Free All The Way (All Series Book 3) by Natalie Ann

didn’t pull back, didn’t even flinch, so he deepened the kiss more. Coaxing her mouth open, he slid his tongue in, tasting her, catching the sigh that escaped.
    Then, instinctively, he pulled her closer, held her tight, and kissed her deeper. He was losing a part of himself, he knew it and he felt it, but he couldn’t make himself stop.
    The phone going off in his pocket finally pulled him out of it. He pushed back fast, appalled at what he just did. He hadn’t meant to do it. He hadn’t meant to kiss her. He only wanted to see where they stood, get her to admit she was feeling the same things he was and try to figure out where to go from there. The last thing he wanted to do was pressure her.
    Only he had no control of his emotions. His mind had shut off and his body took over, and he was just now realizing what a disaster he may have created. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have put you in that position.”
    “Oh shut up,” she told him and grabbed him, then kissed him harder, deeper, and he was lost, so completely and utterly lost.
    He had no idea how long they had stood there kissing, no clue at all. It could have been minutes or hours. He wasn’t even sure when or why they stopped, but all of a sudden he was standing there alone, and she was a few steps away.
    “Crap. I’m sorry. My turn to apologize,” she rushed out. “Totally uncalled for, so let’s forget this happened.”
    Like that was going to happen. No way. It was time to address this. “Let’s take a minute here. Give me a second for my brain to start working. Wow, you’re potent.”
    “Alec,” she started to say, rubbing her hands on her thighs nervously.
    But he cut her off. “No. Take a minute. No worries. Let’s gather our thoughts and we aren’t going to forget this happened. Let’s deal with it like mature adults. We are and we can do it. Just give me a minute.” Or an hour, because holy shit he felt like he was shaking right now. “Kitchen. Let’s go into the kitchen and sit at the island. I’ll go get us some water.”
    He walked out of the room and went up the stairs to his bedroom where the mini refrigerator was stored and grabbed two bottles of water. By the time he came back down she was sitting on a bar stool looking calmer and more composed than him. Reining it in better than he had been able to do once again. He wished he knew her secret.
    Opening the water, he handed it to her, then opened his own and downed half of it while he sat next to her. He opened his mouth to start, but she beat him to it.
    “I really love my job, Alec. I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that. It wouldn’t be wise for this to go any further.”
    Okay, good start. He could work with that. “I really love having you work for us. I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize your job,” he returned.
    “This is awkward. I don’t want to be awkward. It can’t go any further, really it can’t.”
    “It’s not awkward, and I don’t want you to feel that way, either.” He was trying to figure out where to go from here. He’d never been in a situation like this before. In the past, if he liked someone he approached her, and it worked or it didn’t. There were never any other issues they had to work around. Laid-back, easy, and nothing serious was his motto. But he would be damned if he would drop the whole thing like she suggested. Not knowing how she felt, and how he was feeling.
    “It’s hard for it not to be awkward. I just kissed you in your house. You’re my boss,” she said almost shrieking.
    “I kissed you first. It was mutual. It shouldn’t be awkward, and we can separate the two. Can’t we?” he asked. He was sure he could. Didn’t he just tell himself how all the tension was gone while they were working? Now that he thought about it, whenever they talked about work, all the sexual frustration left his mind and he looked at her differently. It was only once the work stopped he couldn’t