One Night Forever (The Cinderella Chronicles) by Lisa Renée Jones

yeah,” Cat
said. “Then, who am I talking about? If you didn’t want him you
wouldn’t instantly have known I was talking about him. I could have
meant Chris.”
    “ I knew you
meant Matt.”
    “ That’s my
point,” Cat said. “Fuck him and get it over with.”
    Starting towards the
door, Lauren felt both angry and hurt. Cat shouldn’t be telling her
to “fuck” her boss. Didn’t Cat know what that would do to her
career? A good friend would know and understand.
    Lauren made it all the
way to the elevator before regret started to ball in her gut. By
the time she reached the street, she was half in tears. Thirty
minutes later, she stood in her apartment and punched the answering
machine button.
    Cat’s voice sounded. “I
love you like a sister, Lauren. I wouldn’t steer you wrong. This
guy has been under your skin for a year. Give some thought to
working him out of your system so you can move on. Oh, and call me
tomorrow and apologize. You owe me one.”
    Click.
    “ Damn it,
Cat,” Lauren whispered into the emptiness around her. “Why don’t
you understand? I can’t just sleep with Matt. I…I
can’t.”
    * * * * *
    Lauren arrived to work
the next morning to find an envelope on her chair. Inside she found
a single sheet of shiny pink paper and a hotel key card. Her heart
lurched. She glanced at her door, knowing it was shut, but needing
the reassurance of a second glance.
    She sank into her chair,
heart beating a million miles an hour, and read.
    At night I lay awake
thinking of your soft skin, wishing you were naked beneath me. I
can feel you in my dreams. Can you feel me? During the day you
drive me to distraction filling my thoughts with secret desires.
Surrender your fantasies to me.
    Discover our own little
secret world, our secret place no one else shares.
    Meet me
tonight.
    The Manhattan
Hotel
    Nine o’clock—Room
2012
    By the time she finished
reading, Lauren’s hand was shaking, and her insides trembling. The
note wasn’t signed, but then it didn’t have to be.
    Lauren knew who had sent
it.
    Dropping her
elbows to the desk she let her head fall into her hands. Oh God , what was she going to do? She couldn’t sleep with her
boss.
    She couldn’t.
    Could
she ?
    She wanted him. So much
so that desire burned like a low flame ready to flare into an
inferno. Her eyes drifted shut, her thoughts racing with images of
their bodies entwined, of his mouth on hers, on her skin. He was
like a drug. She couldn’t help but consider the temptation he
represented.
    Temptation. The word
danced in her mind. He was that and so much more. A knock sounded
on her door. She jumped and then shoved the note in her top
drawer.
    Swallowing hard, she
forced her words, “Come in.”
    When Greg appeared in her
office, Lauren wanted to crawl under the desk. His well-fitted blue
pin-striped suit, with a blue shirt and matching tie, seemed to
decorate the arrogance that clung to him like a second
skin.
    “ It’s first
thing in the morning. We’re supposed to talk about our
ideas.”
    She really didn’t need
this right now. “Right. Can we talk on the way to the
coffeepot?”
    “ Better yet,”
he said, walking toward her, and grabbing the back of a chair. “Why
don’t we walk to the coffee shop on the corner and have a strategy
session.”
    He’d shut the door when
he entered. Of course, it had been shut when he arrived, but it
still felt uncomfortable. Maybe, because she knew his intentions
were anything but respectable. And she wasn’t going for coffee with
him. Not now. Not ever.
    “ I don’t think
that’s a good idea,” Lauren said with a firm rejection intended in
her tone. “I’m new. I doubt that would look good.”
    “ We’re
grown-ups here,” he said. “The end result is all that
matters.”
    “ All the same,
I’ll stay here.” Lauren motioned toward the door. “Shall we head
toward the coffee? I work best after a full pot. I’m only halfway
there.”
    A few moments later, she
managed to