I was mortified! Haley had some flaming wild nerve to pull that stunt on me! I stood there aghast, my jaw feeling like it was dragging the floor, while a dazzle lit up her mischievous eyes. She just couldn't help herself. Meddling was in her blood.

Jesse, on the other hand, played it off cool as a cucumber. He acted as if he wasn't fazed a bit, standing there with his hands stuffed in his pockets and a hint of a smirk on his delectable mouth.

He gave a simple nod to her suggestion and smiled, explaining softly, "it's against company policy to date a coworker."

His words were very executive, but his eyes boring into mine told a different story.

"Right. Yes. Exactly." I choked out, my voice a little hoarse – a detail which was not lost on my boss. "And I'm sure Mr. Reese has plenty of women he'd rather attend a wedding with anyway."

Embarrassed half to death, I felt the need to drive my statement home, but as soon as the words left my mouth, I wished I could take them back.

A simple agreement with Jesse's response would've been just fine, but no. I had to go and make myself look like a bumbling idiot in hopes of coming across as uninterested in the idea of watching people exchange vows with my boss. I knew right away that that hadn't been the way Jesse perceived my foot-in-the-mouth fumble, though. He knew exactly what I was trying to do, and he probably knew exactly why I was trying so hard to seem like I wasn't secretly crossing all my fingers and toes to be his date.

Why couldn't I have said something that didn't make him sound like a womanizer, though?

With an amused smirk, Jesse replied, "Miss Hamilton, are you implying that I'm a manwhore?"

The coffee mug I'd made the terribly timed mistake of grabbing as he spoke crashed to the floor and shattered into several pieces. His question hit me like a ton of bricks landing on my chest.

Wide-eyed and humiliated, I stuttered and stammered, trying to conjure an intelligent response, but I was too stunned – shocked into silence.

Haley appeared equally as surprised at Jesse's verbiage, but she acted much cooler about it than I had. Then again, she hadn't been holding a mug either.

"I think what my very single best friend means, Mr. Reese, is that, while she would be unequivocally thrilled to be your wedding date, she also wouldn't want to impose, assuming you have someone else in mind for the affair."

Haley was on a fucking monster of a roll. Jesse certainly hadn't missed the way she emphasized 'very single' and 'unequivocally thrilled'. Way to make me sound desperate, Haley!

"On the contrary, it so happens that I do not have another woman in mind for the... affair, as you put it." His words were teasing, his demeanor confident and sultry, yet still seeming professional to anyone who couldn't feel the heat between us. "But like I said before, it would be a violation of our corporate policies."

There was the smallest inkling of regret in his ocean-y eyes as he knelt down in front of me. My breath caught, a painful lump in my throat in anticipation of what he was about to do, but then he proceeded to scoop up the larger broken chunks of my mug and toss them into the trashcan beside my desk. What had I expected?

"I'll have the cleaning crew take care of the rest," he said in a softer tone.

Jesse bid us a good evening and sauntered back to his office as if there hadn't just been a striking electricity between us each time that our eyes had met.

I was slightly envious of his ability to skirt around an awkward situation and maintain his cool, calm, collected manner. He must've practiced doing that for a while to aid in his business success. Maybe it was a C.E.O. thing...

Something stirred in my stomach. I couldn't get the look in his eyes out of my head. I hoped I was reading him wrong, but it sure had come across like he was regretting Advantage Republic's rules regarding relationships. No matter how much I denied it in my head, I knew I was secretly throwing darts at that policy, too.

This was exactly what I was afraid of. I couldn't let myself get emotionally attached to this man. It was problematic enough that he was my boss and that pesky no dating company rule was a factor, but even if that weren't the case, I had no business catching feelings for a man like Jesse Reese. I'd learned my lesson a long time ago about affluent men. I wasn't willing to go through that shit again. My heart couldn't physically handle it.

My Smurf of a best friend could read me like a fucking book, and by the time I came to my senses and stopped standing beside my desk like I was in a trance, I could tell she'd already deciphered the rollercoaster of thoughts barreling through my mind. She also looked guilty and sorry for her interloping.

