Some cities are known for their country music scene. Nashville. Austin.

Boston doesn’t make the top ten.

I blew in the front door of the country bar I’d found online weeks ago, drawing looks for my denim-free wardrobe. I surveyed the dense crowd of cowboy hats and raucous laughter. No sign of Avery or his companions.

I bent over the railing toward the dance floor. “Dammit, Banks, where are you?” I muttered to myself.

“The Dirty Denim, same as you.”

I jumped, turning to find my boss leaning against the railing next to me.

It was like being kicked in the gut with steel-toed boots.

Avery stuck out in the best way in a sea of cowboys, his suit tailored and pressed. His jaw was turned into a soft slash by the low, warm lights. The tie from earlier was gone and the collar of his shirt was open, revealing inches of skin that was suddenly the only thing I could stare at.

“I came to explain. In case you wondered why I booked you to meet prospective clients here.” My voice was remarkably level considering ninety percent of my brainpower was processing how fucking hot he looked.

Avery braced his forearms on the wood, thankfully not noticing my stare. His gaze ran over the couples two-stepping, the mechanical bull by the stage.

“I thought it would be fun to send you to this country bar because—”

“The clients are as country as Kanye.” He grimaced, turning. Cool, intelligent eyes landed on my face. “Well, it worked. The evening’s tanking.”

I lifted my chin. “That’s not possible.”

“You sent us to the last place any of us would want to be.”

“Don’t give up. Landing these clients would go a long way to showing Redpath you’re ready to be a director. They’re exactly the kind of clients you should get. And I want to help.”

He shook his head, incredulous, then shifted off the railing and started toward the stairs.

I caught up to him in my heeled sandals. Avery paused to let a string of girls on a bachelorette pass. His gaze lingered a little too long on my outfit. “What’s with the clothes. You on a date or something?”

“I don’t date. It’s a waste of time.”

“One thing we can agree on.”

We found the prospective clients no problem. They were the only others in business suits in a crowd of jeans and cowboy hats.

The guys Avery was meeting were three founders of a growing industrials firm. Bioenergy. Went from ten to five hundred staff in two years. They’d be a Fortune 500 company soon.

They didn’t look nearly as miserable as Avery had suggested, especially when I pulled up with a grin.

“Evening, gentlemen. I’m Charlie, a colleague of Avery’s. What are we doing? Whiskey? Dancing?”

“Before you arrived, we were just talking about investment options. Cash flow strategies. Exchange rate exposure,” Avery said tightly.

I’d never seen Avery in a client meeting off-site. At the office he was efficient. Straightforward. Confident.

That presence carried over to the bar, but something wasn’t clicking. I scanned the faces around the circle. Tried to read between the lines.

“I bet you’ve had a long day,” I ventured. “You must be ready to unwind.”

Expressions relaxed as they turned toward me.

“Now that you mention it, I’m trying to get Ivan up on that thing,” offered a tall man with a lean build. He motioned to his friend, who was short and stocky but all muscle.

Ivan Litchfield, I remembered. Chief Financial Officer.

I turned to see the giant, hulking shape in the middle of the floor.

“Mechanical bull. That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day.”

Avery pulled me to the side as the men discussed their odds. Their voices lifted like they’d found a second wind. “What are you doing?” he hissed.

I leaned toward his ear, ignoring the hit of his cologne that did strange things to my insides. “They were tired of talking interest rates.”

“That’s why we’re here.”

“We’re here to get them to like you. You’re auditioning for a relationship, not a one-night stand.”

Avery glanced over my shoulder, considering my words. “I want to land them, not kill them.”

I played my trump card. “You won’t kill them. Ivan Litchfield did two years of high school rodeo.”

His expression shifted. “That’s why you picked this place. To help land the business. Not to throw me off.”

“Maybe both.”

The music pounded in my ears, but we could’ve been in a silent room for all I noticed. His moody gaze, though…that was loud. That was heavy.

I glanced toward the bull.

“Whatever you’re thinking right now, the answer is no.” His voice was just audible over the hum of the room.

“I don’t remember asking a question,” I tossed back.

Avery stepped toward me, brushed back my hair to speak into my ear. I shivered at the feel of his breath on my skin.

“These are my clients. I let you stay, but I forbid you to go up on that bull.”

I pulled back an inch to look him in the eyes. “You forbid me? This isn’t the office, boss. It’s the Wild West.” I grinned. “Give me one reason I shouldn’t.”

“Because if you do what you’re thinking, dressed like that? Every man in here’s going to drop his beer and his date to watch. And I’m not using your body as a client acquisition strategy.”

I raised a brow, curious and slightly breathless. “I don’t think one little bull ride would shut down the bar.”

Avery’s gaze dragged down my body, over my clingy top and skin-tight leggings. “Want to bet?”

He walked away, leaving me staring.

“What do you think?” Ivan asked, leaning over. “Would you do business with him?”

“Yes,” I said when I could speak. “He’s going to run the company someday, and you’ll say ‘I knew him when.’”

Ivan raised a brow and his beer. “The man has moves.”

