Chapter Twelve #2
I didn’t have an answer for that—or maybe I did, and I wasn’t ready to examine it too closely.
All I knew was that somewhere along the way, Raina had become more than just my assistant.
More than just the woman I found attractive.
She mattered to me, in a way I hadn’t let anyone matter in a very long time.
Raina sighed, absently twisting a strand of blonde hair around her finger. I found myself wondering if it felt as silky as it looked before forcing myself to focus.
“I really am fine. It’s just…” She cleared her throat, her gaze dropping to the floor between us. “The kiss.”
I went still.
Then, she lifted her chin, a stubborn look in her eyes. “I don’t want you to kiss me for the sake of a business deal ever again.”
Everything I thought I understood about this morning shifted. I’d misread the situation entirely. She wasn’t upset about having to pretend to date me. She was upset because I’d kissed her as a performance, a calculated move to sell a lie to Alexander.
Did she want me to kiss her for real?
A shocking amount of hope surged through me—hot and unexpected—but she was already moving toward the door. She reached for the handle and started to pull it open, but I was faster. My palm landed against the cool wood, pushing it closed again. I stood so close that my chest nearly touched her back.
Raina spun around, her eyes going wide when she saw how little space remained between us. She tried to step back, but there was nowhere to go. Her shoulders pressed against the door.
Fire coursed through my veins, and I couldn’t stop myself from touching her. I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, letting my fingertips trail across the soft skin of her cheek. Raina’s pupils dilated, her breath catching audibly.
“Tell me something,” I murmured. “Are you upset about the kiss itself? Or are you upset about why I did it?”
“I never said I was upset.”
I chuckled, low and quiet, and her tongue darted out to wet her lips.
The movement sent a bolt of heat straight to my groin, my erection starting to strain against the front of my slacks.
It took every ounce of willpower I possessed not to press my hips forward, not to let her feel exactly what she did to me.
I could see that she was affected too. Her pulse fluttered visibly at the base of her throat, and the flush on her face had deepened to a rosy pink.
But wanting her didn’t mean she was ready for everything I felt—the intensity of it, and the way she’d consumed my thoughts since the moment she started working for me.
Hell, I was still trying to process it myself. All the feelings she evoked—the possessiveness, the tenderness, the raw need—it was overwhelming. Foreign. Terrifying in ways I didn’t want to examine.
“Please step back, Mr. Powers.”
I frowned. “Call me Simon.”
“Fine.” Her eyes blazed, and I genuinely couldn’t tell if it was lust or fury, or some combustible combination of both. Either way, it only stoked my own desire higher. “Move out of the way, Simon.”
I smirked and took two measured steps backward, still close but no longer crowding her. “I am sorry about the kiss,” I said.
Hurt flashed across her features before she could hide it. She turned toward the door again, clearly ready to flee, so I spoke quickly.
“Because I did it for the wrong reason.”
Raina paused, looking back at me over her shoulder. “The wrong reason?”
I nodded slowly. “But rest assured—the next time I kiss you, it won’t be a performance, and I won’t hold back.”
Her jaw went slack, her lips parting around words that didn’t come.
I turned away and walked back toward my desk, putting distance between us even though every instinct screamed at me to close it instead. I wanted her—another touch, another kiss, a chance to discover what else existed between us.
But I was nothing if not patient. It was a quality that had served me well in business, and I would employ it now.
Raina was worth pursuing carefully, deliberately.
Our working relationship complicated things, and something was making her hold back.
I’d seen it in her eyes when I had her pinned against the door, the flicker of desire followed immediately by resistance.
I didn’t know if it was worry about her job or something else entirely, but I intended to find out.
As for me, I was done pretending.
I’d wanted this woman from the moment she walked into my office with that bright, nervous smile, clutching a container of cookies like a peace offering. If I was honest with myself, I’d been lost in those blue eyes from day one. Fighting it had been nothing but a waste of time and energy.
After the gala, I’d tried to convince myself that maintaining professional boundaries was still possible, that we could navigate the fake relationship without crossing any real lines.
But something had shifted this morning. The moment I realized her subdued mood was because she was upset about why I’d kissed her, not the kiss itself, my resolve crumbled to dust.
She’d wanted it to be real.
And so had I.
I’d spent years keeping romance and business separate, refusing to blur those lines. It was a rule I’d never broken, never even been remotely tempted to break.
Until her.
Raina had changed everything. She’d slipped past defenses I didn’t even know I had, made me feel things I’d convinced myself I was better off without. And now, standing in my office with the ghost of her perfume still lingering in the air, I knew there was no going back.
Professional boundaries be damned.
Raina might believe we were fake dating—a convenient ruse to impress Alexander Spencer—but for me, the lines had already blurred beyond recognition.