Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“Why did you tell Alexander we were in a relationship?” I kept my voice low, but tension sharpened every word. My shoulders were rigid, my posture stiff with barely contained frustration. “What were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t!” Raina’s voice rose slightly, though she didn’t sound angry—more flustered than defensive as she pressed her palms to her flushed cheeks before letting them fall back to her sides. “I just… I didn’t like the way Chuck was talking about you with that smug expression on his face, like he’d already won Alexander’s approval. I didn’t want to give Chuck the opportunity to convince Alexander to choose him over you based on you not being capable of commitment to a woman.” She shook her head, a strand of blonde hair falling across her cheek. “I’m sorry. It was impulsive. I know that.”
I couldn’t argue with her assessment of Chuck, and that cooled my temper somewhat. Her heart had been in the right place. She’d been trying to help me, to protect my interests. But good intentions didn’t change the reality of what she’d done or the kind of situation this put the two of us in.
“Do you understand what this means?” I asked, running a hand through my hair. “With Chuck also pursuing Alexander, securing this partnership won’t be quick or simple. It could take weeks. Maybe longer. And the entire time, we’d have to keep up this act.” Of pretending to date my assistant. The assistant I was already struggling not to think about in entirely inappropriate ways.
This was a terrible idea for so many reasons.
Then I felt it—a prickling awareness along the back of my neck. The unmistakable sensation of being watched. I turned and found Alexander’s eyes locked on us from across the room.
In that moment, I saw exactly what he was witnessing: my rigid shoulders, the frustrated frown I hadn’t managed to smooth away, Raina’s nervous body language as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
Not exactly the picture of a happy, stable couple.
Determination flooded through me, hot and sudden. If we were going to do this—if we were going to sell this lie—we had to commit. Half-measures would only make us look worse and I wasn’t about to lose Alexander’s approval and respect.
I turned back to Raina, my decision crystallizing in an instant.
“Simon?” Her voice was soft, uncertain, but she clearly saw the shift in me.
Her blue eyes went wide as I closed the distance between us in a single step. My hands came up to cup her face, my palms cradling the delicate line of her jaw while my thumbs brushed against the soft skin of her cheeks.
Her quick intake of breath went straight to my dick, quite possibly the least appropriate response I could have had to my assistant, but my body wasn’t interested in listening to reason. My pulse hammered against my ribs and a small, rational part of my brain screamed that this was a mistake—that I was about to cross a personal and ethical line I couldn’t uncross.
But the desperate need to make this look real for the sake of winning Alexander’s business overrode everything else. And if I was completely honest with myself, the thought of kissing Raina had crossed my mind more times than I cared to admit. I’d wondered what it would feel like to have her this close, to discover whether her lips were as soft as I’d imagined. I’d buried those thoughts beneath work and discipline, convincing myself they were nothing more than a distraction.
Now they were impossible to ignore.
Before I could second-guess my decision, I brought my mouth down on hers.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Raina
I gasped as Simon’s lips crashed into mine. The kiss was fierce and demanding, his mouth claiming mine with an intensity that sent shockwaves radiating through my entire body. But beneath the roughness, there was something unexpectedly tender in the way his thumbs traced the line of my jaw, and the sharp intake of his breath when our lips first met.
He tasted like whiskey and want, and I melted into him as every ounce of attraction I’d been fighting since the day we met surged to the surface, a wave of desire so powerful it stole the air from my lungs.
When he caught my lower lip between his teeth and sucked gently, a soft moan escaped me, and liquid heat pooled low in my belly. The ache between my thighs was sudden and insistent, making me forget everything—where we were, who might be watching, all the complicated reasons why kissing my boss was a catastrophically bad idea.
All I wanted was to be closer to him. To feel his body pressed against mine.
But even as our mouths moved together, he maintained a careful distance between us. My hands came up to his chest, fingers splaying across the solid wall of muscle beneath his tuxedo jacket. I could feel his heart pounding, racing just as fast as mine, and some reckless part of me wanted to fist that expensive fabric and drag him closer to eliminate every inch of space between us.