"Penelope..."

David's lips crushed against hers. Penny felt the weight of him pressing her down

against the hardwood floor. She felt like she might shatter, and yet her only thought was

to drag him closer still.

He hovered above her. More questions in his eyes. Would he ever stop hovering,

just beyond her fingertips, just outside her reach?

"Stop," she whispered, ragged with frustration. He pulled back an inch farther.

"Stop?"

"No, don't stop. Stop stopping!" Penny grabbed him by the front of his shirt before

he could pull away any farther. She clawed at the fabric, dragging him back down to

meet her lips again. She couldn't hide it from him any longer. All the longing... all the

pining... Everything she'd been concealing from him all this time broke loose and flooded

through her. She could barely believe her eyes as she saw the same emotions reflected

back to her on David's face.

This was farther than they'd ever gotten. The last time she'd been this close to

him, he'd stopped before they could go too far. Penny felt a stab of panic that he would

cut things off again. The kiss broke, and he was on his feet, dragging her up with him.

"Come with me."

There was an unfamiliar quality to his voice, a grit she didn't recognize, but the

words themselves she'd heard him utter many times. The sound of those words on his

lips now brought back the early days as his assistant that first summer, after their secret

late-night emails had begun to fire back and forth. Penny remembered him sitting in her

cubicle, perched on the edge of her desk, one Friday afternoon. It must have been near

the end of the workday because he'd taken off his tie and had his shirt sleeves rolled up.

The top button of his shirt was undone, and she remembered how she'd been

mesmerized by the little hollow place at the center of his collarbone. He'd been teasing

her about something, or maybe she'd been teasing him. She couldn't remember now.

Only the way his shoulders shook with laughter and then stilled suddenly when he heard

the footfalls of someone approaching. His face had gone taut, and then he'd ground out

that same terse phrase. Come with me.

He'd led her into his office and shut the door behind him with a firm click. She

remembered thinking she must have done something wrong. Crossed some line. Broken

some rule. She must have let her forbidden feelings play across her face. She'd been

certain he brought her into his office for a reprimand. Instead, he'd come to stand before

her, far too close for professional decorum. He stayed silent for a moment. Then

another. And another... She'd stood before him, frozen, unsure what he intended. For

one long minute, she thought he might cross the line right then and there. She'd held her

breath waiting as he hovered there before her, just outside her reach. Always just

outside her reach...

"What?" she'd demanded at last when she couldn't bear the silence any longer.

Her voice had seemed to wake him from a stupor. A visible shudder ran through him,

and the slackness had left his jaw. His face had returned to that knowing expression she

recognized, somehow assessing her and mocking her at once. He took a long step back.

"You tell me," he'd said in his normal boss-like tone of voice. "Why did I bring you

in here, Miss Stewart?"

"You're asking me?"

"This was a test," he'd said. "You failed."

She hadn't understood.

"You should never be alone with me in this office with the door closed. Not me or

any other male co-worker for that matter."

"You're the one who closed it!" she'd protested.

"And you let me." He'd reached around her then. For a moment, he was near

enough for her to catch his scent. But he reached for the doorknob and levered it open.

"There are rules. You need to learn them if you're going to last around here. Is that

clear?"

No, it wasn't clear. It hadn't been clear then, and it wasn't clear now, either. But this

time, it was his bedroom door he closed behind himself with a firm click. Was this a test, too?

"Penelope." He said her name again, breathing it under his breath as if it were a

prayer. Somehow, she sensed he'd said her name in that same way a hundred times

before—but always just outside her earshot.

The doors had always stood between them. His office door. His bedroom door. A

thousand other doors he'd closed and barred against her with his rules. But they were on

the same side of the door now. He pressed her back against it, pinning her with his

hands at either side.

Penny couldn't catch her breath. Each gasp of air brought along a burst of heat

that scalded her from the inside out. The only relief came from his lips. He kissed her

hard, and for a moment, it quenched the flames, only to send them racing higher still.

Their mouths moved and angled, searching and seeking for satisfaction, only breaking

for an instant when she dragged his shirt up over his head.

Her hands were on his chest. David's chest. The thought of it made her dizzy. She

traced her fingertips along his collarbone to that same little hollow spot that had held her

transfixed those two long years ago.

He didn't let her study it for long. His head tilted, and his mouth met hers again,

plunging deep. Penny wrapped her arms around his neck for support, burying her fingers

in his hair.

David's hips crushed her up against the door as he kissed her. She trembled

against him as his hands tracked up the outline of her body, starting at the outside of her

thighs, then up her hips to her waist. As he kissed her on and on, his fingers delved

beneath her blouse and crept up her rib cage. She arched her back, flattening herself

against his chest. At her sudden movement, his jaw cracked wide as if by reflex, and she

felt him groan into her mouth.

He pulled away, chest heaving.

Penny met his eyes. She felt drunk from his kisses, unsteady on her feet, and a

strange sense of deja vu as well—the feeling of standing on a threshold, with a door

slamming shut behind her...

Don't look back, she told herself. She kept her eyes locked on his while her fingers

worked to unbutton her top. She let it slide from her shoulders to the floor, followed by

her bra.

Oh. His mouth formed the shape of the word, but he didn't make a sound. He

leaned forward, resting the top of his head above her shoulder, braced against the door

for support. His hands twitched at her sides, fists clenching and unclenching.

She took one of his hands and moved it to her waist. "Touch me."

His hand moved upward. Slowly. Agonizingly slowly. She closed her eyes and let

her head fall back. "Please," she whispered. "Please don't stop."

