Monday.

I haven’t dreaded a Monday this bad in a long time, and yet here it is. The day I never wanted to see coming.

The day when I have to go back into that office, back to working for Will, all while trying to forget what happened between us and how quickly I shut it down. How quickly he shut it down even further after that.

I’ve spent all weekend trying to make peace with it. I almost had myself convinced. I brought Ty to a local indoor ice rink to get him trying out for hockey, I took him to the park, we went riding. The weather was sunny and warm and I ended up even getting burned on my nose. It should have been a lovely weekend on the cusp of summer, had Will not occupied every single thought.

All the while I told myself I did the right thing. That I ended it before it could go too far. That I did what Will probably thought I would do. It wasn’t out of character to scare, to back off like that. In a way, it was a classic Jackie maneuver.

But that didn’t mean I didn’t second guess myself every time I tried to convince myself otherwise.

That cab ride home in that dress and those shoes, the bruised feel of my lips, they were the only signs of Will that I had. The rest of me felt so damn empty and cold and alone.

It frightened me. I’d been used to being alone. I had started to embrace it.

But now that I had a taste of Will, now that I knew what it was to not only be doted on like that, treated like a queen, to be on his arm and envied, but to feel his desire, his desperate need . . . 

Now I’m lonelier than I was before.

I had a touch of what could have been.

And I wasn’t even expecting the world. Just a chance to connect with him on another level, to share my body and his bed. To really feel alive again, worshiped and desired like I’d only dreamed.

So yeah. Monday sucks. The office is the last place I want to be.

My chest is filled with barbed wire and hornets.

And when I walk inside the office, Alyssa and Tiffany are waiting at the door, practically squealing.

“How was it?” Alyssa asks, a little too loudly.

“What was the food like?” Tiffany asks.

“I looked for your picture in the Sun but I didn’t see it.”

“Did you see Ryan Reynolds?”

I give Tiffany a look. “Ryan Reynolds?”

“Jackie!” my father barks and all three of us straighten up, eyes wide, to see my father by the doorway. “I need to see you in my office. Now.”

“Okay,” I tell him, exchanging a worried glance with the others.

“You’re in trouble with Dad,” Tiffany jokes and then grows serious. “Only that joke isn’t that funny because he really is your dad.”

Alyssa pats my arm. “Tell me everything later,” she says and scurries away.

I walk through the office, my heart galloping in my chest, wondering what my dad wants.

Then, as I put my stuff on my chair, about to head to his office, I see Will stepping out of his.

I freeze. My legs stop moving with just with one look from those lagoon eyes.

Eyes that are staring at me with apprehension.

“He call you into his office too?” Will asks.

Shit. My brows raised. Why is my father calling in both of us?

Oh my god!

What if someone saw us making out?

What if it was that man in the hallway who gave us the dirty look? What if he knows my father and he told?

Oh shit, what if Will loses his job? Would my father do that? Hell, he’d at least punch him in the face if not disown their entire friendship.

From the look on Will’s face I know he’s thinking the exact same thing.

Together we walk into my father’s office.

He’s sitting at his desk, sipping from his mug of coffee. “Shut the door,” he tells us. Will does so and the click of the handle seems so finite.

“So,” my father says, looking between the two of us. “How was the gala?”

I look up at Will as he stands beside me. His focus is completely on my father.

“It was fine. Boring. Vancouver really is a no-fun city.”

My father nods. “So you can see why I wasn’t eager to go.” He looks to me. “Did you at least have fun?”

I nod slowly. “It was nice.”

“Nice? Well I guess I don’t expect kids to be all that excited about a bunch of old farts standing around in tuxedos. Listen, the reason I called you in here is personal.” He pauses, looking at Will, then at me. “There are some execs from Fox visiting this week. I need the both of you to make sure they’re well taken care of. When our contract with Warner Brothers is up I don’t want us to be left hanging.”

I stare at him, my heart rate beginning to slow. Wait…that’s it?

“Sure,” Will tells him. “But why can’t you do it?”

“Because I’m away this week.”

“You’re going back to LA again?” Will asks, folding his arms across his chest. And by doing so, now I’m drawn to the sight of the watch on his wrist, then his large hand—the very hand that grabbed me, held me. I’m practically melting in the memory.

