Want Me by Jo Leigh

be doing this.
    “I don’t want to stop.”
    She stepped closer to him, letting more of her body press against his. “No one’s asking you to.”
    “But—”
    “Not yet,” she whispered as her eyes were closing. “Please.”
    “No, not yet,” he repeated before he kissed her again.
    It didn’t seem possible, but the second kiss was better. She could feel how she affected him, and not only by the passion of his kiss, the slide of his tongue, but also by the pressure on her hip from his burgeoning arousal.
    “Shannon,” he whispered as he pulled back, then his mouth was on hers again, as if that tiny distance had been too much to handle.
    His hands had grown as possessive as his lips, running over her shoulders, her back, the curve of her bottom.
    She smiled against his mouth, right in the middle of the kiss. Then she pushed her hips forward. Nothing major, not a bump or a grind, just a yes, permission to move again, to keep stealing her breath with his desire.
    How she wished there weren’t all these clothes between them. She had been aching to touch his bare chest since that moment in the—
    A knock on her door made her gasp and jump back as if it had been a gunshot.
    Somehow Nate was a good foot away from her, his eyes panicked. She had the feeling she appeared as guilty as he did. Fortunately for her, she didn’t have an obvious erection to worry about. “Sit down,” she said.
    He nodded, went around her desk. Sitting wasn’t enough, he had to cross his legs.
    She pulled her chair back, then ran her hands down her blazer and slacks. She exhaled, hoping like hell she wasn’t as red as a beet as she opened the door.
    Brady barely glanced at her. “I could use your help,” he said, then turned and headed back to the floor.
    Shannon closed the door, leaned her head against it and tried to catch her breath.
    “I’ll go in a minute,” Nate said.
    “Okay,” she said. “Thanks for…”
    He cleared his throat. “I’ll see you later.”
    She left her office, remembering at the last second to take her earplugs with her.
    All she could think was that she’d just made the biggest mistake ever. How was it possible to feel like this after one kiss?
    * * *
    T WO HOURS LATER N ATE STILL couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss. He hadn’t planned it. If he had it wouldn’t have happened in her office with dozens of people around. But then maybe that had been a good thing. Or else he doubted he could’ve stopped. They both sure as hell had some thinking to do.
    He came up on an old haunt of his and Danny’s—the basketball court three blocks down from the Fitzgeralds’—amazed that at this time of day it wasn’t jammed with kids. He couldn’t remember ever finding the place empty. It didn’t make sense, until he climbed over the fence and almost broke his neck landing on a crack in the asphalt.
    The court was situated in a corner field belonging to a family who owned a bunch of drugstores. They’d turned it into a basketball court, put in lights for night games, built risers, made it nice. There’d been never-ending graffiti on the two walls, and the big fence had gone up when Nate had been fourteen. But everyone in the neighborhood played there. Kept things civil.
    Guess the goodwill had run out. Or maybe a basketball court didn’t mean all that much when people were having trouble feeding their families. It still made him sad, and he debated chucking it in and going to Molly’s for a beer instead.
    What the hell. It was a Friday at four-thirty, so maybe he’d shoot some hoops, see if he could get a game of one-on-one. If not, he’d still burn up some energy. He’d always done his best thinking while sweating.
    He tossed his jacket on a low riser, grateful he’d brought the basketball he’d found in Myles’s room. Dribbling took on a whole new dimension as he zigzagged to miss the cracks and gouges. At least the hoop was still in play, even if the backboard was half-gone.
    He stood where he