“I just started a business. This was supposed to be my first big client in the city, and I blew it.” I swirled the cup between my hands and breathed in the honey-scented air.

“Doing what exactly?”

“Oh.” An embarrassed smile crept across my lips when my eyes caught his gaze. His dark greens seemed to suck the air straight from my lungs, leaving me breathless, intrigued, and with damp thighs.

“Copywriting and editing. I’ve been doing it for a few years, working online for a few pretty large national corporations, but I thought I’d test the waters out locally. Plus, I really need a job,” I finally ended, a little breathless and a lot embarrassed by my long-winded explanation.

“You actually make money in copywriting?” One thick slash of eyebrow rose in curiosity. What was the color of his skin? Copper? With an olive undertone? A perfect honeyed complexion that was damn distracting, that was for sure.

His throat cleared, shaking me from my thoughts.

“Excuse me?” I mumbled, already forgetting his question.

“Copywriting actually pays the bills?”

Oh. That. “That’s a little forward.” I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “But yes, I mean…I’m…” I searched for the right words, “I have a roommate.” My gaze caught his and I registered the slightest twitch of an eyebrow. “So it doesn’t pay all the bills, but I think it could. Why do you ask?”

“Well, as it would happen, I’ve been looking for someone to help me out.”

“Help you?” I choked on the hot tea.

“I’m a one-man operation at the moment, but I’m in desperate need of an assistant. I like you. Let’s talk more.” His eyes cut to mine before he pulled a business card from his shirt pocket. His palm slid across the table. My thighs twisted in my chair and the inner walls of my pussy throbbed with want. It wasn’t like I’d gone an inordinately long time without sex — why was I reacting so viscerally to him?

He scribbled something on the back of the card and then unfolded his long, lean body from the chair. “I’m glad I bumped into you.” His rich voice tunneled through my personal space and shot straight between my legs, an inferno igniting that I hadn’t even realized had gone dormant until this moment. “I’ve got to run, but thanks for letting me buy you a drink.” He lifted the coffee in his hands and winked.

A small sigh fell from my lips as I registered his every word and each corresponding sensation. My heart thudding, my eyes burning with desire, my palms itching with need, my core clenching and rolling—wanton and ready—so ready for him to take me any way he’d have me.

I inhaled a slow breath, registering seconds later that he was gone and only his scent was left in his wake. Woodsy with a hint of leather and spice. Intoxicating and heady.

“I didn’t even get his name,” I murmured just as my eyes actually registered the business card he’d left, shining back at me from the center of the table. Elegant and crisp glossy black with the name “Hunter Ellis” in a deep blood red, only a phone number in simple white beneath. I swallowed, lifted it in my hands and turned the card, cognizant of his scent still floating on the air that surrounded me.

Call me was written in a quick, vibrant script with what I assumed was a personal cell number scribbled beneath.

My heart throbbed. Sucking in ragged breaths and squirming in my seat, I sat uncaring at all what his offer may be and knowing with every aroused beat of my heart that I would take him up on it.

two

I paced the polished granite floors with a steaming cup of English breakfast in hand the following morning, thinking of Hunter Ellis. He shouldn’t interest me as much as he did, but he was every lovely trigger I possessed—sexy, inked, and aloof. My favorite combination. But I wasn’t in any place to be thinking relationships. This needed to be all business, and if I wanted to get my own place, I’d need a stable income.

I had to call him.

My eyes followed the letters of his deceptively simple name printed on the business card. Hunter Ellis. Such a simple name for the complex man that stood before me yesterday. But I couldn’t let my personal attraction get in the way of a potentially good business opportunity.

I glanced across the kitchen, nervously sucking on my bottom lip, my thumb hovering over the phone. The clock on the oven read nine exactly. “I guess this is it.” I sucked in a sharp breath and flipped his card over, finding the hastily written digits on the reverse. I punched them in, hands quavering just slightly, before I took a breath and hit the call button.

“Hunter Ellis,” a voice boomed.

“Ah, hi…” I cleared my throat. “Hi, this is Erin Warner, I was just calling you about—”

“Ah, Erin.” His voice immediately clicked to a lower register with recognition, maybe even with pleasure.

“Yes, Erin. Sorry, I forgot to introduce my—”

“Perfectly all right, as I recall I didn’t either. Can I have a car pick you up in thirty?”

“Excuse me?” I stumbled.

“To talk business. I’ve got a meeting at eleven,” he revealed. “It’s now or never, Princess.” One minute he was all “business” and the next all “Princess” — who was this guy?

“I…I don’t even know what we’re talking about!” My blood heated.

“I want you to be my PA. For travel purposes, mostly.”

“You…what? Are you insane? I’m sorry, I mean, I’m not qualified for—”

“Everyone’s qualified to be a personal assistant,” he laughed. “Does hanging out with me all day sound like such a horrible idea?”

“Stop cutting me off!” My voice rose further octaves. His rumble radiated straight through my veins to my core.

“I think you like it.” He was still smiling, I could hear it.

“Wrong. I hate it,” I grit. “And I’m not qualified.”

“If I say you’re qualified, then you’re qualified. So you see, Erin, it doesn’t matter if you think you can do it, I know you can. And as for the other thing…why do your legs shift and your lips turn up in that cute little grin every time I interrupt you?” he purred into the phone.

I sucked in deep lungfuls of breath, gritting my teeth and cursing the day I’d bumped into this man.

“So thirty minutes?” he asked. My cheeks warmed and I huffed into the phone before I could stop myself. His laugh vibrated across the line. “Thirty minutes,” he finished and the line went dead, the sound of his chuckle fading into the background.

Exasperated but intrigued, I sighed and pulled my tea into my hands. A smile split my face and my thighs twisted together thinking of seeing him again. I took a sip before spitting the tea back into my cup. Cold. I grinned again, dumping my tea into the sink and scurrying up the stairs to get ready. Apparently, I had a meeting with a very sexy business owner. It didn’t even occur to me that he hadn’t asked for my address.

“It’s good to see you again,” Hunter, looking as relaxed and sexy as ever, greeted me at his door less than an hour later.

“It’s good to see you too,” I nodded as he let me in. “I’m not sure why I’m here though.” Yes, I am. I need this job. I need financial independence.

“Mm,” he grinned, his eyes, flicking up my body. I knew if I wasn’t careful I could get swallowed up in the spell he cast around him. “I like a girl that gets right to the point.” His smile widened before he took off in long strides through the entry. I followed him into a beautiful foyer filled with photography on every spare wall. Handsome black and whites hung with just the curve of a breast, the silhouette of a nipple, the arch of a back, but more striking was the floor-to-ceiling photo dominating one wall.