Temperatures Rising

No, she couldn’t deny it. Nor would she act on it. “I hate to rush you off, Terrence, but as you can see I have plenty to do.”

He glanced at her desk. “I’m going to have to talk to Warrick about that. He shouldn’t work you so hard. You should have playtime.”

She rolled her eyes and imagined just what kind of playtime he was talking about. “I don’t need you to run interference for me. I can hold my own. Thank you.”

“If you’re sure,” he said, smiling and getting to his feet.

“I’m positive.”

“Then I’ll let you get back to work.”

Sherri let out a relieved breath when he turned and headed toward the door. Just her luck, he stopped before walking over the threshold and turned back around. When he caught her gaze, she felt the thud deep in her chest at the same time a heated sensation traveled down her spine. He stood there in her doorway, all six foot three of him, and she could only stare at the well-built body. And his dark eyes were focused right on her.

“I won’t give up, Sherri. I think you know that,” he said in a determined tone. Not intimidating, not threatening. Just promising and unwavering.

Yes, she did know that, and the thought that one day he just might succeed made her pulse pound. But she would continue to resist him since getting involved in a relationship was the last thing on her mind. Building a career at the station was her top priority.

She made no response to what he’d said. He really didn’t give her a chance since he then turned and walked out the door, closing it behind him. Only then did she lean back in her chair and breathe. His masculine scent lingered in her office and she reached out and touched the spot on her desk where he’d sat. It was hot. The man was so hot-blooded he was capable of leaving heat behind.

He was determined to make trouble and she was just as determined not to let him. She had a job to do. Uncle Warrick was thinking about retiring in another year and he wanted her to be ready to take over as station manager when he did so. She would prove to her uncle that his faith in her was not a mistake, and that she would be more than capable of managing the day-to-day operations of WLCK. Although it seemed the Holy Terror was not going to make her job easy, there was no way she would let him get in the way of her achieving her goal.

She stood and walked to the window and looked out. Key West was a beautiful seaport city and WLCK served the people by being one of the most popular stations in the area. She loved working here.

She had arrived almost a month ago and discovered the radio station that her uncle owned was a nice size compared to others she’d seen. Although the pay scale wasn’t any higher, not too many other stations could boast of having an ocean within walking distance.

The first change she had implemented upon taking the job was reinstating the dress code. According to Uncle Warrick, there had always been a dress code, but somewhere down the line the employees had ignored it, reasoning that it didn’t matter how they looked since the audience couldn’t see them.

Sherri believed in dressing professionally, and in the end she and the staff had compromised. The too-laid-back attire of shorts and flip-flops had gotten ruled out and replaced by business casual, with the majority of the employees wearing jeans and tops. Personally, she’d never been a jeans-wearing woman. While working around a more aristocratic crowd at her uncle’s station in D.C., she had gotten used to business suits. Going from professional to casual wasn’t as easy as she’d thought, but she was working on it.

She glanced at her watch and walked back over to her desk. Terrence’s sports talk show would be airing in a few minutes and she wanted to tune in. Each office was equipped with an intercom that broadcasted all the shows so you could listen at will. Not that she was all into sports, but she made a habit of tuning in to his show, which filled an hour time slot twice a week.

Flipping on the dial of the radio unit beside her desk, she leaned back in her chair and slipped off her shoes with a long sigh. She’d spend the next hour with Terrence Jefferies. The man who was trying to get next to her—and the man she was determined to ignore.

Terrence couldn’t help but smile after hanging up the phone from talking to his sister. Olivia was happy and he was happy for her. It seemed the ugly hands of disaster hadn’t caught her in their clutches the way they had his father.

His mother had walked out on his old man, leaving him with the task of becoming a single father with three kids to raise. Terrence had been ten at the time, Duan twelve and Olivia only three. Things might not have been so bad if the man his mother had run off with hadn’t had a wife and kid of his own.

He was glad Olivia hadn’t listened to their father a few months back when he found out she’d gotten serious about a guy—a guy who just happened to be running against their father for a senate seat in the Georgia General Assembly. She had married Reggie Westmoreland and now she had a man who loved her and a huge family who had embraced her with a warm and sincere welcome.

Terrence glanced at his watch. He had already touched base with Cullen Carlisle, better known as CC, whom he’d hired to manage Club Hurricane a few years ago. According to CC, things were pretty busy for a Tuesday night, which wasn’t surprising considering this was the first week in June. Every year at this time college students headed south before making the trip home, wherever home was for them.

So far there had been only one situation where CC, who stood two inches taller than Terrence and weighed close to two-fifty, had had to intervene to bring order. A lamp on one of the tables had gotten broken and the man responsible quickly paid for the damages. Terrence chuckled. Knowing CC, it was either pay up then or have pieces of the broken lamp shoved down your throat. To say CC took his job seriously was an understatement.

Terrence decided to do something he rarely did—be in bed before ten. Might as well since he hadn’t managed to talk Sherri into joining him at the club.

Sherri Griffin.

