Tangled Temptation: A One-Night Stand with My Boss

e room on the forty-third floor of Blackwood Enterprises gleamed like a pressure cooker...sleek, polished, and ready to explode. H

account. It was her idea: her pitch and

heads took their seats around the mahogany table. Her manager, Burke, threw her

he glanced at the massive digital screen across the room,

e door

lk pantsuit, her signature pearl earrings gleaming like miniature shields.

's b

of Ava's intro slide, another deck loaded

blin

screen... under someone else

turned to Burke. "What

n't meet

for reheating other people's work, launched int

aging was hers. Even the emotional hook-"Reawakening Parisian Beauty"-was

he'd been stripped bare in front of the room. Monica offered a

enty minutes later, she

olitics, Ava," he muttered. "Simon's

harp. "He didn't even understand the third-quarter

sion came from higher up. You're a valued

bonfire on the inside. "Don't wo

h her head held high and rage

la said as she slammed down a martini at the corner table of Valen, one o

ourbon. "For what? Theft of int

at. "And for making you sit through S

with frustration. The soft jazz playing through the speakers did little to s

re," she said, r

it. "Screw them. You're

, relentless ambition, and outworking everyone around her. And now, someone with a legacy

ship," Ava muttered, swir

overboard first

sound sharp and

all, broad-shouldered, and cut from the kind of stone sculptors in Florence dreamed about. His profile was c

ned sl

eyes

. It didn't leer either. It was... curious. Intent. Like he

allowed to have that much bad luck in one

't plan

g over," Lil

e didn't hesitate. Didn't pause to assess. He stopped

eat taken?

id, glancing at Lila. "By my

r a facial," she said, grabbin

eechless, as Lila kissed her cheek

ange, a faint smile curv

ed. "Hav

in across from her. "You looked like

e someone who

y and professionally," he replied,

t makes you think you're qu

ss. Or maybe I'm just g

ant," she

" he said with

kind that curled low in the stomach and warned o

"do I at least

head slowly.

"Mysterious

he said, h

eath c

ked for had just shattered, and she didn't care anymore. Or maybe it was

girl who makes bad

ant to," h

pause between them felt

ned in. "Just