An Exquisite Challenge Read Free Page B

working relationship whatsoever.”
    They did have heat. They definitely had heat. She swallowed hard as it washed over her and made her pulse dance. “If I make this really bad you’ll say yes?”
    His gaze darkened. “It isn’t going to be bad.”
    No, she acknowledged, heart pounding, it wasn’t. Slicking her tongue across dry lips, she told herself she just needed to stay in control. Prove to him this attraction between them was wholly avoidable. But when he shifted his thumb to the seam of her lips in the most erotic opening to a kiss she’d ever experienced, she caved like a ton of bricks.
    Her first taste of Gabriele De Campo lived up to every fantasy she’d ever had. Hot, smooth and utterly in control, his mouth slanted unhurriedly over hers, exploring every dip and curve with a leisurely enjoyment that made her want to curl her fingers into his shirt and beg. She resisted with the small amount of willpower she still possessed, but it was like being dangled over a ledge a hundred feet above the ground and told to hang on when you knew you were eventually going to fall.
    She’d known he’d be good. Just not this good.
    For a minute, for just one glorious minute, the temptation was too great and she let her mind go blank. And let herself savor what she’d been craving for a very long time.
    He sensed her softening. Slid his hand to the back of her head and took her mouth in a drugging, never-ending kiss that upped the hotness quotient by ten. Off balance, she had to dig her fingers into his shirt and hang on.
    “Lex,” he murmured, sliding his tongue along the seam of her lips. “Give me more.”
    She was going to stop this in about five seconds. She was. He demanded entry again and she gave it to him. The feel of his tongue sliding sensuously against hers made her insides coil tight. This was more than a kiss, it was a full-out assault on her common sense.
    And it was working.
    She yanked herself out of his arms, her chest moving rapidly in and out. Her five seconds were definitely up. Way past up.
    “That was not fair.”
    “You need to admit you have a problem to solve it,” he murmured dryly. “Now we know.”
    “We also know we can control it,” she pointed out. “Look it’s done. Presto,” she said, waving her hand at him. “Never to be had again. Curiosity’s over.”
    He picked up the file and got to his feet. “Be at my office at ten tomorrow.”
    She stared at him incredulously. “You’re leaving me hanging?”
    He waved the file at her. “I need to read this.”
    “That kiss was nothing, Gabe.”
    “I’d like to see what something is.”
    She watched as he straightened his shirt. Mortification sank into her bones. Why the hell had she allowed that to happen? She was supposed to be convincing him of her professionalism, not her skills in the necking department.
    She followed him to the door. “You won’t regret it if you give me this job, Gabe.”
    He gave her a long look. “Che resta da vedere.”
    She scrunched her face up. “What does that mean?”
    “That remains to be seen.”
    He left. She picked up her shoe and threw it at the door. His soft laughter came from the other side. “Use the deadbolt, Alex.”
    Despite her bone-deep fatigue, it took a hot shower and an hour of fretting to get herself anywhere near sleep. Gabe had been playing her and playing her well. Establishing a reason not to give her the business. She’d just been too busy being a spineless fool who couldn’t resist his Italian charm to see it.
    After all these years of walking away, it had taken jet lag to do her in.
    She whacked her head against the pillow and closed her eyes. If she got another chance, if he gave her the job tomorrow, she wasn’t making the same mistake twice.

CHAPTER TWO
    M ORNING BUMPER - TO - BUMPER traffic on Highway 101, with every motorist in northern California fighting their way into San Francisco with an aggressive zeal that said they were ten minutes late for a meeting