Private 02 - Private Paradise

than I am―”
    Carla cut him off. “Even if you can find someone we can hire quickly, it won't look good if I send you packing right away.
    No, if it looks like I screwed this up, I'm out. I can't lose this job. I've worked too hard to get her and I don't want to let Chris down. You have to stay, at least long enough to get everyone off my back.” For the first time since she'd stepped out on that patio he saw a flash of vulnerability in her eyes.
    He'd always been drawn to it, drawn to her. The way she came off as so savvy, so confident, but inside there was a sweetness she didn't always let others see. “Of course I'll stay.”
    “ Good.” She nodded. The vulnerability vanished, replaced by the guarded wariness her tight smile couldn't hide.
    Her shoulders lost some of their tension as she leaned a hip against the desk and folded her arms across her chest. Sam tried and failed not to notice the way the plump curve of her breasts swelled above the top of her sleeveless dress. She gave a deep sigh, giving him just the barest glimpse of black lace against smooth tanned skin.
    Oh, Jesus, Carla DeLuca in black lacy lingerie, those luscious tits barely contained by thin satin...
    “ Eyes up here, soldier,” Carla snapped.
    He dragged them back up to her face and saw that her cheeks were a delicious red. He felt his own face heat to be caught staring at her rack. World class or not, Sam had come to pride himself on his professionalism no matter the circumstances. “Sorry, I uh―”
    “ If we're going to work together, you can't look at me like that.” Carla said tightly.
    Sam nodded, but didn't bother making any promises he couldn't keep.
    She gave him a curt nod back and pushed away from the desk. “I'll go to my office and pull together all the information to get you up to speed,” she said, already headed for her office, “and after lunch I'll give you a full tour of―”
    “ Wait a second,” he said, reaching out to catch her. Jesus, he'd forgotten how smooth her skin was. Just wrapping his fingers around her upper arm was enough to send an electric shock straight through to his cock.
    “ What?” she said, forcefully jerking her arm from his grip. Like she couldn't stand to be touched by him.
    But he knew different, could see the way her cheeks flushed and the way those world class tits rose and fell a little bit faster. God, he wished he could make her forget the past. He wanted to pull her into her office, spread her across the desk and shove that filmy skirt up her thighs.
    Peel down her panties and bury his face between her legs to see if her pussy tasted as good as he remembered. In that moment, he realized why he'd jumped so quickly on Chris's offer. And it wasn't because of any good intentions or any ideas of doing right by Carla to make up for what he'd done.
    He was here because deep down, he'd never gotten over her. Never stopped wanting to reclaim everything he'd thrown away.
    Impossible, he knew, and a hell of a lot more than he deserved after the way he'd treated her. “Before we get down to business, I just want you to know how sorry I am.”
    She flashed him a smile that didn't reach her eyes. “Don't be. It's not your fault that the board of directors thinks I'm borderline incompetent, and it's not your fault Chris decided to help me”―she held her hands up crooked her fingers in air quotes―“by hiring you behind my back.”
    “ That's not what I'm talking about and you know it,” he said, stepping closer, close enough to catch the scent of her, soft, floral, and all woman. “I owe you an apology for how I ended things between us. I said things to you that were unforgivable, things I didn't mean―”
    “ Don't.” She spat the word out in a harsh whisper. Her face had gone cold and pale as marble, her full lips thinned to a tight line. “I don't want your apologies, or any other reminders of my own stupidity. If this is going to work at all, you're going to do exactly what I did and forget anything ever happened.”
    “ Carla―“
    “ Oh come on,” she said with a laugh, having recovered some of her bravado. “Sure your sudden appearance caught me off guard, and I'd prefer not to be stuck working less than fifteen feet away from you. But do you really think I'm still hung up on a stupid summer fling we had when I was eighteen? It was nothing. I was over it by the time you left the lake.”
    If that was true―and he seriously doubted it―then she'd been in a