Playing to Win

mixed business with pleasure. They’d already taken it as far—further—than she intended. It was time to end this.
    “Cole—”
    “You have a beautiful mouth, Savannah.”
    Her gaze snapped to his. “What?”
    “Your lips.” He rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip. “I’ve been thinking about kissing you since the first time we met.”
    “You have? Oh, that’s not good.”
    He quirked a smile. “So you’re a bad kisser?”
    “That’s not what I meant.”
    “So, you’re a good kisser?”
    “Yes. No. Yes. I don’t know. Cole…”
    He slid his hands along her throat. “What you’re saying is, you want me to find out for myself.”
    The “no” hovered. But then his mouth was on hers. All rational thought disappeared and she couldn’t remember why he shouldn’t kiss her. He kissed her gently, his lips sliding along hers in a delicate tease that made her want to inch up and beg for more.
    Her heart pounded as he held her neck between his hands. Could he feel the way her pulse raced as he moved his mouth over hers, deepening the kiss, pulling her tighter against him until her breasts were crushed against his chest? He moved a hand down her back, cupping her butt, letting her feel the ridge of his erection against her sex.
    This was everything she imagined. His tongue licking against hers, his cock, hard and rocking against her pussy while the slow wail of jazz music filled her mind with images of the two of them spread out on her bed. She already had a mental list of things she wanted to do with his naked body. She wrapped her tongue around his and sucked. He groaned and lifted her dress to palm her panties.
    “You’re wet,” he said, his tone rough, making her sex quiver as he moved his fingers over her. “I could make you come, Peaches.”
    He could. Easily. She wanted that. She wanted him, wanted to feel the stretch of his muscles under her hand.
    This wasn’t supposed to happen. They had work to do. Fucking him wasn’t on the agenda.
    She pulled away, smoothed down her dress and caught her breath before lifting her gaze to his.
    His eyes had gone dark, a storm of hunger in them that matched the fury of her desires.
    “We can’t…I can’t do this, Cole. I’m sorry.”
    She expected anger. Argument. Persuasion.
    Instead, all he did was nod.
    “You need to leave.”
    He dragged his fingers through his hair and she sensed his frustration. God knew she felt the same way.
    “Yeah. Sure.”
    She walked him to the door, feeling ridiculous, and angry with herself for letting it go as far as it had. Where had her self-control gone?
    Out the window with that first kiss?
    Or maybe as soon as he’d pulled her into his arms for the dance.
    “I’m sorry,” she said again.
    He turned to her and his lips curved into a smile. “Don’t be.”
    “I’ll call you in the morning.”
    He walked away without looking back. She shut the door and leaned against it, her body still humming with arousal.
    She’d just made a critical error. She’d gotten too close to a client.



FIVE

    AFTER HIS WORKOUT THE NEXT DAY, COLE CHECKED his phone and found a message from Savannah, asking him to meet her. He showered and changed, then texted her and told her he’d be there in thirty.
    He wondered how this meeting would go after what had happened between them last night. He wondered how it would have gone if Savannah hadn’t gotten scared and pushed him out the door.
    She was an interesting woman. Cool and remote one minute, and all fiery passion the next. She had these issues about them working together that got in her way.
    He aimed to remove those barriers, because he wanted to take her to bed. His dick had been hard all the way home. Jacking off in bed wasn’t his favorite pastime and not something he had to do all that often. Or at all. Usually the woman went home with him, or they went to a hotel and ended up in bed.
    Not last night, though. Savannah had been eager, and damn, had she been wet. She couldn’t deny she’d been ready. But then she’d stopped and he’d read the fear in her eyes. That was professional fear. He understood her not wanting to fuck with her job. He of all people respected that. That’s why he was here working with her.
    Though he’d rather be doing something else with her.
    He knocked at the door and she answered, dressed in tight black pants and a black-and-white-striped top that hugged her breasts and did all kinds of things to his imagination, none of them good nor