One Night with her Boss
Noelle Adams
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons,
living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Noelle Adams. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute,
or transmit in any form or by any means.
Proofreading: Vanessa Bridges,
One
Anne’s boss got into the office by 7:00 every morning, so she always tried to arrive by 6:45.
This morning, however, was one of those days when every outfit she put on looked frumpy. She
normally thought she was a basically attractive person, but occasionally none of her clothes seemed
to look good. So, after trying on half her closet, she settled for a pencil skirt she would have liked if it
hadn’t made her ass look too big.
She had to wear something, and she was already running late.
It had already been a bad morning, and she felt even more out of sorts when she parked in her
normal spot in the parking garage and saw Jake’s black SUV already parked two spots over.
It didn’t matter. Not in the slightest. There was no reason she had to already be settled at her
desk when Jake arrived every morning, with her email and voice mail already cleared out so she
could focus on whatever was on the schedule for the day.
But she preferred it that way.
With a sigh, she climbed out of her ten-year-old sedan, her ankle wobbling slightly since she’d
worn her highest heels, since they were the only shoes that worked with this skirt. Then she grabbed
her satchel and the cardboard tray of four coffees she’d gotten on her way to work before she headed
for the elevator.
Jake was standing in front of it, talking on the phone. She was still a distance away when the
bong chimed and the doors slid open.
Since he was on the phone, she didn’t call out to get him to hold it, even though it meant she’d
have to wait for another five minutes for the damned elevator to return.
Jake’s back had been to her, so she didn’t think he’d seen her, but he was holding the elevator
door open as she approached.
He was still on the phone, and he sounded exasperated.
She picked up her speed so he wouldn’t have to hold the doors so long, but that was a mistake
because she stumbled on the last few steps, barely catching herself before the coffees all fell to the
floor.
So she was feeling rather flustered as she stepped onto the elevator, smiling a sheepish thanks
to Jake.
He nodded his acknowledgment, but was clearly focused on his call. “Damn it, Stew,” he said
into the phone. “It’s your job to handle people like that.”
Stewart Hall was the manager of the shop in San Diego. He was new to the role and still rather
insecure about his ability to handle problems, so Jake had to do a lot of hand-holding.
“No,” Jake said. “This is too important. You can’t let him—”
He broke off, shaking his head and muttering, “Lost the connection. Damn thing.”
“It’s not the phone’s fault.” She tried not to smile at the way he was glaring at the phone, as if it
had disconnected him on purpose. “We’re in an elevator.”
He shot her a suspicious look, as if he guessed she was trying not to laugh at him.
Jacob Woodward had been a professional surfer with an impressive reputation for ten years
until he’d busted his knee. Handsome and talented, with a laidback charm, he’d gotten a number of a
big commercial endorsements. The knee injury had cut his career abruptly short, though. She hadn’t
known him back then, but everyone said he’d had a bad few months, drinking himself into a stupor
and acting out with dangerous stunts. But he’d eventually pulled himself together and opened a surf
shop in Malibu.
Instead of easing his way through the rest of his life, resting on his laurels, he’d thrown himself
into the new enterprise, treating the shop like a real business venture instead of just a beach hangout
like some other retired surfers she knew.
He’d done so well that he’d opened two more shops on the California coast a few years ago,
and he was currently working on national merchandising opportunities.
Anne had been with him for seven years, and she’d been in love with him for at least two.
Jake was thirty-nine, with dark hair, gray eyes, and a powerful build which was evident even
beneath the business suits he always wore so people took him seriously.
Not that he’d ever told her that was why he dressed so professionally, even in a beach culture
that didn’t require it. But Anne knew him very well, and she understood that he didn’t want anyone to
think he was just some washed-up old surfer. So he wore expensive suits, he drove an expensive car,
and he leased an expensive office suite instead of setting up an office near his first shop at the beach.
“We might need to go to San Diego this afternoon,” he told her now, glancing over with gray
eyes that always saw more than his characteristically laidback demeanor indicated.
She tried not to make a face. She’d been experimenting with online dating recently, as one of
her efforts to get over Jake, and she had a first date this evening. “Okay.”
“Is that a problem?”
For the twenty-thousandth time, she silent cursed his acute powers of observation. He could
obviously tell she didn’t like the idea of the trip. “No. It’s fine.”
“How’s your car?”
“It’s working fine now. Your guy did a good job.”
She’d had a clatter in her engine that no one had been able to figure out until Jake recommended
an out-of-the-way mechanic he used.
“How much did he charge you?”
“Not very much. Thanks for recommending him.”
“Sure.” The elevator doors slid open just then, so he stepped out into the hall and immediately
reconnected the phone call with Stew.
By the time they’d reached their office suite, Anne suspected the trip to San Diego was likely to
happen.
Her date would have to be rescheduled.
A year or two ago, she’d entertain daydreams about their work trips turning into romance, but
she’d stopped torturing herself with those kinds of fantasies
When Jake was working, he was all work.
And he was always working.
She was trying to juggle the tray of coffees and dig her keys out of her satchel when Jake
reached over to take the tray from her hand. He was still talking on the phone, but he held the coffees
as she unlocked the suite.
It was a little gesture. No big deal at all. Certainly nothing to feel soft about.
Any halfway decent person would have done the same thing.
But her chest was feeling overly full when she took the tray back from him.
He was distracted with his call, trying to give Stew some advice about handling a difficult
vendor, and he didn’t immediately release the coffee.
So, for a minute, they were standing about two inches apart, both holding onto the tray. Anne
could feel the heat from his body, smell the scent of his soap and his clothes, see the faint stubble on
his jaw, even though she knew he’d shaved this morning.
He met her eyes, and she lost her breath, suddenly wanting to touch him so badly she could
hardly hold herself back.
He trailed off his sentence and lowered the phone slightly, gazing at her with an expression that
looked deep and almost awed.
Then he asked, “Did you want something?”
She almost slumped in disappointment at the prosaic question, but managed to murmur, “The
coffee.”
“Oh.” He released the tray and returned to his conversation.
She handed him the coffee she’d bought for him—Colombian, black—and went over to her
desk to get ready for the day.
Damn, she was an idiot, always letting herself hope for no reason at all.
She’d worked for him for years, and he’d never showed her the slightest sign of real interest.
An intense look now and then didn’t mean anything. Besides, he was her boss, and he would never
make a move on her—simply because of that.
Maybe a lot of men had no qualms about having affairs with members of their staff, but Jake
was not one of those men.
So she kept trying to put her feelings for him aside and find another romantic interest, one there
might be a future with. She’d asked her friends to set her up, and she’d be doing the online dating
sites, but so far she hadn’t had much luck in finding someone who even came close to Jake in her
mind.
She knew Jake dated, but he hadn’t had a serious girlfriend in a few years. She suspected he
just didn’t want to invest in a relationship, since work took up all of his time and energy. One day,
that would change, though, and she dreaded the day he fell in love.
Of course, it might end up being a good thing. It might finally drill into her head the reality she
should have accepted long ago.
There was nothing in the world wrong with her. She was smart and nice and competent and
pretty enough on most days.
She had dark hair and eyes, a slightly-too-curvy figure, and a generally healthy appearance with
clear skin and pink cheeks. Someone in college had called her appearance “wholesome.” Anne would
have preferred to be sexy and glamorous, but that just wasn’t going to happen.
It wasn’t the issue anyway. The issue wasn’t that she didn’t measure up. The issue was simply
this.
Jake Woodward wasn’t the man for her.
***
A couple of hours later, she was staring down at a printout of a new marketing proposal and trying to
decide whether she should tell Jake that some of these ideas just sucked.
She’d gotten her degree in marketing and, out of college, had made an intensive effort to find a
job in the field. That was right around the time when the economy had tanked, though, and marketing
was one of the costs that businesses were cutting. There were no entry-level jobs to be had in this
area. Not for her, anyway, since her résumé was good but not great. Plus, she couldn’t move away
since her mother had just been diagnosed with cancer
So she’d applied for the job as administrative assistant with Jake, thinking it would just be a
year or so before she could find the kind of job she wanted. She’d liked Jake in the interview and
thought she could work well with him. Jake’s business had been starting to grow so fast he couldn’t
keep up, and he’d needed her to bring order to the chaos.
She was good at it, and she even enjoyed her job most of the time. He was a hard worker and
he expected the same from his staff, but he was intrinsically kind and he treated her well.
But she’d always wanted to go into marketing. And here she was, a couple of years from thirty,
and she was still hesitating about whether to give her opinion to her boss about the plans from his
marketing people.
This was not at all the career she’d thought she’d have.
Caring for her mother had been her priority for four years, until she died. Then Anne had
thought she was really satisfied as Jake’s assistant and hadn’t felt the need to move on. A few months
ago, however, after a pep talk from her friends, she had started sending out résumés again. She’d had
an interview with a marketing firm two weeks ago for a job that was exactly what she wanted, but she
hadn’t heard back about it, so she assumed she hadn’t gotten it.
She was hardly a dream candidate, after having spent seven years as an administrative
assistant.
The phone rang, distracting her from her brooding. It was Jake’s lawyer, so she told him Jake
would call him right back.
Jake had left his office a half-hour ago, when she’d been on the phone. She’d thought he was
just heading for the restroom, but he must have gone somewhere else.
She didn’t like not knowing where he was, so she got up and started to look.
She knew he hadn’t left the suite, since her desk had a view of the main door. Max, his financial
guy, said Jake wasn’t in the men’s room, so she checked out the conference room and the lounge area,
where he sometimes moved to stretch out his legs if his knee was bothering him.
He wasn’t there either.
He also wasn’t in Janice’s or Melanie’s office, which left only one place in the suite.
Anne was shaking her head as she opened the door of the file room.
He wasn’t supposed to be in here.
But there he was, kneeling down to search through the bottom drawer of the file cabinet on the
back wall.
“What are you doing?” she asked, feeling a familiar wave of annoyance. Had he been in here
looking for something in a file for the whole thirty minutes?
He jerked in obvious surprise and looked at her over his shoulder. “I need the sales receipts
from last February.”
She let out a breath and walked over toward him. “Well, you’re in the wrong cabinet.”
“I am not.” He looked frustrated, rumpled, and absolutely gorgeous, kneeling on the floor in
front of her in his suit and red tie. “This drawer is for February 2013.”
“I know that, but the sale receipts aren’t there.” When he looked like he was about to argue,
Anne went on, “Would you please stand up? You’re going to hurt your knee like that.”
His shoulders stiffened, and his square jaw clenched. “My knee is fine.”
“No, it’s not. You were limping yesterday because you were at your desk for sixteen hours on
Tuesday. How long have you been kneeling here looking in that drawer? You can’t do that to your
knee.”
She knew her tone was too tense and urgent, so she tried to dial it back. There was no reason to
react this way, anyway. She just got so upset when Jake refused to make the most obvious steps to
take care of himself, as if he thought work was more important than his health or his needs.
“I told you my knee is fine.” His voice was guttural, almost a growl, and his eyes looked like
steel in the florescent light.
She reached down for his arm. “I’ll get the file for you. Would you please get up off your
knee?”
With an exaggerated sigh of impatience, he hauled himself up to his feet, not quite managing to
hide the wince as he straightened his bad leg. Now he was looming over Anne, even in her four-inch
heels. “Fine. Happy?”
She wasn’t happy. Sometimes he was so stubborn he made her want to scream. “Why didn’t you
ask me to get the receipts for you?”
“You were on the phone. Am I not allowed to search through my own files?”
“No, you’re not. I’ve told you over and over again. You end up putting things in the wrong
place, and it takes me hours to find them again.” She grabbed the file from his hand, glanced at it, and
then leaned over to slide it back into place and then push the drawer closed.
