It took several seconds for me to completely give in to the kiss and start taking what I wanted. I forgot I was in my office, forgot the door was unlocked, forgot anyone could walk in at any time and catch me on my desk with a billionaire’s tongue halfway down my throat.
But the kiss set my nerves on fire.
His big strong hands gripped my thighs. He squeezed and worked his way up to my hips. His fingers rested in the groove there, his thumbs pressing against the fly of my jeans. He reached up and grabbed the waistband of my pants to pull me closer to the edge of the desk. All the while, he kissed me like nobody had ever kissed me before.
He stepped in closer and I felt the press of his bulge against me. My eyes snapped open. Lukas slipped his hands under my shirt. His touch wandered up my spine and paused at my bra.
“Wait,” I breathed.
His hands stilled. We broke apart and I put my hands on his chest as I bowed my head and stared at his feet.
“We can’t,” I managed.
My cheeks burned furiously as I slid off the desk. I put my back to him so he couldn’t see my embarrassment and shook my head. “We have to keep this professional, Lukas. I have a reputation to protect.”
I could hear him breathing heavily behind me. I looked over my shoulder. His stare was icy. Just seconds before, his eyes had burned with lust. Now, all I saw there was anger.
“Fine,” he growled. He moved out from behind my desk, marched to the door, and wrenched it open.
“Lukas, wait.”
But he was gone.
I collapsed into my chair and pressed a hand to my forehead. What the hell was that? I couldn’t believe he’d just kissed me.
No, not just kissed me. He’d wanted more. A lot more.
Did I want more? I wasn’t sure. The way my body burned for something I couldn’t have suggested that perhaps I did want what he was offering.
But I couldn’t take a bite of that apple.
The way he’d left spoke volumes. While the kiss was a dream come true, his departure left something to be desired. Lukas ran hot and cold. That much was obvious. I had to be careful. Otherwise, I’d end up in trouble. He wasn’t the kind of guy who was looking for a relationship, and even if he were, it wouldn’t be a good idea.
For one, it would be a conflict of interest of sorts since we were now working together.
Secondly, I wasn’t sure Lisa would love the fact that I had the hots for her brother. She knew how attractive he was, and she knew he had a certain effect on the women in his life, but I doubted she thought I had ever looked twice at him. He was her brother, after all.
But oh man, had I looked twice. Three times. Hell, I’d looked a thousand times over. How could I not? He was perfect.
I couldn’t risk anything coming between me and my best friend. Lisa was protective over Lukas and always had been. He was her brother, and with everything they’d been through as kids, she was particular about the girls he dated—or didn’t date based on our conversation over drinks last night.
Either way, I’d seen Lisa’s jealousy when it came to her brother and I wanted no part of that mess.
I glanced at the time on the clock above the door. “Shit!”
I was going to be late for my volunteer shift at the soup kitchen.
I leapt out of my chair and dashed for the door. Before pushing outside, I reprimanded myself for being so scatterbrained, went back inside, grabbed my purse and keys, and turned off the lights. I locked up my laptop in my safe, made sure all my files were put away, and locked up behind me as I stepped outside. I forgot to switch the Open sign to Closed and had to unlock it again to do so.
Finally after locking up again, I rushed onto the sidewalk and looked down the street. My bus was just coming around the corner. I hurried up to the bus stop, adjusting the strap of my purse on the way, and got there just as the bus pulled up. The brakes hissed and the doors popped open. I climbed the stairs, used my pass, and found a seat near the front.
Public transit saved me even more money. A car might have been a nice luxury with all the running around the city I did but I didn’t have the money to pay for insurance and gas. So a public transit pass it was.
The ride on the bus was quiet. If I rode at night, it got rowdier, but I used this quiet time to rest. It was a twenty-five-minute ride from my office to the soup kitchen, just enough time to recharge and get ready for the next four hours serving food and cleaning dishes.
However, rest was hard to come by. My lips still tingled from the kiss and I was pretty sure the pine scent I kept catching a whiff of was Lukas’ aftershave lingering on my cheek.
I daydreamed about what might have happened between us had I not stopped him. How far would it have gone?
Would he have undone my jeans? My heart skipped a beat at the thought of him slipping a hand down the front of my pants. I imagined that expensive watch of his getting snagged on my zipper. Him tearing my panties away in frustration. My sighing breathlessly and lifting my ass off the desk so he could—
The bus came to an abrupt stop and I realized it was, in fact, my stop. I scrambled to my feet and got off the bus to make the mad dash down two city blocks to the soup kitchen. Luckily, there was no half-mile-long line of people
