“Different,” I whispered.
The night I’d met him, he made me feel safe. Protected. He put me at ease while challenging me. Just like now. And I wanted to rise to that challenge and grab hold of the strength pumping through my veins. “You make me feel different.”
“That’s a vague word. Care to give me another?”
I shook my head, because any other word I could come up with didn’t sound appropriate. Words like hot, bothered, and downright lusty.
“Alright, then I’ll have to, once again, decipher your half answers.”
He took my hand and yanked me toward his desk. “Jack, I came here to—”
“I know why you came. Now sit.”
I looked behind me. “You want me to sit on your desk?”
“Yes.”
He cupped my hips and hopped me up, instantly wedging himself between my parted thighs. I gasped and went to wiggle away, pulling on my dress to cover my legs better. He gripped my wrists, and with them in his fists, rested them on either side of me. Trapped.
With the cool glossy wood of his desk beneath my palms and thighs, a zing of fire shot through me, and the feel of him so close only made me want more.
His mouth hovered over mine, as he looked at my face.
“I make you feel different,” he repeated, that mouth now trailing to my ear. “How about nervous? Do I still make you nervous?”
I nodded.
“Hot?” he asked.
I nodded again. He trailed his nose along my neck and my eyes slid shut. Whatever plan I’d had coming in here was failing.
&nb
sp; “You are an anomaly to me, Lana. You have to be handled delicately.”
With my eyes closed, I frowned. “I’m not weak.”
“I didn’t say that. I was referring to the pursuit. I have to be careful. Not scare you off. I’ve seen fear in your eyes, and I want you to understand that is not my goal.”
“I’m not afraid of you.” Not in the way I was of most men. Not in the way Brock scared me.
The only thing I felt with Jack was confusion. Because my body was screaming for him, my mind racing, and my chest pounding. It was all new: wanting someone. But I did want him. So much. “Not calling me made me think you weren’t interested.”
“I was out of the country. I have a lot of resorts to handle.”
And didn’t that make me feel like an idiot. I hadn’t considered any details like his job or life beyond the making-out moment. Up until yesterday, when he showed up as my boss, I didn’t have any idea about him beyond how he dominated a kiss. But he did have a life. And now my lack of experience in matters of men, dating, and expectations in general, especially when it involved physical interactions, was getting the better of me.
“You said you didn’t want to scare me off,” I said, trying to change the subject. “What’s so scary about you?”
He grinned, but there was a sinister glow to it. “Several things. What I want and how I take it can be...abrupt.”
Hence, me sitting on his desk, dress hiked up my thighs and him between them. Still, I had to know: “What is it you want?”
“You.” He gently nipped my jaw.
I gasped, but tried to keep as calm as possible. He was so quick with his words. Like he knew exactly what to say. Could he really want me? In the way I wanted him? The warning in Jack’s voice, when he spoke of taking what he wanted, made me wonder if I could, in fact, handle him. Only one way to find out.
“H-how would you take what you wanted?”