“I still need the—”
“They aren’t in that drawer. They’re over here.” She walked over to the opposite wall, her
heels clicking on the floor. She smoothed down her skirt, since it felt like it had gotten twisted
slightly. She vaguely hoped her ass didn’t look as big as she’d thought it did this morning. She leaned
down to open the correct drawer and rifled through files quickly until she found the right one.
Jake had followed her over, and she could feel him bristling behind her as she turned around to
hand him the file.
He stared down at it. “Why aren’t the receipts in the February drawer?”
“Because the receipts are all over here. If you would let me keep the records electronically, we
wouldn’t have this argument every other week.”
“Do you really think I’m going to trust the last ten years of my life to a computer? You’ve got to
be crazy. I could lose everything with a key stroke.”
He’d always been kind of a Luddite. A lot of the time she found it adorable.
Not today.
It bothered her unreasonably that he evidently thought the last ten years of his life were only
about building this company. As if he was nothing but his work.
She cleared her throat. “Keeping paper records means you could lose everything to a fire.”
“The cabinets are fire proof.”
She shook her head. “Fine. It’s your business. Your files. You can keep ancient paper records if
you want. But you aren’t allowed in here. If you want something, ask me.”
He stepped a little closer and braced his arm on the cabinet next to her shoulder. “Who’s the
boss here anyway?”
She could tell his mood had changed. He wasn’t angry. He was still bristling, but also almost
dryly amused. The transformation of his expression left her breathless, as did his proximity.
Her eyes were right at his chin level, so she had to tilt her head up to meet his eyes. “I’m not
trying to be the boss.”
His mouth twitched almost imperceptibly. “You’re pretty bossy, to not be trying to be the boss.”
She swallowed hard, clenching her fists to keep herself from putting her hands on his chest.
When he was like this—clever, dry, focused on her—she always seemed to want him the most.
“Well, I’m the boss of this room. You’re the boss of everything else.”
“Is that how it works?” He braced his other hand on the cabinet, trapping her between his arms.
“Yes.” She was flushed all over and suddenly conscious of the ache of arousal between her
thighs. She had no idea when that had happened. “That’s how it works.”
She could see that he was breathing quickly too, and he looked as hot as she felt. Something
new had blazed up in his eyes, and for a moment she was sure he would kiss her.
But he didn’t.
Of course, he didn’t.
She was his assistant. Not his girlfriend.
“Okay then,” he muttered, dropping his arms and stepping back.
“Okay.” She was almost shaking, her body primed and ready for something to happen. When
clearly nothing was going to happen.
Not at nine o’clock in the morning in the file room of the office, when all Jake would ever be to
her was her boss.
He turned abruptly and walked out, and Anne leaned back against the file cabinet and tried to
pull herself together.
Could she be any more foolish?
She’d never thought she was weak and spineless, but maybe she really was.
Spending two years of her life wanting a man she could never have.
When she returned to her desk, Jake’s office door was closed. He closed his door when he was
having a private conversation—either on the phone or in person—or when he was in a bad mood. He
never closed it at any other time.
She wondered what he was doing in there.
She sat down in front of her computer and tried to make herself finish reviewing the marketing
proposal.
No reason to think about Jake. He was nothing but her boss.
An hour later, her personal phone rang.
She’d gotten her dream job with that marketing firm.
Two
Later that day, Anne was running late for lunch with Meg and Ranie, her two best friends and
roommates.
Jake had emerged from his office a couple of hours ago with half a dozen projects that needed
to be completed today, so she’d been too busy to think much about the job offer or what she was going
to do about it.
She also ended up fifteen minutes late for lunch.
“You look gorgeous,” Ranie said, when Anne finally collapsed in a chair at their favorite lunch
bistro. “If Jake didn’t want to rip your clothes off in that skirt, then I don’t know what’s wrong with
the man.”
Anne rolled her eyes. “He didn’t want to rip my clothes off.”
“How do you know? Maybe he was manfully hiding his raging desire.”
Anne couldn’t help but laugh at Ranie’s wry tone. “There was no sign of raging desire. I’ve
pretty much given up on that, you know.”
“No, you haven’t,” Meg put in. “No use to lie to us.”
“Maybe not. But I should have. A long time ago.” She smiled at the server who came over with
a glass of water for her, and then she ordered a Greek salad.
“Well, you have that date tonight. He sounded promising.” Ranie was pretty, blonde, and tiny.
And the loudest person Anne had ever met. “Maybe he’ll sweep you off your feet so you forget all
about Jake.”
“Well, he might not be sweeping me off my feet tonight. I might have to go to San Diego.”
“That’s ridiculous. You weren’t supposed to go out of town again until next week.” That was
Ranie again, sounding outraged, although Meg was frowning at the news too.
“I know. But something came up, and we may have to go. It should just be for the night, but I’d
have to reschedule the date. Anyway, that’s not even my biggest news.” She tried to sound excited
rather than confused and overwhelmed, which was how she felt.
She obviously didn’t fool her friends. They looked at each other. Then Ranie asked slowly, “Is
it bad news?”
“No. Good news. I got the job.”
“The marketing one?”
“Yeah. It sounds great, and the salary is good.”
Meg was giving her a narrow look. “Then why don’t you look happy about it?”
“I am happy.” Anne sighed. “I guess I have no reason not to take it.”
“Why wouldn’t you take it?” Ranie asked.
“I would. I’m going to.” As she said the words, she realized they were right. Of course, she
needed to take the job. It would be absolutely ridiculous to not take the job she really wanted because
she didn’t want to leave Jake.
“You can’t put your life on hold for him,” Meg murmured. “You never have before. The job
was good for you before—with your mother and everything. But, if you don’t take this job now, then
you’ll be putting your life on hold for him.”
“I know. I’m not going to do that. I’m going to take the job.” She straightened up, trying again to
feel excited. “It’s just…it’s going to be hard to leave him.”
“Yeah, but maybe it will be the kick in the ass he needs to get his balls together.”
Anne shook her head at Ranie’s choice of words. “I think there’s some sort of mixed metaphor
in there. But, really, he doesn’t need a kick in the ass. He’s a great boss. And there’s no reason he has
to feel for me the way I feel for him.”
“But he does feel the same way. He just hasn’t done anything about it.”
Anne tried very hard not to let her friends give her unjustified hope with their loyalty to her, so
she took Ranie’s comment with a very large grain of salt. “He really doesn’t.”
“Did I or did I not see him at our Christmas party last year?” Ranie demanded.
Anne sighed. “Yes, but—”
“But nothing. Did I or did I not see how he couldn’t keep his eyes off you all night? And did I or
did I not see how I could barely drag him away from you when the party was over?”
Last Christmas had given Anne similar thoughts. They’d invited everyone from her office to the
party, but she’d been surprised when Jake actually showed up. He always took the staff to lunch for
Christmas and gave them all very nice bonuses—which was the extent of his holiday spirit. But he’d
showed up after all, and then he’d spent the evening talking and laughing with her. She’d felt pretty,
desirable, almost giddy from the look she’d thought she’d seen in his eyes that evening.
It had fed her hope too much, so she’d been crushed even more than ever when the New Year
came and he acted exactly the way he always had with her.
Like her boss.
“That was just a…” Anne trailed off, dropping her head briefly. “He was just in a good mood
that night. It didn’t mean anything.”
“It did mean something. I saw his expression when he looked at you. He’s crazy about you. I
still think he’s just holding back because he’s your boss. Maybe this job is what he’s waiting for.
When you’re not working for him, he’ll finally make his move.” Raney looked characteristically
enthusiastic about this idea.
“Maybe he is,” Meg added, before Anne could argue. “But you should take the job because you
want it and not because you’re hoping it will be the catalyst for getting together with Jake.”
“I know. I do want the job. And I have no delusions about Jake waking up and suddenly wanting
me once I’m gone.”
“But maybe he will,” Raney chimed in, irrepressibly.
“And maybe he won’t. It’s not about him. It’s about Anne. And, if this is what she wants, then
it’s good no matter what Jake does.” Meg gave Raney a stern look. Then turned the same look back
onto Anne.
“Right.” Anne nodded, feeling better and determined now to give notice this afternoon, to make
it real, to get it over with. “It’s about me. And a great job. And finding a guy who actually wants me.”
“Or who’s willing to actually take what he wants.” Raney grinned. “Because we all know that
Jake is secretly crazy about you.”
Anne smothered a groan and just shook her head instead.
Sometimes she wondered if Raney exaggerated the optimism to show Anne exactly how silly it
was to be holding out hope for Jake to ever return her feelings.
Because it was simply stupid. Jake had had seven years to make a move on her, and he hadn’t
ever, not once, made a single move.
Only an idiot would keep holding onto hope.
***
As soon as she returned to the office after lunch, she went to stand in Jake’s doorway, determined to
tell him before she lost the nerve.
He was scrawling something out on a yellow pad.
He liked to brainstorm with pen and paper, so he was probably just working out some ideas
that she would later have to translate into legible form.
His thick hair was rumpled, and his tie was askew. He must be feeling stressed, since those
were the first signs she looked for.
He glanced up and saw her, immediately straightening up. “Hey. Can you print out all the
emails between me and Marshall Long since June?”
“Yeah. I’ll do it now. Then do you have a minute to talk?”
His eyes widened in obvious surprise. “Sure.”
“I’ll be right back.”
She went to her desk, found the emails he wanted, and set them to print. More trees had to die
because Jake liked to hold paper in his hand rather than read from a screen.
She was about to walk over to the printer when she noticed for the first time a wrapped present
on the corner of her desk.
It was wrapped in solid blue paper with a pink bow stuck on the top. She knew who it was
from.
Jake must have bought a huge bag of those pink bows at some point, because he always stuck
them on his presents.
She also knew what the present was. Some sort of book on surfing.
He gave them to her on birthdays, at Christmas, on Secretary’s Day—or whatever they called it
now—and sometimes he gave them to her just because. When she first started working for him, she’d
admitted that she’d never surfed before and had never even wanted to. He’d teased her about how she
needed to learn, and he’d bought her a book on surfing as some sort of light-hearted encouragement.
Since then, he kept giving her books on surfing. It was their thing. Some were expensive coffee
table books with beautiful, glossy photos. Some were cheaper paperbacks. A few were novels. One
was a children’s book. The single unifying characteristic was that surfing was somehow featured in
the book.
Today, she felt a familiar ache of affection in her chest as she slid her fingers down the fold to
disconnect the tape. The book she unwrapped was old—very old with thick, aging pages and a faded
cover.
She opened the cover and saw it had been published in 1942. It was the real-life story of a
group of surfers on the California coast.
She flipped the pages, amazed and delighted by the formal language and the antique feel of the
book. Where the hell had he even found this old thing?
After looking at it for a few minutes, she laid it on the low bookcase behind her desk that held
the rest of the books he’d given her.
Then she made herself put aside her soft feelings and stand up. It was time. She needed to tell
him about the job offer. She needed to give him two-weeks’ notice.
And a sweet gift wasn’t going to change it.
She was going to have to leave him. She could barely imagine life without him, which should
be a clear sign that she was in too deep here and it just wasn’t good for her.
She grabbed the stack of pages from the printer on her way back to his office. He was back at
his scribbles and didn’t look up as she came in.
She set the printouts on his desk and then sat down in a side chair and waited.
After a moment, he looked up, evidently realizing that she was waiting for him. “Oh,” he said,
“You wanted to talk about something.”
“Yeah. Thanks for the book, by the way. Where did you find it?”
He gave a shrug. “Some old bookstore.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“What else would I do with a book on surfing?”
