There was his fighter coming back off the ropes.
“I didn’t say that. If I was going with my gut here, I’d guess that you should’ve been the one doing the presentation in the first place.”
She stared at him for a long moment. “Correct.”
“He took your job?”
“He was given the promotion over my head, yes.”
“Fools.” Kaiden slowly shook his head. “They should have given it to you.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I know you, and I know that you always strive to be the best. I bet you did all the work as well.” He held her gaze. “Melanie should take a hike.”
She walked slowly toward him and he tensed. “What’s wrong?”
She framed his face with her hands, went up on tiptoe, and planted a smacking kiss right on his mouth.
“Thank you.”
He blinked at her. “You’re welcome. What did I do?”
“Validated my decisions.”
“I did?” She went to step away and he curved an arm around her waist. “Not so fast. Now that you’re here, right where I want you, how about you kiss me again?”
Julia gazed into his familiar laughing gray eyes and placed a hand on his chest.
“I don’t think—”
“Then don’t.” He kissed her nose, his voice so low that she had to strain to hear it. “Just go with the flow.”
“That’s not who I am,” she muttered even as she leaned into him, enjoying the hardness of his frame and the subtle curve of his lower lip. “I’m way too uptight for this.”
“You seem to be doing just fine to me.” He traced the seam of her lips with his tongue and her knees turned to Jell-O.
With a ragged sigh, she gave in to the physical, and pressed her lips to his, enjoying his growl of appreciation as their mouths met and clashed. Seconds later her hand was in his hair, and he was palming her ass, bringing her as close as possible to the hard bulge in his jeans.
Man, he was a good kisser . . . Julia let herself drown in the release of emotions, aware that she wasn’t thinking straight, but too frustrated to care. There was no way she was getting on a plane tomorrow so that she could attend that meeting on Monday.
Her cell buzzed, and she tensed up and eased away from Kaiden, who groaned.
“Can’t you ignore it?”
“Sorry.” The fact that her whole body was humming and singing hallelujah was good enough reason to stop. She took out her phone and read the text.
“Melanie is not happy with me.”
“What’s new?” Kaiden leaned back against the stall door and rubbed his fingers across his mouth as if still tasting her. He held out his hand. “Come back here.”
“I think we’ve done enough kissing for one day,” Julia said.
“There’s never a quota for kissing, honey.” His smile was an invitation to sin.
“There should be one for you.” Julia patted her hair. “And, don’t call me that.”
His smile widened into a grin. “Honey? Do you prefer darlin’ or babe, or—”
She marched over and placed a finger over his mouth. “Stop talking, now.”
His tongue snaked out and curled around the tip of her finger making her want to climb him like a tree.
“Stop that,” Julia said severely.
“Are you sure, honeybun?” Kaiden kissed her hand and released it. “You look like you need a lot more kissing to me.”
“But kissing leads to other things, and I am not, I mean, I will not be doing those things with you, Kaiden Miller.”
He waggled his eyebrows at her. “Never say never, honey pie.”
“Go away.”
“I live here,” Kaiden reminded her.
“Then I’ll go.”
She started for the door, and he gently took hold of her elbow and turned her around.
“Other way, unless you fancy walking home?”
She shook her arm free, and he let her escape him, enjoying the swing of her hips and the straightness of her spine as she marched away from him.
He liked kissing her. In fact, if she hadn’t pulled away he might have been urging her into one of the empty stalls, and laying her down in the nice, fresh straw, and . . .
With a groan, he glanced down at the front of his jeans. He couldn’t go back in to the house just yet. A slow stroll around the paddock into the gathering wind might help cool him off a little and remind him of all the reasons why getting involved with Julia Garcia was a bad idea.
But, whatever she said, she was in trouble, and something about that didn’t sit well with him. If she needed his