them. They had no business wanting anything. “And I have to thank you too, for being so nice to Brian and Tommy. They idolize you.”
“It was our pleasure,” Jace responded, seeming sincere. “I can’t remember when we had so much fun actually. Like Kurt said, we don’t usually get the chance to just hang out like ordinary people, you know?”
Yes, I knew.
I walked him to the door where Kurt was waiting with the boys and then wished them a good night. Long after the rental sedan pulled away, my hand still tingled.
~ * ~
Jace
It came to me later that night. I was lying in my penthouse suite, drifting in and out of sleep with images of Eva on my mind. Eva, in her understated pencil skirt and heels at the office. Eva, glistening with sweat in her workout clothes. Eva, soft and relaxed against my arm.
And then I remembered.
I jumped out of bed and grabbed my phone, excitedly tapping the keys. It couldn’t be, and yet I was sure it was. I held my breath as the search engine did its thing.
Please find it. Please let there be a video, a picture, anything.
I sucked in a breath as the results filled the screen. I clicked on the first one, my heart beating furiously at the grainy images of a concert I’d attended twenty years ago.
No wonder Eva was so damn familiar! Her image was engraved in the very fiber of my psyche, had been from the moment I saw the fierce woman up onstage with a voice that reached into the depths of my soul, grabbed it, and squeezed. The tiny creature in a black corset and leather, right out of my wildest fantasies, with the raven tattoo spreading its wings between her shoulder blades.
Eva was my dark angel. The woman who had changed my life forever. The original inspiration for Dark Wing.
And she had no idea.
Chapter 4
Dear Ida,
I’m a single mom with a great career and no room for a man in my life. There’s this guy who’s been openly flirting with me. He’s sex on a stick and he knows it. I know mixing business with pleasure is a bad idea, but there’s no harm in fantasizing, is there? – Celibate and Horny
* * *
Dear C&H,
There’s always room for a good O, whether at your own hand or his. Don’t be so quick to write off the possibilities of interoffice hanky-panky.
~ * ~
Eva
I was feeling anything but rested the next morning, which was why I’d asked Cassie to supersize my coffee and make it extra strong when I got to the office.
Jace and Kurt, it seemed, had been officially declared The Sickest Guys Ever by my sons, which apparently went way beyond cool or awesome.
The fact that my hormones agreed wholeheartedly—but for completely different reasons—had kept me up half the night, tossing and turning.
Truthfully, I didn’t know what to make of Jace Logan. One minute, I had the urge to throw myself at him and find out if he was as good as he was in my late-night fantasies. The next, I wanted to get as far away from him as possible. At that moment, running away seemed like the best option.
I thought about the look in his eyes when I’d first realized he’d been watching me exercise. How long he’d been standing there, I didn’t know, but that look had been practically feral. Hungry. While I occasionally received appreciative glances from men, I couldn’t remember the last time one had looked at me like that. Even now, the memory of it sent an excited shiver down my spine.
It was a good mental image too. A picture of Jace, casually leaning against the doorframe like some sexy predator eyeing up his prey, had burned itself into my sex-deprived brain. He was a fine-looking man, built well. Obviously, he took good care of himself. Lean and toned, quietly proclaiming strength and masculinity. Silky dark-brown hair just long enough to fist. Golden eyes like a wolf. And full, sensual lips that made me weak-kneed with thoughts of exactly what kind of skills they wielded.
Then later, during the movie, he had been watching me again but differently. Those looks were still quite sensual—I didn’t think Jace was capable of completely turning off that raw male sexuality thing he had going on—but softer. Watchful. Curious. But definitely interested.
Which was why I felt like shit this morning.
And exactly why I never, ever brought my work home with me.
Granted, it had never really been