Sharon Kendrik - In Bed With The Boss

“Guess I’d better think about leaving,” he said reluctantly.

“I guess so. It’s been … fun.”

“Yeah.”

She was lost in the light of his eyes. “Goodbye, Blake.”

“Goodbye, Josephine.”

She wondered if she would ever see him again, and when she reached up on tiptoe to kiss him goodbye, her lips somehow collided with the faint rasp of his jaw, and it felt so earthy that she shivered against him in unstoppable response.

Something inexplicable exploded inside him and he turned his head and captured her mouth with his, knowing without a shadow of a doubt that this was heading for the bedroom.

“I don’t usually do this kind of thing,” he groaned, as the kiss got hotter and harder.

Neither did she, but once again his mouth had hungrily covered hers and her words somehow got lost on his lips.

It was the best night of Josephine’s life, but in the morning he had left without asking to see her again, and much later she heard that he had gone back to Kim and that they had become engaged.

And soon after that she had met his cousin Luke, and within three months they were married.

LUKE had gone.

He hadn’t even taken his toothbrush, but she knew he had gone. That fact hit her with a certainty even more intense than the blade of lightning that illuminated the bathroom with its harsh blue-white light. Josephine momentarily shrank from its impact, and winced.

The toothbrush was still there, yes, but further investigation showed that her husband of just one year had cleared the rest of the house like a locust.

Gone were the rows of designer suits and the handmade Italian shoes. Gone, too, were the priceless objets d’art which he had always insisted they buy.

Or rather, that she buy, Josephine reminded herself bitterly.

The lightning was followed by a thunderbolt that could have deafened the hounds of hell. And then the rain began—a rain so heavy and remorseless that the loud banging on the front door didn’t register straight away.

And when it did, she froze with a sinking feeling that felt almost like disappointment.

Had he left, only to return?

She ran into the hall and pulled open the door and the sight of the tall, drenched figure made her heart briefly suspend its frenzied beat.

For it wasn’t Luke who stood there like a dark avenging angel, but his cousin Blake. Blake. The man she had not seen for over a year—not since he had stormed round to her flat and told her that she would be a crazy fool to marry a man like Luke.

“B-Blake!” she gasped, but the word dried to sawdust in her mouth.

“Disappointed?” he drawled, but at least she was here. And she seemed to be okay. “Expecting your husband, were you, sweetheart?”

She shook her head, wishing he wouldn’t use that word, not when he didn’t mean it. “He’s taken all his clothes. He’s gone.”

“I know he has,” he said grimly.

Her eyes narrowed. “How can you possibly—”

But Blake wasn’t listening. He had unceremoniously pushed his way past her, to stand dripping raindrops onto the beautiful, polished wooden floor.

“Shut the door!” he commanded, his eyes raking reluctantly over her skimpy evening dress. A pulse began to beat at his temple. So she still dressed to kill. “Or were you hoping to freeze to death? Just shut the door, Josephine! Now !”

Mutely she obeyed him. There was something about the tone of his voice that was impossible to ignore. But maybe if she had listened to him the last time around, she wouldn’t be in this situation.

She stared at him. They said that time healed, but time didn’t always change the way someone made you feel . She hadn’t seen him in over a year, but the sheer force of his personality was devastating as ever. As were his looks. The blue eyes were as vibrant as a summer sky and the hard, lean body as formidably gorgeous as it had ever been.

Lucky Kim, she thought, forcing herself to remember in the most painful way possible that he had a fiancée.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered. “And how on earth did you know that Luke had left, when I’ve only just found out myself?”

He gave a cynical smile, which iced over her. “Because he rang me from the airport.”

“The airport?” she repeated dully. “Where was he going?”

“He didn’t say.”

“I don’t understand,” she breathed, and she heard him swear softly beneath his breath.

“I think you’re just about to,” he gritted. “He’s with someone called Sadie.” The blue eyes bored into her questioningly. “Know her?”

Josephine nodded. “Yes, I know her,” she said dully. Best friends weren’t all they were cracked up to be, were they? And yet, deep down, he wasn’t telling her anything that she hadn’t already guessed.

But despite the fact that Luke had gone, only one question nudged at the edges of her mind.

“So just why are you here, Blake?”

BLAKE shrugged. “I guess I’ve come to pick up the pieces .”

Still feeling as though she was in the midst of some nightmare, Josephine stared at him uncomprehendingly. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

His eyes moved over her, noting the angular line of her collarbone and the way her hipbones jutted against the filmy material of her dress.

As a model, she had always been slim, but now she looked as though a breath of wind could blow her away. Had marriage to his cousin turned her into a mere shadow of herself?

“How the hell can he afford to take off like that?” he demanded.

Josephine stared at him blankly, because his words didn’t make sense. Come to think of it, nothing made sense right now. “What?”

“I think it might be a good idea if you took a look at your accounts,” he ground out.

All she could see was his blue eyes burning into her. “Accounts?” she echoed.

It was only a hunch, but Blake knew his cousin well enough to suspect that he had taken more than his clothes with him. “Just do it, will you?” he said quietly. “I doubt whether Luke has financed his trip with the fruit of his own labors.”

The rising sense of panic she felt was making her blood run cold, and though she shook her head in denial, she couldn’t stop herself from suspecting the worst. But he wouldn’t have taken her money, surely? Bad enough that he had walked off with one of her supposed friends—surely it couldn’t get any worse than that?

She could feel Blake’s eyes on her as she walked to the bureau to find the telephone number of the bank. She picked up the phone and punched in the numbers and when it was answered she said, shakily, “I’d like to know the balance of my current account, please. And could you check my savings account, too, please?”

The sums quoted took her breath away and her fingers were trembling as she turned round to meet the piercing brilliance of his eyes.

“Both accounts are empty,” she said in a dead, flat voice. “He’s taken everything.”

His mouth twisted, ruing an aunt who had showered everything on his pretty, petulant cousin. “It seems that your precious Luke is nothing more than a common thief.”

The rising panic was fast turning into a swamping tide. “Oh, my God,” she breathed. “He can’t have done!”

“Well, it looks as if he damned well has!” He let out a low sigh of frustration. “I told you that you were a fool to marry him, Josephine! I’ve known the guy for most of my life—I knew what he was like! You should have listened to me!”

Yes, she should have listened to him, but how could she have done, when her perception of him had been tainted by the night she had spent in his arms? And the fact that he hadn’t wanted her afterward.