“Alex, just try to focus.” Marc chuckled. His voice echoed on the phone.

The signal was bad where he was so every now and again the connection would either break or his voice would have a rasp of static.

It was difficult to follow at times but I didn’t care, it was just great to be talking to him.

“I am focused.”

“On the wrong thing.” Marc laughed. “Always a woman with you.”

“No, this one’s different.” I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me and rested my head back against the chair as I swiveled it around to face the window.

We’d been on the phone for an hour. I’d given him the full run down of everything.

This was the first chance we’d had to talk in weeks because we were both so busy and the time difference didn’t help.

It was nearly eleven so must have been just after midnight in Hong Kong. He’d messaged this morning to let me know he’d call after my first meeting, and stayed up to speak to me.

“I have to write that down in my diary. Never heard you say that before so I want to reference it, should you say it again.”

I smirked and shook my head. Somehow I wasn’t certain if I would be saying it again. Summer had this way about her that got to me. It was like I wanted her to know all of me. Not just what she saw.

Maybe that’s why I tried so hard, but damn to no avail.

“She just has my interest.” I expressed.

“Alex, how about you put that interest of yours on getting the senior partnership. Your dad sounds serious. He’s never really given you a trial before.” Marc sounded concerned.

“I know. He is serious and I think this is it.”

“Sorry I’m not there man.” Marc sighed.

“Me too.”

Me more than him. I was a lost soul when both Marc and my mother were away. They were the two people in my world who kept me sane.

My mom could chill out my father and stop him from focusing so much on me, and Marc was probably more of a brother to me than Preston.

A guy should never be without his best friend. I’d known Marc since junior high. We were completely different to each other but we got on like a damn house on fire.

He was tall and lanky with that geeky but cool look he carried off with his dark curly hair that was always a little too long.

In high school while I chased girls and played basketball, he was more at home in a lab cooking up some sort of experiment.

The main thing that we shared a love for was being lawyers, but then our differences came into play again.

Marc specialized in technology and intellectual property law. I claimed to be niche but he was the definition of niche which is why my father asked him to set up the team in Hong Kong.

“I’ll be back in a few weeks, but it’ll be hard to come back. I love it here.”

“Don’t love it too much.” I winced.

“Come join me for a weekend, if you can drag yourself away from your new woman.”

New woman? I wish she was. “I’ll think about it. I wouldn’t want to leave her so early in the job. She may need me.”

“Right. The job. You forget who you’re talking to.” Marc laughed and his voice sounded raspy again.

“Seriously, she may need me.”

“I’m sure you’re hoping she’ll need you for other things too, outside the job.”

“Of course I am.” That was a given. “I won’t lie and say that I’m not, I just wish she didn’t make me so crazy.”

“It sounds like she’s been through stuff.”

There was no question about that, and when she got that lost faraway look in her eyes my theory of someone hurting her kept popping up. I just didn’t like assuming.

“I think you’re right.”

“Why don’t you just ask her and put yourself out of misery?”

I didn’t want to pry but I felt like I might have to ask at some point, before I lost my mind.

Marc yawned and said something but I couldn’t make out what he said.

“Grab some sleep man.” I suggested. The poor guy must have been tired. “We’ll catch up properly some other time.”

“Okay, promise me you won’t go crazy.”

“I promise.”

“Good, there’ll be too much to fix when I get back if you do.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “I make life more interesting.”

“Yup, sure do. Over and out bro.”

When he hung up I put the phone back down on the desk and closed my eyes.

I could still feel Summer’s lips on mine. The softness and the want she suppressed burning for me.

Was I a fool to entertain this?

This want that drove me insane and kept me fixated on her.

Summer Daniels, was the one woman who’d managed to make me, Alex Sullivan, her bitch for one night and leave me chasing after her like a wild, hungry dog.

I’d met the one woman who’d managed to hook me, and have me wanting to go back to her for more. I wasn’t used to waiting, or playing a game I wasn’t sure I’d win.

She’d done a good job at resisting me so far.

Maybe that would be it. We’d play this game and I’d lose.

But then why would she kiss me the way she did?

Last night when we went home. I had to try hard to keep myself under control. I drove us back with a damn hard on, had to do my best not to make it look obvious and give myself an ice cold shower the first chance I got.

