Page 58 of Illicit Education
He cocked his head to the side. “No, scratch that. I definitely prefer sir.”
“Oh my God,” I murmured under my breath. Blood boiling and my free hand clenched into a fist at my side, I breathed deeply through my nose, but the man’s entire office smelled like him and all breathing deeply did was make me want to fuck him, not fight him.
I was way out of my league here.
Abort! Abort!
“You were saying.”
“Sir,” I emphasized with as much sarcasm as I could inject into the single syllable, “you have the absolute worst bedside manner I’ve ever had the displeasure of witnessing.”
His lips pulled slowly into a too-sexy-for-his-own-good smile and he pressed them against his pointer fingers for a beat, like he was trying to refrain from laughing.
The nerve.
Then he lowered his hands and splayed them on the desk, leaning back in his chair. The look he gave me sent a rush of heat between my legs and weakened my knees. “Forgive me if I don’t recall being anywhere near yourbedside, Ms. Blake.”
I sucked in a quick gasp of air.
His dark eyes held mine, a challenge in their depths.
Sexual tension hung heavy in the air, and as each moment stretched out between us, my bravado slipped away.
And the way he watched me, eyes darkening the longer they lingered on mine…
I swallowed hard, gave my head a good shake, and remembered my goddamn professionalism. “Your manners,sir, could use a little work.”
Reed ran his tongue over his bottom lip, then pulled it between his teeth. That muscle in his jaw jumped, and I could practically see the gears whirring into clouds of dust within his mind. “Close the door, Ms. Blake.”
I swallowed hard, but didn’t move. Was he about to ream me a new one? Wouldn’t I want witnesses for that? Someone who might pass by and rush in to save me?
“Now.”
The single word command lit a fire beneath my feet and a blaze between my legs. My body shuddered in response to the power in his voice and I quickly closed the door, then turned to face him, my hand still wrapped around the handle in case he began screaming at me and I had to bolt.
There were other internships at other publishing houses–
“Sit.”
Without thinking, I did as I was told.
In a distant thought, somewhere among the chaos of all the other thoughts in my mind, it occurred to me that I’d do anything this man asked of me.
“Is this how you thank me for the latte?”
I jolted, then looked down at the latte in my hand. “Oh, um… thank you?”
“Look at me.”
I lifted my eyes.
“I wonder…” He watched me, eyes narrowing as he allowed the silence to stretch out between us for so long that I began questioning whether or not I’d blacked out and missed the second half of his sentence.
I blinked a few times, searching my brain for what he’d just said.
“What makes you think you can speak to me like that?”
Raising my chin, I replied. “What makesyouthink you can speak tomethe way you have been?”