His hand hovered, outlining the shape without making contact like an art collector

afraid to damage a priceless sculpture.

She moved restlessly. "Touch me," she demanded more forcefully this time.

His breath came fast and hot against her skin as he murmured in her ear. "You

have no idea how many times I've thought about doing this—" he stopped short. "Should

I not tell you that?"

She grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand back toward her. "I think about it too."

He made a sound in the back of his throat as his hand began to explore. She

watched his mouth move, forming the shape of an 'o' again as his eyebrows drew

together with concentration. With the back of his hand, he traced the curve down to the

valley between her cleavage and on to the other side.

"What else do you think about?" he murmured low in his throat. "What do you

think about when you're alone?"

Penny rolled her hips involuntarily. That day in the office, when he'd clicked the

door closed. That's what she thought about. Over and over again... He hadn't brought

her in there just to make some point about the "rules." He'd wanted more. He'd thought

about it. She could see it in his eyes. And at night, when she was alone, she would

picture that look in his eyes again. Only he wouldn't stop himself. He would come toward

her and pin her back against his office door, just the way he had her pinned right now.

"Do you remember that time you took me in your office and closed the door?" she

asked him in a breathy voice. "The first summer I started for you?"

David's eyebrows lifted. He knew which day she meant; she could tell. "I shouldn't

have done that."

"I thought you were going to... do something. I thought that was why you closed it."

"I stopped myself." He shook his head. "Just in time."

"That's what I think abou..." She swallowed the last word and let out a hiss at the

sensations he was sending through her with his hips responding to her movements. She

closed her eyes. "That's what I think about. That day. What if you hadn't stopped?"

In his office... in the elevator... in this very bedroom, spooned in bed... So many

unfinished moments that she finished in her head.

His hips stopped moving, and he pulled back. For an endless moment, Penny

thought he would end things yet again. She wanted to scream.

"Look at me," he said. She forced her eyes to open.

Don't stop, she shouted in her head.

His eyes bored into hers. "There's no going back. That's why I always stopped.

Once we cross this line, it'll never be the same."

She touched his face. Ran her hand up his cheek and into his hair. She pushed it

up from his forehead, the way she'd imagined doing so many times. "I don't want it to be

the same," she said. "I want it to be more."

David nodded. He swept her up in his arms, and she gasped at how easily he

lifted her. She held on to his shoulders and wrapped her legs around his hips as he

carried her the few strides to his bed.

So close, she thought. Only a few feet from where he'd first kissed her in his living

room, but it felt like they'd traversed an enormous distance. Climbed an entire mountain.

Nearly reached the peak. The sense of standing on a threshold returned, and Penny

squeezed her eyes closed for a moment. So close. Don't look back.

He was undressed to the waist, wearing only a pair of running shorts low down on

his hips. She could see the definition of his abs and the v-lines that dipped beneath his

waistband. She had the overwhelming urge to trace them with her fingers and find out

where they led.

She'd seen him shirtless before, of course. She'd seen him in this very bed, at his

most vulnerable. There was so much of him she knew better than anyone— and yet so

much unknown to her. So much still to learn. Parts of him she'd never seen, but more

than that. More than just anatomy... There was the way his lips moved when he kissed

her. The sureness in his fingertips as he unbuttoned her jeans and peeled them down

her hips. The way his eyes took in her body, drinking her in like she was made of liquid.

The way his tongue explored, coaxing her to the brink.

All of it was new.

All of it was fire.

He propped himself above her on his hands and knees so his face aligned with

hers. He kissed her again. Hungrily. Penny wrapped her arms around his neck. She

ground herself against him as his tongue explored her mouth. He moved decisively,

taking full control, and she was helpless to do anything but follow him.

He must have removed his shorts at some point while distracting her with his

tongue. The man who hovered above her now was fully exposed, and she said his name

on a ragged indrawn breath. "David..."

How many times had she closed her eyes and imagined him like this? It felt

surreal now. To have come so far in the space of one day. It felt like years had passed,

but in fact, it had only been this morning when he'd punched her on the shoulder and told her, "Knock 'em dead." From the utter despair of that moment—that final farewell—to this

position now?

Impossible. How could it be real?

He stopped again, just shy of the final destination. He laced his fingers through

hers and pinned both her hands to the mattress by her head. His eyes took in her body,

hooded and lazy as they made slow progress upward, ending at her face. Their eyes

locked as she lay powerless beneath him.

"Penelope." His voice took on that prayer-like tone again. His chest heaved up and

down. "Do you know how many times I wanted this? Do you know how many nights I—I

imagined—Right here—In this bed?"

His breath came in sharp bursts, punctuating the words he whispered, but still, he

stopped himself from moving forward. Something held him back, some barrier she didn't

understand.

Don't stop, she opened her mouth to tell him, but different words came out instead.

"I love you."

"Oh God, Pen—"

She plowed on, interrupting him, shaking her head back and forth. "I tried to stop. I

tried and tried. But I couldn't. I can't. I—"

He gave a stifled cry. Then his lips descended, stealing her words away. He

kissed her deep and hard, and her cry of pleasure was lost inside his mouth when at last

they joined together. Then his hips rolled and crashed, bringing waves of pleasure, until

they both came to a shuddering stillness once again. The only sound in the room was

their heaving breaths, their pounding heartbeats, and his soft voice like an echo in her

ears.

"I love you, too, Penelope. I have loved you for so long."