Brandon had kissed her. She would’ve remembered.
“Oh yes,” she said with another sigh as she forced herself to take another bite of her dinner. She would’ve remembered a kiss like that.
So how could she convince her boss to let her practice her kissing with him some more? Roger would be here next week so it wasn’t as if he would be forced to keep kissing her forever. It would only be for a few days. She needed to make it clear that lessons in romance and seduction would be all she needed. The more skilled she became at romance and seduction, the better her chances would be of putting Roger in his place.
Brandon could appreciate that, right?
Still, it was a dilemma. Brandon was her boss. If she was smart—and she was —she’d just forget about Brandon and use her own best instincts to attract Roger.
What instincts? she wondered, and grimaced. When it came to romance, she had none!
As she took another bite of chicken and rice, she realized there had to be a website somewhere with instructions she could follow. There was a website for everything else, so why not seduction?
Oh, but it would be so much better to learn from a real live expert. And Brandon was indeed an expert. She couldn’t help thinking that if mere kissing had given her this much perspective into her problems with Roger, then having sex with Brandon would be absolutely revelatory.
“What?” She jumped off her chair and wrapped her arms around herself. Where had that thought come from?
“You stop thinking about that right now,” she admonished herself as she grabbed her plate and glass and carried them to the sink. “You’ll just embarrass yourself.” Again.
But now that she’d thought it, she couldn’t get the image out of her mind. What in the world would happen if she and Brandon ever had sex?
“Oh, no,” she said, gasping. What if they had sex and she found out she really was bad at it? How could she face Brandon at work? She would have to quit.
But wait. What if she was really good at it? Would he think she’d been lying about her lack of experience? Would he assume she’d been having sex all along, with every guy in town? How could she face him at work? She would have to quit.
And oh, dear Lord. What if Brandon was no good at sex? Would she have to lie and tell him it was wonderful? He was her boss, after all. She couldn’t exactly tell him he was a loser in bed. She would have to quit.
She moaned and took another sip of water.
“Okay, that’s it,” she said, as she tapped her fingers on the counter anxiously. “Just forget the whole thing.”
This whole kissing thing was too much to think about. She had to figure out some other way to deal with Roger. She would explain to Brandon tomorrow that she’d been wrong. He would have to forgive her. And she was certain that he would. After all, before today, she’d never done anything to cause her employer the least bit of consternation. Tomorrow, after she explained to Brandon that her brief lapse into lunacy was over, everything would be fine. They’d go back to normal. She would assure Brandon that he would never have to worry about inappropriate behavior from her again.
And a year from now, she would look back and be able to laugh over this momentary ripple in her otherwise unblemished record.
The doorbell chimed and she jumped.
Checking her wristwatch, she wondered if it might be Housekeeping at the door. She’d asked them not to stop by with those yummy evening chocolates anymore. But tonight, maybe she’d take one. Anything to provide a diversion from her disconcerting thoughts. She ran to open the door and her resolutions of a moment ago flitted away.
“Brandon,” she whispered.
“We need to talk.”
Brandon stared at Kelly and could no longer remember why he’d thought it would be a good idea to come by her room.
After a long run around the hotel grounds after work, then another brief conference call with his brothers to finalize arrangements
Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child