EYES, THE color of coffee, captured her and sent jolts of excitement along her spine. He stepped so close she could feel the heat from his body all the way down hers, and he placed his hand on her neck, his thumb rubbing along her jawline, making her purr in response.
His other arm slid around her waist, pulling her even closer, until her body was pressed against his and she could feel his hardness and strength. Renee let her hands graze over the muscles of his arms as they moved up and around his neck.
When he spoke, his voice was a low growl, his usual carefree tones darkened with primal urgency. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do this.”
Her breath came in short gasps as she waited while he leaned toward her with agonizing slowness, his lips drawing ever closer. Her mouth opened for him, inviting him in.
Renee sighed and opened her eyes. Her dark bedroom greeted her, feeling much colder and emptier than it usually did. She glanced at her phone for the time and groaned. Her alarm would be going off in five minutes. Not nearly enough time to slip back into her dream and enjoy the image as completely as she would like.
She told herself to get up, but stayed under the covers with her eyes closed, allowing the picture to last just another moment.
Finally, after another sigh, she pulled herself out of bed and turned on the light, running her fingers over her face and through the tangles of her hair. She hadn’t seen Jeremiah in weeks, yet she could still picture exactly how sexy he was. And if she couldn’t keep her hands off him in her dreams, how was she possibly going to get through the next week around him?
Maybe he wasn’t as fantastic in real life, she told herself. Maybe she’d let her imagination run away with her since Vegas, and he’d end up being a complete disappointment when she saw him again.
Yeah, right.
She shook her head to quiet her thoughts and tried to refocus her mind on the tasks she wanted to tackle this morning, but even her job couldn’t completely erase the image of Jeremiah with his arm encircling her. She shook her head again and went to make some coffee. It was going to be a long day.
* * *
FORTY MINUTES LATER, Renee walked through the snowy streets to work. It was only a couple of blocks from her apartment, but her toes felt frozen by the time she stepped into the building, and she gratefully breathed in the blast of hot air that greeted her. New York City was bitterly cold in February, and her dress slacks and heels didn’t exactly keep her toasty. At least Texas would be warmer, she reminded herself, trying to create some excitement about her trip to replace her nerves over seeing Jeremiah again and the guilt of being away from her job for so long.
In the elevator, she took off her thick coat and brushed her hair back off her shoulders, watching the numbers climb until it stopped on the twentieth floor. As the doors slid open, the two-foot-high letters loomed above her, as they did every day, and just like every other day, they made her smile. The Empire Magazine head office had been her home for almost four years, since she became an intern fresh out of college, and she felt her heart jump with excitement in the same way it had since her first day.
Renee’s friends constantly told her she was a workaholic and needed to take a break, but the truth was, she loved her job. She had meant to take today off as well as next week, but in the end she hadn’t been able to do it—there were a few last things she wanted to tweak before going, and Renee couldn’t bring herself to leave the work for the others on her team. Or worse, just submit everything as it was.
Striding quickly through the hallways, Renee made her way to her office, smiling at coworkers as she went.
As her computer booted to life, she settled into her chair. She just needed two hours to finish perfecting one of her spreads for the next issue, and then she would leave, she promised herself.
A head covered in black curls popped into her doorway as Jeff, a man on Renee’s design team, leaned in. “You’re not supposed to be here, remember? That’s how vacations work.”
Renee smiled. “I know. I’m just not quite finished with the layout of one of my articles. Then I’ll go, I promise. I’ve got a flight to catch.”
“Well, Patty heard you were in the office. She wants to see you, whenever you have a second.”
She thanked him, wondering what her boss could possibly want to see her about. She was probably just going to lecture her about overworking again. Patty did that every few weeks, and had been overjoyed when Renee told her she needed to use some of her vacation time.
Renee glanced at her computer once more before leaving her office. The spreads would need to wait a few more minutes.
Four hours later, Renee rushed out of the building into the icy air, praying she would make her flight. Her mind was such a jumble with what Patty had told her that there was hardly any room for anxiety to creep in.
After forty years in the business, Patty was retiring. And she wanted Renee to take over her position. Renee still couldn’t believe it. She had thought it would be years before she’d get this opportunity, and here it was, so close she could taste it.
As she hopped out of the cab and dashed into the airport, thoughts of her new job stuck with her, sending flurries of excitement through her stomach.
Or maybe that was from the thoughts of Jeremiah, who would be waiting for her when she landed Texas. He hadn’t been far from her thoughts the whole morning, either.
JEREMIAH PARKED HIS truck in the concrete structure outside of the airport. He was glad Renee’s plane wouldn’t be landing for another fifteen minutes, because he needed some time to pull himself together and calm down. Not that he’d been able to do that all day, or really since he’d met her in Vegas weeks ago.
For the thousandth time, he reminded himself that this was Jessica’s little sister and he’d have to be an idiot to even try to make something happen with her, no matter how fast his blood surged through him when he pictured her. He’d spent enough time around Jessica since she moved down to Texas from New York to know exactly how badly it would go if he made a move on Renee.
Not that he and Jessica didn’t get along, but dating someone in her family was a whole different story. He knew just how protective Jessica was about her little sister, and he was pretty sure Jessica thought of him as some kind of pickup artist. Not the kind of guy you’d want your sister with.
He could only imagine what Jessica had told Renee about him. Even if she wasn’t off-limits, the chance that she’d be interested was slim enough. She probably thought he was a playboy who spent the majority of his time flirting with random strangers. Which, he had to admit, wasn’t far from the truth for the majority of his adult life. But he was almost thirty now, and for the past year or so the excitement of that life had dwindled and died.
And then he met Renee, who put the final nails in that coffin without even knowing it. She had passed into and out of his life like a breath of fresh air, making the prospects of other women seem dull and stale in comparison.
He didn’t even know what it was about her that had struck him so forcefully, but he’d been knocked backward when he first saw her. Their first night in Vegas, he and Aaron and Jessica had gone to dinner with her
