Scandalous novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: After Hours

The Allegheny deal closed at nine on Thursday night, and the floor emptied by ten.

I stayed because the signed copies had to be scanned, and because I was a coward.

Burke stayed because he always did.

I carried the last stack into his office and set it on the desk.

He didn't look up.

"Stop standing there," he said.

"I'm waiting for your signature."

"You're waiting for something else."

His pen stopped moving.

He raised his head, and his eyes were dark in the lamplight.

"Stop looking at me like that, Ms. Lowe."

"Like what?"

"Like you remember."

"I do remember," I said.

The words came out lower than I meant.

"You said it didn't happen. You said I was your employee. Then you stood in your doorway and told me what I sound like."

"I shouldn't have said that."

"You shouldn't have meant it."

He stood.

He came around the desk slowly, and I did not leave.

"You're lying to me about something," he said.

"Everyone lies about something."

"Not everyone lets me kiss them in an elevator."

"I'm not sure you got that far."

His mouth twitched.

"I'll have to try harder."

I put my hand flat on his chest and felt his heart going, hard and fast.

It was the heart of a man who hadn't touched anyone in a long time, and I knew it the way you know something in your hands.

"Burke," I said.

It was the first time I'd said it like that.

He kissed me.

It wasn't the elevator kiss, careful and curious.

This one was hungry and angry and a little desperate, and I answered it.

He lifted me onto the edge of his desk, and the signed pages slid to the floor.

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