It took a lot for him to admit that he was virtually obsessed with the woman and had been since walking into Warrick’s office a month ago and finding her standing there…. Bending over was more like it. She had leaned down to pick a paper clip off the floor. He had appreciated the look of her shapely backside before getting a chance to see her face, and when he had, he had been pleased with the total package.

As he removed the last piece of his clothes to step into the shower, he couldn’t help but recall the exact moment she had straightened her body, turned around and looked into his face. He had stood there, literally transfixed while drinking in the lusciousness of her curves before taking an admiring visual path up to her face.

If there was such a thing as instant, mind-blowing physical attraction, he had experienced it right then and there. A woman being pretty was one thing, but being punch-in-the-gut beautiful was another. First there was the most mesmerizing pair of sable-brown eyes he’d ever seen. Then there was a rounded chin on a medium-brown oval face, the two somehow totally in sync with each other. In addition to the softness of her high cheekbones and her shoulder-length styled hair, she had a pair of lips he would have given anything, possibly even his Heisman Trophy, to get a taste of.

Sizzling heat had instantly invaded his body, and it had taken Warrick saying his name twice before he had dragged his gaze away from her. But not before that same gaze had studied her hands and found her fingers ringless. And not before he’d decided that his six months of sexual draught were about to come to an end.

While Warrick had gone about making introductions, Terrence could tell by the set of Sherri’s jaw that she hadn’t liked the interest he was showing in her and she wouldn’t make things easy for him. No problem there since he was a man who appreciated a challenge every once in a while. Trouble was, he hadn’t counted on her still being a difficult case almost an entire month later. He refused to believe he was losing his touch or that the physical attraction hadn’t been mutual. He had seen the flame that had come alive in her eyes, although she had immediately tried to douse it.

For him, Sherri Griffin projected a number of things and sexual pleasure headed the list. There was something totally feminine and sensually captivating about her. While she tried coming across as all business, he refused to go there with her. The only level he was willing to meet her on was a sexual one. The effect she had on him would make it impossible for things to be otherwise.

So since she wanted to play hard to get, he would start turning up the heat. What the hell. At thirty-four, he still enjoyed having fun and there hadn’t been any excitement in his life since finding out about Olivia’s involvement with their father’s political enemy. And as the warm rush of water trickled over his skin, he quickly came up with a plan to deal with Ms. Griffin.

By the time he got in bed less than an hour later, his body was relaxed and his mind was clear. He didn’t intend to overwhelm her or pressure her. Instead, he would use the oldest trick known to a desperate man, one that included seduction that was impossible to resist. He wasn’t called the Holy Terror for nothing.

Chapter 2

“I can’t believe you turned him down again.”

From the top of the stairs, Sherri looked at Kim, who was still standing below with an astounded expression on her face. Three days a week she and Kim met to jog along the beach where their condos were located. After leaning over and inhaling slow and deep, Sherri straightened her body and placed her hands on her hips.

The disappointment in Kim’s voice was evident, and Sherri couldn’t help wondering why. “Really, Kim, it’s not that bad. He’ll get over it, but now I’m worried as to whether or not you will. What’s with you wanting me to go out with him, knowing his reputation?”

Instead of answering, Kim jogged up the stairs to join her. After taking a huge gulp of water from the water bottle, she said, “Because I know you can handle him.”

If only Kim knew just how wrong she was, Sherri thought. She was still reeling from the side effects of that visit he had made to her office two days ago.

“Besides, you need to indulge yourself in a fling,” Kim added.

Now it was Sherri whose face was filled with astonishment. She couldn’t believe her friend had made such an outlandish statement. “Let me get this right. You think my way to handle him is to have an affair with him?” She saw the smile that lit Kim’s features and wasn’t all that pleased it was at her expense.

“Hey, get the daggers out of your eyes,” Kim said, laughing. “I’m just reminding you of the promise you made to me last year.”

Sherri lifted a brow. “And what promise was that?”

“The promise that once you got out here and were settled, you would let go of that situation with Ben Greenfield and concentrate on meeting someone else.”

Sherri dragged her eyes away from Kim. “I’ve been busy,” she said, which in a way was true.

Kim wiggled her brows. “Now that reminds me of another promise you’ve broken, the one where you swore you would never let work interfere with pursuing a worthwhile relationship with a man. Especially because Ben claimed the reason he was breaking off your engagement was that you could never make time in your busy schedule for him, so he—”

“Found someone else,” Sherri finished for her softly. At the time she’d felt it had been a lousy excuse for his infidelity. His betrayal had hurt.

“You said you wouldn’t give another man the chance to make that claim,” Kim reminded her.

“Which is the reason I refuse to get involved with anyone,” Sherri said. “I don’t have the time right now. I need to learn all I can and—”

“You know all you need to know about running a radio station, Sherri. Come on, this isn’t the first one you’ve managed. All you had to do is become familiar with the setup of WLCK. You’re good at what you do,” Kim said as they began walking slowly toward Sherri’s bungalow.

“Thanks.”