TEN

Sadie had wanted to return to her room alone. Jack had wanted to walk her all the way to her door. They compromised and Jack watched her slip through her patio door from the relative security of a nearby palm tree.

It took him roughly fifteen minutes to reach his villa from the center of the resort, Jack walking slowly to allow the staccato of his pulse to ease. The evening had not gone as he’d expected. Hell, it hadn’t even gone as he’d wanted.

Jack didn’t regret one thing that had happened in the cabana. It would have been a blatant lie to say otherwise. But it also wasn’t how he’d wanted their first intimate experience to play out. She wasn’t a fling, a quick lay he could enjoy and then forget about. Jack had wanted Sadie since the first time he’d seen her. Which had been four years ago. Sadie might not have felt the flare of attraction until their night in Colorado, but she had imprinted herself on his consciousness many years before.

Jack had never been shy when it came to approaching women. But neither had he had a lot of opportunity recently to pursue a relationship, fleeting or otherwise. Which, in the case of Sadie, had turned out to be a good thing. Because it had held him back. When he was younger and more careless, he would have seen her, decided he wanted her, and then proceeded in the most direct route possible to get her, with no goal in mind other than a casual, commitment-free fuck. A touch coldblooded, perhaps. But the women hadn’t seemed to mind, and Jack had enjoyed himself. Thoroughly.

But with Sadie, that hadn’t been an option. So when Jack had seen her in the office in New York he’d only allowed himself a glimpse, nothing more. And that was all it had been at first. An indulgent look at a beautiful woman. But he hadn’t been able to escape her all week. At the time, he hadn’t realized who she was. He knew who Sadie Carter was, but only by name. His assistant Janine had mentioned her several times while briefing him on the executive meeting taking place at D&A International’s New York office. And he could tell by Janine’s voice and occasional asides that she liked Sadie. And by liked, he meant appreciated her skill level and work ethic. Which, coming from Janine, was high praise indeed.

Jack had been in New York three days, however, before he’d realized that the striking brunette he kept seeing and Sadie Carter were one in the same. She’d been in her little makeshift office, her temporary home at D&A International, talking on the phone. Jack hadn’t planned to eavesdrop. He’d stopped to talk to a colleague in the hallway; he’d had no intention of doing it right in front of her open door, of pretending to listen to his co-worker while catching whatever hints of her voice he could. But all pretense of not listening fell when he heard her voice wrap around the syllables of his name, the jolt of attraction he felt almost shocking in its intensity. He’d glanced her way then, wondering if she was calling to him. But she was focused on her computer, still talking on the phone. That was when he heard Janine’s name, just before Sadie ended the call.

Jack had dashed back to his office, the one he kept for whenever he was in New York. The email notification on his laptop dinged almost as soon as he got to his desk. He opened the message from Janine, updates about the presentation he was giving at D&A’s next big conference outlined in her efficient bullet points. Details, Jack knew, she had been reviewing with Sadie Carter. Just now, on the phone.

Once he knew her name, once he knew who she was, Jack saw Sadie everywhere. As she typed furiously on her computer in her cramped D&A office. As she dashed down to the coffee shop on lobby level, never once impeded by the height of her heels. As she tossed her head back in a laugh at whomever was on the other end of her phone.

The old Jack would have approached her. Flirted with her, asked her out to drinks, even dinner. He would have found some way to charm her, definitely. To sleep with her, probably. Even as Jack had watched her guide her team through a particularly complicated presentation setup, their attention focused on her, their heads bobbing in respectful agreement as she’d outlined potential pitfalls and how to navigate them, he’d felt himself drawn to her. And the pull was stronger than anything he’d experienced before.

The longer Jack watched her, the reason for his powerful attraction became more and more clear. Sadie was a heady combination of intelligence, patience, drive, kindness, and persistence. And, yes, beauty. But, as Jack sought glimpses of her in New York and at all the other events he attended, he found himself drawn more to the confidence he heard in her voice, than the shape of her lips. More compelled by the light in her eyes when she congratulated her team after a successful event, than their specific shade of green. More memorized by her self-assurance when she walked through a room, than the dips and curves that made up her body.

Over those years, as Jack’s attraction for Sadie glowed as a steady ember in the depths of his chest, he’d kept his distance. The easy explanation he’d given himself was that she worked for his company. Which was tantamount to working for him. And Jack was very careful about playing where he worked. But he was also very aware that he would have – he had – broken that rule when the situation warranted it. And Sadie Carter most definitely warranted it.

All the same, Jack had started to wonder if she was attracted to him. Because in all of the time he’d spent searching for her across a hotel ballroom, or lingering in a hallway just to catch a glimpse of her as she moved through her day, he had never seen Sadie glance his way. Had never seen the smallest spark of interest in her gaze, or an encouraging curl of her lips. So Jack had kept his distance, often wondering exactly why he was holding out hope.

That had all changed in Colorado. Sadie had told him, plainly, that she’d never noticed him. At least not beyond his role at D&A International, not as anything more than a client. Certainly not in any of the many ways he had noticed her. That is what she’d said.

But that moment when she’d held her hand out and he’d pressed his skin to hers – Jack had known, without a doubt, that Sadie’s body noticed him. That simple touch had been enough. Enough to convince Jack to abandon the distance he’d maintained so diligently. Enough to approach her under the cool, Rocky mountain sky and keep warm with her beside the glow of the fire pit. And those moments together, they’d been enough to silence any misgivings Jack might have had and give himself permission to kiss her in that hotel hallway. Recklessly, on impulse. A kiss he wouldn’t take back if his life depended on it.

Up in the luxury of his villa, Jack relived the feel of Sadie’s body beneath his. The touch of her lips, the pressure of her fingers. The way she had responded to him, had begged him for release. Stripping off his clothes, Jack went through the motions of getting ready for bed. The walk up to his room had helped ease some of his tension, but Jack could still feel the excited thrum pulsing in his veins. His cock was hard, almost painfully so. Jack pressed a palm to his rigid length, hoping the pressure would help ease some of his discomfort. But he did nothing more to seek relief. He was tired of tormenting himself with thoughts of Sadie heated and wanting, of imagining that his hand was hers, of tricking his body into release with fantasies of her. No, now that Jack knew what it felt like to touch Sadie, to kiss her and feel her tremble, he wanted nothing but the real thing. He had longed for her for years. He could survive a little while longer.