“Put it in one of your shops,” she suggested. Jake’s surf shops had been so successful because
he’d designed them for people to spend time in rather than just buy surf equipment and get surf
lessons. They sold snacks and beverages, offered clothes of all kinds, had large book sections with
comfortable chairs, and a variety of charming gifts. The one in Malibu even had an art gallery above
the shop. “Maybe you could add a section of rare books to—”
“It was for you.” For some reason, he looked a little grumpy. He frowned at her.
“Okay. Anyway. Thank you.”
“You had something to talk about?”
“Yeah.” She cleared her throat. “I need to tell you something.”
He must have heard something in her tone because he put down his pen and leaned back in his
chair, watching her closely.
She tried to start talking, but no words left her throat when she opened her mouth.
After a moment, he said, “What did you have to say?”
“I got a job offer.”
He stiffened visibly. “What?”
“I got a job offer. A good one. A marketing job.”
“What are you they offering you?”
It wasn’t the reaction she’d been hoping for. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was hoping for—
maybe for him to suddenly see what he was about to lose and fall on his knees to propose to her—but
it wasn’t this. He sounded matter-of-fact. Business-like.
“More than I’m making here, but that’s not really the—”
“I’ll match it,” he said, without hesitation.
“Jake, I’m really not—”
“I’ll go five-thousand over whatever they’re offering.”
Again, he sounded like he was making a deal. Not losing something he cared deeply about.
Of course, he wasn’t. That wasn’t who she was to him.
She took a slow breath. “It’s not about the salary. You’ve always been generous in that regard.”
He had, although living in this area was so expensive that she still didn’t have much money to
spare.
“You’re not even going to give me a chance to give you a counter offer?” He was still stiff,
although his voice now had a rasp to it.
“There’s no counter offer to make here. It’s a marketing job. That’s what I’ve always wanted to
do. I’ve liked being your assistant, but I don’t want to spend my entire career in this position.”
He stared at her for a few moments with gray eyes that looked strangely urgent. Then he said,
“I’ve given you more responsibilities. You have the ability to advance here. I hadn’t realized you’d
wanted to—”
“I wasn’t expecting you to keep giving me new job titles. You don’t seem to understand what
the issue is. It’s not that you haven’t treated me well. It’s that this is not the job I want.”
For a moment, he stared at the empty air just past her head. “You don’t…want it.”
“I’ve always wanted to be in marketing. You know that.”
“I can give you marketing—”
“To do in my spare time?” She was starting to get annoyed because he didn’t seem to be
hearing her and was thus making this conversation harder than it had to be. “Let’s be serious. Even if
you changed my position, I’d still end up doing the marketing job on top of the assistant’s job. I know
exactly what would happen. You’d try. We’d try. But you’re used to relying on me, so you’d still ask
me to do most of what I’m already doing, so I’d have two jobs instead of one. It would never work. I
need to move somewhere else.”
“Marketing is not more important work than what you’re doing now. If I’m willing to match
your salary, then why—”
She made a frustrated sound. “I already said it’s not about the money. It’s that I want a job that
will be more…more…”
“More what?” He leaned forward, looking like he might want to reach out and grab her
shoulders or shake her or something.
“More fulfilling.”
The words had a visible impact. He jerked slightly and leaned back.
She groaned and rubbed her face. “I’m sorry, Jake. I know this is hard. But try to think about it
from my perspective.”
“I am trying to think about it. I just didn’t realize you weren’t happy here.” He wasn’t looking at
her now. He was staring down at his desk. And she realized he was really bothered by this idea.
“I have been happy. It’s been a good job. But most people don’t stay in the same job all their
lives. What’s good at one point in your life might not be good at another point.”
“So you’re just going to quit?”
“Two weeks’ notice. I can help you try to find a replacement—”
She broke off when he made a strange sound in his throat.
For a moment, she was bombarded with a wave of grief and guilt, but as she processed the
feeling, she was suddenly angry.
There was no reason for her to feel guilty about this. She was doing what was right for her.
She’d been perfectly loyal to Jake for seven years. He should think for a few minutes about what
might be best for her. Maybe he could even be happy for her.
She stood up. “I realize this has taken you by surprise, so I’m sorry to just spring it on you. But
it’s going to happen. I can help you find my replacement if you want, or you can do it after I’m gone.
It’s up to you.”
She started walking for the door, but he followed her, stopping her with a hand against the wall
next to her shoulder the way he had with the file cabinets earlier in the day. “Why are you doing this,
when I’ve just offered you anything you want?”
He hadn’t offered her everything she wanted. He was never going to offer her that. She could
see it so clearly now that it made her want to cry—like she was mourning something she’d never had.
But she didn’t cry. She met his eyes and said, “I know what you offered. You can give me more
money and change my title and responsibilities, but nothing about this job is going to change for me.
You can’t argue me out of this.”
“And what am I supposed to do without you?”
She almost choked at the urgent question, at the fiery look in his eyes. “Find someone else,” she
said, her voice breaking on the last word.
“There is no one else.”
“I’m an assistant. You can find someone else to keep your files in order and answer your
phones.”
“You do more than—”
“I know. But you can train someone else to do everything I do. I’m not irreplaceable.”
“I don’t want you to go.”
It was exactly what she’d always wanted to hear, but she couldn’t stand it now. Because he
only wanted her because she made his life easier.
He didn’t want her for her.
“It’s not your choice to make. I’m giving you two-weeks’ notice. I’ll have an official letter for
you in a few minutes.”
“I don’t accept it.”
She gasped in outrage. “You have to accept it. I’ve never known you to be a bastard before.
Don’t start now.”
He glared at her, his hand still planted beside her. “We have to go to San Diego tonight,” he
said, evidently putting the previous conversation behind him, at least for now.
It almost hurt—that he’d moved on so quickly. She was clearly irrational at the moment. “And
you need me to go with you?”
“Of course I do. I have two weeks left, don’t I?”
“Yes. I just wasn’t expecting to go out of town.” She never would have complained or even
questioned a trip before, but she didn’t have anything to lose here, and she really didn’t want to go. “I
have plans.”
“What plans?”
“If you must know, I have a date.”
He dropped his hand and stepped back, tension radiating from his big body. “Is he proposing or
something tonight?”
“No! Of course not. I just…” She trailed off, not finding any words for explaining why a first
date would be important enough to miss a work trip for.
“You just what?”
“Nothing. I’ll be ready to go. What time are we leaving?”
“Not until five.”
“Okay. I’ll run home to pack and be back soon.”
“Good.”
He obviously wasn’t happy. He was standing in the middle of the floor, glowering at her.
“Okay.” She turned away from him, telling herself this was for the best and she wasn’t losing
anything she’d ever really had.
Even though that was exactly how it felt right now.
She glanced back before she walked out. “Thank you for the book.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I’ll be back soon.” She’d already told him that, so she wasn’t sure why she’d felt the need to
say it again.
“Okay. We’ll leave at five.”
He’d already told her that too. They both seemed to be in a strange sort of daze. She really
needed to snap out of it.
If anything, she should be angry with Jake for his response just now. She shouldn’t be ready to
cry.
Three
Jake drove a three-year-old Mercedes SUV, and Anne was sitting in the passenger seat at seven
o’clock that evening, on her way with him to San Diego.
It wasn’t a long drive down the coast, but there was always a lot of traffic so it was slow going.
Particularly slow today.
Jake had been on the phone the whole time, and Anne had been taking notes and drafting up
emails she would have to send, based on the phone conversations she overheard.
He’d just disconnected with Max about next quarter’s budget and was obviously thinking
through who else he needed to call.
Jake hated wasting time—even driving in a car.
Anne finished the email she’d been drafting and glanced over at him. “Anyone else?”
After a few moments, he shook his head. “I don’t think so. I need to talk to Michael Palmer, but
I haven’t been able to reach him in two days.”
“He just got married. He’s on his honeymoon until next week.”
“Oh. I guess he’s out then. Why didn’t someone tell me?”
“I didn’t know you were trying to reach him. If you’d put all your calls through me like I’ve
suggested, I could keep track of them for you.”
He angled her a very particular look.
“I’m not bossing,” she said, hiding a smile at his expression. She’d felt awkward and tense
before—after their conversation in his office—but they always seemed to fall back to their familiar
rhythm once they got back into work. “Just giving you options that might help.”
“Your options are always much appreciated,” he drawled.
She was about to reply but then noticed him shifting in his seat and readjusting one of his legs.
“Is your knee bothering you?”
His expression tightened immediately. “It’s fine.”
“We should stop so you can walk around and stretch it out some. It always gets stiff when
you’re in the car a long time.”
“I don’t need to stretch it out. It’s fine.”
She felt a familiar rise of frustration. She hated when he did this. Acted like he was invincible.
Refused to admit his knee was a physical weakness that he needed to accommodate.
It might just be some sort of macho pride, but it felt to her more like he didn’t think his physical
discomfort was important enough to stop working for.
She bit back the response she was close to snapping, about how he would end up back in
surgery if he didn’t take better care of his knee. Instead, she said lightly, “Well, I need to go to the
bathroom. So can we stop for me?”
He shot her a suspicious look but didn’t object. He pulled into the next convenient stop they
passed, an open parking lot near a beach entrance with a small strip of shops and food stands.
Anne didn’t really need to go to the bathroom, but she made a trip to the ladies’ room anyway,
since that had been her excuse for getting him to stop.
She glanced at herself in the mirror over the sink as she was washing her hands and was
surprised by how nice she looked.
Every once in a while she had that experience—seeing herself and being surprised in a pleasant
way. Her dark hair was windblown but framed her face nicely, and her skin looked particularly fresh.
She’d thought she looked so frumpy this morning. She wasn’t sure how she turned pretty over
the course of the day.
But she was feeling more attractive than she usually did as she left the restroom and glanced
around for Jake.
She found him leaning against a railing that overlooked the boardwalk. He’d spent half of his
life on the beach, but he looked out of place right now in his expensive gray suit. He was particularly
incongruous with two lemonade slushes in his hands.
She perked up even more as she walked over to him, accepting the one he handed her.
“Thank you. I love these.” She smiled brightly at him as she tasted it.
“I know.” He gave her a slightly dry smile in return that made her grin even wider.
Suddenly washed with self-consciousness, she glanced away, toward the beach. It was a warm
day with a blue sky and a strong breeze. The beach wasn’t particularly crowded, though. Not on a
Tuesday evening.
When she looked back, she saw that Jake was discreetly stretching his bad knee and wincing
very slightly.
She knew his knee was really bothering him today, and the stubborn idiot refused to admit it.
“Let’s walk a little,” she said mildly. “I don’t feel like getting back in the car yet.”
He frowned, little lines appearing between his dark eyebrows. “I told you my knee is just fine.”
“I didn’t say anything about your knee. Don’t be grumpy. It’s so nice here, and we’re not in any
sort of hurry to get to San Diego this evening. Why shouldn’t we take a fifteen minute break?”
“Because I know exactly why you’re suggesting the break. You’re not as subtle as you think,
you know.”
“So you’re saying you won’t let me take a fifteen minute break before we get back in that car?”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine.”
Feeling irrationally victorious, even over such a little thing, she grinned again. “Let’s walk on
the beach.”
He was shaking his head as they walked down to the boardwalk and then onto the warm sand.
She had to take off her heels and carry them, which was a little awkward with her slush, but she
managed.
They didn’t talk as they moved down to the damp sand that was easier to walk on, but she liked
Jake’s presence beside her. He felt strong. Solid. Really there.
She tried not to think about what it would be like two weeks from now, when he wouldn’t be
there anymore.
