Filed to story: Can’t Get Enough Of You
I nodded and looked at my computer, trying not to drown in those eyes.
“We should go out sometime,” he said.
I looked up at him, surprised. “Go out?”
“Yeah. Like a date.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said immediately. Even though I believed it was the best idea. Even though I wanted to go out with him so badly. And then go home with him. And then let him have his way with me.
But Liam popped into my mind, and my throat closed up. I was too scared to tell Nolan about the son we had together. I was too scared that this-whatever it was-would fall apart the moment he knew.
I wanted to hold onto what we had as long as I could.
And at the same time I knew that wherever this was going, it wasn’t going to work. It couldn’t. Not in the long term.
“Why not?” he asked.
“Because we work together,” I said.
Nolan chuckled and walked around my desk. My breath caught in my throat when he swiveled my chair to face him, his hands leaning on the armrests so that his face was only inches away from mine.
“You can’t use that as an excuse, Izzy.” His breath was hot on my lips and I could see flecks of gray in his bright eyes. It was mesmerizing. Everything about him was intoxicating. I got drunk off the very idea of being with him.
When I didn’t answer him, he brushed his lips against mine. The contact was so brief, I could have imagined it. He straightened up, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“I’ll get back to you for an answer a little later. I’ll give you some time to think about it.”
He sauntered out of my office, and I watched him go.
God, he was driving me crazy. I wasn’t supposed to get this close to him. I wasn’t supposed to allow this to happen. The idea had been to push him away.
But I couldn’t think straight when I was around him. I couldn’t focus on anything other than the taste of his lips and the feel of his hands on my skin.
How was I supposed to resist him?
I scrubbed my face with my hands.
God, I was in trouble. Deep trouble.
Nolan was everything he’d been that night five years ago. And more. He was everything I wanted in my life. And at the same time, I knew that this was asking for pain and hurt. This was going to end in disaster. Men like him just didn’t happen to women like me.
It had taken me five years to learn that no matter how hard I worked, life could still plant me on my ass whenever it felt like it.
A fairy tale life with Nolan was a beautiful dream. But a fantasy like that brought hope, and hope was a dangerous thing when I knew a future with him might be a long shot.
No matter how good things felt right now.
I had to protect myself and Liam.
But when Nolan looked at me like that, when he made advances that were impossible to resist, it was harder than anything to do the right thing.
Nolan
She was playing hard to get, damn her. And it was only turning me on more.
Every woman I’d come across had thrown herself at me the moment she found out who I was and what I was worth. I was used to women wanting to jump my bones the moment they met me.
There was no doubt that Carey wanted me just as badly as the rest of them, but she was different than them. She seemed to respect me for who I was as a person, and didn’t seem to give a shit about my status and how much money I had.
It was refreshing. And it caused me to start looking at who I really was as a person. What was I showing her? What face did I wear for the world to see? For so long, I’d been strangely isolated, stuck in a world that didn’t care about who I was because it cared about what I had. But Izzy cared about who I was.
She cared about the person under the suit.
And fuck, it made me want her. It made me want her so damn much, I could barely contain myself. I ached for her. And unlike every other woman I’d sent away after I’d had my way, I wanted to see Izzy again. I wanted to fuck her again and again. In every position, in every location, in every way possible. That was new. That was weird.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the day I’d fucked her on my desk. Screw office fantasies, that had been the ultimate. Not because of how hot it was and how cliché it was that I, the CEO, fucked one of my employees on my desk. But because it was Izzy. And she was like fire in my veins. She was everything I’d never found in another woman. Not in the five years I’d been searching.
And for some reason, she thought this
-whatever was happening between us-was a bad idea.
What the fuck was bad about it? The only thing I could see, hear, feel when I looked at her, was good.
Very fucking good.
I wanted more. I wanted all of it.
Damn it, my cock was hard in my pants again. It happened all the time lately. In the weirdest places. Like at the office, when I was usually bored stiff. Ha. And in meetings where she was present.
Especially in meetings where she was present.
And I was headed into another one just like that.
The conference room was filled with the entire design team, including Austin and Derek Grimes, who hadn’t gotten over the fact that I’d poached Izzy to work directly for me. When I stepped in, the room fell quiet and Grimes glowered at me from the corner where he’d holed up.
“Thank you for getting together on such short notice,” I said. See? I could be nice to them even though they had no choice but to do as I asked when I asked. I glanced at Izzy before I continued. “The launch is getting closer and closer and excitement is in the air. So far, I’m seeing good work and I want to see more of it.”