Page 8 of Burning with Desire (Forbidden Heat 1)

“Don’t play games with me. What is that man like?”

; “He is nice, and sweet. And his little girl is the most darling little thing. I think I’m really going to enjoy working there.”

“Well, that’s fantastic news. So how sexy is this daddy?”

I blushed. What the hell? “What?”

“Yeah, that daddy. I’m sure he could take you under his wing and show you a thing or two.”

“What? How do you even know? I haven’t actually told you anything about him.”

“But you’ve been talking about him and Becky has told you that he was fine, right?”

I sighed. Tessa wouldn’t give up on this. “Yes, he is very handsome.”

“Nice. What about those buns? How are they?”

“His buns are fine,” I replied a bit, wishing she would drop this.

“Don’t hold out on me. I need some more details.”

“You are obsessed,” I said.

“I’ve only got one set of buns in my life. I sometimes need to fantasize about others.”

“Ok, not that I actually checked his out, but they were fine and tight.”

“Oh, that sounds wonderful,” Tessa replied.

“That is so sad. You need help,” I said.

“I know this. But what else can you tell me about this beautiful man? Does he have those luscious lips and dreamy eyes?”

“Look, there is nothing that is going to happen between us. He is my boss. I can’t allow anything romantic to develop.”

“You realize that you just admitted that you would love something to happen between the two of you.”

I sighed. Tessa was sharp at picking up on how I really felt about things. I could never get anything past her. And she was tenacious. She would probe on things until I opened up whether I wanted to or not. That was a gift that she had.

“Well, he is handsome, charming, and a great guy. Of course, he’d be the type of guy I’d love to go out with, but this does not change the fact that he is my boss. I really need this job and I can’t risk doing anything that might mess that up.”

“You are always worried about the silliest things,” Tessa said. “If this guy really likes you and he is this nice guy that you and Becky both claim him to be, then it shouldn’t matter.”

“But what if something goes wrong? Or what if I’m totally getting the wrong idea and he has no interest in me? I might make a total fool out of myself.”

Tessa licked her lips and stared me in the face with a wry grin. “You think that he has some interest in you? Did he give you some signs?”

I blushed again. “I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe I just wanted to have and feel those signs when there weren’t any. I’m not sure. I thought I felt a bit of a flirty glance or two, maybe a slight awkwardness when he first saw me. But I’m not really sure.”

“Ok,” she said. “That’s cool. You have to follow your guts on things like this. Take me and Marty. I might never have known he was totally down with me if I didn’t make that first move and let him know that we had a cool thing going on.”

“You are crazy,” I said. “You just have this fearless confidence. Most of us aren’t blessed with that.”

“Well, you should have been. It’s easy to get. You just have to let go of all of your guiding principles and plunge into life head first. There is no time in this world for questioning something you want to do.”

I laughed as I headed into the kitchen to grab some food. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich Ricky had made wasn’t quite enough for me, but it had been delicious. I could remember the way his strong, capable hands glided over the soft, white bread as he worked. I loved the way he spread the peanut butter across the bread creating slight little grooves in it. There was something sexy and erotic about it.