“No, not LA,” my father says, keeping his voice low. “I’m going on a golf trip to Bermuda with Badger Burke. Remember him? I just know Diane would kill me if she knew I was going to somewhere tropical without her.” He looks to me. “Don’t tell your mother or you’re fired.”

“So, I’m supposed to show the Fox guys around while you’re in the Caribbean playing golf? Seems like maybe my title needs an upgrade and yours needs a downgrade.”

My dad gives him a wry smile. “Seems like it’s too early to start drinking, Will. Now get back to work you two. I’m taking off in an hour, but damn I want to see some work done around here before I go.”

I get out of there without a moment to spare and I don’t think I breathe again until I’m at my desk.

Will, meanwhile, goes into his office and shuts the door and then the blinds without even a glance in my direction. I’m pretty sure he was also having a mini heart attack in there.

I sigh and flop down in my seat, checking my emails. Part of me hopes I’ll see something from him, asking to speak with me. Asking for anything, really. But there’s nothing at all.

I do have some work to do—he had asked for me to look into a good group activity for the office, like a team-building exercise. For some reason when I think about shit like that, I think about something that would happen at Dundler Mifflin from The Office, but at least it’s something to kill the time.

But my brain doesn’t stop tripping over the could-haves and would-haves, something it does automatically. Always replaying my past, always going over my mistakes.

Two hours go by and Will doesn’t once emerge from his office. Not even to get coffee. In fact, as much as I should give him space, I’m starting to get worried.

I email him. I have an idea for the team-building exercise.

There’s no response for a good ten minutes. During that time Alyssa comes by, trying to get information from me until I wave her away, and Casey saunters past, giving me a look I’d rather forget.

Finally, my computer dings.

Can you come in here for a minute?

I get up and go to his door, knocking lightly. I can’t pretend my heart isn’t back to racing around again. I swear this morning is giving it quite the workout.

“Come in,” Will’s deep voice says from the other side.

I open the door and step inside. The main lights are off, with only one tall lamp on by the couch where a hardcover book has been propped open, as if he was reading before he asked me in.

Will is sitting at his desk, leaning back in his chair, his eyes on the computer, handsome face lit up by the glow.

“Do you want me to turn on the lights?” I ask him.

He shakes his head and then winces. “No,” he says, waving his fingers at the door. “But get the door please.”

“Are you okay?” I ask him, shutting the door and taking a step toward him. I don’t want to get too close though. I feel like I might lose all nerve.

“I had a Sausage and Egg McMuffin for breakfast,” he tells me with a frown.

“Oh, you’re hungover?”

He nods carefully. “Yes. I met up with my friend last night and, well, old-fashioneds don’t always treat you so well the next day.”

“Maybe you should stop being so old-fashioned and have a beer for once,” I tell him. Try as I might, I’m unable to take the flirty tone from my voice.

He manages to give me a smile. “Look, Jackie, there are two things I wanted to discuss with you. Well there was one. And now you have this team-building thing so let’s hear that first.”

“Oh. Well. Actually, you might think it’s kind of funny but . . .”

“What are you doing hovering by the door?” he asks. “Sit down.”

I take my seat, feeling on the spot. His eyes never leave me, as pained as his expression is.

I go on. “I thought maybe we could have a riding day at my house. My mom can teach. Get everyone on board with horses.”

Will cocks a sexy brow at me. “Team building with Diane Phillips?”

“Something like that. I know you’ve been saying recently that the company needs to tighten its purse strings. Maybe it was Bob in accounting. Anyway, my mom would do it for free. We wouldn’t have to go far and it would be totally flexible.”

“And what makes you think your mother would want to put up with us?”

“Other than the fact that she loves me, my father, and adores you?”

“Yeah.”

“She’s been putting up with this office for a long time. I honestly don’t think she’d mind. She loves it when she plays teacher.”

He steeples his fingers, resting his chin on them. Stares at me in silence for a few beats. Then says. “Okay. I’ll ask Ted. When he returns from his secret trip.”

“Does he always do that?” I ask.

