Page 21 of Falling for Her Grumpy Boss

The kiss keeps replaying whether I want it to or not. The feel of her softening beneath my hand. The quiet sound she made when I deepened the kiss and she opened for me instead of pulling away. The way her body yielded against mine like some instinct inside her recognized exactly what I wanted from her and chose to give it to me.

Jesus Christ.

Heat rolls through me all over again, sharp enough that I brace a hand against the window before I realize I’m doing it. The glass is cold beneath my palm, but it barely cuts through the restless energy burning under my skin.

Because she kissed me back.

A quiet voice in the back of my head keeps pointing out all the reasons this crossed a line neither of us should have touched. She works for me. I signed her contract myself. One wrong move here and everything gets complicated fast.

The problem is that the rest of me feels too damn satisfied to care.

My tie hangs loose around my neck while adrenaline and arousal continue humming through my body in rough, uneven waves. I should regret this already.

Instead, I keep thinking about the way Tess looked at me when she finally stopped fighting the attraction between us.

Open.

Breathless.

Yielding beneath my mouth like she wanted my control as much as I wanted to take it.

Wanting her already feels too personal.

A knock sounds against the door, and my head comes up instantly. Anticipation hits before common sense catches up, followed immediately by irritation at myself for reacting that fast in the first place.

It’s only Ethan from logistics.

“Bad time?” he asks, pausing just inside the doorway.

I force my shoulders to loosen and lean one hip against the edge of the desk. “What do you need?”

He starts talking about a shipment delay out of Wichita, something involving a supplier issue and revised arrival estimates, but halfway through, I realize I haven’t absorbed more than every third word. My attention keeps drifting beyond him to the movement outside my office.

Tess sits at her desk like nothing happened.

She types something into her computer, pauses to answer a call, then reaches for her coffee with the same composed efficiency she’s carried all week. Nobody passing by would guess she was kissing me against my desk less than ten minutes ago.

Meanwhile, I’m standing here struggling to focus on basic conversation.

I drag my attention back to Ethan with effort. “Send me the revised numbers before six.”

He gives me a strange look. “Already did.”

Right.

“Good.”

Ethan lingers for half a second longer before leaving, probably trying to decide whether I’m distracted or just being an asshole today. The second the door closes again, my gaze cuts straight back toward Tess like it belongs there.

She doesn’t look up.

Some irrational part of me wants her to.

I want acknowledgment. Some sign she’s as thrown off by this as I am. Instead, she calmly continues working while tension crawls steadily beneath my skin.

I should stop this now, before wanting her starts bleeding into parts of my life I keep locked down for a reason.

The thought lands cleanly enough. The problem is my body refuses to cooperate with it.