Free Say You Will by Kate Perry

coming in on the weekend if you were what greeted me, Em Shepherd.” He frowned suddenly. “You know, I have no idea if your name is Emma or Emily.”
    “It’s not. Just plain Em.” She grinned like she didn’t have a care in the world and repeated the joking answer she’d learned to give as a teenager. “My parents were too lazy to give me more than two letters.” Though it’d be more accurate to say they were too poor from spending their money on alcohol and drugs to afford a bigger name.
    Joe studied her like he was trying to puzzle her out. The air between them changed, no longer light and bantering but heavier and more serious.
    It made her uncomfortable, like they weren’t on their normal footing.
    Em cleared her throat. “Now that you’ve seen me, feel free to run along to your office and get to work.”
    “Ouch.” He put a hand over his heart. “You wound me again, Em. Am I that unwelcome a sight?”
    Actually, he looked delicious, like the confections in the window of the bakery she walked by every day. Just like with those desserts, she knew better than to give in to the temptation.
    He leaned onto the top of the counter in front of her desk. “What are you thinking of that has your cheeks turning red?”
    “Cake,” she said, mostly truthful.
    “Do you like sinful things, Em?”
    She glanced at his lips. “I don’t indulge.”
    “A pity.” He stood straight. “I should return to my work, or I might be here all weekend.”
    She felt the words on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t do anything to keep them in. “Would you like help?”
    Before she could back out of the offer, he grinned in his predator way and said, “I’d love that.”
    What had she gotten herself into? Sighing, she placed a note for the workmen on her desk and then followed him to his office. She tried not to stare at his bum on the short walk down the hall.
    She failed.
    “This way.” He held open the door for her with his arm, waiting for her to pass.
    She hesitated a moment before she took a deep breath and brushed by him.
    He smelled as delicious as the pastries she studiously avoided.
    She had willpower. She passed the pastries every day and managed not to be lured by them, she could do the same with Joe.
    “I’m working on a pro bono case for a woman who had her children taken away from her.” He gestured to the mess of papers all over his desk. “I need to highlight all the outcalls from Children’s Social Care, and then I need to organize them according to date.”
    Nodding, Em moved a chair closer to his desk. She took a pad of sticky tabs from his desk and primly sat down. “Do you have a pen?”
    He handed her a highlighter.
    She took it, looking up when he didn’t let go. “What?”
    “I was going to offer you a more comfortable seat.”
    Before she could help herself, she glanced at his lap. Flushing, she covered her naughty thoughts with a saucy tilt of her chin. “I’m fine where I am, and if you don’t let go of the pen, I’ll never get anything done. I wouldn’t want to be accused of keeping you in the office all weekend.”
    “There’d be worse fates than being here with you,” he said as he let go.
    She arched her brow. “You’re assuming I don’t have other engagements.”
    “Do you?”
    “Of course.”
    “I could make you forget them.” His eyes promised sin and delicious things.
    She wanted it all, which was why she tugged her sweater down and said, “I’m sure you could, but to what end? You aren’t my type, and I’m certainly not yours.”
    “You sound so sure of that.”
    She tugged at the pen. “Let go.”
    He seemed like he was going to argue, but he surprised her by letting her get to work.
    She marked everything he’d asked her to mark. At first, it was difficult concentrating with him so close. She swore he smelled like cake—the most devilish, tempting chocolate cake ever. She wanted to run her finger in his icing and lick it.
    But she didn’t want