"You need to sue my phone for sexual harassment. My phone is a dirty, pervy old man," he chuckled.
"I dunno, I think he's sort of cute. I'm single now; maybe I should ask him out for coffee."
"Why not send him some dirty selfies later tonight, see what he thinks?" he smirked back.
"As always, sir, our verbal sparring is quite intoxicating," I teased dramatically.
"I’m serious. All my phone seems to want to do is sext with you," he winked.
Mandy and Frank walked up behind us laughing, "I am starving," Mandy said, leaning her elbow on Frank's shoulder, "where are we going?"
I watched as James's smile turned into a grimace.
"Next door for BLTs," I said.
"Okay, let's go," Frank said, yanking Mandy along with him.
James pulled back on my shoulders. "Are you afraid of being alone with me?"
I stepped closer to him, and smiled. "Simply terrified."
His eyes narrowed as he contemplated what I said. “I’m not sure if that’s good or bad,” he whispered.
I hid my face behind the menu even though I knew damn well what I was ordering. I felt awkward and sweaty. And I couldn’t stop thinking about why Jameson Holt would have wanted to be alone with me. I peeked out over the top of the menu and found him already smiling back at me. The flirty communication between us was starting to make me itch.
“We’re all going to happy hour right after work tomorrow,” Frank’s voice sliced through our staring contest. My face heated instantly. “You should come, Holt.”
Holt didn’t answer. He didn’t even look in Frank’s direction to acknowledge the invite. Instead, he just continued to look right into my eyes.
I squirmed in my seat. The eye contact was making me breathe a little funny. It was making my heart flutter and respond in ways it shouldn’t when one’s boss is looking at you. Maybe there was something stuck on my eyelash.
Just as I lowered my eyes, he asked, so low I barely heard the words, “Will you be there?”
A tight knot formed in the back of my throat and spread a fiery burn across my neck and collarbone. The way his eyes looked at me and the way his words fell gently against my ears was something I wasn’t used to.
I nodded my reply.
His smile in response was stunning.
A soft sudden vibration in my bag alerted me of an incoming message and I quickly broke eye contact and rummaged through my purse for my cell.
"What the hell are you trying to write? Those aren't words. And you call yourself an editor," I laughed, looking back up at him.
"I swear I didn't text you anything. My phone is in my pocket. Look, see?" he said, yanking his phone out of his back pocket and holding it right in front of me.
"Oh, my God. Your ass is texting me now?" I laughed, dipping my face into the leather of the booth.
Right after lunch, we walked back into the lobby where we found Sophia standing next to a sullen Kevin. As soon as he saw me, he jumped away from her side. Asshole.
"Where are you all coming from?" Kevin asked, looking only at me.
"Hotel down the street, probably," Sophia mumbled.
"Excuse me?" James snapped. "How juvenile of you. And completely none of your business where I sleep with someone." His hand touched my lower back and slowly slid down to the curve of my ass. All I wanted to do was run away.
"I knew it," she hissed.
His hand was burning a hole through my pants. What the hell was he trying to do? Did he want them to think we just slept together? This was the most childish shit I'd ever been involved in. Seriously, this stuff didn't even happen to me in high school.
Glancing quickly around to all their faces, I huffed out, "Why don't you all just grow the hell up? The only idiots sleeping with each other are you two losers and you can have each other." I spun around on my heels and stormed towards the elevators. "I have work to do. I can't waste any more time on this nonsense."
James ran after me and followed me right into the elevator. Holy hell. Why? Why did he have to go and do that? The doors immediately closed behind us.
"Are you okay?" he asked, taking my chin in his hand and running his thumb across my cheek. My heart pounded at the touch. But I pulled my face out of his grasp and slid away.
"No. I'm not okay. You just made it look like we are in some sort of a physical relationship. You made me look just like Sophia, and I'm nothing like her."
His eyes rounded, his entire body stiffened, and he slammed his hand against the emergency stop button. I automatically cringed, waiting for the sound of ringing alarms, but there was nothing but the heavy sounds of him breathing. "You're nothing like her."
"Yeah. I get that. That was Kevin's problem with me. But I don't want any kind of pathetic revenge, okay? It's not going to make me feel any better, it's never going to give me back what I lost, and it just makes me look like her. I'm not her. And I don't want anyone thinking I need to sleep with you to get further in my career."
His chest was rising and falling, jaw ticking and twitching, his eyes locked onto mine. I wanted to slap this beautiful man across his stupid face.
Then he lunged at me, pinning me against the elevator wall with his body. The warmth of his body crushed into mine, his face a few inches away, his breaths fanning out across the skin of my neck. His thumb stroked my lips. My body tingled in response and my knees weakened. His other hand reached up and gently pulled the small barrette that held my hair in its tight bun, causing my hair to spill around my shoulders. "You're nothing like her. You're beautiful inside and out." His eyes searched mine, back and forth, back and forth, then the rest of my face. My eyes, my lips, my neck—as if he couldn't bear to miss a feature.
Slowly he leaned forward, and before I could ask him what the hell he thought he was doing, his lips brushed over mine. "And sexy as pure sin."
My body took over. Completely overthrew any responsible thoughts. I wanted him instantly. It was beyond reason and sanity. I wanted his hands on my skin, on my breasts, in the heat between my thighs. I could imagine them tugging and gripping me, his lips nibbling, and sucking. I was losing my mind.
Our lips parted slightly, breathing each other in. The warm heat of his mouth panted against mine. He lingered there, his lips just over mine, his breathing ragged, my mind spinning, my body aching, arching into his. He hadn't even kissed me yet and my body was his, breaths gasping and muscles straining to climb over him.
My head screamed for me to stop, to stop and back away, before the kiss happened, before I made the biggest mistake ever and locked lips with one of my bosses. But I couldn't. I didn't want to stop.
I tilted my head up, and finally...finally his lips touched mine, the heat of his tongue singed mine and it's as if every moment of pent up sexual tension I had ever felt in my entire life balled up and knotted in each and every inch of muscle that made up my body and twisted me so tightly I thought I might possibly explode. His fingers grasped onto my hair and my neck, pulling me closer, warm lips desperate—a gasping, hungry, starving kiss. His hard chest was hot against me as his lips wetly melted into mine. The tightness in my muscles melted as our mouths moved over each other, exploring, tasting. Strong, thick hands slid to my waist, ferociously grasping and clenching my body to his. Hot fingers cupped the curve of my ass and I was lifted, sliding up the elevator wall. My hands fisted his hair, my legs instantly wrapped around his waist and his growling and moaning had me whimpering and almost begging for more.