The lunchroom never smelled that good. Most of the time it stank of a combination of something close to rancid tuna and old coffee. The floor certainly was never that warm.
Her hand flailed and she caught the edge of something soft and smooth. Her fingers curled around it before she could think better of it, and she realized that it was the crease of fabric. Warm fabric. Warm, because it was heated by the body below it.
“Put me down!” Colette protested. She shook her head violently, and what do you know, the stars gave way and the darkness parted way. Her head cleared and the ringing stopped.
A rich, deep laugh filled up her ears. Worse, she could feel that laughter bubbling up from the body pressed so intimately against hers. From the unyielding chest that it belonged to. She felt it right from his diaphragm, which was embarrassingly close to her side, felt his lung expand near her own chest. The rush of warm, minty scented air hit her in the face like a devastating blast, tickling her cheek.
“No way. You fainted in the lunchroom. It’s my job as your boss, to make sure you’re okay. Health and safety standards and all.”
“Put me down!” Colette protested again. She planted her palm smack dab in the middle of the warm rock pressed up against her, but it was like trying to push away real rock. He didn’t budge.
She blinked hard and when the last of the stars cleared, she realized she wasn’t in the lunchroom anymore. She was in an office. Blaze’s office. The door was closed, and it was just them, and he was holding her in his freaking arms.
Holding her, like she weighed nothing at all. He was staring down at her, his gaze transfixed on her face. No, not just on her face. On her mouth. He was watching her mouth, watching her with that sheen in his eyes and that predatory look he’d had when he stared at her in the back of the limo. Like he wanted to devour her.
What was wrong with her that her stomach cramped up and her mouth went dry and an uncomfortable zing of lust induced electricity shot straight between her legs?
“You- you bastard,” she stammered. She hated that her voice wobbled, just like her legs surely would if the brute holding her ever bothered to listen to her and set her back down on her feet. “You told everyone that we were dating?” The word came out like it was poisonous.
Blaze blinked down at her. God. From that angle, his dark lashes looked like they were a thousand miles long. His lips were even more devastating, pouty and firm in turns, but perfectly shaped. His cheekbones appeared severe, but his glowing eyes softened the harshness of his features. He was almost too beautiful to be real. Colette wasn’t sure if it was the overhead lighting that was shining too bright in her sensitive eyes or if Blaze was really so gorgeous it hurt to look at him.
In essence, he was every woman’s fantasy, ripped straight from the pages of the smuttiest of smutty novels, come to life.
“Not everyone,” he drawled, like the whole thing was a joke to him. “I just made sure that I had a rather large, rather grand looking bouquet of flowers delivered to your desk this morning. It was my way of making up for acting less than chivalrous at our date the other night. It wasn’t exactly my fault that the rest of the office is nosy and can’t keep their hands to themselves. Or that the florist might have mistakenly labeled the card, All my love, Blaze.”
“Mistakenly?” Colette spat. “You- you Neanderthal! You’re a scheming, lying, beastly, terrible troll of a man. Put me down! You did that on purpose! You want everyone to think we’re dating. Though I have no idea why. You never- er… you never…”
“What?” Blaze’s brow cocked upward in amusement. “I never what?”
“Nothing,” Colette muttered, her face on fire. “Just put me down before everyone thinks we’re doing something inappropriate in here.”
Blaze leaned down, tucking his face against her ear so that his lips brushed the sensitive skin right below her lobe and his breath tickled the heated column of her neck.
“Oh, I’m counting on it.” He took two steps and unceremoniously did as she asked, opening up his arms and releasing her so quickly that she didn’t have a hope in hell of catching herself.
Colette stared up at the asshat from the tangle of her own limbs. She was thankful she’d opted for leggings and a tunic, since a dress would have only made the entire situation a thousand times more embarrassing. Even so, she pulled down the hem of her tunic and swept a hand over her wild hair.