walking, talking wet dream .
She’d drooled from afar plenty, but up close he was downright gorgeous. Every woman in the place, and even some of the guys, had checked out his tight butt, flat abs and broad shoulders, and although he’d never worn anything but a suit to the office, that didn’t stop imaginations from running riot. His hair was dark and thick, his skin tanned, and regardless of the time of day, his jaw always seemed darkened with at least a day’s beard growth. And his eyes. She’d never been close enough to make out their color before, but they were a dark, piercing gray. They should have looked cold, but the way he was looking at her made her wonder if someone had turned off the air-conditioning.
She swallowed at the sudden lump in her throat. “Mr. Steele.”
“Sam. Call me Sam.”
“Ah, Sam, what—”
“Sit down. Please.”
Jillian’s stomach jolted. She knew he had to be busier than her, so if it was going to take some time and she needed to be sitting, well, it could only be bad, really bad. She clasped her hands together in her lap as she relented and sat in front of his heavy desk. He lowered his long length onto its edge in front of her, totally filling her visual field and putting his crotch directly in her line of sight. With his suit pants bunched around his muscular thighs, the fabric hugged and accentuated the bulge between his legs. What could she say? It looked impressive to say the least.
Oh God.
The roiling of her stomach and the slight tremors she could feel along the length of her legs weren’t just because of a feeling of dread. Truthfully? In the dead of the night when her body burned, when it craved a man’s touch and she brought herself relief? His was the face she pictured above her, his were the hands she visualized on her holding her down, his was the body she imagined pleasuring her. Crap . Now she’d been close enough to actually smell him. It was something expensive, but rugged, and she wasn’t getting it out of her head anytime soon.
She cleared her throat, but her voice still sounded scratchy. “Mr.…Sam, what do you—”
“Have dinner with me.”
Jillian thought she might have gasped. Okay, she was pretty sure she did.
He wanted to date her? He’d specifically demanded her presence in his office, insisting she drop everything she was doing, because he wanted to ask her out on a date?
She’d never heard any hint of him coming on to any of the women at Steele Enterprises. Quite the opposite in fact. It was common knowledge throughout the company that he didn’t involve himself with any woman who worked for him. It caused a lot of disappointment among the female ranks on a regular basis.
His eyes were locked on hers, probably to gauge her reaction. No one had ever looked at her quite like that before, as if they wanted to…devour her. It was explicit, as if he’d stripped every stitch of clothing off her in his mind and was memorizing her curves. It should have shocked and offended her; it should have disgusted her on some level at least. He was the owner and CEO of the company after all, her boss, but the punch to her stomach told her what she felt was something entirely different.
Keep it together, Jillian.
She lifted her chin to be sure she met his gaze dead-on. “I’ve heard you don’t date anyone who works for you. That it’s always been a hard and fast rule.”
He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Yeah.”
Jillian worked hard to keep her body toned and fit. She knew she was attractive and tried to make the best of her looks, but no way was she the drop-dead gorgeous type. Guys didn’t fall all over themselves to meet her, they didn’t beg for her phone number, they didn’t look back at her if she passed them on the street and she knew she didn’t make that much of a lasting impression. At least her last boyfriend hadn’t thought so. Besides, she’d heard Sam Steele had a penchant for models—of the leggy, blonde