“Executive lifestyle,” Will says. “When you’re the boss of the company you think you can get away with everything.” Then he frowns, giving me an apologetic look. “Which is a segue into the next thing I wanted to talk to you about.”

Here it comes.

“Will, you don’t need to—”

He raises his palm. “Please. It has to be said. I’m very sorry for the way I behaved on Friday night. It was wrong of me and I apologize. Profusely.”

“Profusely?”

“Jackie.”

“You can’t go back to calling me Dream Girl?”

He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “Look . . . ”

“Will,” I tell him, leaning forward, placing my hands on his desk. “I don’t want your apology. You kissed me. And I wanted it.”

There.

I said it.

It has been said.

He glances up at me. “It doesn’t matter who wants it. It wasn’t my place. I’m your boss.”

“I know you are. But that doesn’t change anything.”

“It should.”

“But it doesn’t. Will, I have been . . . ” Here comes the truth. “I have been working with you for two months now. And I’m happy here. Happy with my job. Happy with you as my boss. But I can’t pretend that I haven’t thought about us. In that way.”

“I should know better,” he says quietly, playing with his watch. “You’re just twenty-five. You’ve been through so much and I’m just this old—”

“Will,” I say sharply. “Don’t even finish that sentence.” I take in a deep breath. “It was a mistake for me to take the cab home. I should have gone home with you. I should have stayed with you. And I have regretted every single second since then.”

His eyes meet mine. The pain he was feeling before is gone. Now I see a faint fire burning in their depths. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I know exactly what I’m saying. I may be just twenty-five. But as you’ve said, I’ve been through a lot. You say you know what you want and you go for it. So do I. You kissing me wasn’t a mistake, Will. The mistake was not going back to your place and letting you fuck me sideways.”

I can’t believe I just said that. But damn if it hasn’t gotten his attention.

He sucks in a breath, brows raised to the ceiling. The fire in his eyes building.

“God help me,” he says gruffly, getting to his feet. “You have five seconds to get your gorgeous ass out of this office.”

“Or what? You’re going to fire me?”

“I’m going fuck you sideways,” he says.

That phrase on his lips leaves me absolutely paralyzed. Glued to the chair. I couldn’t get up and leave even if I wanted to. And I don’t. I’m staying here. I’m not going anywhere.

He goes over to the door, twisting the lock, trapping us both inside.

When he turns around to face me the Will I know has been replaced by a carnal animal, zeroing in on its prey.

Still absolutely beautiful, though.

He stalks toward me.

“That wasn’t five seconds,” I tell him.

He’s not listening.

He leans over me grabbing my face, tilting my head over the back of the chair. He brushes his lips against mine, teasing at first, and my eyes are still open staring in shock right at his. Then his tongue slides in and my eyes close, my body surrendering to his touch right here.

In his office.

This wasn’t what I had planned this morning.

But I’m not going to stop it.

Not this time.

He moans quietly into my mouth, one hand making a fist in my hair, pulling lightly. I want more.

Then he stops himself, edging back, loosening his grip.

“What?” I whisper, the blood roaring in my head.

“I’m sorry,” he says, his breath hitching as he speaks.

“Stop saying that.”

“I was pulling your hair,” he notes. Damn right he was. His brows come together, uneasy. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. If that’s something you don’t like.”

Oh. I get it now. He’s worried that because of what Jeff did to me that hair pulling or anything else remotely painful might be a trigger. I can understand why he thinks that, but this is completely different. This is Will, a man I completely trust.

“No, I like it,” I tell him imploringly. “Be rough with me. Pull my hair, choke me, spank me. It’s you, Will, no one else. I want that side of you.”

He’s staring at me with wide, unblinking eyes. “Be careful what you wish for, Dream Girl,” he says, then resumes kissing me, creating art with his lips and tongue, painting my heart with his name over and over again.

His fingers wrap tighter in my hair, giving it a tug, and it’s like being pulled down beneath warm water. I could drown in his kiss and die happy.

“I should probably warn you,” he says to me, placing quick kisses down my jaw, his stubble razing my skin, “that I can be bossy.”

He then stands up and starts taking off his blazer, loosening his tie.

