“Be right back.” She stood quickly, gripped by the sudden urge to get out of there before she did something stupid like leap over the desk and attack him in a brazen act of sexual frustration … or pour her heart out to the man.

“Where are you going in such a god-awful hurry?” Marcy asked as soon as the door to the office closed behind her.

“The kitchen, I need … ” What did she need? “Chocolate, lots and lots of chocolate.”

She had read somewhere that chocolate had the same chemical effect as sex. She was willing to try anything to take the edge off before she embarrassed herself.

“That bad, huh?” Marcy said through a laugh. Linking Sarah’s arm through her own, Sarah was helpless but to follow where the other woman led. “Come with me, I happen to have a secret stash squirreled away for when Frank really gets on my nerves.”

“Oh thank God.” She sighed. “I was going crazy in there.”

“You know what you really need is sitting back in your office pretending he doesn’t notice your every move.”

She stopped in her tracks, causing Marcy to do the same or risk dislocating her shoulder.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Maybe she really was going crazy.

“I said that Falon is back there, in your office, practically panting after you,” Marcy said, giving a tug on her arm to get her moving again.

“I don’t think so, Marcy.” She shook her head. “You don’t know him, how controlled he is.”

“You don’t know him either,” Marcy answered, holding up a hand to ward off her rebuttal. “I know that you knew him, once, a long time ago, but everyone changes. Life has a tendency to do that to people. You may have known what he was like as a young man almost ready to enter the real world. But the Falon Wolfe in your office? Completely different animal from the boy you described from college.”

Sarah thought about what Marcy said. She did have a point. He was just a boy all those years ago. His optimism and conquer-the-world attitude had appealed so much to the lost girl she had been then. He seemed so strong and capable of achieving whatever he set his mind to. Thinking about it now though, she realized that she never really knew who Falon was, just the idea of him she had formed in her mind and was half in love with all those years ago. Now, the idea of those characteristics being tempered by experience and strong resolve was infinitely more appealing. What a man Falon Wolfe had become. If only he could let himself free from the stranglehold he kept on his passions.

“Just show me to the chocolate,” she said, following Marcy into her office.

***

Falon couldn’t understand his body’s rebellious reaction to Sarah. That kiss last night felt the answer to all of his fantasies. Her instantaneous reaction had nearly driven him beyond the brink. Knowing she wanted him as badly as he burned for her was a novelty he found disturbing. Maybe he tightened the leash a little too much over the past year or so. Maybe he needed to blow off some excess … energy, to get things into focus before he did something stupid.

The problem was that kiss didn’t just blow his nearly wet dreams out of the water, it was erotic, sensual, and most unsettling … it felt like coming home.

Marshaling his composure, he decided to give in. Yes, he wanted her. Yes, he was going to have her. His body jumped at the idea of Sarah under him, over him, around him.

“But only if you can control yourself,” he ground out through a clenched jaw. The message aimed in the vicinity of his now uncomfortably tight pants.

“Am I interrupting something?” Sarah’s smoky voice had him nearly jumping out of his chair.

“I’m sorry what?” he said looking straight ahead unwilling to turn toward the door.

“Were you just on the phone? I thought I heard you talking.”

Flooded with relief, he turned to answer her and felt his jaw detach on its journey to the floor. In the span of time it took her to do whatever it was she left to do and for him to have a pep talk with his equipment, she turned herself into yet another fantasy of his come true.

“Uh—no. I just remembered I forgot something.” He tried to swallow past his heart that seemed to have taken up residence in his throat. Did her grandfather know his granddaughter was a sex goddess? Someone should tell the man.

She shrugged negligently and walked back to the desk. Falon couldn’t pull his eyes from her as the black lace camisole she was wearing revealed peeks of skin with every movement. When she walked through a shaft of sunlight, he nearly lost his mind as it filtered through the top, highlighting what appeared to be a black lace bra.

“Where were we?”

He couldn’t take his eyes off her. When she turned from the computer monitor, probably looking for the answer to her question, and caught him staring considerably lower than her eyes, Falon was at a loss. First time for everything.

“What did I …” Sarah looked down at herself and blushed.

“Sorry about this,” she said, gesturing vaguely to two features he was having no trouble honing in on. “Marcy spilled her coffee on my jacket and I had nothing else to put on while it dried. Um … is this a problem?”

“No,” he said too quickly, clearing his throat, simultaneously cursing and blessing Marcy for her apparent clumsiness. “Not a problem.”

She studied him for a moment before nodding and turning back to the computer. “Were you done with last year’s invoices?”

“Mostly.” He looked down at his watch. “I need to eat.”

He wasn’t particularly hungry he just needed to get out of that office. Get things back in perspective.

At the door, he turned back. “Well?”

Sarah looked perplexed. “Well what?”

“Aren’t you coming?”

***

Sarah felt a little self-conscious leaving the building without her jacket. The lace top wasn’t exactly something you wore out to a business lunch. It wasn’t that the top she had on was particularly revealing, it just wasn’t what she usually wore outside the seclusion of her bedroom.

She was going to kill Marcy.

“Uh, where exactly are we going?” she asked, struggling to keep up with Falon’s long-legged stride as he talked quickly into his phone.

“To get food,” he answered, opening her door before walking around the back of the car.

“That I got,” she replied as soon as he took his seat beside her in the car. “But I want to know where. I’m not exactly dressed for public.”

As he guided the car out of the parking structure, Falon looked over at her with a snort. “That I got.”

She huffed as he turned her words back on her and turned to her window to watch the city race by. If he was going to be such an ass the why did he invite her along?

After a few turns, he pulled the car to a stop in front of a bistro she recognized. It happened to be her favorite place to treat herself to after a particularly rough week. When he slid the car into park and left it running, she turned to him, confused.

“You’ll wait here. I placed an order and was assured it would be ready.”

“Already?” They had only left the office fifteen minutes ago.

Falon smirked before pushing his door open. “I talk, sweetheart, and people listen. Something you should get yourself used to.”

She sat in shock kicking herself for ever letting a man like Falon Wolfe kiss her. It didn’t matter if it was the best, toe-curling kiss she ever had. Or that she could still feel her blood pulsing through her veins at the idea of it happening again. The sooner, the better.

No. Not going to happen. He was here for a job and that didn’t include her. No matter how her body protested at never being close to his heat again.

The blast of warm, late summer air pulled her away from her body’s fantasies. Falon was back and carrying something that smelled delicious.