can’t go there! He knows that—I know that. Every bone in my body wants him, but my brain is still in charge. I don’t want to screw up my career, but it’s more than that. I love Jack. Not in that way. I mean I love working with him. Even when he’s at his assholiest, he’s become one of the biggest constants in my life. How stupid would it be to rock the boat?
I imagine, briefly, that we indulge in an affair and it ends—because Jack doesn’t do permanent—and then I imagine not seeing him again.
It makes me ill.
I don’t want to think about it.
I don’t want to risk it.
‘The speech was good.’ I bring the conversation back onto far safer ground, trying to fold my desperate realisations away neatly into a box I won’t open again.
‘Tell me something, Gemma,’ he says, and the tone of his voice is still dangerous to me.
He hasn’t got my silent memo, obviously, because his words prick the blood in my veins until it gushes and gurgles through me—he’s flirting with me.
I use my most businesslike tone. ‘Oh, I don’t know if you really want me to do that. You might not like what I say...’
His eyes lance mine. It’s like being sliced through.
‘What’s the deal with you and that guy from New York?’
Who’s he talking about? Oh. Right. ‘You mean Wolf?’
His lips curl derisively—that’s one of my favourite of his expressions. I don’t know if he realises how devilishly sexy he looks.
‘Who calls their kid after an animal? Especially when he’s the least wolf-like person you can imagine.’
‘I don’t suppose they knew that when he was born,’ I say, but a smile is pushing at my lips. He’s right. Wolf is handsome, but in a very neat and tidy kind of way.
‘Is he a wolf in the bedroom?’
The question catches me completely off guard. It’s wholly new territory for us. Invasive in a way I don’t know if I like but am worried that I might.
Still, challenging Jack is what I do. That’s who we are.
I tilt my head to one side, assessing him for a moment, before volleying back, ‘How was the blonde?’
‘She was dull,’ he says with a shrug and no hesitation, apparently having no qualms discussing his sex-life with me.
‘Where is she?’
‘At her house. Waiting.’
‘For you?’
He shrugs. ‘I said I might stop by. It seemed like the only way to get rid of her.’
Wait. He hasn’t slept with her? No, not slept with. Fucked. The thought is oddly elating, though I can’t help but feel sympathy for the woman he flirted with and then sent packing.
‘You really are a bastard,’ I mutter. ‘Are you going to go to her?’
His eyes are probing mine now, and I feel like every single one of my fantasies, my dirtiest, hottest dreams, are playing out between us like a kinky Pensieve for his pleasure.
Yes, I’m a Harry Potter diehard. Hermione was one of my first role models.
‘Maybe.’
My stomach turns. I am used to this feeling with Jack. In the first six months we worked together I wasn’t so adept at dealing with his vivid love-life. I blushed whenever I found evidence of his nocturnal activities, and I couldn’t always meet his eye. But now? Well, now I’ve had two years to practise acceptance.
I smile blandly. ‘Well...’ I shrug as though my heart’s not racing and my nipples aren’t throbbing. ‘Have a good night.’
‘Wait.’ His words are commanding, and so too is the hand he clamps around my wrist.
I jerk my face towards his, the breath exploding out of me. We don’t touch. No more than an accidental brush of fingers from time to time. That’s impossible to avoid when you’re together as often as we are.
Definitely not like this.
His thumb pads across my inner wrist, and when I don’t say anything he pulls me, hard and fast, so that my body rams into his. We are surrounded and yet we are alone. There is a void that engulfs us. Like a sensual electric fence.
This is all new and all wrong. And so right.
His body is tight. Hard. Hot. Just as it is in all my fantasies. It takes every single ounce of my willpower to close my mouth and let my breath return to normal. To look at him as though he’s lost his mind, not made me lose mine.
‘Yes, sir?’
His eyes flare. I meant it to put him back on his guard, to remind him of the boundaries of our relationship, but I might as well have struck a match over gasoline. He doesn’t let me go.
‘Dance with me.’
The air around us is charged with expectation and I just know he’s asking for more than a dance. Does he expect me to say no? I don’t like living up to expectations, and I’m not going to give him a reason to think I’m afraid of what’s going on between us.
‘Fine.’ My smile is tight. It stretches over my face like sunburn.
He expels a breath, long and slow, and places a hand in the small of my back. No...just at the very top of my arse. His fingers are splayed wide and they press into me firmly, so that I’m propelled towards him. His other hand links with my fingers, wrapping through them.
I focus on the band, my eyes taking in the details of their appearance while I concentrate on looking completely calm. I’m not, though. I’m weak when I want to be strong, and I need something that I shouldn’t.
‘This dress is sensational,’ he says, immediately shattering my attempts to find calm.
‘Is that your informed fashion opinion?’
Too tart. I soften the snap with a smile. It’s a mistake. His eyes are mocking, his own smile sardonic.
I look away again immediately.
‘It’s my informed opinion as a red-blooded male.’
‘What do you like about it?’
Warning lights are flashing in my mind, clamouring for attention. They are bright and angry. What am I doing?
‘Let me see,’ he murmurs. ‘The colour. The way it’s literally glued to your skin.’
He drops his head closer and heat spirals inside me; my blood is a vapour of steam in my veins.
This isn’t right. It’s not us. He sleeps with other women and, sure, he flirts the heck out of me, but that’s