I sit back in the chair, trying to catch my breath as I stare up at him. His hair is barely out of place and I make a mental note to try and muss it all up. “Bossier than you are when you’re actually my boss? Because that’s not very bossy at all.”

He narrows his eyes at me and throws his tie and blazer on the computer, his long, nimble fingers undoing the buttons of his shirt. “I resemble that remark,” he jokes.

“You’re using puns from the Three Stooges. You really are old,” I tease, biting my lip while I wait for his response.

“You want that spanking now or later?” he asks, shucking off his shirt.

I’m both in love with how easy and comfortable our banter is with each other—I guess that is one of the pluses of being around someone for nearly two months straight before you get intimate with them—and how god damn fantastic he looks. Even if he didn’t have this current mood-lighting in his office shadowing the ridges of his abs and the lean curve of his chest, his rounded shoulders, his hard biceps, he would look breathtakingly beautiful.

“Now, later, I’ll take what I can get.”

He grins at me, devious and wicked and it has a direct effect between my legs. I can only guess at how wet I must be getting and he’s barely done anything to me. I find myself gripping the edge of the chair in anticipation, squirming in my seat.

And of course, I can’t help but marvel that my boss is getting naked in his office. With me.

He kicks off his shoes, bends down to take off his socks. Takes a step toward me. My eyes follow his hands as they undo his belt and then the zipper of his olive-green pants.

And then his pants drop to his ankles.

My boss is going commando, as usual.

My eyes go big and wide at the sight of something so big and, well, wide.

This isn’t a stolen glance of him changing in his bedroom.

This is him in his office, with his dick, large and in charge and jutting out right in front of me.

I manage to tear my eyes away from it and glance up at Will’s face.

He looks awfully pleased with himself. I don’t blame him. If I had a dick like that I’d probably be arrested for flashing it to everyone on the street.

“You’re very naked,” I tell him. My voice shakes a little.

“I am,” he says. “You’re not.”

He steps toward me, his hand grasping his dick, sliding it on the long journey from base to tip. Oh, baby. Even his balls are fucking perfect, swinging slightly as he walks.

He stops a foot away and all my instincts are telling me to reach out and grab him, watch him moan from my touch.

But then he drops to his knees, his hands running up my bare legs and parting them.

I didn’t see this coming.

He glances up at me as his thumbs slide over my inner thighs, brushing over the delicate skin, pushing my A-line skirt up higher and higher. His expression is both wild with desire and concerned, asking me silently if this is okay.

Of course this is okay. It’s new and it’s raw and it’s mildly disconcerting to have Will totally naked and between my legs. But it doesn’t feel the slightest bit wrong.

Still, I tense even though I tell him with my eyes to keep going, relieved that I took a good long shower this morning, that I’m wearing a new pair of silky red underwear I snagged at a Victoria’s Secret sale.

Red underwear that Will is now raptly focused on.

I raise my hips slightly as he pushes the skirt up so it’s bunched around my waist and he slowly runs his finger over the top of my underwear, from the lacy band all the way over the mound and down between my legs.

Hell. One touch and I’m already a bomb about to go off.

“I’m taking my time with you,” he murmurs, sliding his finger back up, pressing in at my clit. “I don’t give a fuck who is at my door.”

Instinctively I look to the door, fully aware now that at any moment someone could try and see Will, try the locked door and interrupt the moment. Or be looking for me. And maybe putting two and two together.

But those thoughts fade away as his hands grip my hips, warm palms pressed against my skin. He lowers his head, pulls me toward his face, and I feel the hot outline of his wet mouth pressing against me, the thin barrier of my panties muffling the sensation just enough to drive me wild.

I suck in my breath, my fingers going into his hair, reveling in the silky smoothness of his strands while he runs his tongue over my clit, the pressure causing me to jerk my hips toward him.

“I’ve had enough teasing,” he says, the vibrations spreading through me.

“I’ve had enough too.” But the words barely make it past my lips. I’m trying to watch him with his soft dark hair between my legs, the way he keeps glancing up at me in this frenzied adoration, but I can’t keep my head up. It goes back over the chair, my neck arching.

