Page 49 of Masked Seduction

I am genuinely surprised. “You?” I ask. “Self-conscious?”

Her brow furrows slightly. “I can be.” She lifts a shoulder, half shrug, half shield. “But that night, it was like my brain switched off. I wasn’t thinking about my hips or my stomach or if I looked stupid in that dress. I was just... me. And you made me feel wanted. Desired.”

I don’t speak for a second. I just watch her. She’s beautiful—fiercely so—and the idea that she doesn’t see it, or doubts the effect she has, rattles me more than I expected.

“I had no idea,” I finally say. “You always seem so sure of yourself.”

“Professionally I am,” she replies. “It’s the personal part I struggle with sometimes.”

I brush my thumb along her cheek. “Jenna, you’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen. And I mean that.” I lean in, eyes locked on hers. “Your curves? That’s exactly what drew me in at the club. Ididn’t know it was you when I saw you at the bar. I was already planning to approach you before you even turned around.”

Her eyes soften. “Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

She smiles, slow and a little bashful, then leans back, a small smirk forming on her lips. “Well. I should probably be irritated with you for tricking me.”

“Trick is a strong word,” I reply, amused. “I didn’t exactly know it was you either. Not at first.”

She narrows her eyes. “But you didn’t stop it when you did realize.”

“No,” I admit, unapologetic. “I didn’t.”

She tilts her head, mock stern. “Should I be mad?”

“Are you?”

She hesitates, that slight pause her answer. “Probably not,” she admits, her smirk fading. “But I don’t want to be that woman. The one who fucks her boss.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Are you willing to beawoman who fucks her boss?”

Her laugh escapes before she can stop it, caught somewhere between exasperation and arousal. I lean in close, brushing her lips with mine.

“Because I have to warn you,” I whisper against her mouth, “twice isn’t going to be enough.”

She breathes me in like she already knows it and laughs. “Well. I guess Iamthat woman now.”

“And what kind is that?”

“The kind who sleeps with her boss and doesn’t regret a damn second of it.”

I let my gaze roam over her slowly. “Good.”

The smirk returns. “Apparently not good enough to keep her panties.”

I beat her to them, snatching them up from where she left them on the arm of the couch. “You won’t be needing these.”

She lifts an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

I open the drawer on the end table beside me and slip them inside, shutting it with a satisfying little click. “I want to think about you without them the rest of the day.”

“Naughty,” she says, voice playful, curious.

“What do your plans look like this week?” I ask. “I want to take you out to dinner. Some place nice.”

“That’s a little backwards, isn’t it?” she teases, her breath brushing my neck. “Dinnerafteryou’ve had me screaming in your office?”

I chuckle. “I like doing things out of order.”