The shower helped but did nothing to my mind that thought of her all fucking night. I imagined her in the little bed in the guest room. Her perfect body that I’d had the pleasure to indulge on wrapped in the silk of the sheets.

I thought of her wearing that long shirt she’d worn the day after she’d moved in. It gave her voluptuous breasts the chance to move freely and allowed me to see when she was turned on.

By morning I woke up hard again from the erotic dreams that tortured me all night, but she came down for breakfast worry free. Unbothered and chilled from her obvious restful sleep.

At the office she’d come several times this morning to talk about my schedule and clients. I didn’t hear her properly as she spoke because I was too taken with how her legs looked in that pencil skirt.

Each time she’d come in she at least avoided too much eye contact, showing me that there was some feeling behind the mask she wore.

My plan yesterday to get outside and gather my thoughts had landed me in this wound up state of sexual tension and I didn’t feel any less anxious about Devon.

I’d decided though that I’d hold off on speaking to my father. Right now he knew I didn’t want to take on the case, and I didn’t want to look like I was trying to find excuses not to do it.

Despite my inner discomfort, I had to give it my best, put everything I had into it. That meant being prepared for the meeting in a few weeks and if we couldn’t come to an agreement then I’d have to prepare to battle it out in court.

There was a little knock at the door.

It was her. I could tell now from the cautious manner that she knocked.

“Come in.” I called out.

The handle turned first and then the door opened. She came in holding a blue folder close to her chest drawing my attention to the little tear drop pendant that nestled in her deep cleavage.

“Hi. Me again.” Her cheeks turned rosy with the little smile that inched up her sweet mouth.

“You say that like I’m tired of seeing you. You should know I’m not.” I stared at her giving her a look that sized her up.

“I know your busy and this is the fifth time I’ve been in here today.”

“No complaints here.” I shrugged lifting my shoulders up and tilting my head to the side.

She locked the door and came closer to the desk.

“Thanks, I’m sure that once I get the hang of things I’ll be able to leave you to work.”

I didn’t know how she could do it, pretend as if this was how we’d always been. Simple work colleagues.

It was like she was two different people. The sexy woman from the club who allowed me to explore her body, and this equally sexy woman who’d put up this wall around her that I was trying to pull down.

There she was worrying about bothering me, but my mind had switched off and I was thinking with my dick of all the ways I could take her. That in just a few seconds.

“Well I hope that doesn’t happen.” Seeing she looked uncomfortable I decided to change tactics and switch back to work mode. “ What can I do for you, angel?”

“We just got an email from Clarissa Parker.”

“Is she okay?” She was one of my first clients. She actually picked me because she wanted to give me work. She’d gone through a pretty tough time in the last three years when her husband left her. They had three kids under ten.

“No, I don’t think so. The last check she sent bounced, but so did all the others and she sent in a final notice from her creditors along with an application for bankruptcy. She wants you to help with that. She can no longer afford to run her restaurant. I thought I’d speak to you first before I called her.”

I helped set up that restaurant. I helped her from scratch to form her company and build a brand. Clarissa had three kids to feed, she couldn’t lose her livelihood.

“Bankruptcy?”

“Yeah, she wanted to find out if you’d consider taking her grandmother’s antique watch as payment.”

I got up, shrugged out of my blazer and grabbed my biker jacket from the coat rack.

“What are you doing?” Summer asked with curiosity, eyes narrowed. “Are you going out?”

“Going to save the day?” When things got that bad there was only one thing anyone could do. Fix it.

I felt bad that Clarissa didn’t think she could come and see me and tell me herself that things had gotten worse. And that she thought I’d take her grandmother’s watch.

“How?” Summer looked confused.

I took off my tie. I hated the whole office look and today it just made me feel even more restrained than I felt.

“Buy the restaurant and pay the debts.” I undid my two top buttons and gave myself a once over look at my reflection on the wall to ceiling window.

Looking back at Summer, I saw the surprise on her face.

“Won’t she owe you big time?”

“Summer, when I help I help. I don’t expect any owings. She has three kids and that restaurant is her everything. I’m not going to stand by and allow her to lose everything when I can do something about it.”

Her surprise now bordered on shock.

“You’re seriously going to pay for everything?”

“Yup, have a better idea, angel?”

She shook her head. “You really are going to save the day?”

