waist to rest just under the curve of her breast, his mouth moving across her mouth to her neck, her ear, nibbling on her lobe.
“Just kiss me, Carlo, please don’t ask for anything more than that,” she begged.
And he proceeded to do just that. His mouth moved back to hers, his tongue mating with hers, his hands moving up and down her sides. Kate groaned as his knee slipped between hers, spreading her legs so she was practically riding him. The feeling was so erotic she almost lost control.
They heard laughter as the doors to the building opened and other guests left. Kate jumped back, feeling like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over her head.
“I have to go,” she said and opened her car door.
Carlo let her get into her car, but bent down before she could close the door. “You know what’s going to happen, Kate. Stop fighting it. We’re both in pain now but we could be spending the night together instead, satisfying our need for each other.”
With that, he gently closed the door and walked away to his own car that wasn’t parked far from hers.
Kate drove home with shaking fingers. She was only slightly more in control when she pulled up into her garage. The night was long and she slept fitfully, images of her and Carlo making love together flitting through her dreams, keeping her from fully resting.
Monday morning, Kate was a mess. She wanted to avoid the conference room altogether. She walked to her office and sat down. Carlo could rot for all she cared. She was not going in there and that was that.
A half hour later, David called her into his office. She groaned, knowing what he was going to say. She walked into his office a few minutes later and saw Carlo sitting in one of the chairs in front of David’s desk.
“What’s up, David?” she asked, taking the only other seat.
“Carlo wants to check out the other stores and I was hoping you could help him.”
Kate got a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, take him up to the Maryland and Virginia stores first. Show him around, help him understand the operation. Then head out to the stores in the other states. Give him the information he needs to finish up this process so we can all move on to the next step.”
Kate was in a panic and wasn’t sure how to get out of it. Travel all over the country? Stay in hotels only a few feet away from him? She was having enough trouble when they lived miles away. How was she to control this situation when he was in the room right next to hers? “But what about my department here?”
David wasn’t going to relent on such a flimsy excuse. “Matthew needs to learn your job. He can handle a few more weeks of filling in for you.”
Kate was defeated for the moment simply because she couldn’t think of a way out of this situation immediately. She looked at Carlo with hostility but kept it out of her voice. “When did you want to start these tours?”
“How far is the drive to the closest stores?”
“Fifteen minutes.”
He stood up and raised a challenging eye. “Well, then let’s start there.”
Kate nodded. “Fine. Let me get a few more things organized and I’ll meet you downstairs in a half hour. Is that soon enough for you?”
Carlo nodded, then turned back to David. “I’ll let you know if there’s anything else I need. Thanks for your support.”
David preened at Carlo’s good ole’ boy networking, happy to pull one of his employees in line. “No problem, Carlo,” he said. “Just stop in anytime,” he said and slapped Carlo on the back as if they’d been friends for years. “Kate, can I speak to you for a moment?”
Kate gritted her teeth. Carlo wasn’t playing fair by going to David for these kinds of requests. But now she was sure she was going to get a lecture on office protocol from her boss.
She was right. “What’s going on between you and Carlo?” David demanded as soon as Carlo had shut the door.
“Nothing,” Kate said, crossing her arms over her chest and sitting back down in her seat, wishing she could ignore the pompous man. Unfortunately, he was still her boss and she didn’t see that changing, even after the sellout to ATI. She remembered all the reasons she stayed in this job and swallowed