Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 66453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
11
DOMINIC
I’d watched her every move, hardly troubling to disguise my blatant stare. I saw her go back to Evan, and then luckily for him, I saw her turn away and head for the door. I didn’t even spare a glance at Julian before I began moving toward the door myself. I could hear him laughing near the karaoke machine. He was probably in line to go next. He wouldn’t miss me.
I’d followed Selena because I thought she might be trying to drive. To my surprise, I saw her disappearing back into the office building. I quickened my pace, an almost predatory thrum in my blood. She was going back into my territory. There wasn’t a single nook or cranny in that building I didn’t know like the back of my hand. If she was going to hide, to catch her breath, she’d picked the wrong place.
When I got into the lobby, she was already in the elevator. It stopped on the fifth floor before coming back down. That meant I had a minute to think about what I was doing. To tell myself I should get the fuck out before I followed her up to the fifth floor and made a mistake I couldn’t take back.
But I didn’t do that. She was in my blood. I’d thought of her almost obsessively since the day she was hired. Touching her at lunch hadn’t slaked my thirst at all. It had increased it. And that challenge she’d issued at the bar, thanking me for making her get to know that asshole Evan…I wasn’t going to let it go unanswered.
Selena must have heard me coming because when I stepped out of the elevator and onto the office floor, she was standing by her desk, her eyes wide. One hand was gripping the edge of her cubicle wall, the other was at her throat.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. Her voice was soft, but it carried easily across the silent floor.
“We have a policy here.” I moved toward her, noticing that though there were places she could go, she stood her ground. “No one comes back to the office after happy hour.”
Selena tilted her head, confusion flickering across her delicate features. “I didn’t know. Is that really…” she broke off.
I closed the distance between us. “Is that really why I’m here?”
She looked up at me and nodded. Her eyes were so wide I could see myself reflected in them. I could see other things, too, like the way her face was flushed faintly pink. The way her pulse was throbbing in her throat. The hint of excitement she tried to mask with wariness
“I don’t know, Selena. Why do you think I’m here?”
She bit her lip, then shook her head. “No. I’m not playing any games with you. If you really just came to tell me that I can’t be in the office after the happy hour, I’ll go.”
She reached for her purse, but my hand shot out and arrested her movement. Just like before, my arm seemed to move of its own volition. I was barely aware of making the decision to touch her before I was doing it, and then it was too late to stop myself. We were alone, no Mrs. Kloss to save us from ourselves.
I drew her to me, fighting to keep the movement controlled, waiting for her to give me a sign either way. To stop, to keep going. Her back arched when I wrapped my arm around the small of it, her hands came up to my chest. I tensed–was this it? Was she about to push me away and ask what the hell I thought I was doing? I wouldn’t have an answer for her. I’d stopped thinking the second I saw her leaning in close to Evan. No, before that.
I was so braced for her to repel me that when her fingers curled instead, creasing the fabric of my expensive shirt, it was a jolt. She was so close, looking up at me with those wide brown eyes. I could see now that she wanted this, too. “You shouldn’t be here,” I muttered, taking one last stab at self-control.
“Because of the happy hour rule,” she murmured, her pupils dilating.
“Because of all the fucking rules,” I said, and then she leaned in closer, and my self-control snapped. Before I could think of all the reasons why it was the worst fucking idea ever, I covered her mouth with mine and took what I’d been wanting since I laid eyes on her.
She had been soft, almost pliant in my arms, but electricity arched between us as the kiss deepened. Too fast, out of my control, as though we’d both been holding back all this time. Her hands slipped up to my shoulders, holding on. Her head fell back, the ends of her long, silky hair dancing over the arm I had locked around her.