He pulls his face back for just a moment, long enough to slide my underwear down over my thighs until they’re dangling off one leg, then he’s pushing my legs wide again, his mouth going in for the kill.

Every worry, every tense cord inside me loosens with the wet sweep of his tongue. My mouth falls open, a groan rising out from my chest.

Damn. He knows what he’s doing. My thighs are already quivering.

His mouth is so warm, so strong. He kisses me there like he kisses my lips, soft and gentle, then quick and wild, sliding up around my clit then down inside me with a grunt.

I can’t contain my cry. It claws out of me, fueled by the need for him to be deeper.

But I probably should contain it.

Will pauses, staring up at me with a wet mouth, his brow raised.

For a moment I forgot where we are.

“Dream Girl, I’m taking you home later and you can scream as much as you fucking want.”

“Sorry,” I tell him, finding my breath. “It’s just that you’re very good.”

He grins. “I can tell. It’s hard not to be when you look the way that you do.” His eyes drop and he’s gazing between my legs. “I don’t think you have any idea how beautiful you are, how amazing you taste.”

I tighten my grip in his hair, giving it enough of a tug that his eyes pinch closed with pleasure. “Less talking,” I tell him.

“And I was supposed to be the bossy one,” he mutters to himself before shoving his face back between my legs.

It’s immediate bliss and I bite down on my lip hard enough to draw blood to keep the cries inside my chest. He is so, so good. And he knows it.

Soon the office fills with the sound of his licking, his sucking, his groans and my breathless sighs. Then he’s staring up at me, eyes burning with crazed lust and slowly pushing two large fingers inside me.

I’m gasping louder now, terribly close to coming.

“You have no idea how beautiful you look right now,” he whispers into me.

“Please . . . keep . . . going.” My skin is so flushed, I’m sweating, everything inside me is on fire, begging, needing to come.

With a throaty growl, he plunges his fingers back in, sucking my clit into his mouth, flicking it sharply with his tongue and I’m coiled in tight in waves of electricity, winding, winding, winding.

Then I’m exploding, wet, warm, pure fucking bliss. My hips jerk into his mouth as I spasm, my thighs gripping the side of his face, his stubble so beautifully rough. My fingers tug at his hair, holding on tight as though I might be thrown to the ground.

The world slowly shifts back, like sliding puzzle pieces. I’m staring up at the ceiling, open mouthed, glad I don’t have fluorescent lights blinding me in the eyes.

“Up,” he says gruffly, grabbing my hands and hauling me to my feet. I can barely stand; my legs are still shaking.

He leads me over to the couch, pushes the book off of it, and then turns me around, placing his hand between my shoulders and shoving me down so I’m on the couch on my knees.

“Hands up, against the wall,” he says from behind me, his voice extra rough, borderline animalistic. Finally, bossy Will has come out to play and I’m ready to do whatever he asks of me.

I put my hands up so they’re pressing against the wall, bracing me, just as one of his hands curls around the small of my waist. His touch is electric, hot, searing, especially over my hyper-sensitive skin.

“I’ll go slow,” he murmurs and I feel him position the tip of his cock just below my ass. “I wanted you wet as possible. I know I’m a big boy.”

I’ve never heard him sound less modest and I know he doesn’t have a reason to. I brace myself, holding my breath as he slowly, very slowly, pushes himself in.

He sucks in air then groans it out as he squeezes into me. “Fuck. Fuck, Jackie. This is . . .”

He doesn’t finish his sentence. His grip tightens around my waist and I bend a little more, trying to accommodate his size. I feel him everywhere, like he’s filling me up in every way.

I’m barely breathing. I’m tense and I shouldn’t be, but damn it’s hard. It hurts just a little, even though I’m so wet I’m dripping down my thighs.

He leans over me, hands brushing the hair off the back of my neck, kissing me there. “Easy,” he groans. “Easy. God, you feel like I thought you would. So warm, so tight.”

I close my eyes, relishing his words, willing my body to relax.

He pushes in further. Inch by inch, until I’m so fucking full, spread wide, aching around him.