It hurt so much she couldn’t breathe for a moment, but she pushed through it until her mind was
clear again.
“I didn’t know you were dating someone,” Jake said out of blue.
She was so surprised she stopped walking to stare. “What?”
He looked slightly uncomfortable, but he repeated, “I didn’t know you were dating anyone.”
“I’m not.”
“Oh.” He frowned. “You said you had a date tonight.”
She realized then where the topic had come from. She wasn’t in the habit of talking to Jake
about her dating life, but there was no reason not to tell him the truth. As she started walking again,
she explained, “It was a first date. I haven’t even met the guy yet.”
“Oh.” His tone sounded different now, and his eyes were on the horizon. “Sorry you had to
postpone.”
She shrugged. “No big deal.”
She wished she hadn’t even brought it up earlier that day. She’d just been so frustrated with
Jake in general that she hadn’t guarded her words as much as she should have.
Her personal life shouldn’t get in the way of work. Not even her feelings should. She’d always
made sure they didn’t.
They walked in silence for a few minutes until she stopped again when she saw a lone surfer in
the distance on the water. He was obviously a newbie, since he got himself upright for just a few
seconds before he wiped out.
“Poor guy,” she murmured, watching as he ended up in the water a second time.
“He’ll get it.”
She turned to look at Jake’s face and surprised an expression there that almost looked like
hunger. Before she could think through the wisdom of the question, she heard herself asking, “Do you
think you’ll ever surf again?”
His whole body stiffened as he turned his head to meet her eyes. “You know I can’t—”
“I know you can’t surf professionally anymore. But the doctor never said you can’t get on a
surfboard again. Surely you could surf now and then, just for fun.”
As far as she knew, he hadn’t gotten out in the water in ten years.
He looked back to the surfer, who was paddling toward his board. “Why bother?”
“For fun? For enjoyment? You loved it, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.” He let out a long sigh. “I did.”
She watched his expression for a minute, suddenly realizing something new about him.
He didn’t want to give himself to surfing again—in any way—since it had already been taken
away from him once.
“I know it was really hard,” she murmured, feeling like she needed to respond to her revelation
somehow. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t have anything now.”
Her words were soft, strangely gentle, even to her own ears, and she was suddenly afraid that
they revealed too much.
Especially when he stared at her in naked surprise for a moment.
She swallowed hard and glanced away.
Jake cleared his throat and started walking back the way they’d come.
When she fell in step with him, he replied to her earlier comment, “I know it doesn’t mean I
can’t have anything. I’ve got the business, right?”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you can’t also—”
“I don’t want to surf anymore, Anne. I don’t want to do it.” His voice was low, guttural.
“Okay.” She took a deep breath and focused her eyes on her bare feet stepping on the sand.
“Okay.”
She knew he wasn’t telling her the truth. Or not the whole truth anyway. But there was no
reason to expect him to.
They weren’t lovers. They weren’t even friends. They were boss and employee.
And she wasn’t entitled to the secrets of his soul, no matter how much she wanted to hear them.
No wonder he was a workaholic. He’d learned to channel all of his passion, enjoyment, and
feeling into his business—since he’d lost what had satisfied him before.
The one loss seemed to have reshaped his whole life. Now the only thing he was willing to
genuinely invest in was his work, his company.
He wasn’t even willing to invest in an intimate relationship.
She’d sensed this in him before, but not with such clarity. It made her feel heavy, poignant,
aching.
It was just wrong for him to cut himself off from everything else, even something he loved to do
as much as surf.
He took her half-eaten slush from her hand when they reached the boardwalk again, so she
could brush off her feet and put her shoes back on. Then they walked silently back to the car.
Jake threw away his empty cup, while Anne tried to finish her slush quickly.
He stood watching her with a sober expression, a sheen of perspiration on his skin and his tie
just slightly loosened.
“I didn’t mean to be rude back there,” he said at last, as she finished her last sip.
She tossed her cup in the trashcan. “I know. I didn’t think you were.” She sighed as she walked
back to the car, where he was waiting by the passenger door. “I just thought you didn’t want to talk to
me about it.”
She wasn’t looking at his face, since she was feeling self-conscious again. She was staring at
his tie.
It bothered her unduly. Why the hell did he have to wear a tie on a road trip, anyway? Couldn’t
he at least have taken his jacket and tie off on the way to San Diego?
She heard him let out a hoarse breath. “It’s not that I don’t want to talk to you, Anne. It’s that
it’s hard for me to talk about it at all.”
“I know.” She was so full of emotion and so aware of his presence, just a few inches away, that
she was almost shaking. She was still staring at his tie. “I just don’t like for you to not have the things
you love in your life.”
She didn’t phrase that quite right. It sounded far too intimate. She felt him stiffen, although she
still couldn’t bring herself to look up at his face.
She added, “Surfing, I mean.”
“I know what you meant.” His voice was very low now, very guttural.
She wanted to look him in the eyes, touch him, kiss him. She wanted it so deeply that her hands
were trembling with the urge. Because she was so overwhelmed, she couldn’t think clearly. She just
needed to distract herself.
So she started to undo his tie, loosening it enough to unknot it. “There’s no reason for you to
wear the tie on this trip. It has to be uncomfortable.” She was babbling, but she couldn’t stop herself.
“And why don’t you take off your jacket, too?”
He didn’t resist as she slid off his tie and then reached for his suit jacket and pulled it off his
shoulders. But he said, “Anne, it doesn’t really matter—”
“It does matter. You don’t have to be uncomfortable on the whole drive. I don’t understand why
you think you do.” She opened the back door of the SUV and spread out of his jacket so it wouldn’t
get too wrinkled. Then she laid his tie on top of it.
She was aware that he was staring at her, but she still couldn’t stop rambling on. “You’re
allowed to be comfortable, you know. You don’t always have to wear this stupid—”
“Anne.” Just the one word. Not even loud or authoritative. It was almost gentle.
But it stopped her completely.
She straightened up again and tilted her head to look him in the eye.
She was already breathless, but she stopped breathing completely when she saw the look in his
eyes.
Understanding. Hunger. Need. Desire. Passion. All of it. Palpable in his eyes.
She reached out for him without thinking, responding only to what she saw in his expression.
Then he was kissing her. And she was kissing him back.
He pushed her backward against the car, protecting her with a hand spanning the curve of her
head. His mouth devoured her—nothing gentle or mild about the passion with which his lips and
tongue moved against hers.
All of her trembling confusion transformed into heated excitement. She wrapped her arms
around his neck, pulling him closer, opening her mouth to the advance of his tongue.
And she wanted him so much. All of him. Exactly like this.
This was the Jake she’d always wanted.
His body was hard and hot as it pressed against hers, and then his free hand slid down until it
was cupping the curve of her ass.
His hand in such an intimate place fired up even more of her senses, and her whole body started
to throb with growing arousal.
He was getting turned on too. She could feel a hardness building where his groin was pressed
against her middle.
He tasted faintly of the lemonade slush, exactly as she did. And he smelled just like Jake. He
filled all of her senses.
She moaned low in her throat as pleasure and desire flooded her body, and she dug her fingers
into his back, trying desperately to feel as much of him as she could.
Then suddenly he was releasing her, jerking away, stepping back awkwardly.
Leaving her limp against the car, shaking and bewildered.
“Oh, damn,” he muttered, turning away from her abruptly and bracing himself with one hand
against the front of his SUV. “Oh, fuck. What am I doing?”
She’d known what she was doing. She’d been finally taking what she wanted.
And now she couldn’t even speak after how jarringly it had been ripped away from her.
They both just panted loudly for a minute. She stared at his tense back, and he stared at the
pavement.
There was a spot of perspiration on his shirt, just between his shoulder blades. She wasn’t sure
why she kept noticing it.
She really should have known better.
Miraculously, it seemed like he might be attracted to her. At least a little. Surely he wouldn’t
have kissed her like that otherwise.
But attraction was never the strongest thing.
It was more than clear—it had always been more than clear—that, even if he wanted her, Jake
was never going to take what he wanted.
“I’m sorry,” he said at last.
“It’s fine.” Her voice was soft, slightly resigned. Exactly as she felt. “Sometimes things like
that just happen.”
“It shouldn’t have happened. I know it was…entirely inappropriate.” He still wasn’t looking at
her. “It won’t happen again.”
Well, that made it even clearer.
She only had two more weeks to work for him, and she was at least going to hold onto her
dignity. She wasn’t about to let him know she’d been so foolish as to fall for him. She would protect
herself at least that much. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll just pretend it never happened. I’m not going
to be working for you much longer anyway.”
His body jerked visibly, and he shot her a quick look.
“It was just a kiss,” she said, trying desperately to sound casual. “It’s not the end of the world.”
It felt kind of like the end of the world to her, but that was because she was still being foolish.
Her stupid, stupid heart was still hoping for something that she knew would never happen.
Four
The rest of the drive was quiet. Jake didn’t even make any more calls.
Anne desperately wanted things to return to normal between them—since she couldn’t stand the
thought that he’d realized her feelings and was somehow feeling sorry for her—but there was nothing
she could think of to say to clear the air.
She noticed Jake shooting discreet looks over at her occasionally, as if he were checking to see
how she was feeling. She tried not to show any of her inner turmoil in her expression, but she didn’t
know how successful she was.
If only there was work to do, she was sure they could get back to normal again. But there was
no work left for them on the remainder of the drive. Just tension and a lot of silent questions that had
no answers.
They finally made it to their hotel in San Diego. It was later than they’d planned, because of the
heavy traffic, and Anne just wanted to hide in her room and pretend the day had never happened.
It had been better when all she’d had were vague daydreams. At least then she could enjoy the
fantasy. Now, however, she had the intense memory of what it felt like to kiss Jake for real. She also
had the bleak knowledge that he would never do it again.
When she accepted the key card for her room, he gave her a close look. “Are you okay?” he
asked softly.
She smiled at him, as bright as she could manage. “Of course. It was just a kiss. Did you think it
would leave me sobbing in a corner or something?”
“Of course not.” His face twisted slightly. He obviously felt as terrible about this mess as she
did. “But it should never have happened.”
“It did. It’s fine. It’s forgotten.” She smiled again. “It’s not like I’ve never been kissed before,
you know.”
“I didn’t mean—” He broke off when she took the handle of her case and started wheeling it
after her as she walked toward the elevator.
He reached for his bag and followed her. “Did you want to grab dinner?”
“Nah. I’m not very hungry. I think I’m just going to turn in.”
“Okay.” He looked worried but didn’t object. Just rode up the elevator with her in silence.
When they reached their floor, they headed for their rooms, which were next to each other. “I’ll
see you in the morning,” she said with another smile that felt like it might rip her face apart.
“Okay. Have a good night.”
Then finally she was able to step into her room and close the door behind her. She turned the
deadbolt and leaned against the door, shaking slightly as emotion ripped through her.
It was fine. It was fine. She would be okay. She had a new job. A great job. The kind of job
she’d always wanted.
She didn’t need Jake. For anything.
And he was a grown man. He would be okay without her.
She kept telling herself this as she pulled out the outfit she was going to wear tomorrow and
hung it up. Then she called Raney and Meg and told them what happened.
Raney was convinced this was proof that Jake was desperately in love with her, and Meg told
her not to do anything stupid. Anne felt a little better when she hung up, so she drew herself a hot bath,
since it was a nice room with a great tub.
She was telling herself again that everything was fine as she got in to soak and try to relax.
Every time the thought of Jake flickered into her mind, she pushed it away intentionally. She
ended up thinking about crazy things—like what would have happened if Mr. Darcy and Mr. Knightly
got into a fight—but it was better than thinking about Jake.
