I sit in the restaurant and stare at the plate of breakfast in front of me. I don’t even know why I heaped all this food onto my plate from the buffet. My stomach is still churning uneasily. Looks like I have to pass on the eggs and bacon, but the toast is probably safe. Maybe it can soak up some of the alcohol. Although I probably need to eat a whole loaf’s worth of bread to do that.

The moment I take a bite, Luke lowers himself into the seat across from me. The sight of him does nothing to calm my queasy stomach. His hair is wet from his shower, and instead of looking rough, he looks drop-dead gorgeous. My mouth goes dry, making it difficult to chew the toast. His expression is unreadable and I feel my cheeks flush with warmth.

“Good morning, Jade.”

“Morning,” I mutter, feeling extremely self-conscious. I force myself to look at him calmly. I knew I’d have to see him again today, but I hoped to delay it until I felt more like myself. But the dreaded confrontation is happening now. There’s no getting around it. No getting around him. I might as well face him now and find out what the fallout from our drunken tryst would be.

Overwhelmed by his smoldering blue eyes, I swallow my toast and nearly choke. I gulp down some coffee. Last night hasn’t changed anything for me. I still find him incredibly hot, maybe even more so. No matter what happened before or what would happen in the future, he’s still the sexiest freaking man I’ve ever seen. I take a gulp of coffee.

He speaks first, “About last night—”

I swallow the coffee in a rush and interrupt him. I have to. I’m too nervous about what he will say. Afraid he will say he wants me gone. “Luke, stop. It’s okay, you don’t have to worry. I just want to forget about last night. We were both very drunk. I can barely remember what we did, anyway. Can we just pretend it never happened? Is that okay?”

Luke gazes at me, confident and unashamed. “Is that what you want?”

I can’t tell whether he’s upset or relieved so I plough on, “Yes. It’s what I want.”

“Too bad,” he says firmly.

His answer startles me. “What?”

“I can’t pretend it never happened,” he says. “And I don’t want to forget about it.” He leans forward intently and pins me with his sapphire eyes. “It’s all I’ve been thinking about since I woke up this morning. It’s a shame you were already gone.”

I shake my head. “You don’t think it was a mistake?”

“The only mistake I made was not seeing how beautiful you are sooner.”

My breath catches in my throat. Does he really mean it? I find it hard to believe. Maybe he’s just trying to smooth things over with me. He regrets what happened, but doesn’t want things to be awkward between us.

I imagine that as soon as we land in America, he’ll distance himself from me. Maybe I’ll get transferred to another department in the company. Maybe he’ll fire me. I need to fix this myself before things get out of hand. “Listen, Luke,” I say. “We were drunk. We didn’t know what we were doing.”

“I was drunk, yes. But the most intoxicating thing last night was the touch of your lips on mine.”

Holy shit.

Warmth floods my body, and butterflies take flight in my stomach. I’m dizzy. My whole world is spinning.

“I knew exactly what I was doing last night,” he says. “And I know exactly what I want to do to you again. I know you want it, too.”

I open my mouth to deny it, but the words don’t come. He’s right. I desperately want him. I could quite easily let him take me right now. But I’m afraid. He awakens feelings inside of me that I can’t control. It’s thrilling and terrifying, all at the same time.

That’s Luke Remington in a nutshell.

The very thing that makes him so sexy is the same thing that makes him so intimidating. He’s sexy and powerful, dominant and cocky, unstoppable and irresistible. He’s like a force of nature, sweeping me up in his strength. I feel powerless against him. Still, I have to try and resist. “Luke,” I say, shaking my head. “I think you were right all along. We shouldn’t have mixed business and pleasure. I don’t know if I can be as professional as I was while we are sleeping together. I’m worried that I’ll screw up and disappoint you. If we put this little hiccup behind us now, maybe then things will to go back to normal between us.”

He laughs humorlessly. “What you call normal between us was based on a lie. Your lie.”

My eyes widen. “I don’t understand.”

“The day you showed up in my life wearing a costume, you lied about who you are.”