He brings his mouth to my shoulder and bites. Hard. A whimper erupts from him and I just want to listen to his noises all day long, every day. I want to feel him forever, just like this, inside me like he’s always supposed to be. Two tectonic plates shifting in place against each other until there’s one fiery fit.

“I swear I’ll fuck you for hours, if you let me,” he whispers, mouth now at my ear. His voice is rough with urgency. “I’ll make you come until you can’t walk, can’t speak, can’t see anything but stars. But for now, I just need to come inside you. And I’m going to do it fast and do it hard. You got that?”

I nod, trying to swallow, my nails digging into the wall. I fucking adore bossy Will.

“Good,” he says, straightening up. “But just in case you don’t…”

I feel a hard crack against my ass cheek as he slaps it with a strong, open palm, then slaps the other cheek, and then before the cries fall from my lips, he pulls his cock nearly all the way out and then slams himself back into me.

All the air is pushed from my lungs. His cock is in so deep I’m not sure where I end and he begins.

Then he starts working me, his fingers pressing so hard into my side that I think he’s leaving bruises, holding me steady as he fucks me, hard.

There isn’t anything in the world but this.

He grinds into me, over and over, his hips jerking, his balls tapping against my skin. I don’t even know if he’s in to the hilt, but it doesn’t matter because the man is adept at control. His frantic thrusting is measured, his hips circling just enough to slide against every right spot. Faster, harder, deeper. He doesn’t relent.

Then as he starts to tense, his breath becoming raspy and hard, a drop of sweat rolling off his face and onto my neck, he slides his hand over the front of my skirt and below, finding my clit.

Two slick rubs are all it takes before I’m coming, and I’m taking the fabric of my dress shirt between my teeth, biting on my sleeve to keep from screaming.

I feel like I’ve been electrocuted with stardust. A universe is being created somewhere in my chest, expanding with suns and moons and stars.

Holy fuck.

It’s not just the intensity of the orgasm as it rips through me, causing my limbs to jerk and shake, it’s the intensity of us.

Of Will, as he groans into my shoulder with one final thrust, his seed spilling into me, his cocking twitching.

Emotions I wasn’t even aware existed are rushing through me, from my heart, up to my head, causing my eyes to burn with tears I desperately try to blink back. I’m so damn full of him, not just physically. This was never just physical.

And that’s why it’s so dangerous, I tell myself as my heartbeat slows and the feeling comes back into my heavy legs. My thoughts are rubbery at first, barely sticking in my brain before bounding off, but they’re there.

That wasn’t just a fuck with Will.

But it can’t ever be more than that.

What have I done?

“Jackie,” he whispers to me, kissing my neck. “Was that okay?”

I try and nod but I can barely move. My arms are locked against the wall, my skin red where my hands have bent back against my wrists.

He gently pulls himself out of me, his cum dripping down my thigh, and then pries my arms off the wall, holding me steady until I get to my feet.

There is no après-sex weirdness. I’d only slept with one guy, Lance, before I slept with Jeff, and with both of them it was always so cold and distant after we had sex. But Will is pulling toward me, cupping my face in his hands and staring at me with the same amount of adoration as he had before.

“How are you feeling?” he asks me, his forehead damp, his face flushed pink, both sexy and adorable.

“Fine,” I say, licking my dry lips. “Better than fine.”

His mouth quirks up into a half-smile. “I hoped you’d be better than fine.” Then his expression grows serious. He swallows, eyes searching my face. “I just want you to know, just in case you’re thinking it, that what we just did, it wasn’t wrong. It was the opposite of wrong. You, me. It’s everything that’s right.”

I feel it too, burning in my chest.

But . . . 

“Will,” I say softly. “That needed to happen. For whatever reason.”

“Because I want you,” he says, running his thumb along my lip. “Because I need you. Because I’m falling for you.”

Holy bejesus.

My heart feels like it’s in free-fall.

No. No, this is so much, so fast.

“Jackie,” he says to me, trying to keep his voice light. “It’s okay. All of this. However you want to do it.”

“You’re my boss.”

“I know that.”

“I don’t want that to change.”

“It’s not going to.”

“We could get in a lot of trouble.”

I mean, fuck, I’m only now realizing how much trouble we can get into. We just fucked in his office. He ate me out in his damn chair.

