“He’ll have it.” Glancing at the open folder on her desk, she located the data she needed and after a few more keystrokes she was done. She took a moment to review the few documents before she saved and attached them to an e-mail directed at Mr. Jacobs’ personal assistant.
Pushing her chair back, she looked up at Todd, who still stood there staring at her. “It’s done.” Translation: Now get the hell out of my office.
“I haven’t heard you talking about your plans tonight for the new year.” He sat on the corner of her desk.
“I have a few things to consider. So, sorry if you were going to add another party to my list, but I’m all full.” She really only had two options: go to the party at Mattie’s house that she and her boyfriend Bob were throwing, or watch the New Year’s Eve special on television with a big bowl of ice cream. The latter was more appealing to her.
“Come on, Ryanne. Lester Mann throws the best manager party. I’d let you come as my second date so you wouldn’t have to go alone. Besides, Ryanne, you have to kiss someone at midnight.” His smile looked sleazy.
Oh, God, I think I just threw up in my mouth.
“Then she’ll be kissing me.”
The smile dropped off Todd’s face as he stood and turned toward the door to see the arrival, blocking her view of the door. However, she didn’t need to look around her coworker’s frame to know who was there. Carson.
“I’m sorry, we haven’t been introduced.” Todd pushed his shoulders back and tried to make himself taller as he approached Carson, who towered over him by a good three inches.
Ryanne stood slowly and admired the man who commanded attention in her office. Carson looked good. Damn good. He was dressed in a black suit with a sky-blue tie. She’d gotten so used to seeing him in a snowsuit or jeans, she never considered how sexy he would look in a dress suit. He was panty-wetting sexy.
She reminded herself that this guy was soon to be a father, and maybe even another woman’s husband.
“Just call me Carson. You don’t mind if I have a few minutes alone with Ms. McCall, do you?”
“No…no. Um, Rya—Ms. McCall, I’ll see you later.”
“Next year,” Carson corrected, not taking his eyes off her as Todd hustled toward the door.
“Yeah. Next year.” Todd bolted.
She and Carson just stood there staring at each other. He allowed his gaze to travel across her face, taking everything in as if he were trying to assure himself that nothing had changed since he saw her a week ago. When his eyes lowered down the length of her body, over her blouse and skirt, she could feel the heat of his gaze like a touch.
Her nipples tightened and her clit throbbed.
Stop it, Ryanne.
“May I close your door?” Those gray eyes returned and met hers.
“Of course.”
He turned, shut the door behind him, and then crossed the room. He stood where Todd had, but unlike the other man that annoyed her, Carson made her body feel on edge with excitement.
“You look beautiful.”
She fought against the heat in her cheeks. “What are you doing here?”
“Where else would I be, sugar-lips?”
He was going to make her say it. “With Ashley, supporting her through her pregnancy.”
He ignored that. Instead he asked, “Can you come around the desk so I can hold you?”
“No.” God, she wanted to. With every fiber of her being she wanted to leap over the desk into his arms. But she didn’t. “Why did you go see my father?”
“Because I wanted to do things right.”
“What things?”
He took a seat in the chair on the other side of her desk, looking casual and unhurried. “You know, Ryanne, when I was a teenager, and had so many dreams about you, I would imagine myself going to your father’s house and asking his permission to date you.”
That bit of knowledge gave her a moment of pause. “Well, that was then. It’s too late now. We’ve changed, grown up. One of us has started a family.”
Once again he ignored her snide comment. “It’s never too late when fate has blessed you with a second chance. It did that for us.”
His sweet words were reigniting her hope again, when she had no place for hope. “Carson, you are making this harder for me.”
“What, sugar-lips?”
“Stop calling me that.”
“Why would my telling your father that I love his daughter more than anything else in the world and I want to one day—hopefully in the next year—see him walk you down the aisle to me make this hard for you?”
She bit down on her bottom lip, fighting back the tears that were burning her eyes.
“Say it, Ryanne.”
“Because I love you.” She broke. “But another woman is carrying your baby. It is ripping me apart inside, because I know it’s best to let you go so you can do the right thing.”
“The right thing for you to do is keep loving me, because I love you. Come here.” He beckoned her over with a finger.
He loved her. “What about Ashley? I heard her tell you about the baby and that she wants to get married.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Evidently you didn’t hear the whole conversation.”
He was right, she’d run off, not wanting to hear him go back to the other woman.
“I couldn’t,” she confessed.
“If you would have stayed, maybe even come into the room, you would have heard me tell her I had no plans to marry her and raise someone else’s baby.”
“Are you sure it’s not yours?”
“We broke up over a year ago. It would be impossible. In that time she married her boss, the man she cheated on me with, and when he died, she got nothing. His pre-nup and his adult children made sure of that. I told Ashley she was spoiled and selfish and maybe raising her baby herself would help her grow up.”
“Oh.” Ryanne couldn’t think of anything else to say. Maybe because she realized that her running away in fear of having her heart broken if she saw Carson walk out of her life again was causing feelings of guilt to rise for bringing them both sadness.
“Come here, Ryanne.”
She rounded her desk and then went to stand before him and was pulled down into his lap.
“I love you, and I want a life with you. Only you.”
“I love you, Carson. I’m sorry I left you.”
He caressed her back. “You’re forgiven…under two conditions.”
“What are they?” She stroked his tie.
“One, agree to be my date tonight. I made plans to take you out to dinner and dancing.”
“I haven’t had a better offer. Absolutely.” She smiled. “What is the second condition?”
Taking hold of her hips, he moved her higher up his thigh so that she was situated directly over his groin.
She gasped at feeling the hard evidence of how much he wanted her.
“Lock that door so we can have a little make-up sex.” He winked.
Laughing, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “That can be arranged, since I’m sure everyone has probably vacated the office to get ready for their night.”
“Then get to it, sugar-lips, so I can taste what I’ve been missing. You.”
About the Author
I'm Yvette Hines, but some people call me SASSE or SASSE Yvette. I'm an erotica author that loves pleasurable hours between the sheets, whether it’s a blended tale of interracial lovers, the clandestine bite and wicked passion of a paranormal lover, or the sting of a commanding whip against tender flesh. Even better, make my day and toss in two gorgeous, decadent men who only want to pleasure their woman. I write Short and Sexy Sensual Erotica (SASSE) for ALL women. Occasionally, you may get a full-length novel from me. However, life is too busy and most of us have more than one job, family, and other activities that don't allow us long hours to read anymore.
I've been penning erotic tales since 2007, on the hedonistic side of the romance genre. However, I've been w
riting romance under a different pen for a while. I'm eclectic by nature.
I'm married to my best friend. A guy that makes me laugh 'til I can't breathe. A man who steals my breath every time he walks into a room. I believe in happily ever after as if the rising of the sun depended on it.
I'm a member of Rom Vets, Chesapeake Romance Writers, and RWA. You can find out more about me at: http://yvettehines.com
Acknowledgments
Always to my readers who support me constantly, I am deeply humbled and grateful. To Bridget M. and Aliyah B., thanks for jumping in with both feet with me again. It is a pleasure writing romance anthologies with two women who love giving a great story to readers and supporting each other from conception of ideas to release dates and beyond.
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