All He Wants by Melanie Shawn Page B

of all that.”
    Billy flexed his hands at his sides. Saying the wrong thing wasn’t the only thing he was fighting. The intense attraction that he’d felt for years for the dark haired beauty in front of him had now reached new levels. The desire, the need to reach out and touch her, to feel her soft skin, to kiss her full lips was so overwhelming it was unbearable.
    Oblivious to his torment she continued, “He needs this time. He needs the rest. I know you don’t agree with me, and he wouldn’t either, but I’m right. You just have to trust me.”
    Reaching out she placed her hand on his forearm and the sensation of her fingertips brushing his skin sent a ripple of arousal and awareness spreading through him like a wildfire.
    His heart slammed in his chest as he looked into her pleading eyes. The fragile vulnerability that he saw there was making it a thousand times harder not to pull her into his arms.
    Somehow managing to keep his arms, lips, and hands to himself, he assured her, “I trust you.”
    Billy knew that those were not the three words that most people waited their lives to hear or say, but they were to him. To him trust was right up there with love. Not that he’d ever been in love. At least not in the forever, soul mate, one-and-only kind. Trust held just as much of a sacred place to him, if not more. From what he’d seen people fell in and out of love easily, frequently, and without much discernment. Trust was earned. Trust was built. Trust was intimate.
    He heard her phone buzzing but instead of returning to her desk, Maxi remained standing in front of him. He had no idea if the reason she didn’t leave was because she knew the magnitude of the meaning behind his words, but she definitely looked affected by them. Her lips parted and her eyes dropped to his mouth.
    His willpower was dissolving faster than salt in boiling water. Like magnets being pulled towards each other he lowered his head as she lifted hers. Rational thought slipped away as his mouth hovered above hers. Need coiled in him like a cobra waiting to strike. The only thing he knew was he needed to taste her, needed to feel her lips beneath his.
    The sounds of footsteps approaching the office door made their way into his consciousness and snapped Billy out of the lust haze that had settled over him. Although he doubted that whoever was coming was dangerous, instinct kicked in and Billy wrapped his arm around Maxi as he shifted to her left so that he was standing in front of her.
    “I’m sorry to,” Martin spoke loudly as he pushed open the office door but stopped short when he saw Billy, “interrupt.” Martin finished with a smile that did not look like he was sorry at all as he tilted his head, looking past Billy to where Maxi was standing.
    Billy felt Maxi tense as she stepped forward, clearing her throat before asking, “What’s up?”
    Martin’s brow raised and his mouth turned up in a smirk.
    “What do you need?” she quickly rephrased.
    “Detective Grover is on line five. He tried you on your cell, but didn’t get an answer. He says he needs to speak to you.”
    “My cell?!” Maxi rushed to her desk.
    “Oh and Alan Turner is on three, he does not sound happy and says Ricco wants to speak to you. Good luck,” Martin mumbled as he shut the door.
    Billy had never met Ricco Kingsley or his manager Alan Turner but he already disliked them. From what he’d heard and seen today, they treated Maxi like shit. Every time she was on a call with one of them, Billy had wanted to grab the phone and tell them exactly where they could shove their complaints and issues.
    Grabbing the landline off the desk, Maxi picked up a call and Billy wondered whom she answered first.
    His own phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out to see that it was Nate.
    “What do you got?” Billy asked assuming that Nate had gained some headway on Maxi’s hacked work account or where the feed was going from the cameras that had been put in her