Dirty Rogue: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance(19)

Another twist: I can’t appear to be hung up on her. I can’t appear to always have her on my mind. I can’t appear to be losing sleep because I can’t get thoughts of her smile, her voice, her curves out of my mind. That kiss. That kiss. My cock twitches just thinking about the heat of her mouth on mine, and how if we’d been the only two people in the building, I would have dragged my mouth down the side of her neck, torn off her blazer and that little coral dress underneath, spread her legs, and…

And lost myself entirely.

That’s what I can’t do.

That’s what I can’t do under any circumstances, even for a woman like Quinn Campbell. Even though the world shifted underneath my feet when we kissed. Even though she responded to me like she was born to kiss me, born to touch me, born to f*ck me.

I can’t treat her any differently than all the other women. Three dates maximum.

I laugh out loud. Three dates? How am I supposed to take Quinn on three dates when she works for me? That’ll be a red flag. If we’re going to see each other at all, it’s going to have to be in secret.

She must know that. She must know that kissing and f*cking a client is a surefire way to lose her job.

Of course she knows. She’s f*cking excellent at what she does. That’s why they assigned her to me, New York City’s most notorious playboy.

Yet she didn’t say no. She didn’t draw back. She didn’t fight it.

She pressed into me. She wanted more.

There’s a thought in the back of my mind that’s like the third rail. I don’t want to touch it, but as I exit HRM’s building and climb into the back of the Town Car, it becomes impossible to avoid.

The secret.

My secret.

That’s the real, true risk in all of this. There would be a way to find another PR firm, another, lesser version of Quinn Campbell to arrange media appearances and smooth out my reputation so that Pierce Industries doesn’t have to be ashamed of me.

But they would be—everyone would be—if they knew the truth.

Deep down, I know that if I let Quinn get too close, if I let her break all my rules, break down all my walls, she’ll eventually come to know everything about me.

Everything.

Once she knows everything there is to know about Christian Pierce, she’ll leave, and she’ll never look back.

“Back to the office?” Louis says from the front of the Town Car.

“That’s right,” I tell him. As he pulls the car away from the curb, I close my eyes and let myself go back to that kiss. To the taste of her that still lingers on my lips.

Fuck.

I know this is not going to end well. I know it in my bones.

But I can’t turn away from this inferno of passion.

Instead, I resolve to get burned.





Chapter 15

Quinn





Monday night is sheer agony. I follow my regular routine—I go home to the apartment like nothing is wrong, change out of my coral dress and blazer and pull on the same stretchy yoga pants and tank top that I traveled here in, and then plant myself on Carolyn’s couch.

I’m still reeling from the aftershocks of Christian’s kiss—it feels like bolts of lightning crackling electrical charges through my hands, my feet, my legs. Every so often I catch myself raising my fingertips to my slightly swollen lips. It felt so good to be pressed up against him, to let those carnal urges flash boldly and run wild through my body…

I’m about to flee back into my bedroom to relieve some of the almost unbearable sexual pressure on my own when Carolyn breezes through the front door. She hangs up her purse on one of the hooks in the entryway with a flourish. “Hey, Q!” she says, and I sit up straight.

“Good day at work?” I ask.

“Great day.” She waltzes into the living room with a spring in her step and surveys my outfit. She raises her eyebrows in question. “I see you’re in for the evening. I take it your day wasn’t great?”

I can’t help smiling, because that kiss—oh, my God, that kiss—would have outweighed even the worst day. It was paralyzingly good.

“No way. It was—really good for my first day at headquarters.” I want to tell someone what happened between Christian and me, but I hesitate. Carolyn knows him, and I have a feeling that he won’t want this shared freely among his circle of friends. “The office is really…” I search for the words even as I give her a huge grin. “High energy.”

“That’s awesome!” she says, relief spreading visibly across her face. “I hate to say this, but I—I kind of forgot it was your first day. It seems like you’ve been here forever.”

I laugh out loud. “Is that a good thing?”

“Yes,” my roommate answers sincerely. “Jess would approve.”

She crosses into the kitchen and I hear her open and close a drawer, then I hear her pop a cork from a bottle of wine. She reemerges a minute later with two stemless wine glasses. She kicks off her black high-heeled shoes, and joins me on the couch, letting out a happy sigh as she hands me a drink.

“Cheers!” Carolyn says brightly, before we clink the glasses together, then take a celebratory sip.

“Tell me about your day,” I say once she’s leaned back against the cushions. “What was so great about it?”