Suite 269 (10 page)

"
W
hat the hell
are you trying to write? Those aren't words. And you call yourself an editor," I laughed, looking back up at him.

"I swear I didn't text you anything. My phone is in my pocket. Look, see?" he said, yanking his phone out of his back pocket and holding it right in front of me.

"Oh, my God.
Your ass is texting me now?
" I laughed, dipping my face into the leather of the booth.

R
ight after lunch
, we walked back into the lobby where we found Sophia standing next to a sullen Kevin. As soon as he saw me, he jumped away from her side. Asshole.

"Where are you all coming from?" Kevin asked, looking only at me.

"Hotel down the street, probably," Sophia mumbled.

"Excuse me?" James snapped. "How juvenile of you. And completely none of your business where I sleep with someone." His hand touched my lower back and slowly slid down to the curve of my ass. All I wanted to do was run away.

"I knew it," she hissed.

His hand was burning a hole through my pants. What the hell was he trying to do? Did he want them to think we just slept together? This was the most childish shit I'd ever been involved in. Seriously, this stuff didn't even happen to me in high school.

Glancing quickly around to all their faces, I huffed out, "Why don't you all just grow the hell up? The only idiots sleeping with each other are you two losers and you can have each other." I spun around on my heels and stormed towards the elevators. "I have work to do. I can't waste any more time on this nonsense."

James ran after me and followed me right into the elevator.
Holy hell. Why? Why did he have to go and do that?
The doors immediately closed behind us.

"Are you okay?" he asked, taking my chin in his hand and running his thumb across my cheek. My heart pounded at the touch. But I pulled my face out of his grasp and slid away.

"No. I'm not okay. You just made it look like we are in some sort of a physical relationship. You made me look just like Sophia, and I'm nothing like her."

His eyes rounded, his entire body stiffened, and he slammed his hand against the emergency stop button. I automatically cringed, waiting for the sound of ringing alarms, but there was nothing but the heavy sounds of him breathing. "You're nothing like her."

"Yeah. I get that. That was Kevin's problem with me. But I don't want any kind of pathetic revenge, okay? It's not going to make me feel any better, it's never going to give me back what I lost, and it just makes me look like her. I'm not her. And I don't want anyone thinking I need to sleep with you to get further in my career."

His chest was rising and falling, jaw ticking and twitching, his eyes locked onto mine. I wanted to slap this beautiful man across his stupid face.

Then he lunged at me, pinning me against the elevator wall with his body. The warmth of his body crushed into mine, his face a few inches away, his breaths fanning out across the skin of my neck. His thumb stroked my lips. My body tingled in response and my knees weakened. His other hand reached up and gently pulled the small barrette that held my hair in its tight bun, causing my hair to spill around my shoulders. "You're nothing like her. You're beautiful inside and out." His eyes searched mine, back and forth, back and forth, then the rest of my face. My eyes, my lips, my neck—as if he couldn't bear to miss a feature.

Slowly he leaned forward, and before I could ask him what the hell he thought he was doing, his lips brushed over mine. "And sexy as pure sin."

My body took over. Completely overthrew any responsible thoughts. I wanted him instantly. It was beyond reason and sanity. I wanted his hands on my skin, on my breasts, in the heat between my thighs. I could imagine them tugging and gripping me, his lips nibbling, and sucking. I was losing my mind.

Our lips parted slightly, breathing each other in. The warm heat of his mouth panted against mine. He lingered there, his lips just over mine, his breathing ragged, my mind spinning, my body aching, arching into his. He hadn't even kissed me yet and my body was his, breaths gasping and muscles straining to climb over him.

My head screamed for me to stop, to stop and back away, before the kiss happened, before I made the biggest mistake ever and locked lips with one of my bosses. But I couldn't. I didn't want to stop.

I tilted my head up, and finally...
finally
his lips touched mine, the heat of his tongue singed mine and it's as if every moment of pent up sexual tension I had ever felt in my entire life balled up and knotted in each and every inch of muscle that made up my body and twisted me so tightly I thought I might possibly explode. His fingers grasped onto my hair and my neck, pulling me closer, warm lips desperate—a gasping, hungry, starving kiss. His hard chest was hot against me as his lips wetly melted into mine. The tightness in my muscles melted as our mouths moved over each other, exploring, tasting. Strong, thick hands slid to my waist, ferociously grasping and clenching my body to his. Hot fingers cupped the curve of my ass and I was lifted, sliding up the elevator wall. My hands fisted his hair, my legs instantly wrapped around his waist and his growling and moaning had me whimpering and almost begging for more.

A buzzing sound interrupted us. An electric crackled voice stopped us dead. "Mr. Holt, is everything okay? The elevator is being called to the lobby and needs to continue its descent." Reality hit me so hard my head actually thudded against the wall. How come in movies and books this shit never happens?

"I don't want to stop," he breathed hard against my ear, then pulled away from me, still struggling for air.

"Boss.
Boss
. You are my boss," was all I could say, making him stagger back away from me. I'm crazy. Crazy, crazy, crazy. I wanted him to kiss me more. I was too damned scared to say it. He's had Sophia, for God sake, why the hell would he want me?

"Yes. We're fine," he hissed, pressing the elevator button down, chest still rising and falling quickly.

"What the hell was that?" I whispered, touching my fingers to my lips. They were swollen and wet.

His stunned eyes stared unblinking into mine. "That was soul wrenching."

I needed to get home and forget about him. This sexy man who makes me forget all about Kevin with the best first kiss I had ever felt. Then slammed me with a
soul wrenching
comment. Whether it was meant to be good or bad, it didn't matter. This man was my boss. Period. There could be no soul wrenching going on.

