If You Can't Stand the Heat... (Harlequin Kiss) (23 page)

Ellie and Ashnee, who’d instantly bonded with Jack’s mother Rae, danced on the spot. ‘That’s fabulous news. I’m so happy they’re here. Where are they?’ Ellie demanded, looking around at the sizeable crowd.

‘Over there. With your other present—Mitch. He flew back from New York with me.’

Jack gestured to the crowd to the right of them and Ellie’s heart hitched when Mitchell raised his hand and waved it in her direction. Her dad was here...finally...at one of the most important occasions of her life. Ellie felt her heart stumble. This was Jack’s doing, she knew. She
so
appreciated the fact that he’d gone to the effort of getting him here, that he thought that Mitch being here would make her happy. And it did—sort of. She’d invited Mitch but never expected him to come. It was such a relief to know that she didn’t need her dad’s approval any more; she’d finally accepted that her father wasn’t father material and his lack in that department had nothing to do with her.

He was—had been—a shocking father, but she could forgive him anything since he’d sent Jack into her life.

‘Thank you.’ Ellie rose up on her toes to kiss Jack’s mouth.

‘Pleasure.’ Jack ran a hand over her hair as the Master of Ceremonies began his speech. Jack bent his head to whisper in her ear. ‘I love you. I’m proud of what you’ve done, and it’s fabulous. But...’

‘But?’

‘But keep the speeches short, sweetheart, so that I can pull you into a pantry and kiss the hell out of you.’

‘That’s all you want to do?’ Ellie looked at him and shook her head, eyes dancing. ‘Damn, I must be getting boring! Got to watch that...’

Ellie grinned as Jack’s shout of laughter followed her all the way to the podium.

True happiness, she decided, really was laughing and living and loving well. She tossed Jack a grin as she launched into her very, very,
very
short speech.

After all, she had her man to kiss...

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from
The Rebound Guy
by Fiona Harper.

We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin KISS story.

You think of flirting as an art form!
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Sexy, contemporary romance stories
for today’s fun, fearless female.

The series debuts on August 15, 2013, with
after
burn
by America’s premier author of provocative fiction

and continues with two Red-Hot Reads available in ebook format each month.

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Cake

by
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Lauren Dane

Fearless

by
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Tawny Weber

On sale October 15, 2013

Everything You
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by HelenKay Dimon

Naked Sushi

by Jina Bacarr

Pre-order your copies today wherever ebooks are sold.

ONE

Kelly’s fingers froze
on her keyboard as a pair of warm hands rested on her shoulders. Around her the air stilled, but outside the office door the day went on as normal—the usual dull murmur of phones ringing, footsteps on the carpet, the high-pitched giggle of one of the secretaries.

‘I’m almost finished typing this report,’ she told the man standing behind her and shrugged her shoulders slightly. He didn’t take the hint. Instead he leaned closer. She could feel the warmth of his cheek near hers and smell his expensive aftershave, yet he didn’t turn and look at her. Instead he joined her in staring at the computer screen. It
could
have been innocent.

‘I can see that,’ he said softly, and his breath tickled her ear.

Kelly pressed the print button—no matter that she hadn’t sorted out the formatting in the last couple of paragraphs—and pushed her chair back so she could slide out from underneath him and walk over to the printer on the other side of the room.

‘Accounting called,’ she said nonchalantly, deliberately not catching his eye. ‘Shall I email a copy of this through to them?’

She could hear him walking, but she wasn’t quite sure where he was. The last thing she wanted was to get ambushed again. That meant she needed to get a fix on him, and the only reliable way to do that was to look up.

Blast. She’d only been temping for Will Payne for a week and already she knew he took the most ridiculous things as encouragement. Eye contact being one of them. Not that he’d done anything truly inappropriate yet. There’d been the odd look, the occasional touch. Everything had been...borderline.

Some temps might have been overjoyed. He was in his mid-thirties, attractive, well-spoken and supposedly well-educated, but there was something about him... She glanced up, but avoided catching his gaze. He was walking towards her and when he came close enough, she handed him the pages the printer had spat out, using them as a shield.

‘I knew you’d be an asset to my team as soon as you walked through that office door,’ he said smoothly. ‘How about we go out for lunch to celebrate?’

Kelly blinked. ‘Celebrate what?’

