CHAPTER FOUR

His kiss was intoxicating, combined with feel of his sexy, powerful body, he had her wanting more, craving more than was possible. 

His soft but firm lips glided against hers almost roughly, his tongue thrusting into the recess of her mouth without waiting for permission. 

He wrapped her in a cloud of dangerous desire, brought her forbidden pleasure. 

But the image of his eyes so like the one she longed to stare into again brought a pang of guilt with it. 

She broke the kiss, missing the warmth that came with his fiery kiss and his arousing tongue almost immediately.

His hand was like a steel band around her, still pressing her to him as he raised his head to question her action with his eyes. 

She shied away from offering any explanation.

How do you explain to your super hot boss who suddenly is very interested in initiating intimate contacts with you, even though some of them are out of anger, that while he was plundering the depth of your mouth with his tongue, you'd been thinking about another guy. 

One who came with a decade old memory. 

She tried to move out of the circle of his arm but his strong hold wouldn't let her take so much as a step back. 

His eyes were trying to find God knows what on her face while the fingers of his free hand brushed against her lips, sensitive and slightly swollen from his kiss. 

This Jordan McGrath here was a version that was still new to her. He was different from the man she met the first day she'd walked into this office. 

If only this moment could last forever, with him looking at her in that way that made her cream her panties. 

But something this good never lasts. 

Never.

The doors slid open as Lisa walked into their office. 

Jojo turned and colored at being caught in an intimate position with the big bad boss by the one person who hated her most in this entire building. 

Jordan was distracted for a milli second by the intrusion and that was all the time she needed to slip out of his now loosened grip and dash back to her work space. 

She blushed deeper in embarrassment when she was met with Lisa's condescending glare. 

The blonde somehow managed to look like she despised her more in that moment than ever. 

She wondered if there was an underlying story to that.

Well, there went her chance of ever making peace with the only other human up here that she could have bonded with. 

"Why are you in here, Monroe?"

Jordan sounded too relaxed, almost smug, like being caught with his personal assistant in his arms wasn't a big deal. 

Maybe it wasn't for him. The thought irked Jojo. No wonder he sounded like the cat who got all the cream while she was feeling like a chewed gum under his shoe. 

She felt like ten different kinds of a fool for allowing her lust for the man cloud her normally impeccable judgement. 

She barely heard Lisa's forced, "You had a call on line two and you wouldn't answer mine to affirm if I was to forward it or cancel."

"Can't say I don't know why now."

The snide remark that was for Jojo's benefit was muttered low enough for Jordan to have missed it but audible enough for her to catch the venom behind them.

Jojo heard it alright and wished she could disappear.

"Who was on the line?"

Jordan's eyes were back on Jojo even though his question was directed to Lisa. 

He missed the blonde's eye roll. 

He was too busy watching Jojo's every move, enjoying the interesting shades of red her neck and the profile of her face that he could see were turning. 

She blushed prettily starting from the nape of her neck then spreading slowly up to her beautiful face. 

He liked it almost as much as he liked everything else about her. 

"It was Miss Fayre Carson."

A sliver of silence, then "Your girlfriend."

That last part was added for Jojo's benefit, he noticed. Again. 

If he'd only suspected, Jojo's discomfort and Lisa's smile of satisfaction served as a solid confirmation. 

Her strong emphasis on the word left a sour taste in his mouth and 'Ex girlfriend' sprang to the tip of his tongue. 

He let it sit there, biting it back because he wasn't about to stoop to the blonde's level. That would be as degrading as it got and Jojo already took it as it was offered. 

Her obvious flinch, like he'd suddenly slapped her across her face, at the mention of his 'girlfriend' was the tell tale sign. 

"You are not to forward any calls of hers to me. Do you understand that?"

"But si...."

"Do you understand that, Monroe?" He cut her off. 

He was pissed, Jojo would know that having been at the receiving end of that cold and curt voice time and again. 

"Yes sir."

His non patronizing tone soured Lisa up the more and she cut Jojo a hard to decipher glare before she stomped out. 

She could feel Jordan's eyes stray to and stay on her a while before he abruptly turned and went to sit behind his desk.

She focused her attention in the work piled on her table. Or at least she tried to.

But the memory of being pressed against his powerful body and being so hungrily kissed kept swaying her attention away. 

Focusing on anything that wasn't him proved a great feat in the moment. 

She lifted her fingers absently to her thoroughly kissed mouth, pressing on her still sensitive lips, trying to catch the fleeting sensation of the imprint his mouth left on hers. 

This new tilt to the balance of the relationship between then was as confusing as it was frustrating.

How do you maintain a strict professional relationship with your boss after he just gave you the best kiss of the whole twenty six plus years that was your life? 

They didn't talk after that and she avoided looking at him for fear of making eye contact. 

