Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Graham sighs. “We’ve had a call from Japan. One of the businesses that have installed our security equipment is claiming that we’ve been using it to spy on them. It’s all nonsense, of course, but he’s saying he wants to speak to you and you alone. I thought you’d want to know since you were just there—”
“Yes, you were right to come to me,” Jamie says. “Just give me a minute.”
Graham nods and then recedes, closing the door behind him.
Jamie turns to me with his lips turned into a pensive frown, his eyes filled with so much that I could spend days deciphering all the different meanings within him.
“I have to go,” he says. “And by the sounds of it, this is going to take all damn day. There’s always somebody trying to get a free handout, trying to work some scam, some angle, but …”
“It’s okay,” I say, but really it’s like I hear myself say it. And then I’m watching myself move forward and place my hand on his shoulder. I squeeze, feeling his stony muscles, feeling the irrepressible solidness of his flesh. “I bet it can be hard sometimes. Isolating.”
“Yeah,” he says. He smirks for a moment, eyes dancing over me. “Mostly I’m pissed our session was interrupted. You’ll come back tomorrow and we’ll do it properly. Be here at two … I have an hour free then. Okay?”
He moves away from me, turning for the door, giving me a view of his broad back in the tight fitting T-shirt. I can see the bands of his muscles moving across his flesh, as though he could snap me in half if he had the mind to.
My womb sizzles and my sex tingles at the thought of running my fingernails down that back.
“That didn’t sound like a question,” I call.
“What?” he says, half-turning.
I offer him my feistiest smile, summoning it from deep within, sharp enough that it can penetrate my nerves and my self-consciousness and all the rest of it.
“You said okay, and I know it was supposed to be a question, but it didn’t sound like one. It sounded like you were telling me what to do. What if I have a problem with that, Jamie? What if I don’t want to jump when you say jump, hmm?”
“Are you sassing me?” he says, voice brimming with deep and growling wonder.
“Maybe,” I say, heart thudding, a thousand voices yelling at me that I’m making a fool of myself, that I need to stop.
Jamie Jensen can have supermodels and actresses and anybody he wants.
He doesn’t need me.
But when he pushed me up against the wall, when he painted me with those lust-filled words, it sounded like he wanted me.
“I’ll make you pay for that tomorrow,” he growls. “Don’t worry, this time I’ll actually teach you how to throw a punch.”
“Good,” I laugh. “Because then I’ll be able to defend myself when you attack me again.”
He smirks again, a fiery glint flashing across his eyes.
“No, Jade,” he growls. “You’ll never be able to stop me from getting my hands on you. If you moved to the other side of the world I’d hunt you down. I’d dismantle any bastard who stood in my way. Do you understand me?”
No, I want to say. I don’t understand any of this. It’s moving so fast, and it’s so wrong, and yet it feels so right.
But he doesn’t wait for an answer.
He just turns and strides powerfully from the room, leaving me with the smell of leather and sweat and the deafening chorus of my thoughts.
Chapter Six
Jamie
Clearing up the mess in Japan doesn’t take long after all.
After around twenty minutes of back and forth, the business owner works his way around to basically trying to blackmail me by saying he’s going to take his lies about spying to the press. When that happens, it’s job done, because in situations like this only an idiot wouldn’t record the conversation.
I leave my office and wander over to the floor to ceiling windows, standing with my hands behind my back as I gaze down at the city. Snow dances in the air, whirling and shifting, and for a few crazy seconds, I almost imagine it reshaping into Jade, into her curvy body and her pouting lips.
That motherfucker who tried to blackmail me is lucky the North Pacific is between us because interrupting me when I’m with my lady isn’t a smart decision.
I sigh and return to my office, ready to get on with a day in the life of a CEO, which isn’t all glamor like the media and so many people like to assume.
It’s hard work, a never ending grind, an effort that only stops so that more tasks can be lumped onto my to-do list. Normally I can sink into the flow of my work – client phone calls, business meetings, sometimes even dabbling in PR strategies and design – but this afternoon my mind keeps magnetizing back to the gym and the scent of Jade.