Page 107 of Diego

I look at him smugly. “I knew that would get you.”

“What?”

“The first thing today you have shown genuine enthusiasm about.”

“I have been enthusiastic about several things.”

“I know those foundation reports are particularly exciting, but it's wine, Ricardo.”

Even he can't resist that one. “Fine. Maybe I am a little enthusiastic.” He gestures toward the hallway. “Lead the way.”

Blair smiles politely as the inspectors file out with Ricardo behind them. She starts to follow, but I move just enough that she has to pause instead of passing me through the doorway.

“I need one second,” I say.

She glances at me, then toward the hall. “About the office?”

“Something like that.”

Her eyes narrow slightly, but her expression remains composed. “What is it?”

I wait until the last of the voices fades farther down the hallway.

Then I close the distance between us.

Her eyes widen just before I take her into my arms and kiss her.

For one perfect second, she forgets every rule she has spent the last week constructing.

Her hands come up against my chest, but she does not push. Her mouth softens beneath mine, and when I guide her backward, she goes with me until her shoulders meet the wall beside the built-in shelves. I deepen the kiss, one hand settling at her waist, and feel the exact moment she gives in to it.

I have been thinking about this for seven days.

Apparently, she has too.

Then her palms flatten against my chest and shove.

I let her put space between us.

Her breathing is slightly uneven, but her voice stays low. “What do you think you’re doing?”

I look at her. “I didn’t think it was a mystery.”

Her eyes flash. “We can’t do this.”

“We’ve done considerably more than this.” I glance around the office. “And right in this very apartment.”

“Never again.”

My eyebrows rise. “Never?”

“No. Never.”

She says it with enough conviction that I almost believe her.

“You are a client,” she continues, keeping her voice barely above a whisper, “and you own the company I work for.”

“There is nothing in Meridian’s rules that says I cannot”—I wiggle my eyebrows—“mingle with one of its brokers.”