I had no idea how I made it through the rest of the workday. I remembered nothing of it until I found myself home, alone in my apartment; the outside sounds of the street and world a small hum in the distance.

With my lips still burning and body still aching, I opened my laptop and started typing. My mother was right, and so was Mandy. I needed a man. One to go out with, and have fun with, maybe even have meaningless sex with. I needed to forget about Kevin and being married and everything I might have had if it weren't for his stupid infidelity.

20 something years young, petite, curvaceous - intelligent woman seeking a gentlemen with…
That makes me sound like I have a stick up my bottom.
Okay, more honest
.

20 something, loves long walks…
Now I sound like a freaking greeting card
.

27-year-old bitter bitch that just found her fiancé banging a younger, hotter model needs a well-endowed man not afraid to hammer her till the break of fucking dawn.

Yeah. That’s perfect
. I'll email Mandy and ask for input on it tomorrow.

Yes. Tomorrow. There's going to be a new and improved Lexa around.

I
put more
chocolate on her desk. I didn't even think she knew it had been me putting it there the whole time, but she ate it all the same. The kiss…I messed up. Christ, she's all I think about. God only knew what was going on in that head of hers. I knew it was too soon for her to want someone else. Hell, she was probably still going to end up marrying that jackass.

What the? There was something on her desk.

A singles profile?

I had five minutes to get to our content conference. I fisted the stupid singles ad in my hand and stormed into the meeting, utterly outraged. She was going to brush off that kiss? For some computerized matchmaking adventure? Hell no. Not happening.

She was dressed for work in one hell of a sexy outfit. It wasn’t even the outfit that was sexy. It was
her
making the outfit look sexy. Jesus. This woman was tearing me up with that body.

The papers fluttered out of my grasp and my hands itched to touch her. I tried to get her attention as I bent down and yanked them up off the floor in a fury. I was fuming inside. Livid. I called her last night—she never called me back. Apparently, I gave her the shittiest kiss in history and she'd rather find some serial killer from a dating website. I walked up to her and shoved the papers into her hands. "What the hell is this?" I hissed in her ear.

Her eyes just about popped out of her skull. "You went through my desk? First you say crap to that asshole, now this?" She jammed her hands on her hips like she was just about to throw down with me.

"Oh stop. I came to see you this morning. It was right on top of your little calendar thingy and I read it." She stood there giving me the stink eye as if my excuse wasn't good enough for her. "Fuck yes I looked at your shit. God, you stand there and look like…I can’t even make something up, you're all distracting looking. Anyway, what is this?" I demanded, flicking the paper an inch away from her face.

"Are you illiterate?" she asked, eyes darting around the room to see who was listening.

I moved in closer and growled, "It's a FindingLove website application. Lexa, you don't need this crap."

"Everybody thinks it's a good idea. They match your personalities with people who are like you," she whispered.

"Where the hell is the fun in that? There's no way you should be doing that. I can't in good faith sit back and watch this atrocity unfold. No way. I will not be held responsible if one of those suitors turns out to be an axe-wielding thumb-sucking monster, or another Trager, or some rambling incoherent bore who would never kiss you the way I kissed you yesterday."

Her eyes almost defied the laws of biology they bulged so far out of her skull.

"Stop. It's scary enough, okay. Just talking about going back to the dating scene is terrifying. Why people feel the need to be with someone is beyond me. I had nightmares last night of huge cocked mutants dragging me to dates at my almost mother-in-law’s house. And
you are my boss
. We will never mention that silly little kiss again."

"What?" I growled.

"I said silly little kiss," she whispered through gritted teeth.

“I wasn’t asking
what
because I’m deaf. I’m asking it so you have another chance to change that dumbass answer. Silly kiss, my ass,” I snapped, crumpling up the singles ad in her face and tossing it. Her face blanched white.
Shit
. I stepped back, utterly horrified by the way I just acted toward her. I was…I was
growling
.

People filed in, talking and laughing. Sophia rolled her eyes in Lexa's direction. "Hello, James. You look awful. What happened? Haven't been sleeping well?" she smirked as she walked past us.

"I spent the night thinking about something
silly
,” I growled. Jesus. I was still growling. Clenching my teeth together, eyes boring into Lexa’s, and answering the whore at the same time, “Goddamn
silliest
thing that ever happened to me. I couldn’t
stop
thinking about it." Lexa stared at me, biting down on her lip so she didn't smile. She stumbled back, taking the first seat she could grab onto at the conference table.

I watched her move. Listened to her talk. Listened as my father ranted about ratings, advertisement, and marketing. Sophia tried to take over the conference with ideas about the elusive Alex Kavon and I realized
that
was the exact reason she was screwing Trager. She was trying to climb up the ladder here, trying to use Trager to get to Alex.
She really acted as if she thought Trager was Alex
. Maybe Lexa wouldn’t even know if Kevin was Alex.

Lexa interrupted her as if she wasn’t even there, “Mr. Holt I would really appreciate the chance to show you a column or two of what I’ve been working on. I think…”

“I don't need anymore fluffy woman's crap. I want strength and character, brawn, and to hell with being politically correct. I want funny and well—you’re just a fact checker. That’s all we need you to be,” my father continued his tirade, slamming his palms down on the conference table, making everyone around him stutter and jump. Everyone save me. I sat and stared at Lexa. I was still growling.

I have no idea what the rest of the meeting was about. None.

All I know is Lexa was pissed off at me. Was it the kiss? Shit, I needed to find out.