caught myself staring at her ass and the way her tucked-in blouse accented her waist. She was all curve and temptation and I wanted to tell her so.
I kept my mouth shut.
She turned back to me with her hands clasped together and her brow furrowed in thought. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, Ethan.”
“So have I.”
“And there are some things I need to say and I need you to listen while I say them.”
I motioned for her to sit. “Please.”
She sat, crossed one leg over the other, and promptly uncrossed them. “I enjoyed my time with you and your family at your mother’s house. Everyone made me feel so welcome and I’m really grateful to you for bringing me there. It’s been a long time since I sat at a dinner table like that and laughed so much.”
“I was happy to have you there.”
She tried to smile but it was a weak effort. “I think… I think things got a little out of hand once we got back to your place.”
There it was. The inevitability I was dreading.
“Out of hand?” I asked innocently.
Kathryn nodded. “I think too many drinks were involved. I was feeling needy and vulnerable and maybe a little lonely, and you were there, and you made me feel… well, you made me feel other things. We have to be more careful, Ethan. Friday night was a mistake we can’t make again.”
“I see.”
She shifted once more in her chair and smoothed her already quite smooth hair. Today, like most days, it was slicked back into a tight bun at the nape of her neck. A beautiful neck really. A pair of dangly black earrings grazed the same skin beneath her ear I’d kissed just two nights ago.
Kathryn sat up straighter. “Now is not the time for distractions. We both have a lot on our plates and I think we would both regret letting something like this stand in our way of making partner.”
Distractions. Right. “I understand,” I said.
“You do?” she asked hopefully.
“Of course, I do.” I wished I didn’t. “I never meant to disrupt your work. And you’re right. We have to keep our heads in the game. We have clients who are counting on us and it’s a busy enough month as it is. The timing is off.”
“Yes, timing,” she agreed.
“Besides, where do we get off thinking you and I could ever make this work?” I asked, forcing myself to smile.
Kathryn swallowed, looked down, and fidgeted with the hem of her skirt. “Precisely.”
She was wearing black nylons again today. I wondered dimly if they were a new pair recently purchased to replace the ones I’d ripped off of her on Friday night. The tattered undergarment had taunted me the following evening as it lay where it had been discarded several feet to the right of my Christmas tree. I’d gotten up and tossed them in the garbage and collected the buttons from her blouse. I imagined I’d be finding a couple more stragglers over the coming days.
“Well,” I said, clearing my throat, “I guess now that that’s out of the way, we can go back to work as per usual. I have a lot to do today and I’m sure you do as well. I’ll catch you in the break room. Don’t expect me to go easy on you from here on out. There will be no special treatment from me just because I’ve seen you naked.”
Or been inside you.
Kathryn rose to her feet and smoothed out her skirt. A sexy little smile tugged at her lips. “I would expect nothing less of you.” She moved to the door and paused with her hand resting on the handle. “You should know, it wasn’t that good for me.”
I laughed and leaned back in my chair to clasp my hands behind my head. “Sweetheart, you might be a cruel rival in the office, but you and I both know you’re not a liar.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “No, but I can sell anything to anyone. What makes you think those orgasms were real?”
“I don’t think you want me to answer that question if we’re going to continue having a strictly professional relationship.”
She hesitated. Maybe she did want me to answer. Maybe there was part of her that wasn’t sure about her decision, just as there was a part of me that wished she hadn’t put a stop to things before they had a chance to get started.
I got up to open the door for her. It creaked on its