“Consider it,” Alexander said, crossing into the room and taking slow and tentative steps towards me, “No crossing any lines. I just feel like it’s unfair to keep you here so late and ask you back in the morning. I feel like I’m working you too hard.”

Too hard. What if hard was what I craved? What if hard was what I wanted?

This place and this man was the first thing that challenged me in my life and I had leaped into it with both feet. I’d gone into it wholeheartedly and I’d never felt so good in my life.

Alexander could make me feel things that Todd had never made me feel.

“It is a long drive,” I said quietly, watching him approach me.

I felt the draw of him, the allure of him. I’d felt it for so long and I felt it now.

Never in my life had I been reckless and impulsive but Alexander made me want to be. He made me want to be insistent on things, to be demanding like he was.

And he made me want to give in to him, to feel the hold and the power that he held in this world brought down to bear on me.

I wanted him to order me, to demand from me outright. I wanted him to make me beg for more.

“It is,” he said carefully, and I looked into his eyes and saw that fire that burned within him, “Very far.”

He was so close to me and I could smell his cologne. I’d bought those bottles for him and I knew the scent, but it was affecting me now like never before. Invading me and making me weak. Making my whole world dizzy and tumble into a single point.

A point in which he stood.

I pressed forward.

Reckless. Impulsive. I threw myself at him knowing that it spelled my doom.

Alexander was taken off guard when I kissed him. He felt me press my lips against him and I felt him freeze. There was a palpable torment in his body, a break between what he wanted and what he knew he should want.

Because this was wrong on so many levels.

There was tension and attraction between us, but he was my boss and I was his assistant. He was single but I was married and as far as he knew happily so.

None of this was right. None of this was the way that it was supposed to be. But I’ll be damned if we didn’t want it.

Oh god, I wanted it.

I felt him move onto me, pulling me into him and against him. I felt his body come to life against me as he pushed me back while his hands moved onto me and held me.

His hands were on my hips and he was gripping into me, his grip tightening the longer we held each other. I felt his lips part and my needy tongue slipped into his mouth, playing off of him for an instant.

For one perfect moment.

He pulled me back, pushed me away. He held me at arm’s length with both of us gulping in air and staring at each other.

We were both afraid.

Terrified by what we’d done, by how it made us feel. Terrified that we’d made a mistake and crossed a line.

But in an instant looking in his eyes I knew that I’d made the right choice. I memorized the feel of his lips on mine, the feel of his potent urgency and need for me, and I knew that I would never forgive myself if I didn’t seize that while I had the chance.

“You’re married,” he said quietly.

“I don’t care,” I responded, absolutely certain in myself, “I’m not going to pretend anymore. I’m not going to deny myself something that makes me feel good out of obligation to a promise that only ever made me feel comfortable. I want you, and while there are a million reasons I shouldn’t, my husband and my marriage don’t number among them.”