Chapter 6 Corinne

Corinne

It’s safe to say that day one with Cooper Kingsley didn’t go the way I’d planned. If I’d known how forward this man would be—or how nervous the sound of his low, demanding voice would make me feel—I would have never taken this job.

I avoided Cooper’s eyes, staring instead at the patch of gray carpet between my feet while a million thoughts raced through my head.

I hardly even recognized myself around him. Maybe it was because it had been so long since anyone propositioned me in that way, but I hadn’t felt like that around a man since . . . well, never, I guess. There was just something about his cool, steady gaze traveling up and down my body, and his large, nimble fingers unbuckling his belt that made my knees weak—and made me want to run ten thousand miles in the opposite direction.

I’d been nervous around attractive men before, their wandering gazes giving me the bad kind of butterflies. But when Cooper started unzipping his pants? I’ve never reacted so viscerally to a man in my life. As insane as it sounded, I felt lit up from the inside out, desired and sexy and oh-my-God turned on.

What kind of offer was that anyway? He wanted to help me overcome my fear of physical intimacy? Who did he think he was? A sex god who’d make my problems disappear with a single wave of the magical wand between his legs?

Yeah, this conversation with Cooper was doing weird things to my head.

I tucked my hair behind my ear, clearing my throat before looking up at him hesitantly. He smiled gently at me in a way that made me feel a little dizzy, so I looked back at the floor and tried to think of something to say.

“Listen, I’m sure you mean well, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to get involved with anyone from work, let alone my boss,” I said, struggling to meet his sympathetic gaze.

Cooper took a step toward me, so I took a step back. He raised his hands in surrender, scrunching his eyebrows together with genuine concern.

“I’m not asking for a relationship, Corinne. I’m not asking for anything, really. I just think we might be able to help each other out. In a strictly physical way,” he added with a slight shrug, his tone bold and clear.

I nodded, rubbing my hands over my forearms. I couldn’t help but wonder what was in it for him. Sex without strings seemed like a pretty good deal for most men, really, but I was suspicious. Why did Cooper Kingsley, of all people, with his tall, imposing frame and sexy, wounded eyes, need to ask his sex-scared employee for a few awkward nights in his bed?

But what threw me off even more was the timing of his offer. Wasn’t Mauve just saying I needed to put myself out there? To loosen up and get laid already?

I looked back up at Cooper and frowned. He was sexy, there was no denying it. I hadn’t been this attracted to someone in years. But I couldn’t silence the little voice in the back of my head screaming that I needed to get out of there. And fast.

“I really don’t think it’s a good idea,” I said again, wrapping my arms around myself.

Cooper nodded and leaned back to sit on the edge of his desk. “I understand,” he said, running his hand over the dark wood.

I turned to leave but before I reached the door, his voice made me turn back around again.

“Just promise me one thing, Corinne. Take some time to think it over. If you gave me a chance to show you what a real physical connection could be like . . . I really don’t think you’d regret it.”

I paused for a moment, biting the inside of my cheek. Finally, I nodded and quickly turned to leave, grateful that the rest of the day would be mostly training and wouldn’t involve any more conversations with my boss. Because, holy shit, I needed out of this man’s office, out of his intense gaze, away from his maddeningly delicious cologne.

Six feet, four inches of cocky asshole, that’s what he was. God, why hadn’t I told him to shove his offer up his ass, and then stormed out?

Because you were intrigued.

I wanted to stab that little voice in my head right in the throat.

It didn’t matter that he was hot. That was immaterial. This was the most ridiculous proposal.

Hating myself for admitting I thought he was attractive, and hating myself even more that I’d admitted my unsavory sexual past, I pushed our entire conversation from my brain and sidled up to Alyssa, ready to get back to work.

“You okay now?” she asked.

“Perfectly fine. We were covering the annual budget, remember?” I prompted her.

“Right.”

If only I could get my brain to focus on the spreadsheet in front of me instead of the gorgeous man on the other side of the wall.