“Ha! I knew you were going to say that. And I’m not being stubborn. I’m being practical. I can’t afford a place like this.”

“Fine! I’m giving you a raise. The apartment will be part of your new contract.”

“Then I quit,” I shouted. My hands were curled into fists. He had pushed me too far. His Exaltedness might be used to people kowtowing to his wishes, but I wasn’t one of his supplicants.

Cursing a blue streak, he paced around the empty room, every now and then glaring at me, probably trying to find my weak spot.

I tapped my foot impatiently. “You said conditions. What are the others?”

“Lunchtime is personal time. I want my lover, not my assistant when we have lunch together.”

I weighed the pros and cons. “Okay.” I hated that we were negotiating our relationship like a business deal so I said softly, “I’d like that.”

That seemed to soften him up.

“Anything else?”

“I want weekends.”

“Marcus–”

“I don’t plan to be hidden like a dirty little secret from him,” he said savagely.

I snagged his hand to stop his pacing. “I never planned to hide it from him. Besides, he’s too smart for his own good; he’ll figure it out eventually. I meant to say I still have to prioritize Marcus.” I peeked at him uncertainly.

He pulled me close, his arms wrapped loosely around my waist. His eyes were solemn. “Yes, I understand that. We can go out together. I just want you to make time for us.”

“Okay.” I gulped at the concept of there being an “us.” It felt fantastical that I had the right to kiss and touch this man whenever I wanted. To test my theory, I rose on my toes and kissed his chin. My spontaneous action brought a smile to his face and I had to irresistible urge to kiss his dimple so I did, letting my tongue taste the indentation.

That led to some more kisses and that went a little out of control. We were breathless when we broke apart. I didn’t think I’d ever get tired of the light of desire in his gorgeous eyes.

“Let’s get going.” Jake entwined our hands together and tugged me toward the exit.

Chapter 13: Jake

I looked down at Cora as we walked to the elevator. It felt unreal that she was finally mine.

She didn’t know it, but she was mine the moment I saw her outside work late one night. I was getting into my car and glanced over to see her beautiful face lit by the entrance lights. I couldn’t see all her features clearly, but her face had the soft curves of a goddess in a Botticelli painting. Her plush mouth was pure sin. With her dark hair flying wildly in the winter wind, she had looked directly at me and I thought she saw straight into my soul. Then like a phantom, she had walked into the night. I had cursed myself for not running after her. For weeks, she haunted my dreams.

Then fate had intervened when she fixed that mistake on the contract. When Dave from Personnel had brought me the file, I had taken one look at her picture and I knew she was my ghost from that night.

When I had offered her the job as my assistant, I hadn’t made a conscious decision that this was where we would end up. I just followed my instincts. Something deep inside me demanded that I keep her close to me.

From day one, she had wrought extreme reactions from me. For the first time in my life, I was jealous of a woman’s interactions with other males, including my own brother. The bastard knew it too and took every opportunity to taunt me by flirting outrageously with Cora. I had to take drastic measures to keep him away from her.

My physical attraction to her was distracting as hell, especially when she wore clothes that showcased her fantastic figure. I almost regretted offering her the clothing allowance. When she walked ahead of me and I got a glimpse of her heart-shaped ass, I got hard. When she bent over to pick up something and her normally modest blouses gaped, I got hard. Sometimes, just a whiff of her clean scent was enough to give me a boner. It made work damn uncomfortable.

When I found out about her family situation, I had a primal need to protect and take care of her, even though she fought me tooth and nail. Unlike any other woman I’ve dated before, Cora refused to accept anything from me. It was both admirable and infuriating.

And over the last few weeks, I discovered I admired all her qualities– her love for her brother, her sense of honor, her kindness, her intelligence, her irreverence, her modesty, and yes, even her goddamn obstinacy.

Initially, like any bachelor, I was in denial about what was happening to me, but the night we kissed in the stairwell and she threatened to quit, I knew fate had me beat. I knew I had to make her mine– body and soul.

I already accomplished the former and my body was still thrumming with satisfaction.

She was the sexiest thing I had ever encountered. She was so responsive to my every touch, writhing and moaning under me. It had gone straight to my head and hardened my dick to the point of pain.

And when my cock finally got inside her…Holy Mother of God! It was in fucking heaven. Her pussy was made for me, tight, wet and velvety soft. That we were fucking without anything between us had felt out of this world amazing. I had never had sex without a condom and I never wanted to until I met her. But something primitive in me had wanted to mark her. Now that I knew how it felt to come inside her bare, there was no going back.

I had her body, but winning her soul– and her heart– was going to be a challenge.

“When you are interested in someone else, you let me know and we end it. I’ll do the same.” Fuck that! If any man came near her, I’d take him out and dump him into the deepest part of the lake.

“When you move on…” Not if but when.

I pushed aside my surge of anger. She didn’t trust us…yet. She was wary of getting close to anyone because she was afraid she’d lose them, just like she lost her parents, but if we were to work, she needed to have some faith in us.

She was suspicious of my reputation of using and discarding women, but I was determined to show her that was my past. She was my future. She made me want to be a better man. I was a cold-hearted bastard who was cynical and jaded, but I wanted to be worthy of her. She was too good for me, but it was too late for her to change her mind.

I needed to find a way to get through to her that what we had was the real thing.

Inspiration struck and I gazed at her with a twinge of pity. I hadn’t planned to call in the big guns just yet, but like any smart tactician, I knew when I needed help. My poor baby wouldn’t know what hit her. I almost felt bad about what I was about to unleash. Almost.

I kissed the top of her head and smiled.

Chapter 14

It turned out Jake’s apartment was right upstairs in the same building. I had a moment of confusion about why he would want me to move into his own building when there were so many other properties he could have suggested. When we ended our affair, it would have been far less messy if he didn’t have to see me everyday. In the end, I decided it was impossible to figure out how his brain worked. His thinking was too convoluted for a mere human like me to puzzle out.

I was right. He lived in the penthouse. It was humungous and not at all what I expected. But then, neither was the man, an inner voice reminded me. I thought it would be like his office, stark and cold, but it wasn’t. The décor was very masculine, with liberal use of leathers and wood, but it was offset with warm touches, like expressive paintings on the walls and accent furniture pieces in bold colors. Yes, it had the professional stamp of an interior designer, but I felt Jake’s personality come out in many of the elements.

Jake guided us directly to his master bedroom. I only got an impression of a large room dominated by a king-sized bed covered with dark sheets before I found myself in his sumptuous bathroom, which could fit my bathroom ten times over. The shower looked like it could accommodate a football team.