Billionaires Dollar Series

I wet my lip. His eyes dart down, both of us moving despite ourselves. “You really think he’d mind?”

“Oh yes.” Nick’s voice is black and heavy with insinuation.

“Well, then,” I murmur, “do we have to tell him?”

His hand reaches up and catches a strand of my hair between his fingers. My breath stops altogether, eyes locked on his. “Tell him what, exactly?”

“That we’re getting to know one another better,” I say. “After all, isn’t that what he’s always wanted?”

Nick’s lips curl into a sardonic smile. The expression sets my heart into overdrive. “I’m not sure that’s the way he intended.”

“So?” Brave or foolish, I don’t know, but I’ve lost the ability to control my actions. My arms wrap around his neck of their own accord, the warmth of his worked-up skin burning against mine. His hands come up around my waist-to push me away or pull me closer?

“You can’t tell me you didn’t enjoy kissing me,” I murmur. “That much was obvious.”

“Well,” he says quietly. “I’d have to be dead not to enjoy that.”Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

And then I’m pressing my lips against his, and he’s groaning into my mouth, hands at my waist finally finding their resolve and pulling me closer. He’s big and sweaty and I don’t mind at all. If anything, it makes him feel even more overwhelmingly alive against me.

Nick kisses me back fiercely, the kisses every inch as powerful as the ones we’d shared in Cole’s study. They burn-they brand.

He breaks away from my lips with a groaned curse. “Fuck. You’ll be the death of me, Blair.”

I’m breathing too hard to respond. He pushes me away firmly, shaking his head. “Not here,” he growls. “Not now.”

The promise in his words makes my stomach tighten. Somewhere else, then. Some other time. I reach up to straighten my blouse, feigning more composure than I feel. Inside my chest, my heart is hammering.

We watch each other for a long moment. The smile on his face is gone now, replaced by an intensity I’m unused to. “I’m not sure you know what you’re asking for,” he says.

I look back at him levelly, thinking about the way he keeps people at a distance, at the words I’d spoken to him just last week. I’m sorry for caring, all right?

If someone would get hurt, it would be me. And yet… I find myself thinking that perhaps it would be worth it.

Steps echo down the hallway. With the grace of a large predator, Nick strides away from me, grabbing a discarded training bag from the floor. He disappears down the opposite hallway toward the guest bath before Skye returns to the kitchen.

She gives me an innocent smile. “All good here?” she asks.

I take a sip of my now-cold tea. “Yes,” I say, forcing my voice even. “All good.”

Never before had a woman’s lips so haunted me. Logically, realistically, I know they’re not different than others I’ve kissed. That what she’d been suggesting-getting to know one another better-was something I could find anywhere else. Why risk ruining everything by indulging in it with her?

And yet, my traitorous body wanted it more than it had ever wanted anything. Worse still was that my mind seemed committed to joining the mutiny. It circled back to focus on her more times than I could count. On wheat-blonde hair and honey-brown eyes. On the smile that always seemed to hover around the edges of her lips, ready to break through like the sun through clouds. Too beautiful for me-she was sincerity and laughter and goodness.

Was that why her lips affected me like no other woman’s ever had? After our encounter in her brother’s study at that godawful party, they had nearly brought me to my knees.

I shake my head at my own thoughts. Staying away is no longer an option. Minimizing fallout-that has to be my priority now. So I go to work the following Monday, not scheduling any out-of-office meetings, to show both her and I that we can handle it.

That I’m stronger than my attraction.

Blair’s at work early. Bent over her desk in the open landscape, her hair is neatly curled down her back and a red, silken blouse curving around her form.

I stop by her desk. It’s the first time I’ve visited her desk in these past weeks-or acknowledged her at all when not mediated by Gina. One by one, the firewalls I’ve erected seem to be coming down.

She pushes away the commissioned logo designs for B. C. Adams and looks up at me with surprise. “Mr. Park?”

Mr. Park. She only ever calls me that at work. I can only imagine how much she hates saying the words.

“I want an evening briefing tonight,” I say. There are only a few other employees in the room, and they know better than to eavesdrop, but I make sure my voice is professional.

“Of course.” Something about the softness of the words makes me want to smile. “Yes. Should I prepare anything?”

“No. I just want your opinions.” Our gaze catches and holds, and there’s a ton of questions in hers. “Be in my office by seven.”

“Certainly.” I can see the quiet confusion in her eyes, but after the way she’d ambushed me in her brother’s kitchen… we’ll have this conversation here, far away from prying eyes.

The rest of the day is packed, as usual, and yet I find it hard to focus on anything but her pending arrival. It’s a relief when my assistant finally announces her arrival, a few minutes past seven.

She’s late.

My brandy sends a familiar burn down my throat. Rare are the times when I drink in my office in the evenings-yet one more thing she’s reduced me to doing.

“Hi,” she says. Her hair falls like golden silk around her face. “I’m here.”

“I can see that.” I gesture for the chair opposite my desk.

She sits down, crossing her legs. “So?” she asks. “Am I here to be fired? Reprimanded? Told off for the other day?”

“Those are the only options you could think of?”

“Oh, I have about a hundred more on the list, but these seemed the most likely.”

My lips curve. “None of those three, actually.”

“Oh? You surprise me.”

“My goal in life,” I say, her eyes widening at the teasing. I haven’t often indulged in that with her. “So you want to get to know one another better.”

Blair’s eyes blaze at my words. The fire there is one I’m used to seeing-but it’s never before been turned on me in anything but irritation. The change is…well, irresistible.

“You asked me to your office to discuss us?”

“Was that not one of the options on your little list?”

“No,” she says. “Never even crossed my mind.”

“Well,” I say, making my voice a dark drawl. “I can’t very well have you attacking me again where your brother might catch us.”

Her eyes flash. “Attack you!”