I glanced over my shoulder to see Avery talking with a girl at the bar. She flirted up at him, flashing him a wide grin that said can I help you get out of those pants? It was a country bar, for fuck’s sake. He looked like a tornado had picked him up off Wall Street and dropped him in Nashville.

Besides, I couldn’t have a little fun but he could? Double standard bullshit.

An idea sparked.

“Ivan? Twenty bucks says I can outlast you on that thing.” I jerked my head toward the center of the room.

He grinned. “You’re on.”

We shook on it. Then I ducked into the ring and got up on the bull. The thing was bigger than it looked.

I barely had time to settle and grab onto the strap before the monster dove.

If I’d thought this was for show, I was wrong. In five seconds, all of my attention went to staying on.

The cheers from the crowd echoed dully in the back of my brain, mixing in with the fuzzy lights and other stimuli. After a few spins that wreaked havoc with my center of gravity, I nearly had it down. Kept my hips pressed close to the bull’s shoulders. The faux-leather pants helped me grip.

I caught the prospective clients grinning when the bull paused on a dive. Ivan raised his glass to me and I managed an exhilarated smile. After the next lurch, I caught another set of eyes.

This man wasn’t smiling. But it was the look on top of the anger that distracted me.

The awareness in my boss’s eyes. The way his hand tightened on his drink. His clenched jaw that said I want to get you alone and strangle you.

Or maybe something else.

I was caught in the physicality of it. The rawness. My body being pulled and jerked and tested.

Is that what my boss would be like in bed?

Demanding. Wild. Forcing a girl to respond, touching her again and again until she did? Until her body bent to his?

Maybe he could see everything going through my head.

Maybe I wanted him to.

On that thought, the bull dove under me, and I tightened my grip half a second late. I winced as the bones in my hand compacted. Before I could think, I was spinning. Shapes whizzed by my vision until all the air was knocked from my lungs as I landed.

A chorus of “Awww!” echoed dully in my brain, but before anyone could help me, I stood up and shook myself off.

“You OK?” one of the men asked.

“Stellar,” I tossed. “Excuse me gentlemen, I’m going to freshen up. When I get back, I expect to see you on that, Ivan.” I brushed past the cheering potential clients for the bathroom.

“Charlotte.”

I knew the angry voice calling my name over the crowd. And I ignored it.

I brushed into the first available unisex washroom. I washed my hands. Dried them on paper towel before staring at myself in the mirror.

My pulse still hammered in my throat. If I was being honest, it was only half from the bull ride.

I squared my shoulders and strode out, my heels clicking loudly on the floor. A hand grabbed my arm and pulled me back into the bathroom. Before I could breathe, I was pinned to the door.

“That was unprofessional.” Avery’s furious voice dragged down my spine.

My heart hammered against my ribs. The thrill of the ride still reverberated in every part of me. “They loved it. No one got hurt. Hell, those men probably haven’t gotten out to a place like this in months. They’ll be eating out of your hand by the end of the night.”

“That’s what you’re after. Men eating out of your hand.”

The yellow light cast long shadows in the small room. In the corner of my eye Avery’s reflection bounced back at me from the mirror over the sink.

My mouth curved at the corner, trembling. “Depends on the man.”

Country music drifted through the door. I felt it in my back. But most of my attention was taken up by the man looming over me. His shoulders blocked out the light, his face half cast in shadows.

“If I told you to get up in the morning and go to bed at night, I bet you’d do the opposite. Just to defy me.”

“It does bring me some satisfaction.”

“Really? Because I’m not getting any satisfaction, Charlotte.” The struggle was evident in the lines of his face. The tension in his body. “I’m wound so fucking tight I could snap.”

“Well,” I said softly. “Something else we have in common.”

I angled my chin up, asking him.

Daring him.

Sensations shooting from my waist down had me sucking in a breath. I realized his fingers had found my waist, over my thin top. Pressing just hard enough to hold me in place.

I didn’t even know if he was aware of it, but I sure as hell was.

“I realized something today,” he muttered. “The way we fight turns you on, doesn’t it.”

“Yes.” He didn’t need the word. He could see the answer written on my face. My parted lips. My wide eyes.

His thumb caught the edge of my shirt, and the next upward stroke had his skin rubbing mine. I gasped.

“You’re the one who said we’re out of the office. The Wild West was it? So tell me. Under these—” his hand spanned my hips, pressing along the top of my leggings just below my stomach, and had me sucking in a breath “—are you soaked?”

Shit.

It took a minute for me to get past his hypnotic voice, the sight of his lips inches from mine.

His hand curled around mine. The intimacy of it stole my breath.

Until he lifted two of my fingers to his mouth. Wrapped his tongue around them.

Fire streaked down my spine. Holy hell. The pull of his mouth drew a cord that tugged on my whole spine, ending in the pulsing heat between my legs.

What are you—?

I realized I hadn’t said the words out loud. I couldn’t find my voice.

He moved my hand to my waist, dragged both our fingers along the waistband of my pants in a way that had me biting my lip.

“Let’s find out.”

I didn’t know what his game was. Until he worked his hand down the front of my leggings.

Correction. Our hands.