She did get a couple of works done as the day went but for the most part she was distracted by his tempting and dominating presence.

The only message she'd received from Maria promised her mom was still as she left her this morning and Riley was done with her homework and was visiting her best friend Annie. 

As the hours flew by, it was like this morning had never happened.

Jordan had reverted back to his normal taciturn and cold self and she might as well have imagined the one kiss that had reduced her wildest fantasy to nothing. 

She was part dissapointed and part relieved. 

It probably was for the best. It would serve to tone down the level of awkwardness that came with indulging office fantasies with none other than your boss. 

What was she thinking letting him kiss her like that in the first place? 

By the end of the day, she was on the verge of frustration. 

Although he hadn't said another word to her, his imposing presence in the room was distraction enough and it was affecting her work. 

For her, that was a big deal. She prided herself on her ability to stay focused on the course of her job and having that focus so easily swayed away by her uncontrollable attraction to the big boss was frustrating. 

When her work hours came to an end, she couldn't have been more glad. 

She called her good bye to Jordan as she packed her stuffs up and for a moment he looked like he wanted to say something to her but he must have thought better of it cause he only grunted in response. 

Jojo took it as it was and left. 

She had to use the outer elevator. It would be safer to face Lisa now than having to stay a minute more in the same room with him would. 

Jordan pushed his fingers through his hair. Again. 

Working with Jojo in the same office was already hard on his control and now that he'd kissed her, tasted the secret haven that was all her, he wasn't sure he could refrain from indulging again. 

That would be too much to ask of his restraint and control. 

Blocking her out, recoiling farther into himself, pretending this morning didn't happen, they were all designs to help him keep his hands to himself and his mind on his work.

He needed to remind himself that Jojo was off limit. 

His Jojo. 

If only that summer hadn't happened. If only the last decade hadn't passed. Who knows what would have been. 

But it had and now he didn't even know where to begin in closing the rift it had created. 

She still didn't recognize him. Sometimes she looked at him like he triggered her memory of him, other times he saw little snatches of recognition caused by his mostly intended slips but then he'd watch it fade away because she couldn't reconcile the boy she knew then to the man she knows now. 

He didn't blame her though, he'd changed a great deal.

He bore no semblance to the playful little boy he'd been or the carefree player he'd become in his teen years. 

A lot has changed. He was a man now. A man who'd had to fight to be where he is now despite his prestigious and 'monied' family background. 

And she was his Jojo. His childhood best friend and now his tempting personal assistant. 

And that was all he knew of her. That didn't come as a surprise, he thought, because every time he tried taking a step closer to bridging the professional gap she imposed between them, she was always quick to take three back. 

This morning was a dent in her professional armour. And that's a dent he wanted to keep making. 

He glanced at her empty desk, imagining her there her brows furrowed in mock concentration, her neck reddening in a cute blush from something he'd done, slips of her hair falling into her face. Then there was the annoyingly unattractive cloth she loved to wear. 

Today's wasnt as bad looking as the others before it but the color was just as uncomplimenting to her skin tone as he's ever seen it. 

The thought of her brought a tugging smile to his lips.

His phone rang then and the voice that purred his name from the other end wiped the smile away. 

-

Jojo had been relieved to have found Lisa missing at her desk. Thank God for small mercies. 

She ran into Marcy, the sweet older lady that always had something to smile about, when the elevator opened on the ground floor. 

She helped the other woman with the loads of files and documents she was carrying. 

"If it's not the top floor princess coming to my rescue." Marcy joked. 

Though they didn't run into each other often, there's always a fondness about their conversations.

"It is I indeed." Jojo laughed.

"Why do you need to carry so much home?" Jojo asked adjusting the weight as she followed Marcy to her car. 

"Oh that, I'm having my grand babies over tomorrow so I don't want to work late or have to take any work home then, and these," she gestured to the load both she and Jojo were carrying, "have to all be keyed into the system by the end of the week. It's Thursday today. So you see."

"You have grand babies!?" 

"And why is that surprising?" Marcy couldn't hide her smile. 

"Because you don't look like it. I mean look at you."

Marcy laughed at the look on her face. 

"I'm days away from becoming fifty, grand babies are normal at this age honey."

Jojo almost didn't believe her. The woman didn't look a day older than forty. Maybe forty one. 

But fifty, no way.  

She talked to Marcy for a while longer before the older woman had to run. 

She was still shocked by Marcy's age reveal long after the other woman had left. 

Maybe that was why she didn't notice the person coming at her until she bumped into him. 

Before she could apologize, he was already gone and she could only see his dark coat turning a corner. 

She could have sworn she just relieved that afternoon at Morgan Inc. 

Only now she stood outside McGrath real estate housing and construction, trying to understand what was happening and who that man was.