“I’m a big boy.”

“Oh, I know that.” God, I’m still aching a little from him.

“I mean, I know what I’m doing, what I’m getting into.”

I sigh, trying to look away, but he keeps my face in place.

“We both could lose our jobs. We both could damage our relationships with my father.”

“He’d understand.”

I give him a hard look. “Do you really think that? Will, you might think he’d forgive you for fucking his daughter, and I highly doubt that. But I guarantee he won’t look too kindly on me.”

“Jackie . . . ”

“No,” I tell him, frustrated, I pull away and walk across the room to where his clothes are strewn about. I pick up his pants and throw them into his hands. “You don’t understand. I was a problem child. I made his life, and my mother’s life, a living hell in high school. Drinking, drugs, getting in trouble with the police. I was with the wrong crowd and I didn’t care. And then I got knocked up by a piece of shit that they hated. I had Ty and then I immediately ruined everything, threw it all away, all their support and love, by moving up north with Jeff. I barely talked to them for seven years, and I was barely talking to them before that. Don’t you see? I need to repair what I have with my father. I need to prove that I’m good, that I’m responsible, that I’m no longer the girl that they think I am.”

He watches me steadily as he slips on his pants. “You’re far from that girl.”

“Yeah, well, you don’t know that,” I say, tossing him his dress shirt. “You weren’t there to see it. And if you were, you weren’t a part of it. Thank god.” I rub at my forehead, trying to get my bearings. “Look, I know this is all okay to you. But it can’t be more than this.”

“Sex?”

I nod, biting my lip. “Yeah. Sex.”

He slips on his shirt and raises his chin as he watches me. “That’s all I get?” he asks quietly.

I gesture to the chair and the couch, giving him a small smile. “Honestly, I think if it’s always like this, it’s more than enough. You might just be too much for me to handle.”

That brings a genuine grin to his face. “Okay,” he says, coming over and doing up his shirt. “If that’s all of Jackie Phillips that I get, I’d be a foolish man not to take it.”

I stare at him for a moment, taking in his beautiful body, that gorgeous face, his damn big heart. “How can you even want more?” I ask him quietly. “After all you’ve gone through with Sasha. How can you put yourself out there again?”

He tilts his head thoughtfully. “Because being with Sasha taught me that life is short. And when you find what makes your heart beat, your soul sing, you have to hang on to it. That’s you Jackie. I’m done doing things halfway. It’s all or nothing now. And with you, I’m all in.”

Damn. Damn his pretty mouth and those sweet, sweet words.

“So, can I take you on a date?” he asks.

I laugh. “I just said it was just sex.”

“And I just said I’m all in. This is how I do just sex. Come on over to my place tonight. I’ll show you what a date with me is like when it’s just sex.” He steps closer and runs his hand down my sleeve until he’s holding my hand. “I respect your decision. But I’m still going to want to see you every single chance I get. Working with you is not enough. It’s never been enough. We’ll hide it and I won’t expect much from you, but you’re the only girl for me going forward, got that?”

“Got it,” I tell him as he kisses me gently on the lips. “But my mom is teaching a class tonight. She can’t watch Ty. What about tomorrow night?”

“It will be painful to wait that long. But sure.” Then he reaches around and smacks my ass. “Now go back outside and finish those expense reports.”

I grin at him. “I did those last week.”

“Then go outside and look busy. And stop dreaming about me.”

I shake my head and head to the door. “You’re too much.”

“I know.”

I unlock the door and slowly pull it open, poking my head out.

Patty isn’t at her desk. No one is looking in my direction.

I look over my shoulder at Will, give him a nod, and then I step out.

It’s only a few feet to my desk.

I make it there without anyone noticing.

That is, until I turn around and see Alyssa standing in the corner, munching on an apple.

My eyes widen.

She winks at me and walks over. “You still have to tell me about the gala,” she says, glancing at Will’s closed door. “Something tells me it went really well.” Then she leans in close and places her finger at her lips. “I’ve got your back,” she whispers and then walks off to her office.

I sigh, long and hard, and sink back into my chair.

I can’t believe that just happened.

And yet, somehow, I can.