She opened her mouth to say no, sensing he actually would stop. But she couldn’t get the word out. Not that one. “Yes.”
With the unexpected green light, he leaned in. His mouth covered hers and need shot through her. The press of his mouth, the sureness of his touch. His lips didn’t dance over hers. They didn’t test or linger. No, this was the kind of kiss where you dove in and held on.
His mouth slipped over hers and her knees buckled. She grabbed on to the sleeve of his shirt. Dug her fingers into the material as desire pounded her. Her brain shut down and her body took over. She wanted to wrap her legs around his and slip her fingers through that sexy dark hair.
Voices in the hallway floated through her. She heard laughter and the mumbling. The noise broke the spell.
“Stop.” She pushed away from him. Still held on but lessened her grip and put a bit of air between them. “Don’t.”
Her gaze went back to the glass wall. She heard talking but didn’t see anyone. Not unusual at this end of the hall since only Derrick and Jackson had offices there. But she took the sound of voices as a warning. Forcing her fingers to uncurl, she dropped her arms and stepped back another step, ignoring the way the corner of her chair jammed into the side of her thigh.
“Sorry.” Spence visibly swallowed. “I know I’m your boss and it’s weird.”
She looked at him then. Really looked. Saw the flush on his cheeks and his swollen lips. That haze clouding his eyes. He had been as spun up and knocked off balance as she was. It was tempting to shut it all down and let him believe this was about Human Resources and office rules, but it wasn’t. Employees could date and this wasn’t about that.
“We both know this isn’t workplace harassment. You asked permission and I said yes. I know my job doesn’t depend on kissing you. There’s no big power play here.” She laid a lot of sins at his feet, but not that one. His father? Yes. But not Spence.
“I guess that’s something.”
“You hated me and ran away but never threatened my job. You’re not that guy.” She waved a hand between them. “But this—us—we’ve proven it doesn’t work. We’re miserable around each other.”
“I never hated you.”
No way was she going to dissect that and examine it. “Okay.”
“And are we? You make me feel a lot of things, Abby. Miserable isn’t one of them.”
And she was ignoring that, too. She had to. Believing, even for a second, that he might trust her, that he might get what he did when he sided with his father months ago, was too dangerous. He’d been clear about what he thought of her back then. They needed to stick with that and stay away from each other.
She grabbed her laptop. Almost dropped it. “I need to prep for another meeting with Rylan.”
Spence watched the fumbling. Even tried to help when the laptop started its dive, but when she pulled it all together, he stepped back again. Slipped his hands in his pants pockets. “When is it? I’ll come with you.”
“To the meeting? Do you think I can’t handle it?” He really was determined to babysit her. Thinking about that killed off her need to unbutton his shirt and strip it off him. Mostly.
“That guy’s interest in you is not entirely professional.”
Her brain cells scrambled. She didn’t understand what he was saying or why now. “And you’re worried I’ll kiss him, too?”
“I’m concerned he won’t know where the line is. I don’t want you to be put in an untenable position.” Whatever he saw on her face had him frowning. “What?”
“Where was this Spence months ago?” She would have done anything to have him stick up for her then. To be on her side.
“What does that mean?”
She retreated back behind her safe wall. Her mother had taught her to be wary. She’d learned the hard way from the man who never stuck around to be a dad. Then her mom taught the ultimate lesson when she died in that diner shooting. Abby had to be stronger, smarter. Always be ready. Always be careful.
“I’ll be fine.” Somehow, she made her legs move. The shaking in her hands had her laptop bouncing against her chest from the death grip she had on it. She ignored all of it, and Spence, as she walked out.
But that kiss she would remember.
* * *
Spence couldn’t forget the kiss or that look on Abby’s face. It was as if she expected him not to believe her, not to stick up for her. Then his mind slipped back to another office. Another kiss. He’d walked in and his life had turned upside down. All that hatred for his father manifested itself in one horrible second, and he’d taken it out on Abby. She knew about his father’s charm and his effect on women. He’d just hoped she would be different.
That realization brought him to Derrick’s office. Spence didn’t want to talk, but hanging out with Derrick generally calmed him. He was a reminder that the Jameson men could turn out to be decent. Their grandfather was a disgraced congressman. Dad was considered a big-time successful businessman who always had a beautiful woman on his arm. Spence and his brothers had spent too much time in the public eye as props for family photos and public relations schemes.
But Derrick was the real thing. He didn’t see it, but Carter and Spence did.
As soon as Spence walked in, Derrick motioned for him to take the seat on the other side of his massive desk. Without saying a word, Derrick opened the top drawer and took out a large envelope. “Here.”
Spence wasn’t exactly looking for work talk but he sensed that’s not what this was anyway. “Do I want to know what this is?”
“It’s from Dad.”
The damn agreement. Despite all of Derrick’s hard work, Eldrick owned the majority of the company. He promised to turn it over, but not before he put his boys through another set of tests. It was his way of holding on to power and exerting control.
Derrick had been given a specific time to clean up his reputation. He was also supposed to lure Carter and Spence home, which proved easy enough once Derrick admitted it to them. But he did more than that. He managed to run a multimillion-dollar company, expand its holding, meet their father’s conditions and land the best woman for him.
For Derrick—easy. For anyone else? Likely impossible.
Spence hated to guess what his task was. “Lucky me.”
Derrick dropped the envelope on the desk. “Rip it up without opening it.”
The suggestion didn’t make sense. “What?”
“Walk away from this.”
“Isn’t this my stipulation, the things I have to do? The way you explained it to me before, Dad only turns over the business if we all do his bidding. You had the biggest part and finished. Now it’s my turn.” Still, Spence couldn’t bring himself to touch the envelope.
“Don’t let him do this. It’s manipulation.”
It was. No one debated that. Not the lawyers who drew up the documents. Not Jackson, the only person outside of the family who knew other than Ellie. The requirements were personal and not likely to be legally enforceable, but with controlling interest, dear old Dad could sell the company and take the company that meant everything to Derrick away from him at any time. Spence refused to let that happen, even if it meant staying and working there.
“You deserve to run the company. You saved it.” To Spence, it was that simple. He’d talked to Carter, their younger, California-living brother. He agreed with Spence. Whatever it took to beat the old man and