She sucked briefly on her bottom lip, then took a fast breath, blew it out and straightened her shoulders. She lifted her head and smiled at Jake.

“So, Shelby, is this your boyfriend?” Susan, Andrew’s secretary, sat down beside her.

Shelby smiled at Susan, a bit surprised but grateful for her new friendliness. “Yes. Susan, this is Jake Magill. Jake, Susan.” Susan introduced her husband, Steve.

“I didn’t know you were seeing someone,” Susan said, and Shelby knew exactly what she was thinking. She was thinking about Shelby’s long coffee breaks and closed door meetings with Andrew. “How long have you two been going out?”

Good thing they’d gotten together and covered this last night. They managed to answer Susan’s questions and chat with the other couple. Another couple joined them and even though the conversation became shop talk, Jake was able to participate with his technology background. In fact, he charmed the other people so much, they seemed to be relaxing and warming to her too. Shelby had to shake her head. Man, if this was what it took to get her coworkers to like her…well, it’s not like she could’ve come up with a fake date before this, but her gratitude toward Jake continued to grow. Dammit again.

After they ate, they mingled with other coworkers. These were good people, a lot of people she liked and respected, one of the reasons she enjoyed working at Gold Shield. She just wanted to fit in with them and not be the subject of icky gossip.

She and Jake schmoozed with some of the higher-ups from the company in a relaxed social atmosphere, watched the band that played, danced in the grass as the sun set and the crowd grew smaller. Families with small children left, leaving only the adults, and eventually the sky darkened, stars twinkling above, and the music grew slower and sultrier, accompanied by hushed waves washing onto the beach not far away. Jake had done his duty and they could leave, but still they danced in the warm summer evening.

Andrew and Gianna danced together too, several couples away from them, Shelby fully aware of the glances the two of them kept shooting at her and Jake. So she linked her arms around Jake’s neck and pressed her body against him. A few beers had mellowed her, and hell, his body felt so damn good against hers. Those troublesome sexual urges that so often got her into trouble were rising up inside her, making her pelvis feel full and achy, making her breasts need to press into his chest.

“You’re just a little thing, aren’t you?” Jake set his hands on her hips as they moved to the music and smiled his sexy smile down at her, his dark eyes heavy-lidded and sensual. They were both putting on a good act, but Shelby knew she was kidding herself. This was no act. She was so attracted to Jake. More than attracted. His charming personality, the easy way he talked to her coworkers, just the way he’d stepped in to help her and how he’d been so convincing in his role as her boyfriend drew her to him.

She could pretend this was all just an act. Yeah. When the evening ended and they parted, Jake’s favor over and done with, she’d be fine. But right now, pretending was so much fun.

“I hope Andrew doesn’t give you a hard time at work next week,” Jake murmured, a small crease between his thick, straight eyebrows.

“I’m hoping he’ll just leave me alone. I mean, I still need to work with him. Well, you know what I mean.”

“I know what you mean, Shelby Rose.”

The way he called her that made her go all soft inside. They shared a slow smile, gazes fastened on each other as they danced.

They drank another beer, chatted a bit more, danced again. As the evening grew cooler, Shelby slipped on a hoodie she’d brought. She almost forgot to be aware of where Andrew was, and whether he was watching them. As the crowd dwindled, she looked at Jake with regret.

“We could leave now,” she said softly. “I think our mission is accomplished.”

“Yeah. Okay.” He nodded and set down the cola he’d requested instead of beer last time. “I’ll drive you back to your car.”

“Oh. Yeah.” She hesitated. “You know, that wasn’t very smart of me, but I think I’ve had too much to drink.” She bit her bottom lip as she met his eyes. “I completely forgot I had to drive.”

“That’s okay. I’ll just drive you home then. Will you be able to get your car tomorrow?”

Things were pleasantly blurry as they walked hand in hand toward the parking lot. “Yeah, I’ll get it somehow. But thanks for driving me home. Geez, I feel so stupid.”

“You are far from stupid, Shelby Rose.”

“I like how you call me that,” she confessed. He opened the passenger door of his Audi SUV, and she paused. “Man, this is a high vehicle.”

“It is for an elf,” he said. “Here.” He lifted her and sat her on the passenger seat, then closed her door.

“Hey!” But he was walking around the vehicle to his side. She glared at him when he slid in and he grinned.

“I’m teasing.” He leaned over and brushed his mouth across hers, sending tingles cascading over her whole body. She blinked at him, then remembered to fasten her seatbelt.

He parked on the street in front of her apartment building in the quiet residential neighborhood and walked with her to the door. As she paused at the door, the shadows of the tall queen palm shifting moonlight over and around them, he slipped his fingers beneath her chin and lifted her face. She stared back at him, her gaze moving over his dark eyes, crinkled at the corners as he smiled, the cleft in the middle of his chin, the sexy curve of his lower lip. Oh. Her breath whooshed out of her.

Heat expanded, the air around them feeling like it might ignite, and then they were wrapped in each other’s arms, mouths fused together in a hot, impetuous kiss, bold, frantic and hungry.

His arms crushed her to him, her purse thunked to the ground and her feet lifted as he hauled her higher and tighter to his body.

“Jesus,” he muttered against her mouth, before taking it again in another devouring kiss. She kissed him back, mindless, frenzied. The sexual tension that had been smoldering inside her all evening burst into flames. Heat swept over her.

His tongue dragged over hers, licked her bottom lip, then his mouth sealed over hers again. An intense ache bloomed low in her belly, and she slid her hands into his hair, holding his head, and she kissed him back, a full-mouthed, full-bodied kiss that had more heat exploding between them.

Eventually, she pulled back, panting, heart hammering, and gasped, “Wait.”

He made a sound like a groan.

“We don’t have to do this,” she wheezed. “This was supposed to be an act.”

He made a derisive noise. “Yeah. It was supposed to be. But don’t tell me you don’t feel it too, Shelby Rose.”

His hands tightened on her ass, pulling her against him, and she felt his erection against her belly. Holy crap, he was big. She’d made him that hard. And he’d made her so wet her panties were soaked. You couldn’t fake that kind of reaction. She gazed up at him, uncertain of what to do now.

“Invite me in,” he ordered softly.

She licked her lips. She wanted to, she really, really did, but she’d made this mistake before. Slept with guys too soon, because they got her all hot and bothered, because dammit she liked men, and she loved sex. Her friends had analyzed to death her tendency to fall into bed with men and she knew it had to do with wanting attention from them, and she was determined she was done with all that. But all those old doubts fell away when she studied him, remembering what he’d done for her that evening, how he’d helped her, how he’d really cared that she fixed things with her boss, and a tender warmth spread through her. She was lost.

“Okay.” She bent to pick up her purse where she’d dropped it, but he was faster scooping it up and handing it to her. She took it, dragged her eyes off his face, and led the way through the small lobby toward the elevator.