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Smirk in place, Chase shakes his head. “No, Stan-the-man doesn’t do productive work. The only input he likes is what you heard the other day. Rude comments, judgments, and your basic chauvinist attitude.”
“Oh.” I shift in my seat. “I’m sorry.”
“No, no. I’m sorry. I really should’ve apologized for his behavior before now. I just didn’t want to spoil the evening by talking about my father.”
“Oops.”
We both chuckle. Our laughter dies out slowly as we stare at each other in the candlelight. The shadows flickering in his eyes only highlight the warmth and smolder already natural to him. It would be so easy to lift my palm to his jaw, feel the light five o’clock shadow with the pads of my fingertips. Trace my fingers down to that damn hollow at the base of his neck.
I blink, breaking my train of thought. What am I doing? I need to go.
As if sensing my imminent retreat, Chase launches into a new subject. “So are you and your boys ready for me to set up a meeting with Warren and Baron?”
The tension eases at his playful, friendly tone, and I settle back in my chair, not realizing my legs had already been braced to stand. “My boys? You mean my highly qualified, top-notch educated, award-winning marketing team?” I throw my own smirk in his direction. “Yes, we’re ready. Or we will be. You didn’t really have a lot in place, marketing-wise.”
He chuckles, the sound sending a warm buzz through my body. “In the past few months, I’ve been able to get rid of or change most of the antiquated inefficiency that’s plagued Moore’s. But the previous managers contracted our marketing to Warren and Baron, and there’s still a year left on the contract. I could break it and pay a penalty, but as Moore’s is already trying to come back from a decline in revenue, and we don’t have an in-house marketing department set up yet”—he gives me one of his seductive winks—“I thought working with them, instead of firing them, would be best.”
I nod once. “That makes sound business sense.”
“Why do I feel like you want to add a ‘but’ to that statement?” The man has a million types of smiles, and the one he gives me now is playful.
“But”—I draw out the word, smiling back at him— “Warren and Baron is a well-established, traditional company. They do well with established businesses not looking for or needing expansion into other avenues. They deal more with referral advertising. Honestly, I’m not sure why Moore’s hired them to begin with—they don’t have any real retail background. And I’m not sure how well they’ll play with the new team in town.” I gesture to myself. Unintentionally, my fingers graze across the skin below my collarbone. Chase’s eyes follow the movement, his gaze lingering.
In that moment, the emptiness of the restaurant surrounds us, the silence once more stringing out the tension that has been building since our first hello.
“I don’t know, Campbell,” he says, his sex operator voice going full-tilt, “I think you underestimate your appeal.” He swallows, and my mouth parts as I watch his Adam’s apple bob above that maddening hollow at the base of his throat. “I know I’d want to play with you.” He raises his gaze. For once, his full lips aren’t pulled back in a smile. Instead, his face is set, and his eyes penetrate mine with a deep intensity that has my thighs shifting on my chair.
What is happening?
He leans forward. “I swear I’d sell my shares just to know what you’re thinking right now.”
“You’d make a killing as a phone sex operator.” Oh my god. Kill me now.
He tilts his head back and laughs, his neck exposed. The sight has me pushing my embarrassment aside and licking my lips, all thoughts of professionalism and self-preservation gone as my mind envisions my tongue gliding along his throat.
“Funny, I could say the same thing about you and your sexy Southern drawl.”
His words shock me enough that I blurt, “We’d have great phone sex.”
The intensity is back when he reaches over and trails one finger across my brow and down my cheek. “Oh, Campbell. We’d have great sex, period.”
* * *
Chase
Two birds, one stone, I thought when setting up this work dinner. See how the new social media plan was shaping up, spend more time with the intriguing Ms. King.
I hadn’t thought that the one stone would turn to two, those being my balls, drawn up tight under my massive hard-on. But that’s exactly what’s happened tonight.
It all started in the hotel lobby, where I’d been waiting to pick her up. The elevator doors opened, and Campbell stepped out wearing that blue dress.
Asymmetrical, or something. That’s what Susan said about the dress. At the time I didn’t pay much attention. Occupied with sending someone down to bring up a selection of shoes for Campbell, I missed her trying it on. Now I’m thinking that the way the dress’s hemline starts right below one knee and travels up and across to her other leg mid-thigh is one of the five things I’m most thankful for at the moment.
One through four being the tabletop that hides my dick’s perpetual salute to all things asymmetrical.
I probably would’ve been able to control little Chase (although between you and me, there is nothing little about him, wink wink), seeing as the tabletop also hid Campbell’s sinful legs, freckled from the Texas sun and just as shapely as any Victoria’s Secret model’s.
But then she had to speak, and damn if her mind isn’t twice as hot as her body.