The report? That had taken all of forty-five minutes to sling together. Hardly worthy of a champagne toast.

‘How about a long and successful working relationship?’

She swallowed. She was quite keen to improve her working relationship with the company—the HR manager had hinted they might be able to use her for at least another couple of months if she fitted in—but she’d rather keep her current boss at arm’s length. Literally.

‘I have a sandwich in my bag,’ she said. ‘Ham and mustard.’

Payne just smiled at her. He was enjoying this, damn him. Oh, she
so
wanted to tell him where he could shove his report—using graphs and pie charts and bulleted lists—but she needed this job. So instead she smiled and handed him the jumble of pages that had followed the others out of the printer.

‘Come on,’ Payne drawled, stepping close enough for the sheets in Kelly’s hand to curl back towards her chest. ‘I know what you divorced girls are like...you get a taste of freedom and you go wild. Go on, live a little....’

Okay, so Will Payne had decided today was the day that
borderline
would be a distant speck in his rear-view mirror. Not good. Kelly clamped the pages to her chest, creating some space between them, and shook her head. ‘Not my style,’ she said politely. ‘Really.’

He just grinned at her as if he didn’t believe a word of it.

‘It’s true,’ she said and ducked past him again, this time to place the now-crumpled second half of the report on his desk. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Payne, but I think it’s better for everyone if we keep our relationship strictly professional.’

Wow. Her brother would have been proud of her. She’d been as direct as always, but she’d actually managed to say what she wanted to say without using her tongue like a flame thrower. Wonders would never cease.

‘Better for whom?’ he said, leaning against the printer and looking her up and down in a manner that made her skin tingle. And not in a good way.

‘Your wife, perhaps?’ she said, looking him straight in the eye.

His expression faltered.

Watch it, Kelly. Just keep it inside for a few more minutes. Then you can take your lunch break, run up to HR and stage a sit-in until they agree to move you somewhere else in the company. There was no way she was going to be able to outrun Will Payne for the next few months, and she shouldn’t have to even try.

She’d been telling the truth. She hadn’t had any time for men since her divorce—she’d had much more serious stuff to deal with. And, to be honest, this man reminded her a little too much of her ex. He’d had that same swagger, that same self-assurance. The same urge to flirt wired into his DNA.

‘I think I’ll take my lunch now, if you don’t mind,’ she said, backing away.

He strolled towards her, a predatory look in his eye. ‘Come on, Kelly...’ he said, lowering his eyelids slightly. ‘You look like a girl who knows how to have a little fun.’

Kelly was close to his large, rather nice oak desk. She circled it, feeling a lot better once the solid hunk of wood was between them, but he followed her round and placed his hand on her arm, before letting it slide down the sleeve of her blouse. She slipped away before his knuckles could graze the side of her left breast, quickly completing her circuit of the desk. She hoped desperately he’d drop into his high-backed leather chair when he reached it, but he didn’t take his eyes off her. He also didn’t stop walking.

Seriously? He was
actually
on the verge of chasing her round the desk?

She didn’t want to lose this job, but there were lengths she was not prepared to go to to keep working at Aspire Sports, even if it was a temp’s dream—a vibrant young company that was going places, with good wages and enough departments to mean she really might manage to skip from one to another, filling gaps as needed. Another few months of this kind of salary and she’d be able to save enough to finally start looking for a house, then she and the boys would have a real home again.

But thinking of a new house just reminded her of the old one she’d been forced to move out of, and just how callous Tim had been about it, how he’d been too busy enjoying his so-called freedom to think about the upheaval he’d caused their two children. Kelly started to march rather than walk, to glare rather than stare back neutrally. This man was cut from the same cloth, and she found herself channelling all the unresolved anger from the last few years in his direction.

He was back on his side of the desk now, beside his chair, and she was on the side nearest the door. She stopped walking, braced her hands on the desk and leaned forward just a little.

‘Listen,
Mister
Payne. I’m not interested. I’ve said so repeatedly, and your behaviour is totally inappropriate. If you don’t stop trying to get your grubby little hands on me, I’m going to lodge a formal complaint.’

One side of his mouth hitched up, then he started to speak.

She decided not to wait to hear what he had to say—or give him a chance to start moving again. She leaned forward, forgetting that it would give him an even better view of her cleavage. ‘You just stay on your side of the desk, or else!’