She stayed in the bath too long, until the water was lukewarm and her fingers had pruned. Then
she finally made herself get out.
She was drying off with one of the thick hotel towels when she heard a knock on her door.
It startled her so much she actually jumped.
She pulled on the little pink robe she always brought with her when she traveled and hurried to
the door. When she looked out the peephole, she saw Jake standing in the hall, still wearing a suit and
his hair more rumpled than ever.
She froze for a moment, torn between the need to open the door to discover what he wanted and
the realization that her hair was piled unattractively on her head and she was just wearing a short, thin
robe.
“Anne, please open the door,” he said from the hall.
He must have known she was standing on the other side. She swung the door open without
thinking.
He stared at her, his eyes moving from her messy hair clipped up haphazardly to her slightly
damp robe to her bare legs and feet.
“I was in the bath,” she said, by way of (obvious) explanation.
He didn’t say anything. Just stared at her. There was a tension in his body she just wasn’t used
to seeing.
“What did you want?” she asked at last, shifting from foot to foot.
“I wanted to see if you were all right.”
She gave an exasperated sigh. “I’m fine. For God’s sake, Jake, why do you think I’m going to
fall apart? Why would you assume I think a kiss is the end of the world?”
“Because I do.” His eyes were suddenly nakedly urgent. He took step toward her. “Because I
do.”
“Because you what?”
“Feel like it’s the end of the world.”
She leaned against the doorframe, her heart overflowing again in that way that was so
incredibly dangerous. “It’s not. It doesn’t matter.”
“It really didn’t matter to you?”
“Why would it matter?”
“Because I can’t stop thinking about it.” His voice was hoarse in a way that made her shiver.
“Because I keep wanting to do it again. Even though I know I shouldn’t. Even though I know it’s
wrong.”
“Oh.”
“So you don’t?”
She was overwhelmed with the rush of feeling that she couldn’t even see straight, much less
think straight. She asked stupidly, “I don’t what?”
“You don’t want to kiss me again?”
“Of course, I do.”
His face broke with transparent relief. Then again, with a breathtaking hunger, as he reached to
take her face in both of his hands. “Thank God.”
Before she knew what was happening, he was kissing her again.
It was just as wild and hungry as earlier that day beside the car, like some sort of unstoppable
force had taken control of her body. She groaned helplessly into his mouth as he stepped her
backwards until they were both inside the room. Then he pushed her back against the wall as he let
the door close behind them.
His mouth claimed hers, hard and urgent, as he cupped her head with one hand and stroked from
her side down to her thigh with the other.
Her vision blurred over with pleasure and need as she tried to meet and match his tongue with
hers, as she clutched desperately at his strong shoulders.
“Damn, Anne,” he murmured against her mouth, pressing his body against hers so she was
trapped between him and the wall. “I want you so much. I’ve wanted you for so long.”
She gasped helplessly as his mouth trailed along her jaw and then down her throat. “Me too.”
He lifted her thigh so she was wrapping one leg around his hips, and he found her mouth again
in another deep kiss. Soon, she was throbbing with intense arousal and trying to rub herself against
his thigh as she surrendered to the embrace.
She could tell he was just as turned on as she was. She found the bulge in the front of his pants
and rubbed herself against it until he grunted.
“Please,” she panted, when he broke off the kiss at last. “Oh God, please, Jake. I can’t wait
anymore.”
She’d never in her life been so shameless, so eager, so desperately aroused.
He made a low, throaty sound and moved them further into the room. The bed was too far away,
so he propped her on the low dresser and untied her robe. The fabric fell away, revealing her naked
breasts, abdomen, groin.
“Fuck, you’re so gorgeous.” He bent over to take one breast in his mouth, suckling until she was
crying out from the sensual torment of it.
The edge of the dresser was poking into her ass uncomfortably, but she didn’t even care. She
clung to his neck to stay balanced, trying to wrap her legs around him.
Soon, she couldn’t take it anymore, so she squeezed one hand down until she could find his
erection, massaging him through his trousers until his whole body jerked and he released her breast.
“Damn, baby, you’re going to kill me,” he muttered, his eyes raking over her mostly naked body
with a hot entitlement that thrilled her.
“You’re killing me. So please hurry up.”
Something flickered briefly on his face. “Damn it. We need a condom.”
“I’ve got one.” She couldn’t move very well, since she was trapped between his body and the
dresser, but she managed to reach over for her purse, and she fumbled through it with one hand until
she found a couple of condom packets in a zipper pocket.
He took one of them out of her trembling hand and quickly unwrapped it, undid his trousers, and
rolled the condom on. Then he was parting her thighs, positioning himself at her entrance, starting to
sink inside her.
She moaned uninhibitedly as she felt the hard substance of him enter her slowly. His body was
big and hot against hers, and it felt like he was touching the deepest parts of her. But she needed more.
So much more of him.
“Please,” she gasped, shifting to stabilize her balance and adjust to the penetration. “Jake,
please.”
“Fuck, you feel so good.” He was holding one of her thighs. “Wrap your legs around me, baby.”
She moved her legs so they were around him more securely, and they both groaned as he sank
into her more deeply.
Through the hot haze in her mind, she suddenly remembered something. “Is this hurting your
knee?”
“Damn it, Anne, my knee is fine,” he replied in almost a growl. He gave a few little thrusts that
made her cry out in pleasure. “I’m not an old man, you know.”
“I know.” She cried out again as he gave another hard pump, the friction generating intense
pleasure inside her. “God, I know. I just don’t want—” She broke off with a gasp when he thrust
again.
He established a steady rhythm then, bracing one arm on the dresser and moving his hips. He
held her in position with his other hand on her bottom as he took her fast and hard.
Anne had no idea what was happening to her, but she was completely out of control. She
squeezed him with her legs as tightly as she could and clawed at his back as the sensations rose
inside her. She made little grunts every time he pushed into her, and they kept getting louder and
louder as she lost all inhibitions.
Jake was grunting too, loud and low in his throat. And he’d occasionally mutter out a word like
“baby” or “so good.”
Her climax was building quickly, and she dug her fingernails into Jake’s shirt with a loud sob
of pleasure when the pressure finally broke.
He was right after her, letting out a long groan as his body tightened hard and then released in
lingering shudders.
She’d barely come down enough to see his expression as he came, but through the blur she
recognized the pleasure and relief twisting on his face. It did something powerful to her heart. As
powerful as what had just happened to her body.
“Oh God,” she gasped, slightly hoarse. She couldn’t believe she’d let go so much.
She never let go that way.
A wave of both pleasure and embarrassment washed over her as she buried her face in his
shoulder.
What the hell had just happened here?
Jake was even hotter than ever, and he was just as breathless as she was. He held her tightly
with both arms for a moment before he released her.
“I’ve got to get the condom, baby,” he murmured into her hair.
She pulled herself together enough to unwrap her legs and arms from him, although it left her
feeling limp and shaky. He gently extracted himself from her body, and then he limped to the bathroom
to dispose of the condom.
She knew his knee had been bothering him.
She felt awkward, confused, and terrified at the same time. She didn’t know what was going on.
It had all happened so fast. And it had inevitably changed things between them.
She didn’t trust her legs to support her, so she went to sit on the edge of the bed. She was tying
her robe closed again when Jake returned from the bathroom.
He still wore his clothes—wrinkled dress shirt and the trousers from his suit. His dark hair was
hopelessly tousled, and he had a heavy five-o’clock shadow that made him look even sexier than
normal.
He also had a deliciously warm and relaxed look about him that she really liked.
“Why are you closing your robe?” he asked, coming over to join her at the bed.
“Because I’m not in the habit of going around naked.”
He gave her an unexpectedly rakish grin. “I think you should change your habits, then.”
She was intensely relieved at his mood, since it sounded like what had just happened wouldn’t
just be a random fluke that would leave things inescapably broken between them. “I don’t think I’ll
ever be in the habit of going around naked,” she told him, her breathing picking up as he slowly
pushed her down onto her back and untied her robe again.
His eyes were hot and possessive as he gently moved the fabric aside to reveal her bare flesh.
“That would be a real shame.”
He gazed at her for a long time, until she shifted slightly with self-consciousness. “Okay,” she
said at last. “I think you’ve seen what there is to see.”
His gray eyes flickered up to her face. “I haven’t seen nearly enough of you.”
But he did bend down then and kiss his way from her collarbone to one of her nipples, where
he flicked his tongue, teasing her until she made a helpless sound of pleasure.
He smiled. “I like that you’re loud.”
She sucked in an indignant breath, flushing hotly. “I’m not loud.”
With a low chuckle, he gave her nipple a little nip, and she cried out in response before she
could stop herself.
“I’m not that loud,” she insisted, when she saw the amused vindication in his expression.
“It wasn’t an insult,” he said, still looking both fond and amused. “I just said I liked it. You’re
normally so quiet and composed. I love that I can make you completely let go. It’s intoxicating.” As
he spoke, he fondled her breasts, his eyes never leaving her face.
She arched up into his touch but managed to say with a degree of lucidity, “Still, I’m not that
loud.”
The truth was, she’d never been particularly loud in sex at all.
But she’d also never had sex with Jake before either.
Everything was different with him.
He spent a long time caressing her, teasing her into heights of arousal she’d never experienced
before. But she kept biting her lip when she got too loud in some irrational need to prove to him that
she wasn’t as loud as he thought.
“It’s no use,” he murmured eventually, his mouth against her belly. “It won’t be long until I
make you scream.”
“I’m not about to scream,” she told him, with more confidence than was entirely warranted.
“Keep telling yourself that. Now turn over.”
“What?”
“Turn over. Onto your stomach.”
“That sounds kind of bossy.”
“I thought you said I was the boss everywhere except the file room.” There was laughter in his
tone that was as sexy as his touch.
“You’re the boss everywhere except the file room and the bedroom.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “So you’re not going to turn over?”
“If you ask nicely.”
“Turn over, baby.” It wasn’t a request. It was a guttural command that made her clench hard.
“You’ll have to practice asking nicely,” she said, turning over because there was no way she
could resist anymore.
“I’ll practice as much as you want.” He adjusted her body the way he wanted it with his strong
hands, until she was sprawled out on her stomach beside him.
She gave him a look over her shoulder, just to let him know she didn’t appreciate his smug tone.
She did actually appreciate his tone, but he didn’t have to know that.
He was chuckling again as he kissed his way down her spine, stroking her skin as he did so
until her arousal threatened to drive her crazy.
When his mouth was at the small of her back, she shifted uncomfortably and tried to turn back
over.
“Hey,” he objected. “I’m not done yet. I haven’t made you scream.”
“You can make me scream when I turn over.”
“What’s the matter?” he asked in a different tone, obviously noticing something in her
expression.
She sighed. “My ass isn’t my best feature, so I’d rather not show it off.”
She was looking at him over her shoulder, so she saw surprise reflected on his face. “What are
you talking about?”
“What do you mean, what am I talking about?”
“Your ass is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“No need to exaggerate. I’m not expecting ridiculous flattery, you know.”
“It’s not flattery. It’s the truth. You have no idea how much your ass turns me on. Everything
about you turns me on.” He bent down again and pressed a kiss at the small of her back. Then lower,
at the top of her bottom. He stroked her with a slow, sensual touch. “I’ve always had to be sure not to
walk behind you, since the sight of your ass gives me very inappropriate thoughts.”
It sounded like he was speaking the truth. The heated look in his eyes as he stared down at her
body certainly looked like he was speaking the truth. The knowledge sent another wave of feeling
through her, this one even deeper, even stronger.
“Now,” he drawled, sliding one hand between her thighs and exploring until he found her hot,
wet arousal, “I think it’s time to make your scream.”
