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

focus. Maybe he would start with that.
    “One month,” she blurted out before he could say anything else.
    “One month for what?”
    “Let’s give it one month. We work together for one month from this date. No dating, no kissing, nothing even jumping in that arena. Let’s focus on work, after a month we will reevaluate.”
    “No,” he stated firmly. “I can’t put it on the back burner. I don’t think you can either. It happened and it’s there; we can’t ignore it and it won’t go away. I’ll give you that month, but not with your conditions.”
    “Then what conditions?” she asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest. She was annoyed with him. Wasn’t that interesting? And sexy. He liked the fire that just jumped into her eyes. Fire and stubbornness he hadn’t seen before.
    “Work is work. We work well together. Don’t you agree?” She nodded her head. “And when we’re working, I’m not as tense, it seems. It doesn’t seem awkward—this thing we have,” he said, moving his hand back and forth between the two of them.
    “True. I noticed it too. Okay. What else?”
    “Outside of work we test the waters, sort of dating. No sex if you want, but definitely kissing, maybe a little petting thrown in?” he asked ruefully. He could have shot himself for saying no sex, but he would be damned if he would limit it to nothing at all. And he was positive she would agree, especially since her face just turned beet red again.
    “I don’t know,” she said hedging while he held his breath and stared at her. “Can I think on it more?”
    “You could, but it’s not going to change what we just did or how we feel. Think of it this way, if we don’t throw it on the table and address it could get worse, right? The tension between us. We share an office you know, we don’t want it awkward,” he threw out there, joking and hoping to get her to lighten up a bit. It was his last-ditch effort in the hopes she wouldn’t turn him down.
    “I guess you could be right,” she mumbled.
    “What? What was that? I didn’t quite hear you,” he said, enjoying this much more now.
    “I said fine. I’ll agree to that. Thirty days. One month. We can reevaluate at that point.”
    “I have one more condition,” he added.
    “What’s that?”
    “Nothing between you and me affects your job. Ever. If in thirty days or three minutes we decide it’s not going to work, your job will not be affected one bit. I value you too much.”
    “Thank you, Alec. That means the world to me.”
     
    ***
     
    Later that night, Brynn lay in bed wondering what the heck had happened tonight, and what the heck she had agreed to with Alec. One stupid kiss and all her brain cells flew out her ears.
    Of course, just because she agreed to it tonight didn’t mean she couldn’t change her mind, because he told her she could a few times, and she believed him. As much as he was always joking and teasing, he was honorable. She knew that and believed what he said, if she decided she didn’t want to pursue this. But she wanted to, even though the practical side of her brain was arguing not to go down this path.
    Especially after that third kiss, just before she left. Holy cow. He’d said she was potent—he didn’t know the half of it. She threw the thirty days out there for her peace of mind, figuring they might come to their senses by then. She needed time to process this whole thing more. She thought she’d been doing a good job pretending she didn’t feel anything for him, but she guessed not.
    She wasn’t stupid, he was right: she saw the signs of his attraction to her all along too. That was probably what was making it so hard to pretend she didn’t feel anything for him.
    She was so confused and usually she was never confused. She always knew what path she was going to take in life, what her next step was going to be and how she was going to take it…before everything came crashing down on her. But this thing with Alec, nope,