hands and walked out of the office. Then I reached for Kylie’s door and went to close it behind me.

“Thank you for the receipts, Ryan.”

Hearing my name in her voice again settled a calmness over me that I only got when she was around.

“You’re welcome,” I said as my eyes met hers. “Anything you need, I’m just next door.”