"Was that-"

"Too much?" I interrupted Haley. "Absolutely."

She hung her head in apology. "Vanessa, I didn't mean to go overboard. I'm just trying to help. You know that. I'm sorry."

I nodded and reached into my desk drawer to grab my purse and a couple other items, more than ready to leave the office for the day. Awkward scenarios were already infiltrating my head, making me dread going to work the next morning. How would Jesse act around me tomorrow? How weird might things feel between us? Would he tell Erica about our less-than-appropriate exchange of words?

"You're overthinking," Haley said matter-of-factly. "I can see it."

"You bet your blue haired ass, I am," I grumbled as she walked alongside me, heading for the elevator and the outside fresh air that I so desperately needed.

Once we reached the sidewalk, I breathed a sigh of relief. The horrible tension in my shoulders had finally seemed to disperse.

Haley watched me with sympathetic eyes. I knew she meant well, and I couldn't fault her for trying to set me up with someone. She wanted so badly for me to find a man who would make me as happy as the lovesick women in the romance novels she often read. I could appreciate her devotion to my happiness, but I also wouldn't mind if she toned down the dedication a few dozen notches.

"Feel better now?" she asked once I'd exhaled a massive breath.

I nodded and began the tricky task of trying to hail a cab in the late afternoon rush that was cluttering up Lexington Avenue. Briefly, I remembered that I'd brought a gym bag with comfortable clothes and running shoes to change into at the office, but I wasn't in the mood for a jog home this time. My nerves were too wound up to let me relax. I couldn't focus on anything besides wondering what the fuck my work environment would be like the next day.

"Why don't we go get something to eat?" Haley suggested, trying to perk me up.

I shook my head, feeling exhausted from my first day. Maybe I'd stared at all that fine print for so long that it had worn me out. That was possible, right? I could blame my lethargy on reading legal terms and business proposals, right?

Honestly, I just didn't want to admit that my encounter with my boss had me as riled up as it did. Why was I letting it bother me so much?

Job security, I told myself. I was letting it bother me because I was worried about hanging on to my job. Yes, that was it, I silently said to myself, nodding as if that made it official.

"I really just want to go home and throw my tired ass into bed and order Chinese," I answered Haley, who agreed to the idea immediately.

She'd always had a weakness for Chinese food.

"Sounds like a plan!"

Two hours and four boxes of chow mien later, Haley and I were lounging on our couch, watching reruns of Gossip Girl, and neither of us had uttered a word about the incident with Jesse in my office. It was still on a playback reel in the back of my head, though, and I was fighting the urge to bring up the daunting subject again.

I'd been zoned out, not paying any attention to the show, and imagining how the next few days would go. I figured it was going to keep bugging me until the next day when I would find out if things were still uneasy between Jesse and me. I was extremely concerned about the possibility of seeming like the type of girl who wants to fuck her way up the ladder. Did Jesse think I was that kind of girl? I doubted it, but Haley's eagerness to get him to take me to a wedding had certainly altered his opinion of me. I was sure of that much.

"What are you thinking about?" Haley's tired voice startled me and I dropped my fork.

I waved it off like I hadn't been concentrating on anything. "I'm just sleepy. That's all."

Her expression was disbelieving, but I interrupted before she could press the matter, telling her I was going to go to bed.

It wasn't a total lie. I was pretty exhausted. I'd worked so hard on taking notes for the upcoming meeting that my hand still had a cramp in it hours later. Nothing sounded better in that moment than passing out on some clean sheets and not getting out of bed until I absolutely had to.

I fell asleep dreading the next morning, but my foreboding thoughts didn't last long. My dreams were filled with all sorts of X rated material – all of it involving my gorgeous boss. What the fuck had I drank before bed that caused my brain to act out every porn video I'd ever seen with Jesse Reese? I wanted to blame it on alcohol, but by the time I woke up at five in the morning with sopping wet underwear and beads of sweat across my forehead, I was finally admitting to myself that it hadn't been the single glass of wine I'd consumed. Alcohol had never given me vivid, tantalizing dreams in which every cell in my body was overwhelmed by desire and I was being fucked in every possible position on every piece of furniture in my apartment.

