The Expectant Secretary Read Free Page A

skinny with the flat lines and planesof a girl. Now she was a woman. And his reaction was that of a man.
    â€œWe really should call somebody.” She unnerved him, as no lawsuit or high-profit business deal could.
    â€œN-no, please. Really, I’ll be all right. I just need a minute.” She touched her hand to her forehead. Her hands were delicate and soft. He had a sudden memory of her smoothing her palms over his chest and sifting her fingers through his hair.
    Heat rushed through him. He shook loose the memory and focused on her. Here and now. She looked so pale, so fragile. He had an overwhelming urge to protect her. Her soft, floral fragrance floated up to meet him. He knelt beside the chair, looping an arm behind her. Her lips were parted, vulnerable, tempting. He remembered their sweetness. He remembered too damn much.
    â€œYou scared the hell out of me,” he said, his voice as rough as the raw emotions coursing through his veins.
    â€œI’m sorry. I’m all right.”
    Was she? Was he? Seeing her again, he knew he’d never fully recover. Anger snapped inside him. Why couldn’t he forget her? What was it about Jillian Hart…Tanner?
    He tipped up her chin, lifting her gaze to his. Her skin was as smooth as a rose petal. He’d been with more beautiful women. Women he’d dated to try to erase Jillian from his mind. But no woman had come close to her. And he somehow wanted to make her pay for all the suffering and sleepless nights she’d caused him. Staring into those troubled eyes of hers,he felt himself falling…and he could almost forget she was married. To someone else.
    â€œAre you really sorry?” His voice was intentionally cutting for she’d so easily sliced a piece out of his heart.
    She didn’t answer. His gaze slipped to her hand, still folded around his lapel. She wore no wedding ring, no declaration of her married status. Questions plagued him. Questions he didn’t take the time to have answered.
    An overwhelming, irresistible urge grabbed him and wouldn’t turn him loose. He wanted her to be sorry. Sorry she’d left. Sorry she’d hurt him. Sorry she’d shown back up in his life. He wanted her to know exactly what she’d missed. He wanted her to know, for one second, what she could have had with him.
    He kissed her then, hard, fast, relentless, claiming her mouth, blocking out his anger, his pain, his concern. He didn’t want to care about her anymore. He had to get over her. Once and for all.
    He kissed her as he once had, as he wished he’d been able to ever since. It was a lusty kiss to make her regret leaving him for the rest of her days. Feeling her soft lips, her mouth opening to him in surprise, all the pent-up pain inside him subsided, replaced by pure, red, pulsing desire. He focused on her mouth, their heat, his need.
    Hell! What have you done now?
    Before she could slap him, before he did something more that he knew he’d regret later, he broke away. Pulling back, disgusted at himself for kissing her, andat her for kissing him back, he sucked in a deep, ragged breath. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
    She released his lapel, her fingers curling toward her palm. “No,” she said, her voice as shaky as his resolve to never let that happen again, “you shouldn’t have.”
    He was in big trouble. He wanted her just as much as he had when they were twenty. Maybe more. Definitely more.
    How the hell was he going to work with her every day?
    His brain felt fuzzy, stunned by his need, his foolishness. She’s married, you fool!
    He pushed to his feet and gave himself some much needed breathing room by walking to the door. “That won’t happen again.”
    â€œWas that the goodbye kiss you said I owed you?” she asked, her voice girded with anger and steel.
    â€œNo. That was just one more mistake.”

Two
    M istakes. Jillian knew all about mistakes. And