Talia stretched as she rose out of her chair. It had been a long day of dodging Mr. Perez, checking on DeLuca—including making sure he ate like a good assistant would—and doing her own work, the stuff she had been officially employed to do. She’d been forced to work overtime to finish the tasks under her job description, but it was just as well. The suits didn’t want DeLuca being left alone in the office at day’s end, which was made very clear by the short text ‘you leave when he leaves’ she had received at four in the afternoon. They must have found out about the boxes of records he was currently pouring through.Talia chuckled cheekily, imagining them running around like headless chickens, panicking about what DeLuca might find.She dropped her hands to her hips, her head tilting to the side. What was it they didn’t want him to find?“Miss McKenna.”Talia jumped, startled, crying out with a cur

Daintily, with the tips of her fingers, she pulled the collar up to her nose and took a long deep draw of the scent. Just as she thought: strong, wild and masculine. She let go of the collar and dropped her hand to her shoulder, lightly. She ran it down the soft Italian cotton sleeve to the open cuffs hanging low at the tip of her thumb. Smiling, she stared at her reflection in the six foot tall mirror, swinging side to side in nothing but the shirt that hung on her like a thigh high dress. She loved how the fabric of his shirt felt against her skin. She loved it even more that it was on his body just a moment ago. Besides his scent, it still held his warmth.Her eyes fluttered, closing at the feel of his large palm at the back of her neck. She tilted her head to the right, trapping his thick digits between her cheek and shoulder. His thumb pressed down on the pulse at her nape, then swept up and down the curve ever so lightly, sending shivers down her body. Distracted by the

Talia had hummed throughout the entire meeting. Sitting so close to DeLuca had her mind going back to that dream about him and his mouth between her legs. It didn’t help that he kept on side eye spying on her. She’d wondered from time to time if they were meant to be reproaching glances because her knees just wouldn’t stop bouncing! But he would have said something; he wasn’t exactly the type to spare someone’s feelings and avoid public humiliation. Poor Harry had been sweating from the moment DeLuca had entered the boardroom. How she had even found herself sitting next to him was a mystery to her. Usually, there was just one seat at the head of the boardroom table, but the place had been so packed with executives, she’d been forced to shift to sitting behind DeLuca. When she saw all the suits file in, she’d forced herself to smother a laugh. She was willing to bet her left kidney they were beyond curious about what DeLuca was up to and how it would affect them. It was finance, the mo

Startled, she sucked in a breath, her heart beating a tattoo in her chest, but she still couldn’t move. She refused to. Her breath came faster and her left hand went up to her neck, rubbing down to the exposed part of her upper chest then back up again to her neck as she forced herself to take deep and even calming breaths.She went rigid when she felt his body brush up against her back. The breath from his lips was right at her left ear. She swallowed hard, eyes tightly shut; she held herself perfectly still. His forehead brushed against the side of her head, from her chin to her cheek and up to her temple. His lips quickly and lightly swept over her earlobe. Her knees buckled then and she bit down hard on her lower lip.“Talia,” he whispered heatedly into her ear.She swayed on her feet. She felt his hands on her waist. A light pressure followed as his fingers pressed into the sides of her abdomen, his thumbs into her back in a light squeeze.

Rafe sat at the yacht’s bow sofa, a glass of whiskey in one hand and his head filled with thoughts of Talia.She must have gotten the email by now, he thought to himself, flooded with a mix of guilt and shame.For the first time in his life, Rafe had run from a fight. Knowing Talia’s reaction and refusing to face it had chased him out of the office early. He had also for the first time in his life knocked off work early and, making it worse, not for the most honorable of reasons. He had taken the cowards way out and scheduled the email to go out an hour after he had left the office, all to avoid the confrontation that was sure to come. The shame, also due to another cowardly act, had him reject her project proposal without even opening the cover page to read it.He sighed heavily, rubbing his free hand over his face. She haunted him, in his sleep and in his waking hours. He closed his eyes and sighed. He couldn’t count with both hands