Apparently, I hadn't been good at keeping my late night sexual highlight reel to myself either – much to my embarrassment.

"Good morning," Haley smiled teasingly from behind the coffee maker when I stumbled into our small kitchen. "I heard some things last night."

My cheeks flushed, humiliation erupting within my limbs, but I tried to pretend like her words didn't make me that much more embarrassed.

I reached in the fridge for some milk and thought I might be in the clear when it sounded like she wasn't going to further the conversation... but then she did.

With a very amused grin, Haley continued. "So... I got up to get a late night snack around two o'clock last night."

"Mmhmm," I murmured, pouring milk over my usual bowl of Special K.

I knew what she was going to say before she said it. My face was already beet red before she uttered the words.

"You were moaning," she burst into a giggle fit, nearly spilling her coffee in the process. "Pretty loud, too!"

I covered my flaming hot face with my palms and grumbled a few dozen curses. Part of me wanted to soundproof my bedroom now.

"Oh, god," I complained, shaking my head.

"That's one of the things you kept moaning!" she started laughing again, her smile so wide it had to hurt.

"Whatever you do, don't-"

"Oh, Jesse, fuck me harder! Just like that!" Haley howled with laughter, exaggerating an imitation of my apparent loud sleep talking. "I'm fucking dying! This is too good, Vanessa!"

Somewhere in the background, barely audible over her cackling, my phone was ringing. I rushed back into my room to reach it just before it could go to voicemail. I made the mistake of not looking at the caller I.D. before picking up.

"Hello?" I answered, my breathing ragged from hurrying through the apartment.

A deep voice sounded questioning on the other end. "Vanessa? Is that you?"

I jerked the phone away from my ear to look at the screen and just about shit myself when I saw that it was Jesse who had called me!

Clearing my throat a few times, I brought the phone back to my face and tried to fake a cheery morning voice, but I knew I wasn't fooling him.

"Sorry about that!" I chirped. "I'm not totally awake yet."

Well, that much was true.

A sultry chuckle teased my senses and I felt my heartrate pick up.

"That's alright, Vanessa," he said in a voice that had goosebumps cascading down my torso and my nipples hardening almost painfully. "I'm still in bed, myself."

I gulped. Audibly. And he noticed.

Another sweet, low laugh left his lips, and I found myself trying to envision what he looked like right at that moment. I imagined him completely naked with just a small amount of silky sheets covering his amazing muscular body. I pictured him with his hair all messed up – fuck, he would look so perfect with sex hair. And that's when things took a turn for the downright dirty. My brain blanked out and all I was focused on was making a mental checklist of all the nasty, naughty, wild things I wanted to do with him in bed. I wanted to–

"Vanessa? Are you still there? Vanessa?" Jesse's voice brought me back to reality – the harsh reality that he wasn't on top of me – and I choked on my own spit, coughing and making an utter fool of myself.

"Are you alright?" He sounded genuinely concerned.

I nodded as if he could see me through the phone and then responded with a wimpy sounding yes. "I'm fine. Yeah. I'm good. Sorry about that. I swallowed my coffee wrong."

That was a believable lie, right?

There was an uncomfortable silence between us before he picked the conversation back up.

"I was calling to see if you'd like to have a breakfast meeting with me this morning," Jesse explained. "I'm going to run by the office and grab some files I've got to take over to a friend at a law firm this morning, and I thought I could treat you to pancakes or something while we discuss our upcoming business trip."

"Uh... oh... I... yeah." I sounded like a blazing idiot. "Yeah, that would be great. I was actually hoping I could talk to you about what to expect since I'm new to this..."

Way to sound professional, Vanessa, my conscience mocked me.

"Of course," Jesse said like he was looking forward to it. "Shall we say Nolan's Diner at eight-thirty?"

"That sounds perfect," I agreed a little too quickly.

Even after he hung up, all I could think about throughout my entire morning routine and the cab ride to the diner were my steamy dreams about Jesse, and my salacious imagination, still picturing him in bed.