My fingers brushed my slick flesh and holy shit—

Avery groaned. “You’re dripping. Right through this lace. Fuck, that’s perfect.” His voice was gravel, his gaze pinning me in place.

His presence was more than I could take, but when he dragged my fingers over my clit, forced my hips to buck toward him…

“This is what you wanted. When you were riding that bull, daring me to do something about it,” he murmured.

It was my fingers wet from my arousal, that were lighting up the nerves in my skin.

But it was him touching me. Him turning me on.

I was beyond making sense of this, but also beyond doing anything but feeling.

Craving.

“You wished you were at home, rubbing one out. Taking care of the ache.” His voice was as dark and seductive as his words. “Tell me you think of me when you do that. Because I sure as hell think of you.”

I could’ve left at any moment. Could’ve said no, slipped past him and out the door. He wouldn’t have stopped me. But I wasn’t ready to run.

My other hand reached out, fingers twisting around a button of his shirt. I arched my hips, my eyes falling shut.

He moved my fingers lower, and I didn’t resist. Couldn’t. My fingertips teased my opening, the place I felt so empty, and I moaned.

His wicked scent did things to my head, until I wanted to grab him. Sink my nails into his skin and rake them down. Mark him as mine, this as ours.

He knew the moment I switched from following to leading. I could tell from the noise in his throat. When my fingers slipped inside with the tiniest encouragement from him. My thumb rubbed a slow circle over my clit that had me gasping.

I couldn’t stop. His hard body, close enough to touch. His dark smell, taking over my brain. Fuck it. Holding onto his shirt wasn’t enough. My arm reached up, pulled him closer. Tightened on the muscles of his neck. My breath hitched and I sucked in his air, his mouth an inch from mine. He turned away, his mouth brushing my neck with an open-mouthed kiss. But the tension in his body said this wasn’t as easy as he wanted it to look.

“That’s so hot.” He murmured it against the shell of my ear like an afterthought. His touch trapped my hand between his warm skin and my desperate body. All of it added to the storm inside me.

Avery started to pull his hand back but I grabbed his arm. Held it there.

He didn’t touch me where I was wet, but his hand never left mine. Traced the back of my fingers. I felt the wetness coat both of us and it was hot as hell.

It was impossible, but the tremors going through my body meant I was getting there.

There.

That sweet, incomparable place that lets you forget your life for a few moments. Minutes.

“Avery,” I panted.

“Yeah.”

“This is not a spectator sport.”

My gaze fought his. Finally he groaned, relenting.

His shoulders came closer as his hand slipped past mine. He slid a finger inside me and I cried out.

My fingers rubbed furious circles on my clit as he worked in and out of me. His low grunts added encouragement. A second finger pressed inside me, and I groaned his name.

I was ten seconds from reaching nirvana thanks to my boss’s dirty words, and his relentless fucking hand.

My breath came in little pants as my head fell back against the door. Avery’s breath was heavy in my ear. “Tell me when.”

“Now. Oh, shit, now.”

I fell over the edge, crying out as I came against his—and my—hand. The tremors rocked me, starting at my core and extending through my limbs.

My back hurt from the hard wood door, my jaw ached from tension, and my fingers were cramped from…

Well. Yeah.

None of it mattered. The feeling tearing through me had rendered the rest irrelevant as I panted, trying to catch my breath.

Both our hands were still down my pants. When he pulled back his hand, brushing my clit on the way, I jumped.

His gaze locked with mine, and it started a whole new wave of sensation. His hair fell over his face, lips parted. The man looked like he’d just run a marathon in a suit.

The dark eyes a million miles deep were familiar. But there was something new in Avery’s face.

Yeah, this didn’t exactly go down like I’d planned either.

It was better. Somehow he’d just made me come, and all I could think about was demanding he do it again.

Or maybe returning the favor…

“Anyone in there?”

This time the vibration was through my back.

Fuck, didn’t we lock this?

Apparently not.

The door burst in. Avery’s hard body braced my fall, his arm wrapping around me on instinct as I lost my balance. The group of girls laughed drunkenly as they took in the situation.

“Get a room,” one of them whined.

I slammed the door again. When I turned back, he was washing his hands at the sink. Drying them on paper towel. His gaze met mine in the mirror, and this time it was almost normal.

Avery turned, shoving his hands in his pockets. “You should go home, Charlotte. I’ll finish with the clients.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” He straightened his tie.

I wanted to ask him where the hell this side of him had come from. I wanted to flip the lock and beg him to keep going.

Avery jerked the door open and started down the hall, the line of women parting so he could pass. Most of them turned to watch him go.

“Avery Banks,” I called, oblivious to the other people in the way.

He turned back, raising a brow over the top of the crowd.

I cocked my head. “Call me?”

Avery shook his head in exasperation, but I could’ve sworn the corner of his mouth twitched.

I watched him disappear, adjusting his cuffs on the way.

“Are you done yet?” the girl at the front of the line demanded.

“One sec.”

I slammed the door behind me, locking out the chorus of boos from the line of people.

I took a moment to do something I might’ve forgotten how to do.

Breathe.