Free Daring to Trust the Boss (Harlequin Romance) by Susan Meier Page B

him back to reality. He was a gentleman and she was an employee. Worry that he couldn’t keep himself in line was ridiculous.
    He set his beer glass on the bar. “Nonsense. You’re asleep on your feet. I’ll walk you to your room.”
    They said goodnight to Constanzo who racked the balls again. Walking out of the den, Tucker heard the sound of silence left in their wake. Constanzo had put on the soccer game, and there was noise when he broke the balls on the pool table, but just beneath the surface of those sounds was a quiet nothing. And he suddenly understood why Constanzo wanted his son. When he retired, this would be his life. Entertaining an occasional visitor or two would fill the void, but mostly he would be alone. He wanted that “nothing” filled with the sound of his child, and maybe, someday, grandchildren.
    “Why do you call me Miss Prentiss?”
    They’d reached the end of the hall and were heading for the stairway in the front foyer. Focused on Constanzo, he hadn’t noticed how far they’d come. He’d also forgotten about his attraction. But the minute she spoke, his body reacted.
    Still, she was an employee and he was a gentleman. He motioned for her to precede him up the stairs. “I call you Miss Prentiss because it’s your name.”
    “So is Olivia. Or Vivi.” She stopped and peered back at him. “And I have to admit, sometimes it feels a bit weird having to call you Mr. Engle when everybody else is calling you Tucker.”
    Just what he and his hormones needed, for another of the barriers between them to come tumbling down. “I’m always on a first name basis with people I do business with. You are an employee.”
    “An employee who has to call you something different from what everybody else calls you.”
    He should have been annoyed with her impertinence. Instead, he understood. They were two incredibly attracted people who, in any other circumstance, would be getting to know each other, probably pursuing this attraction. But she was an employee. And he was a gentleman.
    He repeated it like a mantra in his head as they walked down the hall. When they reached her door, she stopped and faced him.
    “Good night, Tucker. ”
    Damn it. He almost laughed. She could be such a smart-ass. Worse, he’d liked the sound of his name on her lips. He liked that she was so bold.
    “You’re a brat.”
    “No. I just don’t appreciate anyone trying to make me feel less than.”
    Confused, he stepped closer. “You think that’s what I’m doing? Trying to make you feel less than me?”
    She shrugged. “Isn’t it?”
    “No!” All this time he was fighting an attraction to her and she thought he didn’t like her? “I’m just trying to keep a sense of dignity for my office. Decorum.”
    “I don’t think it works.”
    This time he did laugh. “Not with you.”
    When she didn’t reply, the corridor grew quiet. But this quiet was different from what he’d felt as he left Constanzo in the den. This quiet hummed with electricity.
    He liked her. He didn’t want to like her but he did. And he wanted to kiss her.
    He took another step closer. She looked up at him, her blue eyes wide and unsure. Temptation whispered through him. Once, just once, be with somebody who might truly understand. Be honest. Be yourself.
    Her eyebrows rose.
    Was she asking him to kiss her?
    His gaze dropped to her mouth then returned to her eyes. He could imagine the smoothness of her succulent lips, see every move he’d make in his mind’s eye. He wouldn’t be gentle. She wasn’t gentle. She was open, frank, honest. He would kiss her that way.
    A second ticked off the clock. Two. Three. He couldn’t quite get himself to bend and touch his lips to hers. Not because he didn’t want to. But because he so desperately did. An aching need filled his gut, tightened his chest. No one had ever caused feelings like these in him. No one had ever made him want so badly he could see a kiss before it happened.
    She whispered, “Good