Chapter Three
Three
Immobilized by his declaration, Sierra felt her heart thud. She placed one hand lightly against his forearm, feeling the hard muscles that indicated physical labor. He definitely did not spend most of his time in his Dallas office.
He stepped closer, and then leaned down as she finally managed to whisper, “We shouldn’t—”
He brushed her lips with his, a faint, feathery touch that stirred a longing for more. Her insides heated while her heart pounded faster.
“We shouldn’t,” he whispered, “but we’re going to.” He kissed her before she could say anything else.
For a second she stiffened, and then she slipped her arm around his shoulders and placed her hand at the back of his neck while she kissed him in return. With his tongue stroking hers, he drew her tightly against him. He was solid, flat planes of rock-hard muscle against her softness.
She tumbled into heart-thudding passion.
For a moment all caution vanished, replaced by yearning for more of him.
She wanted to touch and kiss him, to forget all her warnings to herself.
She longed to let go and make love. What chemistry did they have that set this sizzling desire burning between them?
His kiss stopped logic and caution, and made Blake the most desirable man she had ever met. It created a bond between them that she couldn’t easily—if ever—forget.
How long did they kiss? She didn’t know, but finally common sense resurfaced.
Gasping for breath, she stepped back. He was also breathing heavily, gazing at her as if he had never seen her before. A sinking feeling enveloped her. She had opened the proverbial Pandora’s box.
“We have to forget that happened,” she whispered.
“There’s no way in hell I can forget that kiss,” he replied.
“You’ll have to. We’re working together. The dinner was wonderful. Good night, Blake,” she said, then stepped into her suite and closed the door.
Her heart pounded. How was she going to work with him?
How could she keep from falling in love with him?
She had left her last job not only to pursue her dreams but also to get away from a sexual situation with her employer.
Now she had taken a job where she had a far bigger problem with her employer—she wanted him.
The fleeting thought of quitting was gone as fast as it had come. His donation was too big, the possibilities too great to turn him down.
She would just use caution and stay away from him. He was a busy man with many interests and friends, including women who should be far more appealing to him than Sierra was.
Taking a deep breath, she walked through her suite to get her cotton pajamas and get ready for bed.
She couldn’t imagine sleeping. Every inch of her body tingled.
An intense longing to be in his arms was paramount and hopeless to try to shove out of her thoughts.
Her lips still tasted of him, and it was as impossible to forget his kiss as it was to ignore the electrifying attraction between them.
Could he sleep? Or was he tied in knots with desire too?
She couldn’t think about what Blake felt—that would only make the situation worse.
She hoped he realized they both needed to back away.
Blake was a charmer, but his deepest feelings and views on life were the opposite of hers.
He was hard, cynical and didn’t believe in the goodness of others.
During dinner he had talked about his feelings on commitment and the career she’d left behind. He didn’t understand her views at all.
For her own good, she had to stop this before it went any further.
She had hoped to avoid ever getting into a sticky situation with a boss again. Yet going against all logic and planning, she had kissed Blake—but she had no intention of letting that kiss escalate.
There had been attraction with her last boss, Alex Deagens, too, but it had been more about friendship. She’d liked Alex—until the night their relationship changed.
They had worked late at the office and were the only people there. Alex had kissed her. When he paused, holding her, he’d told her he would get her a fancier apartment and promote her to vice president if she slept with him.
Shocked and betrayed by his proposition, she’d refused and left in haste.
Feeling gullible and foolish, she’d spent a sleepless night.
First thing at the office the next day, she turned in her resignation.
Within the hour she was told by someone from Human Resources that her resignation had been accepted immediately and she did not have to stay the rest of the month as she had offered.
That experience with Alex shook her judgment about men, and afterward she had backed away from getting involved with anyone romantically. She didn’t accept dates.
Even so, she still believed anyone could change.
Her new career allowed her to focus on the good in people, and occasionally provided the chance to offer life-changing acts of kindness.
That absorbing work, plus moving back to Kansas City to be close to her family, kept Sierra too busy to miss not having a social life outside of her family.
But now she was here with Blake. This was a man for her to avoid.
Already she knew any emotional entanglement with him would only end painfully.
By placing monetary success above helping the less fortunate, he missed out on the best parts of life.
She thought about his father abandoning him when Blake had been a baby—a hurt that had to have left permanent scars.
No little child could understand a father who walked away.
That had to have been devastating, and perhaps was the reason Blake seemed to be tough and hard.
Again, she was thankful for her loving father, a man who had always been a part of his children’s lives.
She needed to get this job done and get home, away from Blake and the consuming attraction that resonated between them.
Business and pleasure didn’t mix well. He was her boss, albeit a temporary one, and she needed to remember that. She had to stay professional, get the work done and go home where she could forget him.
And forget their kiss. Hopefully Blake already had.
Blake left for his gym and indoor pool. He swam laps, hoping the activity, the cold water and the lateness of the hour would combine to drive Sierra out of his thoughts and cool his body.
The hot chemistry they’d felt since the first moment seemed guaranteed to fulfill its promise of passionate, raw sex—at least as far as their kiss was concerned.
He still burned with longing to make love to her.
Kissing her had not eased his desire for her at all.
Instead it set him on fire with need for more.
If she was responsive with a kiss, what would she be like in bed?
The thought tied him in knots and promised a night of little sleep.
Of all the women he had known, she was the most unlikely to generate lusty longings.
She was the daughter of a minister, a lifelong do-gooder whose goals were foreign to him.
How could she give up a brilliant, successful career for one with so little return?
Her income would be only a fraction of what it could have been.
Why would she want to live that way and make such unnecessary and thankless sacrifices?
He knew too well the bad blood that could arise between people, the lasting hurt that could be caused.
The only thing he trusted was his bank account—something that gave solid returns, including power and a fortress against hurt from trusting the wrong people.
He didn’t need or want a future with Sierra. All he wanted was to seduce her, to get her into his bed and make love for hours, to find out if that sizzling chemistry would take them all the way.
Thinking about her, about their kiss, aroused him. Never in his life had he experienced the same intensity of attraction, and it made no sense to him.
With a groan he swam faster, trying to get her out of his thoughts, to wear himself out and cool the hot longing that tormented him.
As much as he wanted to make love to Sierra, he knew the sensible thing would be to stay away from her.
Let her do her job and go back to her charity work.
That was the intelligent thing to do because she would want commitment.
This was not the woman for him, not even for one wild night of making love.
His body wasn’t listening to his brain, though.
In spite of knowing what he should do, he still wanted seduction.
He continued swimming until he was exhausted. After he showered and dressed in the gym, he ran five miles on the treadmill. Hoping he had done enough so he would drop into bed and be asleep in two minutes, he returned to his suite.
He passed her door and remembered both kissing her and her response with vivid clarity. He had a sinking feeling sleep was a long way off.
Blake slept a couple of hours and woke long before sunrise. He dressed, grabbed a bite of breakfast and left the house as if chased by goblins. He needed hard, physical labor, or at least to be outdoors and moving around, to work with others who would take his mind off Sierra.
As he walked his land by the light of the moon, he wondered whether she had slept.
Would she be able to concentrate on work?
He had to laugh at himself. His kiss might not have unnerved and aroused her to the same extent as it had him.
She might have slept peacefully and right now be working away without a thought about him.
“Pompous jackass,” he called himself quietly. “Forget her.”