Flash

position," he said, "I'll be happy to open my briefcase and show them to you." He ought to move back, put some distance between them. He was too close for his own good. He was getting hard again.
    She took care of his dilemma by stepping adroitly to the side. He watched her turn and lead the way back out of the kitchen.
    "You can bet your corner office with the window that I want to see those reports," she said.
    He stifled a groan. It was better this way. Even someone with bad timing in this kind of thing could see that.
    Reluctantly he followed her out into the living room.
    Lightning crackled in the distance just as he reached down to open his briefcase. Real lightning, not his libido-driven imagination this time, he thought. It was followed by a distant roll of thunder.
    Great. The rain would hit soon. Just about the time he was ready to walk back to the ferry dock. He'd get drenched.
    Distracted, Olivia swung around to stare out the windows. A look of anticipation crossed her face. "We're in for a genuine summer thunderstorm. We don't get too many. I love to watch from here."
    She opened the sliding glass doors and stepped outside onto her small corner balcony.
    Jasper took his hand off the briefcase latch. He watched Olivia go to the railing. She stood there studying the dark, roiling clouds as if something she saw in them fascinated her.
    He followed her out onto the balcony. She did not turn around.
    "Olivia." He was intensely aware of the energy-charged air. He tried to think of something intelligent to say. "About Gill—"
    "It's not that I don't think you know what you're doing," she assured him without turning around. "It's just that I feel a certain sense of responsibility toward the longtime employees of Glow."
    "I understand." He closed the distance between them until he was once more standing directly behind her. "It was because of his long years of service that I did not let Gill go."
    "But it's humiliating for a man in his position to be moved aside."
    "It would be considerably more embarrassing for him if I fired him."
    She turned around very quickly, her eyes huge and shadowed in the strange storm light. "Are you absolutely certain that there is no better way to handle the situation?"
    "Absolutely certain. Give me a little credit here. A few minutes ago you called me brilliant, remember?"
    She smiled wryly. "I remember."
    He watched her face. "It may interest you to learn that when it comes to business, I'm known for having a really great sense of timing."
    "Is that a fact?"
    "So they tell me. I am not, however, known for my good timing when it comes to other things."
    "Such as?"
    "Such as this kind of stuff." Need overrode logic. He bent his head and kissed her full on the mouth.
    She went very still, but she did not pull away. Jasper put his hands out on either side of her and gripped the balcony railing with so much force that he wondered it did not fracture.
    He felt the tremor that went through Olivia. It made everything in him very hard and tight. He heard a small, muffled sound, and then she pulled her mouth an inch or so away from his. She looked at him with deep, unreadable eyes.
    "I don't have the best timing in the world when it comes to this kind of thing, either," she whispered.
    "Maybe we both need practice."
    He took his hands off the railing and wrapped her in his arms. This time her mouth opened beneath his. Some of the wild energy in the air pulsed in him. He felt her palms settle tentatively on his waist, not clinging, but not pushing him away, either. She touched him cautiously, as if testing the waters of a very deep, very dark pool.
    He could feel the thrust of her breasts beneath her loosely fitted denim shirt. The warmth of her body was a sharp contrast to the cool breeze that heralded the onrushing storm. He wanted to lose himself in that soft, feminine heat.
    He deepened the kiss. Her arms went all the way around his waist. He eased one hand down the length of her spine to the graceful curve above her buttocks. He urged her hips against his thighs, seeking to ease the straining tension of his heavily aroused body.
    She was invitingly firm in all the right places, enticingly soft in others. And she wasn't wearing a bra beneath the poet shirt. He could feel the tight buds of her nipples.
    He slid his leg between hers.
    The rain struck without warning. The balcony overhang provided little protection against the chill, wind-driven blast, and Jasper was suddenly drenched. The