Finally His by Doris O'Connor Page A

under his clothes, but the reality… Yes, that was something else entirely. Rock hard abs rippled in movement, as
    Richard Tomlin smiled and turned his attention fully toward her.
    “Was there something you needed me for, Jolie?”
    “No, sir.” She grimaced at her squeak of an answer, and reluctantly tore her gaze away from his muscled torso. Faint amusement showed in Richard’s blue eyes, and Jolie barely resisted the urge to fan her hot cheeks.
    Damn her inherent propensity to blush at the drop of a hat. It made her such a cliché. The redhead with the pumpkin cheeks and freckles to match—if only she had also inherited the quick temper redheads were so famous for.
    Sadly, that seemed to elude her. While Jolie was an expert at simmering inside, she hated making a scene, and rarely said what she thought, until now, it seemed.
    Richard checked his watch and frowned.
    “It’s late. You should be home already.”
    “So should you.”
    What possessed her to say those words she would never know, and she wanted the ground to swallow her whole, but her boss simply smiled. It deepened the blue of his eyes, and made the laughter lines around those spheres more pronounced. He really had the nicest smile, and Jolie grabbed the files to herself harder in an effort not to swoon.
    “Nothing to go home for?” he asked, his voice deepening as he slowly did up the buttons on his dress shirt. Belatedly she realized that he seemed to be changing to go out. No doubt to attend another function of some sort.
    “Erm, not really, sir. I won’t keep you. I just need to … that is…”
    She didn’t know what else to say, considering the files she was clutching to herself, especially with that note pinned to the top, which told their own story. So, she simply walked over to the big mahogany desk, and placed them on top.
    Her heart gave a painful lurch when she saw the picture on his desk. A laughing woman hung on his arm, and whoever she was clearly had to be important to him for her picture to take pride of place in his office.
    Jolie made to move, and froze to the spot, when she came face to face with her boss. Or, rather face to Adam’s apple. Even with her high heels on, he still towered over her. This close to him, his spicy masculine scent enveloped her. He reached around her to detach the note, and his jaw clenched as he read it.
    His eyes flashed in barely disguised anger, when he pinned Jolie further in place with the intensity of his gaze and she swallowed nervously.
    “What is this?” His voice had dropped an octave, giving it a delicious growl, which meant Jolie sank down onto the edge of the desk, because her legs were in danger of giving up. Really, though, that voice. Lord, it made a woman want to drop everything and sink to her knees.
    When she didn’t immediately answer him he grasped her chin to nudge her head up, and Jolie had to remind herself to carry on breathing. This close to him, she could see swirling emotions chase each other across the blue expanse of his eyes. They softened the longer she simply stared up at him, and the hold on her chin turned into a caress, as Richard traced the outline of her lips with his thumb.
    Jolie couldn’t hide her involuntary shudder at the contact, and something hot, dark, and dangerous flashed in Richard’s eyes, something that she recognized only too well. It was the look of a man who liked what he saw. A look she only ever was at the receiving end of when she helped out at the BDSM club she occasionally attended. And none of the Doms she had scened with had ever made her feel quite so … she couldn’t even find the right word for it at this moment. She was too caught up in the flash of awareness which suddenly zinged between them. Did Richard Tomlin recognize the submissive in her, as easily as she did the Dom in him?
    It would explain so much about her boss, if he was. His presence, the way folks jumped to do his bidding, and also, why he kept his private life very