Hot Boss, Wicked Nights

Until she snatched them away and shoved them on her face. ‘And for your information, I’m not doing this because you sucked me into it. I’m doing it for me. Banishing ghosts, seizing the day and all that.’ She scrubbed both hands over her cheeks. ‘Just so you know.’

‘You’ll thank me later.’

‘Oh, I think it’ll be you thanking me.’

She drew the words out slowly, deliberately. And if he wasn’t mistaken, provocatively, albeit a tenuous attempt. His mind immediately skipped ahead to the afternoon siesta they’d taken to enjoying over the past few days…

‘I look forward to it.’

‘You didn’t pass out,’ Damon told Kate with a glance at her as they headed back to the hotel.

‘I was in your lap and facing away from you—you wouldn’t know if I did.’

Wouldn’t know how she felt draped over him, muscles relaxed, every part of her body in contact with his? She’d been unyielding steel the whole way down. ‘I’d know.’

‘Since I barely know if I did or not myself, I don’t see how that’s possible.’

‘But you did it, Kate.’

‘I did.’ She leaned back against the headrest and closed her eyes.

Damon took the hint and tuned into his own thoughts. She’d never mentioned a brother. It went some way to understanding why her dad was so protective; he’d lost a son. His only son. The grief was real and lasting. Unlike his own parents who didn’t give a damn. Damon wondered how it would feel to have someone to care about him. Who cared enough to cry if he didn’t come home. Then he remembered something Kate had said up on the mountain. Something about not watching someone else she…what? Cared about? Or had he heard the beginning of a word that meant a lot more?

His stomach bottomed out the way it did when he launched himself into space and his breath caught in his throat. Hell, they both understood the rules. But he didn’t want their physical relationship to end yet. He didn’t want to go back to being her big bad boss. And her temporary boss at that. He wanted…

Feeling confused and confined, he wound down the window. The scents of South East Asia streamed in on a tide of humidity; a whiff of decaying rubbish, spicy vegetable curry, pungent tropical fruits.

What did he want? He rubbed at a tension knot at the back of his head that had developed out of nowhere. Impossible. He wanted Kate. The woman who turned his body feverish every time he looked at her. Even in those damn conservative work suits she wore. Or worn jersey and fluffy slippers. Or nothing at all. Specially in nothing at all.

He was hung up on a responsible family girl with a no-risk outlook on life. Katerina.

Now he knew the reason behind that. And he knew why they’d never fit as a couple long term. Even if he was looking for a woman to settle down with, which he wasn’t, they were too different. In his leisure time he lived for the thrill of danger. She liked safe, both at work and play.

And yet she’d jumped with him even though she’d been terrified. Because he’d asked her to. That made her one special woman.

They arrived back at the hotel mid-afternoon. Damon crossed to the balcony and closed the shutters on the outside glare, leaving the room in cool shadow.

When he turned around Kate was loosening the braid in her hair, drawing it over her shoulders in a rippling waterfall of ebony. Her bottomless eyes were fixed on his.

His skin tightened; his body grew hard. It was always the same. One look and he was turned on. He took a step towards her, but she held up a hand.

‘We leave tonight,’ she said. ‘Tomorrow morning we’ll be home and back to being colleagues.’

In the brief hiatus he heard the elevated sound of their breathing over the ever-present silken murmur of the sea. And his heart—each beat marking the passage of time. Their last afternoon.

That same something he’d experienced earlier in the car stirred along his veins and rolled around in his gut. ‘No rule says we can’t change the rules, Kate. We don’t have to remain just co-workers.’

‘We do.’ Her sigh was the only sound in the room. ‘It can’t be anything else. Not just because you’re my boss and I don’t date my boss, but because you and I want different things.’

What do you want, Kate? Damon asked her silently. She always made every effort to convince him her career came first, but for a beat out of time those eyes told him something else entirely. She wanted to settle down with a home and family of her own, the way all girls like her wanted.

He had no idea what home and family even meant. How could he give her that when he’d never experienced it himself? She was right. Better to keep things the way they were. The problem was, could he keep seeing her day after day and not touch her?