Friday was a day that I had had plenty of advance notice for, but was entirely unprepared to handle. I'd done everything correctly – gathered all the paperwork, flash drives, and other things Erica had requested for the meetings; packed all the appropriate items in my suitcase; made the hotel and transportation arrangements for my bosses and me; and quadruple checked that every single detail of our business trip was taken care of. I was totally prepared for this. Or so I thought.

When I arrived at the office that morning, luggage in tow, I was confident in myself and enthusiastic about the trip. That was, until my eyes landed on him.

Jesse was in the boardroom finishing up a conference call with Erica, who had her back to me. He looked up from his notepad for just a few seconds as I passed by the glass wall heading into my office. When our eyes met, I nearly choked on air. His gaze was so full of regret, like he was blaming my personal issues on himself. Had he taken everything I'd said the other night the wrong way? I'd never meant for him to feel like he was in the wrong.

I did my best to fake a happy face even though I was exhausted from staying up too late the previous night, chugging coffee to keep myself awake while I studied Integrity's proposal again and again and one more time. I'd transferred the file to a PDF on my iPad so that I could glance at it off and on during our ridiculously long flight. If I was being honest with myself, my commitment to the trip wasn't so much because I wanted to do a good job as it was that I wanted to get Jesse off my mind by focusing on something else. And work was a very good thing to focus on. I could not afford to screw this up. As far as I was concerned, my employment was still in the first impression phase until I heard otherwise, and I had not yet heard otherwise.

Entering my office, I grumbled a few curse words to myself at the memory of the other night in Jesse's office. My face turned an embarrassing shade of red when the thought of his lips crashing against mine popped into my head. I was just about to give myself a grown up talk about getting my boss out of my fantasies when a knock sounded at my door and the object of my sexual and emotional frustrations walked in.

"Is there something I can do for you, Mr. Reese?" I asked in the fakest cheerful voice I could muster, trying to appear nothing but professional when Erica walked by in the hallway.

The last thing I needed was my other boss suspecting something.

Jesse was too smart for his own good and knew immediately what I was doing. Luckily, Erica greeted me with a smiley "good morning" and continued on her way to the copy room. She hadn't even blinked at the cloud of tension that was taking up residence in my office.

That fucking magnetic pull that seemed to follow Jesse around everywhere he went was trying to reel me in again. His previous regretful expression had been replaced with his usual lively, happy demeanor. I could see right through his façade, but no one else seemed to notice.

"Vanessa, does the air conditioning system seem a little screwy to you?" Jesse asked loud enough for anyone in the hallway to hear, and flashed me a look that said to play along.

"Uh... yeah." I cleared my throat, wondering where the hell he was going with this. "I suppose it does."

Jesse seemed perfectly relaxed, talking to me as if I were any other person in the world, rather than the woman he'd gotten a raging boner over just the other night.

My cheeks flushed at the memory. I could still feel it...

"Would you come check out the supply vents in my office and tell me what you think before I call a technician? It feels like it's barely blowing the last few days."

He turned and walked out of the room before I could answer, motioning for me to follow. Aly and Rachel, another admin, were standing in the hall, talking about the new episode of some vampire T.V. show that had aired the night before. They were oblivious to Jesse's and my game.

I walked into Jesse's office right behind him and he tilted his head in the direction of the private bathroom that connected to the office. I understood. He didn't want to shut his door because someone might wonder why we were treating feeling the air coming from the vents as a private occasion. He could, however, sneak me into his bathroom and talk privately there. We probably had a reasonable five to eight minutes before someone would come looking for one of us.

We stepped inside the smaller room, though it was still quite impressive, and Jesse quietly shut the door behind us.

"You're pushing it," I said quiet, yet stern. "You know we can't be sneaking around like this."

He nodded and leaned back against the counter, the automatic sink sensing his presence and turning on. "I know. I didn't bring you in here to have sex, though."

My brows furrowed and I crossed my arms. "What did you bring me in here for then?"

His lips parted like he was about to say something, but he stopped himself and ran a hand through his already messy hair. That look of regret returned to his eyes when they met mine.

"You left before I could say anything else."

I looked at him in confusion. "The conversation was over, Jesse. I told you this can't happen. I can't be with you like that."

He pursed his lips for a moment and then spoke again, stepping closer to where I stood, my back against the opposite wall. He stretched out a strong arm to me, his hand cupping the side of my face, followed by his thumb caressing my lower lip. I wasn't stopping him. Why the fuck wasn't I stopping him?!

Because I loved the way his simple, mostly innocent touches felt. I knew I shouldn't be allowing him to trace my mouth with the pad of his thumb, but I was finding it so difficult to push him away.

For only a second, I wondered what he would do if I were to open my mouth and nibble at his thumb... Maybe suck on it a little...

"Your mouth is saying one thing while your eyes are telling me a completely different story," he countered and stole a glance at my cleavage. "So is your body."

I wanted to smack him for that comment, but I couldn't deny that he was correct, as much as it pained me to admit it to myself. I was flustered and nearly gasping for air, a result of holding my breath for too long.

"Jesse..." I muttered, but immediately lost my train of thought.

He stepped even closer, the ends of our shoes almost touching, and I thought he was going to kiss me. My breathing caught in my throat when he leaned in and my entire body froze. If I hadn't been so lost in the moment, I would've been furious that this man had such an effect on me. I knew Jesse would stop if I told him to, but I couldn't bring myself to form words. I was speechless – a feeling I had never had to battle until him. Brad had never taken my breath away...

