All He Really Needs(11)

But from his point of view, it only brought her closer. She’d been sitting not far from him but still out of reach. Now he was easily able to lasso her arm and pull her toward him so she stood between his outstretched legs.

“I’m serious,” she insisted, but there was no force to her words and—as if she could read his mind—her gaze dropped briefly to his mouth.

“I know you are. That’s what makes it cute.” He widened his stance and pulled her close enough so that she was pressed against the vee of his legs, the juncture of her thighs against the hard length of his erection.

It felt so good having her there, so right. He inhaled sharply and was immediately hit with the scent of her. Sydney never wore perfume, but she favored a shampoo that smelled like coconut and lime. He was used to the smell of her hair, the way it mixed with the naturally sweet smell of her own skin and made him think of eating pancakes in bed on a perfect, lazy Saturday morning. But today she’d showered at his place and instead of her normal tropical, fruity smell, when he inhaled, he got a hit of Sydney layered under the smell of his own soap. Maybe it shouldn’t have been sexy, but it was. He felt it like a punch in the gut. She’d been in his shower mere hours ago. The smell of her only reinforced every instinct he had. She was his. Whether she knew it or not, she belonged to him.

Which made her edict that they stop sleeping together all the more funny.

He gave in to the urge to slip his hand along her jaw and to pull her closer.

Her mouth parted and she sucked in a quick breath. Anticipation. But instead of kissing her, he buried his nose in the hair right behind her ear and drew in a deep breath, just taking in the scent of her because he wanted to remember forever how she smelled in that instant. To burn it into his memory.

He felt a little shudder go through her and then he couldn’t resist running a trail of kisses up under her ear and across her cheek to her mouth. Then his lips were moving over hers in a soul-searing kiss. The kind that almost ended up with him ripping her clothes off and devouring her until she came apart in his arms.

Unfortunately, he didn’t think sex with his assistant would be a very efficient way to spend his first afternoon as CEO. Besides, even with the door closed, there was always the risk they’d be interrupted.

It was a struggle, but he mustered enough restraint to lift his mouth from hers and nudge her hips away from his before he lost all control. For a long moment she just stood there, face tilted up, lips moistened and parted, like she was so dazed she hadn’t even realized he was no longer kissing her.

He smiled again, purposefully making light of the irresistible pull she held over him. “Well, then, you let me know how that goes for you.”

She blinked. “How what goes?”

“That whole not sleeping together thing you have planned.”

The space between her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Then she backed up a step and jerked her hands away from his hips. “Well, this was hardly a fair test.”

“Right, sweetheart.” He bopped the tip of her nose with his finger. “Let me know if you devise a fairer test than that. Meanwhile, I’ll be in my new office.”

He loved seeing her shocked expression as he sauntered into the office that used to be Dalton’s and shut the door behind him.

Once he was alone in the room, however, he blew out a long, slow breath.

When it came to running Cain Enterprises, he wasn’t nearly as confident as he’d let Sydney believe. He wasn’t worried about the day-to-day stuff, but the prospect of dealing with the board damn near had him breaking out in a cold sweat.

The board of directors that Hollister had amassed for Cain Enterprises was a bunch of vultures. If they knew what had happened in the past couple of weeks, they’d be circling for sure. First, Hollister—who had never displayed any sign of weakness to his business opponents—had made a very irrational decision when he’d sent his sons on this quest. The whole company hung in the balance as a result.

And now that Dalton had resigned, from the outside, it had to look like they’d all lost their minds. The board members weren’t fools. If they knew how unstable things really were, they’d start swooping down to peck out bits of flesh from what remained of his inheritance.

Right now, the company needed strong leadership more than anything. The company needed someone who could command respect. Unfortunately, Griffin knew he wasn’t that man.

He was all too aware of his limitations as a leader. He lacked his father’s cutthroat business tactics and his brother’s stolid determination. Perhaps even more importantly, he had no interest in running Cain Enterprises.