Her Boss by Day...

‘Well, it will today.’

Willa looked at him blankly.

Rob grinned and she caught a flash of white teeth and the glint of the sun in his stubble. ‘Honey, you have a bunch of people arriving for a barbecue …’ he looked at his watch ‘… later this morning.’

It took a moment for her to remember that she’d invited the entire Whitsundays gang—not just her old friends—for a barbecue this morning.

Grabbing Rob’s wrist, she looked at the dial of his watch and let out a low wail of panic. She had nothing in her house to eat, no booze, and the fact that she had to entertain people she hadn’t seen in years—not to mention dealing with this very sexy souvenir from the night below—had panic crawling up her throat.

She couldn’t do this,—she really couldn’t. Maybe she could hustle Rob out through the front door and she could escape out the back—hightail it to her canoe and belt her way up the bay.

Opening her mouth like a fish desperate for oxygen, she stared at Rob in horror.

‘Take a breath, Willa,’ Rob suggested on a slow grin.

Willa slapped her hands against her cheeks and gasped as the sheet dropped and fell over the lounger. Rob’s eyes darkened with passion and his penis started to swell. Willa saw what was happening, lifted her hand and tried to step away from him—she really did. But her legs weren’t doing much listening. In fact they were taking her to him!

‘No! No! No, no, no, no, no, no! I don’t have time, Rob!’

Rob’s thumb drifted over her nipple and Willa felt her resolve weaken. How could she just look at him and feel prickly and horny and … wet? Get a grip, Willa. But one more time her body whispered its demand. One more thrilling, amazing orgasm or … four.

‘I want to take you here, on this lounger, in the morning sun.’

‘God, Rob … It’s out in the open. The neighbours….’

Why was she even thinking about doing this? Was she mad?

‘Nobody can see us, Willa. This balcony was built for privacy,’ Rob said, sliding his hand between her thighs.

Willa instantly melted.

‘Here … in the sun, Wills. Say yes.’

‘Yes.’ Willa sighed, looping her hands around his neck and slapping her naked body against his. As if she’d ever had any chance of saying no.

Ding-dong! Ding-dong!

Willa’s eyes shot open and she bolted upright in bed. Fudge, was that the doorbell? That couldn’t be the doorbell, there was no way that it was eleven already …

Ding-dong. Ding-dong.

Dammit, it was the doorbell, and the doorbell meant guests. Arrrggghhhhh. She was in such trouble …

Rob groaned and opened one eye. Willa glared down at him. ‘This is your fault!’ she hissed.

‘Huh? Why?’

Willa shot out of bed and ran to her walk-in closet, reaching for clean underwear and a pair of shorts. Grabbing a denim pair that were more holes than fabric, she yanked them on.

‘“I want to take you here, on this lounger, in the morning sun …’” Willa growled, imitating his deep voice. ‘“Just come back to bed for a little while,” you said. “we have time,” you said!’

‘We must have dozed off.’ Rob rolled over, taking the sheets with him, and squinted at his watch. ‘Huh—ten-forty. Someone is early. Either way, it seems we’re out of time.’

‘You think, Einstein?’ Willa barked, yanking on a tank top and pulling her hair up into a haphazard tail. ‘I need a shower, to brush my teeth …’

‘Slow down, gorgeous …’ Rob suggested, standing up and stretching.

Willa glared at him as the doorbell chimed again. ‘Keep your pants on,’ she muttered, and then pointed to Rob. ‘You too, hotshot.’

Rob grinned at her. ‘I’m going to have a shower first …’

‘I hate you!’ Willa barked, before rushing out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

Through the stained glass windows of the door she could see two people on the other side. Yanking it open, she was relieved to see Amy and Jessica on her front steps.

‘Thank God it’s you!’ she stated, holding her hand to her head, hoping to keep it from exploding. God, she had the headache from hell. What had been in those cocktails? Liquid mercury?

‘Are you okay, Wills? You look … frazzled,’ Amy said.

‘I am frazzled,’ Willa admitted. ‘God, can I cancel this?’

Amy stepped into the double volume hall and whistled her appreciation as she turned in a circle. ‘Hell, no, you’re not cancelling a damn thing—and … wow, Wills, this house is a hell of a divorce settlement.’

‘Kate’s a hell of a divorce lawyer.’

And she wasn’t letting Willa settle for just a house. She was, as she frequently told Willa, better and meaner than that.

Willa took a seat on the bottom step of the floating staircase. ‘She’s the sharpest tool in the shed; you’d like her, Amy.’

‘If she’s helping you bury Wayne-the-Pain then I like her already,’ Amy agreed.

The Pain. Such an apt moniker.

‘Anyway … can we concentrate, here? I have a cracking headache from those cocktails, I have God knows how many people arriving at any minute, and I have nothing—repeat, nothing!—in this house to feed or lubricate them.’

Amy frowned. ‘Did you forget you invited us?’

‘Sorta … kinda…. yeah.’ She couldn’t tell her friend that she’d been having too much fun playing with Rob to think about her guests. ‘What am I going to doooooo?’

‘You are going to go and have a shower. Jessica will greet anyone who arrives and Amy will shoot to the shops and grab food and drink.’

The deep, masculine, made-for-sin voice floated down the stairs.

Willa watched as Jessica and Amy’s heads shot up and quickly turned to see Rob, his hair wet from his ultra-quick shower, dressed in his clothes from the night before, walking down the stairs, bare feet sticking out from the ragged hem of his jeans. Their surprise turned to feminine approval and she groaned as two sets of perfectly arched eyebrows lifted in a silent question.

‘Way to go, Wills.’

Willa threw her hands up in defeat at Amy’s mischievous murmur. ‘Ah … Rob. Rob stayed over …’