“I know it probably won’t be as straightforward as I’m saying but I’ll take care of the bad parts, we’ll deal with the rest.” I imagined that if things had gotten to the stage where Clarissa wanted to apply for bankruptcy as a business owner she may have owed for a lot that we could make arrangements to pay.

Summer looked surprised.

“Not as bad as you thought I was right?” I stated with a smirk walking up to her.

“I didn’t think you were bad.” She shook her head. “There’s… more to you.” Her eyes searched mine.

“There’s more to you too.”

“What more do you see?” she asked.

“I know you aren’t all work and no play. You didn’t seem like that at the club.”

“I was drunk.” Her cheeks colored fiercely.

“Bullshit,” I smirked.

“I was drunk.”

“Bullshit.” I laughed to her annoyance.

“You couldn’t possibly know how I felt.” She shot back.

“You were chilled out and mellowed. I know the difference. If you weren’t, I wouldn’t have taken you home.”

She immediately straightened up. “Why?”

“I would never sleep with a woman who was drunk.”

She looked like she didn’t believe me. “How comes?”

“Number one, drunk means being vulnerable and unable to make a definite decision. I would never want to be accused of rape. And two, when you’re with me, you’re with me, and because you want to be.”

She seemed more impressed. “Okay that makes sense.”

A thoughtful look crossed her face and I couldn’t stop myself from continuing on with this topic. “Thinking about what I said last night?”

“No.” she answered a little too quickly. I stepped a little closer into her personal space.

“Liar.”

“I’m not thinking about that.”

I was ready to be done with this game but she continued to resist me for whatever reason she had.

“Then I need to try harder.” I placed my hands on the wall either side of her so that she couldn’t escape.

I leaned in for a kiss but she turned away and I got her cheek. That was fine too and I stayed there kissing her there. I liked that she giggled.

“Alex, we’re at work.”

“I don’t care. I’m working overtime here, putting in the extra effort to get you to like me.” I placed more kisses along her cheek and neck, feeling her resolve melt.

She turned her head and our lips brushed against each other.

“I do like you.” She confessed but as soon as the words fell from her lips, worry filled her eyes.

I suspected again that she’d been hurt in the past.

“Newsflash, I like you too.” I thought that would help but it didn’t.

She still looked uneasy, but surprised me by reaching out to touch my chest.

“Do you?”

I smiled down at her. “I thought that was obvious. Are you thinking about me now?”

“You better go save Clarissa.”

Changing the subject.

“Answer the question. Then I’ll go.” I challenged. “Come on simple yes or no question. Are you thinking about me? And what I said last night.”

“If I say no would that be safer?”

“Is no the truth?”

“No.” She smiled when I touched her face.

“Then why can’t you say yes?”

“Because you’re my boss. And we’re at work.”

God, she was stubborn. It was fine I could fight fire with fire. I reached out and took the edge of her waist band. My fingers were met with the soft silky fabric of her blouse, then her skin when I reached over the band.

“We had fun that night didn’t we? Do you remember that?” The best way to deal with her was to tease out her own feelings.

“I remember.”

Good, now we were getting somewhere. I leaned closer to her ear for effect and whispered in her ear.

“Do you remember how I made you feel?” I teased. She hugged the file to her chest. “And how I made you scream my name when I was inside you?”

Raw.

Sometimes it was the only way. “Tell me you remember.” I gave her a wicked smile.

“I remember.”

“Good, now answer the question. Are you thinking about me?”

Moving so I could see her, I gazed deep into her eyes waiting for an answer.

“Yes.”

“Good. We should finish exploring your limits Summer.” Closer, I went closer now pressing my lips to hers for a light kiss. The scent of her perfume filled me, making me wild. It urged me to taste her. “Do you want to?”

“We can’t here.” She replied against my lips.

I liked that her resolve was fading.

“Where can we?” My skin begun to tingle at the thought of her giving in, but then I watched, annoyed, and sexually frustrated, when I saw the hesitation return.

“I can’t… you should go save Clarissa.”

“ We have unfinished business, Summer. And, the longer you drag it out the worse it will get. But we’ll see how long you can keep up this charade.”

I knew she was as aroused as I was but I also knew that if I continued I’d either have to drag her off to one of the cupboards or take her right here in my office.

I stepped back, deciding to go.

Nothing else needed to be said.

From the look of her I could tell that I’d said enough.