Chasing Temptation by Payton Lane

it with his tongue. She enveloped him with her scent and taste without trying, until he didn't want anything else but Lynne.
    *****
    Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.
    Lynne was kissing Nathan. And it was good. Her toes were curling and she didn't even have shoes on for them to curl in.
    This man took repressed passion to another level, but oh . The hardness pressed against her apex made her wet, made her want things Lynne knew she shouldn't dare sample.
    But each time his tongue delved into her mouth, her mind blanked and she forget why she shouldn't be loving this, with this man. Why she was damning herself to hell for this kiss.
    But. ..
    Oh, God. Oh, God.
    It didn't seem to have an end, and the heat between her thighs grew, beckoning for some sort of relief. The control he exuded by not going headlong into the kiss drove her mad. She craved wild and unbidden, in her foreplay and sex, but this slow journey of going over the edge made her want to pop the buttons on his shirt one by one.
    He sank his teeth into her bottom lip, and she actually whimpered. Suddenly his warmth was gone. Lynne hadn't realized she'd closed her eyes, but opened them to find disgust on Nathan's face as if she’d just confessed that she used to be a bearded lady.
    “I’m sorry that was so unprofessional of me,” he said, and Lynne was sure she'd had heard him wrong.
    “What?”
    “I need to go.” He avoided her gaze and left without his suit jacket and with her glass.
    Kissed to the point of losing reason then abruptly abandoned in less than a minute. Had to be a record. The office suddenly felt lonely. Well, not alone. There was a very big bottle of scotch promising to keep her company and to erase the taste of Nathan from her mouth.
    On the verge of savoring the taste of him again, she slid off the desk. Her hand shot out to keep her upright. Her knees had actually gone to jelly.
    “Who knew?”
    Lynne trailed her hand along the desk until she reached the small refrigerator. She pulled out the scotch, crooked it under her arm, and decided it was time to buy one of those expensive showerheads and put it to good use.
     

CHAPTER NINE

    Nate prowled his rented living room the next day. He hated to think Lynne had shaken him enough to call Sylvia for a brainstorming session, but she had. Both stores didn't open until ten in the morning, so an eight o'clock meeting gave them enough time to review and reflect.
    “Yesterday Lynne...” He stopped and paced to the other side of the rented living room, which was easy to do since the room had only the bare essentials. “Ms. Kelley proved that she would fight me and that she has the clout to do it in this small town. No need to be alarmed.”
    Okay, that wasn't for Sylvia, but him. This woman was getting under his skin, and he couldn't afford to lose focus on this deal. Especially this deal.
    “I saw the line,” Sylvia said and shrugged. “But that doesn't mean your plan won't work. It's worked every time.”
    Nate almost said he didn't know if it would. He changed directions to pace the other way and had to squint from the harsh light coming from the window.
    Sylvia kept talking. “I mean, if it doesn't work, we can always find another store.”
    The thin control snapped. “We can't. It's this store or nothing. It's this store or we have failed. Moving on is not an option.”
    A moment too late he heard the insanity in his words. He moved over to Sylvia. She'd worked for him all these years, but she didn't know. He had never shared the personal side of his overall plan. She knew he wanted to sell the collection of stores to the highest bidder, but never the why of it.
    “It's complicated,” which he never thought would come out of his mouth.
    The main reason had to do with the expression Sylvia now wore. Her brows practically touched her hairline.
    “Okay,” she said. “Whatever you say, boss.”
    He didn't succeed in sounding less crazy, but he still couldn't work his mouth into revealing the