The file she’d been holding slipped to the floor. Sam didn’t care. With both hands free, she wrapped her arms around his neck, easing closer to him. If he wasn’t going to do it, she would.
Her move made him bolder. He pressed into her, snaking his arms around her waist. She could feel every hard inch of him as he leaned in and she arched her body against him. The movement elicited a low groan against her lips.
The sound was a reality check for Sam. Even though she’d been the aggressor, it wasn’t until that moment that she really realized what she’d been doing.
Kissing her boss. Again. She was determined to let history repeat itself. Last time was a disaster. Why would it be any different now?
Sam placed her hands against Brody’s chest and gently pushed until their lips parted and he eased back. They stood still, their warm breath lingering in the space between them. Finally, she crouched down to gather up the paperwork she dropped and pressed the mess of the distribution proposal against his chest.
Brody took another step back, clutching the wild scattering of paper. But his eyes didn’t leave hers. There was a curious expression there as he watched her. His eyes narrowed, confusion and distrust still evident, but eventually, that faded into confidence.
And then, for the first time, the corners of Brody’s mouth curled upward and he smiled at her. Her knees started to quiver beneath her. His smile was so charming it caught her off guard. His whole face lit up, his eyes twinkling with a touch of mischief. It made him even more handsome, if she could believe it. His smile made her want to tell him stories to make him laugh. It made her want him all the more.
A hot flush swept over her body as the rush of arousal from their kiss surged through her with no outlet. Her fingertips tingled where she touched him and ached to reach for him again. Her heart was still racing, although the flash of his smile had caused a momentary skip in her chest.
This was bad. Very bad. She needed to get out of here before she completely lost her mind and started taking her clothes off.
Turning on her heel, Sam rounded the pinball machine and ran from Brody’s office, slamming the door shut behind her.
Four
Sam didn’t say good-night when she left. Brody had simply looked up at his surveillance monitor at some point and noticed her desk was empty and her coat was gone. It was just as well. If she’d tried speaking to him, he doubted he would’ve managed a sensible response.
Even three hours later, the cacophony of thoughts in Brody’s head made it hard for him to think. He’d gotten zero work done. There was no way he could focus properly. In a flash, so many things had gone right and wrong at once.
She’d kissed him. Really kissed him. It wasn’t some chaste peck or tight-lipped obligation. It had fallen nearly into the “making out” category, by his assessment, such as it was. But she’d also snuck into his office, spied over his shoulder and completely invaded his personal space. It didn’t really matter, though. Brody found he couldn’t be mad at her while he could still taste that cherry gloss on his lips.
It had been a long time since Brody had been kissed by a girl. The week before his accident, Macy Anderson had kissed him at the bus stop after school. Seventeen years later, the woman Xander set him up with kissed him. Mainly so she could get close enough to steal his credit card. But compared to what just happened in his office, they hardly counted.
Brody didn’t like to think about the parts of his life he had missed out on because of his father’s temper. It wasn’t only depressing, it was embarrassing. The burden of it grew with each passing year, making it harder to bear yet more critical to hide. So much so that not even his brothers knew the full extent of it.
But even as desperate as Brody was, getting what he wanted would require him to open himself up to someone. There was no way he could keep all of his secrets hidden. He would just have to decide what was more important if the moment ever arrived. So far, he hadn’t had to choose.
Would Sam have kissed him if she knew he’d never…?
Brody shook his head. He wasn’t going to taint the moment any more than it was already was. It was a milestone he wanted to savor, but he couldn’t waste his time fantasizing about his secretary. Something more important had happened. It was bad timing that she’d come into his office at the worst possible moment. She’d seen his name on the computer screen.
He’d been so engrossed in his work that she could’ve driven a tractor through his office and he wouldn’t have noticed. Between the time that he buzzed for the file and she brought it to him, his world had started to crumble. The day had come. The one he’d been anxiously waiting for. One of his web crawler queries had turned up something. Someone was looking for Tommy Wilder.