Her Impossible Boss by Cathy Williams Page A

respond. Shorn of inhibitions, Tess was his willing student. She wanted to be guided. She wanted to give him as much pleasure as he gave her. She was guiltily, horribly aware that she wanted a great deal more than he probably suspected, but for the moment she was greedy enough to take what was on offer.
    Their bodies were slick when they were sated. In a minute Matt would have to leave. He would talk to Samantha in the morning. He told her this as she lay against him, her body naturally curving against his as though it had been fashioned just for that purpose. His admission that it would be an uphill task made her smile.
    ‘Talking’s not that difficult,’ she breathed with drowsy contentment. ‘Communication is the key thing when it comes to all relationships. I know that sounds like a cliché, but I think it happens to be true. Maybe…’ she tested the water ‘…that’s why your relationship with Vicky didn’t work out…’
    Matt shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter why my relationship with Vicky didn’t work out.’
    Tess thought that it mattered to
her.
He had married the perfect person and it hadn’t worked out. He had gone out with the perfect replacement and that hadn’t worked out. Amongst her tangled thoughts she figured that if only she could pinpoint
why
the perfect exes hadn’t worked out, then maybe—just maybe—she could avoid the mistakes her predecessors had unwittingly made.
    She refused to accept that the most wonderful physical and emotional connection she had ever made with another human being was destined to be short-lived.
    ‘She seemed very nice…’ Tess persisted. ‘And you must have had a lot in common.’
    ‘Look.’ Matt propped himself up and turned on his side to face her. ‘Drop it, Tess. It’s of no importance. Like I told you, I took my eye off the ball with Vicky. She started getting ideas.’
    His face was shuttered. He was locking her out of this conversation.
    ‘I guess it’s understandable.’ Tess tried to laugh. She was no good when it came to playing underhand games. She would have been hopeless at persuading a confession out of anyone, and it showed in the shaky tremor of her voice when she spoke.
    Matt looked at her narrowly. Her upturned face was sweetly, delectably soft and vulnerable, and a prickle of unease curled in him. But the touch of her was so heady, and the feel of her was like a shot of adrenaline to his jaded palate.
    In short, she was irresistible. But just in case.
    ‘Vicky wanted a happy ending,’ he said bluntly. ‘It wasn’t going to happen. I’ve been married once and I lived to rue the day. The only good thing to emerge from that disaster was my daughter. I’m not a candidate for a repeat performance. I’m telling you this because I don’t want
you
to get any ideas.’
    ‘You mean crazy ideas like Vicky got?’ It was like being sliced in two. The path was forked and she was being given a choice. Follow the road he indicated orelse walk the other way. If she had thought that a fleeting glimpse of his vulnerability indicated hint of softness, then she had been mistaken. The dark, fathomless eyes locked onto hers were deadly serious, and Tess very quickly made her decision.
    Take what he was offering. She had fallen in love with him and she couldn’t walk away. When had she ever been able to do anything by halves? She had given herself to him completely, and if it made no sense then that was something she would have to learn to deal with.
    ‘I guess…well…she’s in her thirties. Maybe she could hear her biological clock ticking away. But not me! At twenty-three, life is still a grand adventure, and I don’t want you to think that I’m going to start demanding anything of you—because I’m not.’
    It would be a disaster if he found out what she felt about him. One night of passion and a woman confessing undying love would be his nightmare. He would run a mile and he wouldn’t look back. She would cease being the girl who could