When someone knocked, then opened his office door, he didn’t bother to turn around.
“Ethan?”
He closed his eyes briefly. Even the sound of her voice now hit him with a visceral punch. “What is it, Sadie?”
“I just wanted to bring you the Donatello file. The meeting’s in an hour, so...”
He glanced at her over his shoulder.
She shrugged and walked toward his desk. She dropped the file on top, then said, “You know, I stopped by here that first night to pick up the file, thinking we could review it before the meeting... Then it got postponed again and I just forgot about it. Well, to be honest, I forgot about it that night. At the house. When we...”
He knew why, too. Hell, looking at her right now, he’d come up blank if anyone asked him anything about business. His gaze locked on hers and he felt a quick jolt of white-hot need that shot from his suddenly tight throat down to his groin, where it flashed into fire that felt as if it would consume him.
“Guess we both forgot things that night.”
“And we haven’t talked about why, yet.”
He laughed shortly. “You really think talking is going to solve this?”
“I didn’t know anything needed solving.”
“Sadie...” He took a breath, blew it out and said, “You know damn well that what happened that night changed things.”
“I do.” She bit her lip and he flinched.
But he didn’t want to talk. He wanted to taste. To touch. To explore. So he turned back to his desk, glanced at the file and added, “Thanks. I’ll look it over before the meeting.”
“Sure.” She didn’t leave.
“Is there something else?”
“Yes.” She walked closer to the desk and stood opposite him. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” Yes, he did.
“Yes you do.” She was wearing black slacks, a white shirt and a short red jacket that managed to draw his attention straight to her breasts. He’d almost had his hands on them last night and his palms itched to do it right now.
“Just leave it alone, Sadie,” he ground out through gritted teeth. “This isn’t the time.”
“I don’t think so. We said we’d talk. It’s been days. It’s past time. And I’m ready to talk.”
“Here?”
“It’s where we always are, Ethan,” she pointed out.
“We can talk at the house tonight.”
“Tonight we’ll have the baby to take care of. At the moment, Emma’s in day care, so we don’t have any interruptions.”
She folded her arms across her chest, lifting her breasts even higher, and Ethan wondered if she was doing it on purpose just to keep him off his game.
“Fine.” He came around the desk, then perched on the edge of it so that they were nearly eye to eye. “Talk.”
“Okay,” she started, letting her arms fall to her sides. “I’ve done some thinking the last few nights. Actually, I did a lot of thinking.”
“Me, too.” Especially since he hadn’t been able to sleep. Sadie’s image had kept rising up in his mind. Her taste had lingered in his mouth, flavoring every breath.
“Good. I think that’s good.” She looked not nervous, but as if she were searching for every word. “So what I need to know is if you’re thinking what I’m thinking.”
“Which is?” He held his breath. If she said no to sex, he wasn’t going back to the house. How the hell could he live across the hall from her and not have her?
“It’s probably a really bad idea for us to sleep together.”
“Wasn’t thinking at all about sleeping,” he told her.
“Yeah, me, either.” She took a breath, licked her bottom lip and unknowingly sent arrows of heat darting through him. “But—”
There was a “but.”
“—it’s probably not a good idea,” she said.
“Yeah.” His chest felt tight. “That’s what I think, too.”
“Oh.” She looked disappointed. “But the thing is, I also think we should do it, anyway.”
He came off the desk in a blink, had her wrapped up in his arms and pressed along the length of him in seconds. “I agree,” he said, then took her mouth with all the hunger that had haunted him through what felt like forever.