‘Is this the best meal to be had in New York?’ Amusement bubbled out of her.
‘There are so many meals. But when you’re starving, this is a good one to start with. Plus, it’s fast.’
‘It needs to be fast?’ Her heart raced.
‘It does.’
He ordered a couple of enormous slices of pizza. There weren’t table or chairs for them to sit at, so instead they slowly walked back to the office and ate on the way. Jade smiled as she licked her finger. She wasn’t just breaking every palace etiquette rule, she was throwing caution completely to the wind.
‘Good?’
So good, she couldn’t reply, her mouth was too full.
His sudden smile was so stunning she couldn’t have spoken anyway.
‘I am so damn glad I am not your employer,’ he muttered beneath his breath.
She swallowed and grinned impishly at him. ‘So I shouldn’t call you Boss?’
‘Absolutely not.’
She chuckled.
‘But I am going to advance you Juno’s pay,’ he said. ‘In cash.’
‘I don’t want—’
‘Consider it a loan. You know you need money for food and to do things,’ he interrupted bluntly. ‘Don’t worry, I have the feeling you’re good for it.’
She was. But she truly appreciated the offer. ‘Thank you, that’s very kind of you.’
He shot her a sardonic smile and half bowed. ‘It’s my pleasure, Your Highness.’
She winced inside. ‘Don’t...’
‘Then don’t “polite me” off.’
‘It was basic manners, nothing fancy,’ she said defensively. ‘Boss.’
There was a pregnant pause in which she wondered just what he was about to do. Every cell overflowed with anticipation.
To her disappointment, he just huffed out a tense growl.
‘Come on, I’ve ordered you a car.’ He nodded towards the black sedan now waiting outside his building. ‘I’m not driving you. Not tonight.’
Crushed, Jade almost stumbled. So he’d declined her other—unmentionable—invitation? Given her some pizza to soften the blow?
But then he took her hand in his. ‘We can have one night, if that’s really what you want.’
‘One?’ Her heart leapt.
‘Neither of us need complicated.’
‘So we don’t see each other after?’ She nodded. ‘That’s good.’
His eyes widened slightly, then narrowed. ‘So to clarify, we’re going to have a one-night stand in which we do almost every possible carnal act, including you giving me your virginity, and then we’ll never see each other again.’
His blunt description of the plan scorched her sensibility, leaving her with nothing left but excitement and acquiescence. ‘Yes... I... You...’
She couldn’t finish. Couldn’t articulate what it was she wanted him to give her. It felt, not forbidden, but too greedy.
‘Yes,’ he confirmed. ‘You do. I do. We do.’ He rolled his shoulders and walked her nearer to that waiting car. ‘You’ve finished that report, right? So don’t come in tomorrow. Take the day. Then I’ll pick you up and we’ll have dinner.’
‘We just had dinner.’
He brushed her hair back from her face, letting his fingers linger on her jaw as he did. ‘We’ll have another dinner. Most people need them every day.’
Heat swept over her again at the light caress and she couldn’t resist turning to the slight cup of his hand. ‘You don’t want to just—’
He stroked her jaw gently but the blaze in his eyes was all erotic warning. ‘I’m not settling for anything less than a whole night with you, Jade. Start to finish. I want drinks and dancing and privacy and all the hours there can possibly be in one damned night.’
Her legs trembled. ‘Where?’ She swallowed nervously. Drinks and dancing could mean cameras. There could be cameras even now and she’d been so mesmerised by him she hadn’t even thought of them.
‘My place,’ he answered swiftly and released her. ‘But now you leave. Now you have the rest of this night to decide if this is what you really want. You need to be sure, Jade. And I’m not touching you again because if I do...’ He drew in a sharp breath.
The sensations swirling deep within her now were so hot and exciting...how was she supposed to wait? But her training—that insistence upon emotional control—finally came to her aid.
‘Okay.’ She stepped away from him.
‘Tomorrow, I’ll come and you’ll either get into my car, or you won’t. Let me know your final decision then.’
Her mouth dried at a horrible thought and she quickly turned back. ‘What if you change your mind?’
CHAPTER SIX
AS IF HE would ever change his mind?
At work the next morning Alvaro tried to stay so busy he didn’t have a second to think. It didn’t work. The only thing going round in his head was Jade.
Jade the tempting. Jade the innocent. Jade the literal freaking queen.
Jade, who lived on the other side of an enormous ocean, who had endless responsibilities, obligations and duties that he would never really understand, and who faced intensely unique, challenging pressures. No wonder she wanted her three weeks of freedom.
She’d embarked on a totally crazy caper with her sister, risking so much if either of them got caught. Yet she’d wasted almost a full week of it struggling to succeed in something she knew little about, to save her sister’s job. Chancing discovery to an even more massive extent. No wonder she’d plugged in her headphones and stared into that computer screen for hours. And she’d pulled it off...until the moment she’d blurted the truth to him.
Jade not Juno. Stranger instead of employee.
The relief had been intense, before the uncontrollable urge had slammed into him and stolen his reason. He’d barely slept last night, his brain kept wildly awake by the constant recollection of those frantic few moments in the office and the resulting tension in his body.
Her confession. His kiss. Her killer response.
He hadn’t given her the tender first-time kiss she should’ve had—that he would’ve given her if he’d known. He’d been so wound up he’d lost it the second he’d realised they weren’t bound by workplace restrictions. He hadn’t just unleashed, he’d all but lost his mind as he’d done what he’d wanted to do for days—kissed her to total satisfaction, subduing the desire that had been straining between them both since they’d first clashed last Monday morning...while stoking it higher at the same time. Their chemistry hadn’t just been combustible, it had become an out-of-control inferno in seconds.