Wild Embrace (Wilder Irish #11) - Mari Carr Page 0,20

exposed—or throwing herself on top of Ryder and forcing him to finish what they’d started.

She meant what she’d said. She hadn’t purposely tried to hold on to her virginity. It was just that she’d had the very good—or bad, or she didn’t know what the fuck kind of—luck, meeting Ryder Hagen when she was just barely twenty years old.

After that, every man—boy, really—couldn’t hold a candle to him. None of them were virgin-worthy. Not a single one.

Ryder took the choice of getting dressed away from her when he reached down and picked up her bra. She was surprised by how adept and steady he was as he pulled the straps over her arms, tucked her breasts back into the cups, and reached around her to fasten the hooks.

It was totally hot and completely disappointing all at the same time. She’d confessed that her first date would include a man who would take control, and damn if Ryder hadn’t proven himself to be one-hundred percent the man of her dreams in that regard.

Oh hell, who was she fooling?

He was her perfect type straight across the board.

“Ryder,” she started again, desperate to change his mind. They’d come so far tonight, and she couldn’t stand the thought of losing any ground.

“No, Darcy. This is over. That’s nonnegotiable.”

“Why?”

He gave her an amused look. “Do you have to question everything?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I do.”

She half-expected her response to annoy him, but instead he dismissed it with a soft chuckle. Then he reached behind her, picked up her sweater, and pulled it back on too, dressing her like she was some helpless little girl.

Her temper tweaked at the thought.

“I’m perfectly capable of dressing myself,” she grumbled, hating that she sounded a bit like a petulant child.

“I’m aware of that.” Even so, he stood up, then reached down to help her. She took his hand instinctively before remembering she was pissed off, allowing him to help her rise as well.

Kneeling, he pulled her panties back up as her skirt fell once more, covering her completely.

Within seconds, he had her dressed again. And despite her anger, his actions had only added kerosene to the fire still raging inside her. It was as if her earlier orgasm had never happened.

She needed him with a desire that physically hurt.

Once he finished setting her to rights, he tackled the buttons on his own shirt, tucking it back in, as she tried to figure out how they could have moved from her coming on his fingers so hard she thought she’d explode to this fully-dressed silence so quickly.

“Ryder,” she started. “I think—”

He shook his head, halting her words with just that gesture. Then, suddenly, he was pulling her into his arms, wrapping her up in a hug that was comforting and insulting.

Only Ryder could constantly provoke completely opposite reactions at the same time. His gentleness touched her, set her at ease, even as she felt him trying to pull away from her emotionally.

“Darcy. I let this go way too far.”

He did?

He wasn’t the only one in the elevator. There were two consenting adults…

Oh, that’s right. He still viewed her as a kid, the fucking babysitter.

“I don’t think it went far enough,” she retorted.

“I’m your boss.”

She rolled her eyes so hard, it actually hurt. “Oh, so that’s how we’re playing this, huh?”

He scowled. “I’m not sure what you mean by that, but—”

“I mean this wasn’t some random, stuck-in-an-elevator, vodka-induced hookup. And you know it. We’re not strangers, Ryder. Tonight, we shared—”

“More than we should have. And you’re wrong. Vodka did play a part. For both of us. We allowed it to lower our inhibitions and we did things we sho—”

“Don’t.” Her back stiffened as she stared him down, glared at him, dared him with her eyes to finish that sentence, to call what they’d just done a mistake. Because erection or not, she’d knee him in the balls if he did.

Ryder wisely closed his mouth and grimaced.

And Darcy fought to school her features, to hide her grin.

Because she had him now.

He wouldn’t say the words because he knew they weren’t true.

“And you’re not my boss. Helen is.”

“I’m Helen’s boss, so that makes me your boss.”

Darcy considered that. “She gives me my assignments, does my employment evaluations, oversees my work. You don’t do any of that. I don’t answer to you directly for anything. I’m under Helen’s umbrella. A lot lower down on the food chain. So I don’t see how work impacts this.”

“You’re tenacious.”

She smiled, taking his words as a compliment, even though