Next to You by Julia Gabriel

off.
    “Resignation not accepted.”
    His head snapped up.
    “Why do you want to leave?” she asked.
    “I behaved abominably. You should fire me.”
    “I forgive you.” Her eyes flashed hard, then soft again. “But I get the feeling you don’t want to be forgiven.”
    She nailed him. Jared would never forgive and he didn’t understand why other people would want to, either.
    “Why would you want to keep me on, after the way I acted?” he said.
    “You’re good at the job. I don’t want to deal with the hassle of finding someone else. And …” Her voice trailed away and her eyes shifted to something behind him, over his shoulder. Yeah, that was about all she could take … he tried to shove the thought out of his head but it finished itself anyway. All she could take of his ugly mug.
----
    P hlox’s eyes settled on her nemesis, the gleaming stainless steel range. And I don’t want to be alone here.
    “And what?” he pushed.
    And ...
    “And I like you, Jared.” My body likes you. Her body liked him a lot. A whole lot. When she came down the stairs and saw him standing there, every nerve ending in her body started dancing. He had to know how perfect his body was. The tee shirt he wore did nothing to conceal the hard contours of the muscles beneath. The guy was ripped, which made sense given he worked outside all the time. His jeans were faded and shrunk to fit on his hips and thighs.
    And the scars on his face weren’t ugly to her, as he obviously expected them to be. Instead, they gave him a rough, rugged air. He’s probably rough in bed, too. A delicious heat suffused her body.
    “I’m sure you’ll like someone else, too,” he said.
    No. No, she didn’t think she would. Her eyes met his again. There was something going on behind his dark gaze. She could tell. Something hot and powerful that wanted to get out, if only he would allow it.
    She took a step forward and pressed her body against his, cupping the back of his head with her hand, and pulled his mouth down onto hers. His lips stayed closed, not kissing her back. But Phlox persisted. A scientist doesn’t give up that easily. Kissing Jared Connor was an experiment and you don’t abandon an experiment just because you don’t get the results you want the first time. You reassess, make adjustments and try again.
    Phlox let her hands slide around to his back, where she found his muscles tight with tension. Then she ran her tongue along the seam of his lips, exploring … waiting. This time she was rewarded with his mouth opening, yielding to hers, but still he wasn’t kissing her back.
    Maybe he’s never kissed a woman before. That wasn’t such a far-fetched idea, considering the way he’d run away from her. Obviously, he wasn’t big on social interaction.
    The idea that he’d never been kissed, that he might even be a virgin, turned her on though. Massively turned her on. Her heart was pounding the way it did when an experiment took an unexpected—but better—turn, when you learned something you never would have imagined.
    She slid her hands over the curve of his lower back and let them settle firmly on his hard ass. She pulled his hips into hers and was rewarded with a long, low groan from Jared, one she could feel rumble up from his chest until it rolled out of his mouth and into hers. She discovered another reward, too—Jared’s arousal pressed against her stomach, long and hard. That he was turned on by this as much as she was only made her want him more. It had been over a year since she’d been with a man and now suddenly all she could think of was maneuvering Jared Connor up the stairs to her bed and fucking his brains out.
    Then just like that, he broke the kiss. Phlox watched as he turned on his heel and ran out of her house. This time she let him go.

Chapter 10
    J ared Connor was one confusing man, Phlox thought as she lay in bed, unable to sleep even though the clock had just ticked past midnight. He had wanted her. Maybe