He wasn't leaning in to kiss me, however, and I found myself unintentionally disappointed. Instead, his cheek brushed mine as he moved to whisper in my ear, sending a shiver down my spine that seemed to flow out into each of my limbs like an electric current. Goosebumps spread across my body as the current consumed me, and my legs trembled, threatening to give in. As if he could sense the way I was feeling, Jesse wrapped a secure arm around my waist, his palm flattening out against my lower back as he steadied me, practically holding up all of my weight.

"I can accept that you don't want anything romantic with me," Jesse mumbled beside my ear so that no one else could possibly hear. "I can respect that and we can move on and act like this never happened if that's what you want, Vanessa. But I spent hours last night drowning in thought over what you told me your reasoning was, and I realized that not once did you tell me that you didn't want this. You told me every reason why you thought this can't happen, but all those reasons have to do with how other people might feel about us. Vanessa, I don't care how other people feel about us. I want to know how you feel about us."

"Jesse-"

"Let me get this out or I might not have a chance to say it later," he begged, inching back to look me in the eyes, and I didn't miss the glossy hue to his, telling me that this was really important to him. "If you don't want anything to happen between us, tell me now and I'll say okay and that'll be the end of it. But if you're just pushing the thought away because you're scared, that doesn't seem very fair to either one of us."

He swallowed hard and I watched his Adam's apple bob up and down with the action. He wore a troubled expression, his brows drawn inward in a look that was almost that of worry, and his blue eyes piercing mine with a sorrowful countenance.

He stepped back to give me space, his arm leaving my waist in the process, and I instantly felt alone or empty, somehow. I couldn't understand it. It wasn't a feeling I'd experienced before. But I reminded myself that this thing with Jesse, whatever the fuck it was, was entirely new territory. I supposed I would just have to get used to strange new emotions when I was around him. What else could I do? It was too hard to suppress them. They forced their way to the surface as if I wasn't even in control, and that was scary.

I raked my hands through my hair in frustration, inadvertently ruining some of my curls. In a way, it felt like the bathroom walls were closing in on me. But then there was Jesse, the light at the end of the tunnel. And that's truly what he felt like to me. A light. A bright, shining, spot of something good and wholesome and refreshing tucked within all the madness. I was reminded that I had never, ever, not once thought of Brad in that way. It was horrifying to think that I'd planned on marrying a man I'd known for years who didn't light a fire within my soul, when there was Jesse, a man I barely even knew, who sent the blaze raging through every inch of my veins and devouring my heart, leaving behind only a state of calm and bliss. That's what kissing Jesse felt like. That's what standing in front of Jesse felt like. That's what simply passing Jesse in the hall and saying hello felt like.

He was right. I wasn't being fair to either of us if I refused to give this a try just because I was scared of what other people might think. Probably eighty percent or more of the love stories in the world would never have taken place, had one of the people been too intimidated by a third party's opinion. I knew I had a valid reason to be paranoid about it. Having a good reputation in the business world was probably the biggest asset one could possess, especially someone like me who hoped to climb the ladder to a position of high authority someday. At the same time, though, I couldn't deny the way Jesse made me feel, and I could try my best to ignore it, but I knew deep down that it would become quite miserable trying to tamp out those flames when I would still be seeing the man nearly every fucking day. Something was bound to happen eventually. I couldn't lie to myself about that.

My eyes met his. He stood just three feet away, a relaxed grip on the edge of the counter behind him, patiently waiting for my reply. He hadn't tried to rush me or coerce me into anything. He'd been so reasonable and understanding, simply laying all his cards on the table and being honest with me about how he felt. He wasn't trying to persuade me to see things his way, and I was one-hundred-percent confident that he wasn't even remotely doing this just to get me in his bed. That one point, in particular, meant almost everything to me.

"You said romantic," I mumbled, and I was surprised by how small my voice sounded.

Jesse looked at me perplexed, but didn't respond.

"When you said you can accept that I might not want anything with you, you said anything romantic," I clarified, and for a moment, I wasn't sure where I was going with this...

Jesse seemed to know what I was trying to say, though.

"As opposed to sexual," he said softly, nodding to himself, knowing he was correct.

"Yes..."

He reached out and grabbed ahold of my hands, clutching them gently in his and giving me a soft tug forward. That damn electricity was back.

I boldly stepped close, too close, practically standing in between his thighs. He was leaning back against the wash basin with his legs stretched out, and we were holding hands between our torsos.

"I would be lying if I told you that I didn't want sex with you, Vanessa," he said in a sincere, controlled tone, searching my eyes for any reluctance. "But sex is just a cherry on top when it comes to romance. I don't want to be your friend with benefits. I want to give this – us – a real shot."

And that's when the realization hit me that I would end up regretting it if I didn't give Jesse and me a try.

I swallowed my discomfort and made peace with the fact that I was about to open up my heart to a man I barely knew and run the risk of walking away with it permanently shredded to pieces this time. Jesse was the rare kind of wonderful that could be both the best thing to happen to you and the worst break your heart could ever endure. And yet, there I was, risking everything, throwing every ounce of caution to the wind, and putting all my trust in the hands of Jesse Reese.

I grabbed him by the shirt collar and brought his lips to mine in an urgent, breathless, fiery kiss that immediately turned to more than I'd intended. I felt his hands grip my hips and bring my body flush against his as I snaked an arm over his shoulder, playing with the soft hair at the nape of his neck. My other hand flattened against his chest and I could feel his heartbeat. It was pounding like he was running a marathon, and I was certain mine was racing at the same speed.

And just like that, the walls I'd spent years building up like a fortress came crumbling down, reduced to ashes.