“Not going to happen.” She wasn’t sure how convincing her words were, since she was already
writhing with pleasure as he sank a finger inside her.
She lifted her bottom slightly to give him better access, and he kept caressing her with one hand
and using his other to pump inside her.
“I’m going to make you come like this,” Jake said hoarsely. “You won’t be able to stop yourself
from screaming.”
“Mm hmm,” was all the response she could manage. She could feel an orgasm developing as he
added a second finger to the first as he stroked into her. He’d found her g-spot and started pushing
against it.
She clutched at the bedding and shamelessly tried to ride his fingers with her hips, her body
once more nearly out of her control.
With his free hand, he held her hips to stop her eager motion. “No, baby. Let me. Otherwise,
you’ll try to take credit for it when I make you scream.”
She choked on both pleasure and amusement at his slightly wry voice, but she responded to the
command. She held herself still as he fucked her with his hand, channeling her desperate urgency into
her grip on the bedding and gasping sounds that got louder and louder.
She knew she was supposed to keep herself quiet, but that was increasingly impossible. Soon
she was almost sobbing with pleasure as he worked her up toward orgasm.
She knew he was smiling and watching her hotly as she finally lost control. And she might have
screamed—just a little—as the climax sliced through her.
He was chuckling again as he pulled out his fingers from her tight channel and rolled her over
onto her back.
“Don’t say it,” she told him, feeling too good to complain very strenuously about his smugness.
He pulled her into his arms and murmured, just before he kissed her, “I love that you’re loud.”
She kissed him back, wrapping her arms around him tightly and feeling so much affection, it
was as overwhelming as her arousal had been. She couldn’t believe she was with Jake like this—
warm and intimate and passionate. She’d daydreamed about it so many times, but this was so much
better than any of her dreams.
He was aroused again. She could feel his erection hard against her hip. So, when they broke the
kiss, she started to work on his shirt, unbuttoning it and then trying to drag it off his shoulders.
He helped enough that they soon had gotten rid of the dress shirt and his t-shirt, and she could
finally caress his bare chest. She loved the hair on his chest as she ran her palms over it. It felt real.
Masculine. Like Jake.
They were still near the bottom of the bed, and her legs kept falling off, so she tried to scoot
herself higher on the bed as Jake worked on getting rid of his trousers.
“Ow,” she gasped, when she bumped her head on her suitcase. She’d forgotten she’d laid it on
her bed earlier when she’d started to unpack.
He paused and glanced over to make sure she was all right. “Be careful.”
“It’s too late to tell me to be careful now. I’ve already bumped my head.”
His lips twitched slightly. “Well, be careful not to do it again.”
She frowned. “If you were a gentleman, you’d move it so it’s not in the way.”
With a soft laugh, he reached over her body and pushed at the suitcase. It moved a few inches.
“Nice job.”
Now, he was frowning. “Hold on. I’ll get it.” He pushed at it some more, hampered because he
lying beside her and reaching over her body.
It moved another inch or two.
“Just push it off,” she told him.
He gave it one more push, and it slowly teetered on the edge for a few moments before it finally
slid to the ground, almost in slow motion.
She giggled helplessly. “Very sexy. Almost as good as the dramatic sweeping the desk clear
that you see in movies.”
He groaned and pulled her against him. “Let’s pretend that didn’t happen. I’m usually more
impressive than that.”
“I think you’re very impressive.” She was looking him in the eye, still smiling, telling him the
naked truth. “I always have.”
He groaned again, differently this time, and claimed her mouth in another hungry kiss.
They kissed for a long time, rolling around some until they were in a better position on the bed,
and he was lying on top of her. Soon, they were rocking into each other with the rhythm of
lovemaking.
“Oh, baby,” he murmured, finally breaking the kiss and pressing more little kisses over her
cheeks and jaw, “You drive me wild.”
She loved the sound his voice. Fond. Intimate. Hoarse with passion. She was turned on again,
pulsing with need as she rubbed herself against every part of his body she could touch.
She was shaking with it as he rolled on another condom and parted her thighs to make room for
him. As soon as he slid himself home, she was fluttering all around him, moaning in helpless
pleasure.
“Oh, fuck,” he gasped, holding himself very still. “Oh, fuck, you feel so good. Wrap your legs
around me again.”
She barely had the coordination to comply, but she managed to get her legs hooked in the way
he wanted. It was perfect—she could feel him so deeply, so intensely. She gasped and arched up,
pleasure rippling through her that she couldn’t possibly control. Her hips were moving of their own
accord.
“That’s right, baby,” he rasped, starting to thrust with the fast, hard rhythm she needed to feel.
“Let yourself go. Don’t hold anything back.”
She couldn’t have held back, even if she’d wanted to. She was already making those same
eager sounds and rocking her body to meet his primitive motion.
He was bracing himself above her, but she could still feel his heat, his weight, his intensity
vibrating in the air between them. His hot eyes never looked away from her face. “Give me all of it,
baby. I want everything from you.”
He was taking her almost roughly now, but she wanted it, needed it. Tried to take him as hard
as he was taking her. She was too loud for a hotel, but she wasn’t embarrassed. She was barely
conscious of it—knowing only that this was what she needed. Needed at her deepest core.
Jake. All he way. Just like this.
She was crying out when their frantic motion finally drove her to the peak. Then he was letting
go too, his sound of release just as uninhibited as hers.
The pleasure rippled through her body—through his—for a long time after the first wave.
They’d collapsed together, moaning and clinging to each other in the aftermath.
Finally, she heard him groan as he pulled his weight off her.
She didn’t want to let him go, and she kept clinging to him until she realized what she was
doing.
“Let me just get the condom,” he said, heaving himself out of bed and limping to the bathroom.
He was completely naked, completely gorgeous. And, with a pang, she realized his knee had to
still be hurting him.
She managed to find the energy to reach down to the floor and grab his t-shirt to pull on so she
wasn’t completely naked.
She hadn’t pulled herself together by the time he returned, so she was in no state to find
something reasonable to say or do—not after what had just happened between them.
“I don’t think I can move,” she mumbled, when he reached out for her.
“Me either.” There was a smile in his voice as he adjusted her body against his. “So let’s not.”
“Sounds good to me.”
He did manage to reached for the covers and pull them up over them.
Anne nestled against him, feeling safe and warm and fully satisfied.
She wondered if he could possibly feel the same way.
But she was too exhausted to reason it out, so instead she just fell asleep.
Five
Anne wouldn’t have expected to sleep deeply after something happening as monumental as having sex
with Jake. She wouldn’t have expected to be able to sleep at all.
She did, though. She slept straight through until she was vaguely aware of Jake moving beside
her. She was feeling cozy and clingy, so she tightened the arm that was draped over his stomach,
afraid he was trying to get up.
He wasn’t, though. He must have just been readjusting because his arm tightened around her
too.
“What time is it?” she mumbled, unable to even open her eyes and make sure it was still dark.
“Too early to get up.” She felt him stroking her hair and back. “Go back to sleep.”
“M’kay.” She pressed a little kiss on his chest, since she wasn’t awake enough to guard her
actions.
She soon fell back to sleep completely, and she didn’t wake up until she rolled over and
reached out for Jake instinctively but found herself alone in the bed.
It startled her so much that she was jarred awake. She sat up in bed, vaguely surprised that she
was still wearing his white t-shirt.
It was morning. Light was coming through the windows, and the clock said it was just after six
o’clock.
They had a meeting with Stew at eight. She could hardly believe this morning she would have
to go back to being Jake’s assistant.
And where the hell had he gone?
The bathroom door was opened, so he was clearly not in there. She glanced down and saw his
clothes were no longer littering the floor.
He must have gone back to his room.
She sighed, telling herself to be reasonable.
What did she expect, anyway? It wasn’t like one night was going to change everything she knew
was true about the world.
Jake wasn’t in love with her. They weren’t going to miraculously become a couple, just
because they’d shared one night.
People had sex all the time, when it meant absolutely nothing.
But she felt glum, heavy, like she might cry as she thought about how he’d acted last night—as if
he’d wanted her for real, maybe not even just her body.
He’d left her this morning, though, without a word.
In an hour, she’d be dressed for work, and she’d head downstairs to have some breakfast and
get ready for the meeting.
He’d be her boss again.
That was all he’d ever be to her.
It hurt so much she shook with it, but she pulled herself together quickly. She wasn’t a child.
She could do this. She could be an adult and a professional.
She could be his assistant for two more weeks, even if he never mentioned what happened
between them again.
She got up, stumbling slightly since she was still sore between her legs. It made her feel even
worse, since it reminded her of how hard he’d taken her last night.
She was heading for the bathroom when she saw he’d left his leather portfolio that held the
yellow pad he always took notes on.
She sighed, flipping it open to look at the notes scrawled in his handwriting.
She was surprised to see her resignation letter tucked under the flap. And even more surprised
when she read the notes he’d scrawled on the first page of the pad.
It was a job description. Some sort of marketing position.
She knew immediately what it was.
It was a job for her.
When she’d already told him very clearly there was no job she would take from him.
When both of them knew, if she was working for him, there was no way in the world they could
be together.
It was inevitable, though. If she’d let herself think about it, even last night, she would have
known it was coming.
Jake might have given himself one night to let go, but work would always be the most important
thing to him. It was the only thing he was willing to invest in.
He wanted her for work more than he did for herself.
Her eyes blurred over as she stared down at his messy handwriting, trying to tell herself it
didn’t change anything.
Things were exactly the way they’d been just a minute ago, when she’d resolved to do her job
and not take one night so seriously.
But it was serious to her. Jake was serious to her.
And there was absolutely no way she could face him this morning—or any other morning—as
nothing more than his assistant.
She wasn’t that mature. She wasn’t that reasonable.
She was heartbroken—and even more so because she’d done it to herself.
Her mind wasn’t working at all, so she had only instinct to act on. And the only instinct she had
at the moment was to flee. So she followed it. Without hesitation, she pulled on some clothes and
stuffed her belongings back into her bag.
She was ready to go in less than ten minutes. She couldn’t find her key card so she just grabbed
her purse and left the room.
Jake would have to do without an assistant for his meeting this morning. He would get by. He
would have to.
And she would learn to get by too.
***
A few hours later, she’d made it to the apartment she shared with Meg and Raney. She’d taken a cab
to get a rental car, and then she’d driven the rental back to Malibu.
She’d cried most of the way back, but she didn’t regret leaving.
It would have been impossible for her to act like nothing had changed, when everything had
changed.
Jake had learned to compartmentalize his life to deal with the blow of losing his surfing career.
But she didn’t know how to compartmentalize. Her feelings for Jake affected everything.
She wanted to be honest with Jake as much as she could, and that meant not pretending that
everything was the same after last night. But she also didn’t want to strip her heart entirely bare when
he hadn’t offered her his heart too.
Raney was at work, but Meg worked in retail and her shift didn’t start until the afternoon, so
she was coming back from a run as Anne wheeled her case up to their door.
“What are you doing here?” Meg asked, wiping sweat from her face. “Are you okay?”
Anne opened her mouth to say she was fine but couldn’t get the words out. She just shook her
head instead.
“What happened?” Meg asked, unlocking the door since Anne hadn’t yet managed. “Did
something happen with Jake?”
Anne stepped inside, left her case next to the door, and collapsed onto the couch. Meg went to
grab a bottle of water and sat beside her.
“Tell me,” Meg insisted, when Anne tried to compose herself enough to talk.
“I slept with him.”
Meg gasped, almost choking on a sip of water. “You’re kidding. How did that happen?”
“I don’t know. It just did. I don’t know what we were thinking.”