I shake my head. “It wasn’t a costume. And my appearance has nothing to do with who I am. I’m still the same woman you hired.”

His eyes become stormy. “That’s where you’re wrong. Your appearance has everything to do with who you are.”

I lean back in my chair and stare at him, disappointed. I can’t believe he could be such a shallow egoist. “Oh, so just because you now think I’m attractive, that somehow changes who I am inside?”

Luke slams his hand on the table, making me jump. “Dammit, Jade. You’re smarter than this. You changed who you are inside by changing your appearance. I saw you last night with our clients. You weren’t the meek and mousy Jade you’ve been pretending to be. You were sparkling. Those guys were eating from the palm of your hand. That was the real you. The normal you. And that was all because of how you looked. You weren’t hiding behind your dumpy facade. Surely, you noticed the difference inside yourself?”

I hadn’t considered that. I forgot the client meeting while being in the complicated situation I found myself in this morning. Between the hangover and the wild sex with my boss, I barely remembered how I’d acted with the clients. Now that Luke has called it to my attention, I know he’s right.

I had been on my game last night. At points, it felt like I ran the whole meeting, even though Luke sat beside me. He contributed to the conversation, but I’d been in control. No other client meeting had gone like that. I usually sit back and let Luke work his magic. But not last night. Last night, I felt confident, and let myself shine. It never occurred to me it might have something to do with the way I was dressed, but it certainly made sense.

“You know I’m right,” Luke says.

“So what if you are?”

“So that means last night was the real you. Everything before that was a lie. If you want things to be normal between us, then you need to be the Jade from last night. Not the fake Jade you’ve been for the last two months.”

My head pounds away. “And you want the version of me who sleeps with you?”

He shoots me a cocky grin. “Damn right I do. And not just because you’ve never been sexier, but because the new version of you is a force to be reckoned with. With you at my side, we can take over the whole fucking world.”

As much as I like the sound of that, I’m scared, too. I have to ask him the question burning inside me, “Has sleeping with you become part of my job description now?”

He frowns. “Of course not. It’s not a job requirement. You don’t have to sleep with me. Only if you want to, but I know you do.” Luke leans in close to me so no one else can hear. “In fact, if it wasn’t for this damn conference, I’d take you upstairs right now and fuck you senseless.”

My heart stops beating in my chest. I can’t breathe. Wetness pools between my legs. He’s right. Since the day I started working for Luke, I’ve imagined what it would be like to be with him. Idle day dreams turned to sultry fantasies of feeling his strong hands all over my body. None of those fantasies can compare to the real thing. Now that I’ve gotten a taste of him, I need more. I would welcome him into my body anywhere, anytime he chooses to avail himself to me. In fact, my only objection would be to being drunk next time. I want all of my senses sharp, so I can savor the feelings he ignites in me.

“We didn’t use a condom last night,” he says softly. “Are you protected?”

I flush to the roots of my hair. “Yes, I’m on the pill,” I admit, then I hurry to add, “but I’ve never gone bare before.”

He flashes his teeth. “Neither have I. My mother was such a proponent of safe sex I’m sure she would have preferred me to jerk off into a condom too.”

I giggle and he laughs too. For a while, there is no tension between us. Then that sexual thing rears its head again. My head is still throbbing and all I want is to be back in bed with him.

“I should go,” I say.

“You haven’t eaten your breakfast yet.”

I shrug. “Nah. My stomach feels funny.”

“Then wait for me, and we’ll attend the seminar together.”

“Uh, I’m not attending the morning sessions. I have to go up and prepare the sheets for your talk this afternoon.”

He frowns. “When will I see you again?”

“Mr. Dimitriou is just going to brief you, so you won’t need me for that. I’ll see you for lunch with Carl at the Golden Orchid restaurant. It’s on the third floor.”

“Fine. I better go get some food then,” he says standing up. Before I can do anything, he bends down and brushes his lips against mine. As if we are a couple. As if that is the most natural thing in the world for him to do. I watch his tall imposing figure stride away, my heart hammering in my chest.