He picked my bag from my desk and my jacket from the hanger, holding both out for me. The man was unbelievable, but the fact that he’d taken the afternoon off and was here for me disarmed me faster than I would have thought possible. I let him slide the jacket on my back. He lingered with his fingers at the sides of my neck, pressing gently. I released an audible breath.

“Come on, Val. I’ll take your mind off it.” He lowered his hand to the small of my back and kept it there on the way to the elevator. We ran into Anne as we headed out of the building.

“You’re leaving?” she inquired as she handed me the sandwich.

“Yes, but call me if anything urgent comes up.”

“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

After she left, Carter pointed to the sandwich.

“This is supposed to be your lunch?”

I nodded, too busy devouring the tiny turkey sandwich to answer. He was right, though. It was so small that I finished it just as we went out of the building. I felt even hungrier than before.

“What do you want to do?” he asked.

I blinked. “You bossed me out of my own office, and now you’re asking me what I want to do?”

“The important thing was to get you out. You were so tense that your shoulders were up to your ears. I can make dinner reservations, but I’m sensing you’re not up to it.”

He came to a stop on the sidewalk, and I stopped too. God, no one had looked at me the way he did. What would it feel like to have this man inside me? To have him in my life? Would he make me feel things no one else had?

“Honestly, I just want to go home.”

“Then that’s where we’ll go.”

“We?”

“You don’t honestly think I’d let you go on your own?” He cupped my face gently, caressing my cheeks with his thumbs. “Let me be with you today, okay?”

I sighed and nodded, already looking forward to it. He didn’t immediately let go of my face, and I started to warm up at all those contact points. My eyes were at the same level with his lips. I remembered how they’d felt on my skin. A current of awareness passed through me. The look in Carter’s eyes told me he knew exactly what was going through my mind. Sexual tension filled every single inch of distance between us. I was lost in this man: his touch, the seductive tone of his voice. When he let go of me, I immediately missed him.

We drove in separate cars, and every time I peeked in the rearview mirror to check if he was still tailing me, my heart sighed.