“Well, you were thinking you were in love with him. But what was he thinking?”
“He was thinking…it was just a one-time thing.”
“How do you know?”
“He left me.”
“What do you mean, he left you?”
“He left in the morning. Without saying a word.”
Meg’s mouth fell open. “So he wouldn’t even talk to you?”
“He didn’t. He just left.”
“I mean, you tried to talk to him, right?”
Anne swallowed. “No. He was gone.”
“Wait a minute. I don’t understand. You didn’t even try to talk to him afterwards.”
“There wasn’t any point. He always thinks about work first. He’s trying to keep me as an
employee.”
“So he had sex with you as a way to—”
“No. No. Not like that. The sex was separate. It was just a thing. But he only wants me as an
employee. Not as a…as a…”
Meg was obviously thinking hard, a frown breaking her pretty, freckled face. “Did you leave
him a note or something, to explain why you left?”
“No.” Anne released a long sigh and rubbed her face. “I guess I should have. I’m technically
still working for him.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s not about work. It’s about you running out a guy you had sex with
without explanation. That’s kind of cold.”
“It’s not like I snuck out while he was asleep.” Anne was starting to feel a little defensive. “He
snuck out on me. He didn’t want to talk to me. He feels awkward and doesn’t want to hurt my
feelings. I know him, remember? I’ve worked for him for seven years. I know exactly what he’s
thinking. He doesn’t give himself over to things he wants very much. He wanted to have a good time
last night, so he let down enough to have it. But he’s not about to let it reprioritize his life. It’s always
work for him. That’s always going to be first.”
“Damn it, Anne. You didn’t even give him the chance!”
“If he wanted a chance, he would have said something. And he wouldn’t have left me alone this
morning. He doesn’t want a chance. I know him, Meg. I know him.” She was almost crying again, so
she took a minute to stop herself.
Meg looked like she was going to argue some more, but she must have stopped herself. Her
mouth closed, and she was silent for a minute. Then she said in a different tone, “So what are you
going to do?”
“Nothing. He can sue me if he wants, for not giving him two weeks’ notice. I just can’t work for
him anymore.”
“Oh, Anne. I’m sorry it’s all a mess. But take today. Maybe you’ll feel a little better tomorrow,
and then you can go talk to him.”
“What would I even say? You don’t expect me to humiliate myself by pouring out my heart
when he doesn’t return my feelings, do you? Because I’m never going to do that.”
“Maybe there’s something in between spilling your guts and not saying anything at all.”
Anne thought about the mild words and realized her friend was right. She groaned and leaned
her head back against the couch. “Maybe tomorrow.”
“Maybe tomorrow.” Meg smiled at her and stood up. “Do you want something to eat or drink?”
“Just coffee. Thanks.”
“What are you wearing, anyway?” Meg peered at her. “Is that his t-shirt?”
Anne looked down at herself. It was Jake’s t-shirt. She couldn’t believe she still had it on.
It felt like it was all she had left of him.
Before she could say anything, there was a knock on the door that made her jump.
Frowning, Meg walked over to look out the peephole. Then she leaped back like she’d been
burned.
“It’s him,” she hissed in a stage whisper.
Anne blinked at her. “It’s who?”
“It’s Jake! He’s here!”
“What do you mean, he’s here.” Anne jumped to her feet, slammed with shock and
bewilderment. “What is he doing here?”
“I guess you’ll have to open the door and ask him.” Meg was grinning as she grabbed her water
and skittered out of the room, closing her bedroom door behind her. Then she popped her head out
and said, “Don’t do anything stupid,” before she closed the door again.
Anne stared at the closed door until there was another knock.
She walked over to stand in front of it.
“I know you’re in there,” Jake said through the door, sounding impatient, exasperated. “Anne,
open the damned door.”
There was nothing Anne could do. She opened the door.
Six
Anne stared at Jake standing in front of her, just over the threshold of the door.
He was a mess—unshaved, with hair sticking up in all directions, and wearing the trousers and
wrinkled shirt he’d worn yesterday.
Minus the t-shirt, since she was wearing that.
She blinked, vaguely bewildered, since she’d thought he’d gone to his own room this morning
to shower, dress, and get ready for the day.
But he sure didn’t look like he’d taken a shower. He looked like he’d just rolled out of bed.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, since they were the only words that came to her lips.
“What are you doing?” he demanded, his gaze searching her face with an intensity she’d only
occasionally seen in him before.
“I’m sorry.” She ran a hand down her hair, instinctively trying to smooth it down because it was
probably as messy as his was.
When he just stared at her, looking almost broken, she realized with crystal clarity that she’d
done everything wrong. Leaving the way she had this morning was the worst thing she could have
done.
For everyone.
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “I shouldn’t have left like that. But you didn’t have to come after
me. It wasn’t an emergency. You should have stayed to meet with Stew. Now you’ve wasted the
whole trip.”
“What?” His voice broke on the one word, and his expression was baffled. Shocked. Hurt.
Hurt.
Her chest ached so much she could barely breathe. “Oh, Jake, I’m so sorry about everything.”
She looked down at her feet in her highest heels, which she was still wearing. She desperately tried
to think of something to say that would start to fix things.
“May I please come in?” Jake asked in a more composed tone.
“Oh. Yeah. Of course. Sorry.” She stepped aside and let him into the apartment. Then slowly
shut the door behind him, listening to the sound of the soft click. “Jake—”
“No,” he interrupted, stepping toward her with a new urgency. “Let me talk first. I’m not sure
what you’re running away from, Anne, but I don’t think it’s as bad as you think.” His gray eyes held
hers without breaking. “I think there’s more to keep you with me than there is to push you away.”
She cleared her throat, blinking at the earnestness in his tone. She’d never heard Jake like this
before. He’d always managed to be both laidback and professional. Not at all like this. It left her
feeling shaky, but this was too important, so she made herself summon her courage to tell him the
truth. “I know you want me to stay, Jake. I’m really sorry, but I can’t.”
“Why not?” He reached out to hold one of her upper arms, dragging her a little closer to him.
“Tell me why you don’t think you can stay. Tell me why, so I can fix it.”
Her emotions were such a turmoil that her vision was blurring, but she pushed through it,
holding onto her composure. “There’s nothing to fix.”
His expression twisted. “That’s not fair, Anne. You can’t just leave me without at least telling
me what’s driving you away, without giving me a chance to make it better.”
She made a frustrated sound in her throat, since—after everything—they still seemed to be
having the same conversation. She gently pulled her arm out of his grip because she could think more
clearly when he wasn’t touching her. “I know it doesn’t seem fair to you, but you’re only thinking
about yourself—about what’s good for you. And—”
“I can be good for you, Anne.” His voice was even hoarser now than it had been last night, like
it was breaking on every word. “I know I’ve been blind and stubborn and…and I haven’t given you
any reason to believe me, but I swear I can be good for you.”
Anne was almost in tears again, since his words were so close to what she wanted to hear.
Close, but not everything. And she knew she couldn’t settle for less than everything.
She cleared her throat again so she could speak with more composure. She took a step toward
him this time and held his gaze. “Listen to me, Jake. I need you to really hear me.” She paused before
she said the words. “I can’t—there’s absolutely no way I can work for you anymore.” When he
started to interrupt, she talked over him. “Please hear what I’m saying. I know you think you need me
in your company, but you really don’t. You’ll learn to work with someone else. I saw the notes on that
position you were trying to put together for me, and I’m telling you I’m never going to take it. After
last night, there’s no way I can work for you again, and it really wasn’t good for me to be working for
you this whole last year. I can’t do it. I won’t do it anymore.”
The words felt right—really hard but the true thing, the thing that needed to be said. And they
seemed to have a profound effect on Jake. He stared at her, intense emotions passing over his face in
sequence.
Then he turned away from her abruptly with a rough sound in his throat, his shoulders shaking a
few times.
She stared at his back, every instinct in her body screaming at her to go to him, to help him
somehow. “Oh, Jake, I’m sorry—”
He whirled around, and his face was transformed. Whatever had been tearing at him earlier
seemed to have completely disappeared. It almost looked like he’d been laughing.
“What—” she began in utter confusion.
He reached out to take her face in both of his hands. “Now you listen to me. Hear what I’m
saying right now.” He paused, and she was rocked by the passion and tenderness clearly evident in
his expression. “Anne, you’re fired.”
“What?” she breathed.
“You’re fired.”
“I don’t understand.”
He stroked her cheek with one of his thumbs. “You can’t work for me anymore.”
“Why not?”
“Because it would be completely inappropriate for me to feel for an employee the way I feel
for you.”
She was almost choking on her joy and astonishment. “It would?”
“Of course, it would. When I said I wanted you to stay with me, I meant stay with me for real—
not stay in your job. When I said I could be good for you, I didn’t mean I could be a better boss. I
don’t want to be your boss. I want to be your…”
“My what?” She was shaking so much she could hardly get the two words out.
He cleared his throat and said with just a tinge of self-deprecation, “Your man.”
She choked on a laugh, the way he had earlier when he’d realized they’d been talking at cross-
purposes. It was almost too much to take in.
“Laugh at me if you want, but I’m telling you the truth. I’m absolutely crazy about you. So
you’re fired.”
“You can’t fire me,” she managed to say. “I already quit.”
“Okay.” A little smile was playing on his lips now, as if he could read the tender emotion in her
face and realized she felt the same way he did. “Then I accept your resignation.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?” His hands got a little tighter as he searched her face one more time.
“Yeah. Okay.”
With a groan, he pulled her into his arms, into a hug so hard she couldn’t breathe for a moment.
She hugged him back, though, feeling like things were exactly right between them for the first time…
maybe ever.
The embrace went on for a long time—just them holding each other with matching need. Then
finally Jake pulled away and asked, “Do you think we could sit down now? I feel like I might pass out
after the morning I’ve had.”
Anne went to sit on the couch, and he followed her, collapsing beside her with a low groan.
“What do you mean, after the morning you’ve had?” she asked, genuinely curious.
“What do you think I mean? I came to find you this morning, and you were gone. You’d run out
on me without a word. So I had to jump in the car and come after you. Damn, those might have been
the worst hours of my life, thinking what I’d finally found was just going to slip through my fingers.”
It took her several moments to process his words, but when she did, she leaned back in a slump.
“Oh.”
He slanted her a look. “Why did you run out on me this morning, Anne?”
“I thought…” She was suddenly afraid to admit it, since she’d clearly jumped to conclusions
that were completely wrong, and it was a little embarrassing. “I thought you’d left me.”
“What? What did you think happened last night?”
He looked so surprised that she blushed hotly. “Last night was…amazing. But I woke up and
you were gone. Then I saw your notes on the new position for me, and I thought it was a sign that
you’d never think I was as important as your work, and I knew I couldn’t take anything less than…
having you for real. So I just…ran.”
He reached over and pulled her against his chest. “You little idiot,” he said, tenderness obvious
in his voice. “I had just gone down to get us some breakfast.”
“Oh.” She thought for a moment and realized how completely wrong she’d been. She hid her
face in his shirt. “Oh God.”
He was laughing as he wrapped both of his arms around her again.
“Don’t laugh at me,” she told him, without any real heat. She pulled away enough to look up at
his face. “I had good reason to think you’d pulled back and prioritized your work again, since you’d
been doing it for years.”
“I know,” he said in a different tone, gently stroking her hair. “I’ve been more of an idiot than
you could ever be. I’m sorry it took me so long. Work was always safer—the one thing I felt like I
could control. When you told me you were quitting, I was almost out of my mind. I kept thinking you
wouldn’t be my employee anymore, so there would be nothing holding me back. But I was so used to
putting my feelings on hold, I didn’t think I could let myself act on them. I didn’t think I could ever
have you. Have you and keep you, I mean.”
She understood exactly what he meant. She knew him as well as she knew herself. “I didn’t
think I could ever have you either,” she admitted.
“So we were both wrong.” He leaned down to gently kiss her lips. “I always knew I needed
you in my life, but for a long time I pretended that having you at work was enough. But it’s not. And,
just so you know, now that I have you like this, there’s no way in hell I’m ever going to let you go.”
She beamed up at him. “Sounds just about right to me.”
They kissed for a minute—emotional and a little clumsy—until a voice startled them from the
other side of the apartment.
Meg called out, “I’m coming out. I’m sorry, but I need to go to work.”
“That’s fine,” Anne replied, straightening up a little although Jake wouldn’t let her out of the
circle of his arms.
“I’m closing my eyes so I won’t see if anything untoward is happening in there.”
Both Jake and Anne started laughing, and Anne said, “Nothing untoward is happening. You can
open your eyes.”
Meg emerged from the hall, dressed for work and grinning at both of them. “So you guys finally
worked everything out?”
“Yeah.” Anne was smiling just as broadly as her friend was, feeling sheepish and giddy both.
“Excellent. I’m leaving now, so you can do whatever untoward things you’d like to do without
being interrupted. Just please tell me that I get to be the one to tell Raney.”
“You can tell Raney.”
Meg cackled as she grabbed her purse and headed to the door. “She’s going to be so jealous
that I knew before her.”
Anne called out a laughing farewell as her friend left the apartment. Then she turned back to
Jake, who was gazing at her with a softness that turned her into emotional mush. “So what now?” she
asked.
“I don’t know. What do you think?” He pulled her against him again, so she was leaning against
his chest.
It wasn’t a bad position at all.
“You left poor Stew in a lurch. Will you go back to San Diego to help him out?”
“I don’t think so. I can talk him through things on the phone, if he can’t figure it out on his own.”
“Then I guess you should probably start looking for a new assistant.”
“I guess so. Although I’m not sure we have to start that immediately. I mean, not right now.” He
shifted their bodies slightly so she could look him in the eyes.
“What else did you have in mind for right now?” she asked, although she was pretty sure she
could read the hot expression in his face.
He leaned down and said against her lips, “Right now, I’m going to do what I’ve wanted to do
for ages, but didn’t think I’d ever be allowed.
She wrapped her arms around him. “And what’s that?”
“This.”
He eased her down so she was lying on the couch, and he showed her.
Epilogue
Two months later, Anne was popping up on a surfboard, early on a Sunday morning, trying to get her
stance right.
She didn’t seem to be naturally talented at it.
The board wasn’t even on the water—it was just on the sand so she could practice—but she
still couldn’t seem to get her feet placed right when she hopped up from the paddling position.
Jake laughed when she tried to jump again and ended up with one foot off her board completely.
She groaned and glared at him.
He walked over with a grin. “It’s not as hard as you’re making it. Push with your arms and pull
your feet up under you. Don’t worry about doing it really quickly yet. Just stand up in the right way
and make sure this leg is out front when you do.” He patted her right thigh.
She sighed and got down again on her stomach on the board.
“Don’t worry about being fast this time. Just stand up.”
Without the pressure of doing it quickly, she stood up just fine.
“Good,” he said, coming over again and sliding his hand down her thigh to change her stance
slightly. “Bend your knee a little more.”
“Like this?” she asked, looking over at him. He looked gorgeous in the morning sun, relaxed,
happy, and in need of a shave. It had taken her a few weeks to convince him to teach her to surf—
since he knew exactly what her real motive was in the request—but he’d relented eventually.
He’d gone out on the water yesterday to show her the basics, and she knew he’d go out again
once she was ready to get off the beach herself.
He hadn’t yet surfed on his own yet, but she was pretty sure he would.
He’d never be able to surf like he used to—not with his bad knee—but he could surf some. He
could have a little of what he’d lost.
She wanted that for him.
It wasn’t like the last two months had completely changed him. He still worked like a maniac
during the week, but he was doing better about taking the weekends and evenings off.
Anne was loving her new job, and she was loving Jake even more.
He seemed satisfied with her stance, but his hand lingered on her upper thigh.
“Watch the hands,” she teased, glancing back at him.
He gave her a wicked grin and slid his palm back even more inappropriately so it was cupping
her ass.
“Hey,” she objected.
“I thought I was allowed to do that now.”
She playfully swatted his hand away. “Not in public.”
“There’s no one else around. And you know how irresistible I find your delectable ass.”
She made a face at him but was smiling when he leaned over to kiss her. After he pulled away,
she said, “Seriously, though, I want to learn how to do this.”
“Right. Then why don’t you try it again?”
It took her about ten more times, but she finally got the pop-up right, jumping up from her
stomach in a fast, smooth move with her feet and body in the right position.
When she finally got it right, she squealed in excitement and launched herself at him in a hug.
He caught her, the momentum causing him to spin around once as he held her tightly.
“I love you, Jake Woodward,” she burst out, when she raised her head to smile at him, joy and
affection overflowing into words.
They hadn’t said those words to each other yet, but she wasn’t even afraid. She gazed up at him,
knowing—knowing—he felt the same way.
He froze for a moment, before emotion broke briefly on his face. But then he drawled, “I’m sure
you already know how much I love you too. And, seriously, if I’d known it would get me this
reaction, I would have taught you to surf ages ago.”
Sometimes she couldn’t believe this miracle had really happened to her, that someone she
loved so much could actually love her back.
But it had happened. And it was real. And it wasn’t going to go away.
Maybe it had happened gradually, and over the course of seven years, Jake had changed from
her boss into the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
Or maybe it had happened in only one night.
***
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed One Night with her Boss, please consider leaving a review
and telling others about it. I’ve also written three more One Night novellas, which are available in
a discount boxed sex for just $1.99. You can find more information
If you like boss-employee romances, you can check out the excerpt from Engaged to the Boss that
follows. And, if you want to keep up with my new releases and sales, you can sign up for my
newsletter through
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Excerpt from Engaging the Boss
She couldn’t believe Jonathan was engaged. How was she going to stand working for him every day
when he was married, knowing she wasn’t even allowed to dream about him?
His fiancée was undoubtedly beautiful—slender, elegant, and stylish. Everything Sarah was
not.
“What’s wrong?” Jonathan asked from behind her. He’d evidently walked out of his office and
taken his normal position at the lab table.
She turned around, her eyes widening. “Nothing. Why?”
Jonathan didn’t look anything like a stereotypical research scientist. He was built like a football
player, but it must be just good genes because she never saw him working out. He had a strong,
handsome face with brown hair and brown eyes, and his clothes and lab coat were perpetually
wrinkled.
He gave a half-shrug at her question. “You seemed to be having a hard time screwing on the
lid.”
“Oh. No. I just wasn’t paying attention.” She smiled at him, as brightly as she could, as she
brought his coffee back over. “Is your uncle doing all right?”
His uncle, Cyrus Damon, had founded a multi-billion dollar conglomerate of hotels and
restaurants, and his four nephews were the heirs to his fortune. The other nephews were more in the
spotlight than Jonathan. He’d buried himself for years at school in MIT and in the lab here, which
he’d opened seven years ago with funding that came primarily from his uncle.
“You heard, huh?” He shook his head as he took a swallow of coffee. “He never changes. He’s
unhappy with me, as usual.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she murmured, looking back at the DNA sequence blindly. “I didn’t
know you were engaged. Congratulations.” She couldn’t help but wonder how he’d found the time to
date and get engaged to someone. The one long-term relationship she’d had was with Matt Turner,
who’d been hired at the lab at the same time she was. Their relationship had dissolved after a year, in
part because they just hadn’t had time for each other.
She’d thought Jonathan had nothing in his life but work. Evidently, she was wrong.
There was silence beside her, stretching out so long she finally turned. She caught the strangest
expression on Jonathan’s face.
Half-reluctant and half-guilty.
“What is it?” she prompted. He usually didn’t express any emotion at all, his face always
relaxed, even when focused deeply on the most minuscule of genetic details.
“I’m not really engaged.”
“What?”
“I lied.”
Her belly clenched with a weird combination of relief and excitement. “But he’ll have to find
out eventually, won’t he?”
“I know,” he admitted, rubbing his chin in a habitual gesture. She could hear the faint sound of
his bristles against his hand. He shaved every day, but he was always bristly again by lunchtime. “It
wasn’t the smartest of lies. Now he wants me to bring my fictional fiancée to my cousin’s wedding.”
“I guess you could make up an excuse about why she couldn’t come.” She tried to sound
normal, but she almost felt giddy.
She indulged in daydreams all the time about Jonathan, but she didn’t have any realistic hopes
about a future with him. He was brilliant, handsome, and would be a billionaire when his uncle died.
He commanded attention everywhere he went—so compelling was the force of his intellectual
confidence and the depth of his commitment to his goals. It wasn’t arrogance or intimidation, and it
was completely unconscious on his part. But she’d seen him at conferences and symposiums, and
she’d seen the most skeptical of stodgy academics look at him with respect, despite his youth and
despite the fact that he wasn’t affiliated with a university.
Jonathan Damon could have any woman he wanted. Sarah was smart and was good at her job,
but otherwise she was nothing special. She could be content with what she had—a career she’d
always dreamed of and working daily with a man as brilliant and amazing as him.
Anything more was a Cinderella-dream, and she’d always known that could never happen to
her.
“Yeah,” Jonathan replied, sitting down on a stool and turning back and forth on it restlessly.
“Hopefully, he’ll accept the excuse. He threatened to pull our funding because I was too focused on
research to settle down and get married.”
“I heard,” she said, surprised he’d told her something so personal. They talked all the time, but
it was almost always about work. “It’s probably just a passing whim,” she added, “brought on by
your cousin getting married. You can just make up an excuse for her now and then later claim that she
broke the engagement. You don’t really think he’ll stop funding us, do you?”
He didn’t answer immediately, just looked away, which was answer enough.
“Is he really so…so old-fashioned?” She chose her words carefully, since she didn’t want to
offend him. “I mean, to insist that you not stay single.”
“Old-fashioned doesn’t even begin to describe him. He wants to be an eighteenth-century lord
of the manor.” There was a slight bitterness in his brown eyes as he said the words—something she’d
never seen there before. He was usually such an even-tempered man.
“Maybe you could ask a friend to pose as your fiancée,” she suggested. “Just for the wedding.
That way, you can extend the engagement as long as possible before you say it’s called off. By then,
maybe he’d feel so sorry for you about the broken engagement that the funding would be safe.”
Jonathan arched his eyebrows. “Who would agree to do something so crazy as pretend to be my
fiancée?”
“I’d do it,” she volunteered without thinking. Mostly, she was trying to make him feel better,
and she didn’t think through the implications until the words were spoken.
Her cheeks grew hot, and she lowered her eyes to the peppermint wrapper she still held. “I
mean, if you decided you wanted to do it.”
***
You can find out more about Engaging the Boss
. It is the third book in the Heirs of Damon
series, but can easily be read without reading the other books.
About the Author
Noelle handwrote her first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She
has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she teaches English, reads any book she can get her hands on,
and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.
She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient
her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances. For more information, please check out her website:
Other Books by Noelle Adams
One Hot Night: Three Contemporary Romance Novellas
A Negotiated Marriage
Listed
Bittersweet
Missing
Revival
Seducing the Enemy
Playing the Playboy
Holiday Heat
Married for Christmas
Salvation
Engaging the Boss
Excavated
A Baby for Easter
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