Forbidden Desire

Chapter 2

Oliver

Holy s**t. Same blue eyes, same dark hair, but the innocence of seventeen had given way to the angles, lines, and hardness of a woman in her prime.

Isabella still looked like she belonged in a mechanic’s shop, except for the decidedly geeky t-shirt that read There’s no place like 127.0.0.1 and clung to her chest in sinful ways.

God, to run his hands down the length of that body.

Eli’s chair squeaked as it rotated and Oliver peered at her laptop.

The presentation he had to give in a few seconds might as well have been in a language he didn’t read. s**t. Get it together.

Thankfully, Isabella sat as far from Oliver as she could in the suddenly way-too-small conference room.

Isabella was an engineer? No way in hell. She’d barely passed math class until Oliver had tutored her. Then again, after that, she’d gotten straight As. He met Isabella’s stare a second time and he couldn’t tell if Isabella wanted to f**k him or kill him.

Guess some things never changed. He shivered.

“You’re up.” Eli spoke quietly and with a hint of concern.

Oliver stood and nodded. “I’m fine.” He was.

He had to be, despite Isabella glaring at him from the back of the room. No other option.

Not like they could step outside and undo the past fifteen years.

“Good morning.” He clicked the laptop into presentation mode and picked up the remote. “I’m Oliver West. I know you think we’re here to take your jobs, but we’re not. We’re here to save them.”

And he was off and running as if his first lover hadn’t walked back into his life.

***********

Meeting concluded, Oliver followed Eli and Sandra from the conference room. Next up was lunch, and if they hurried, he’d avoid having to speak to Isabella.

Too many years, too many unresolved conversations, and too much temptation packed into a body that wasn’t at all seventeen anymore. Those arms. That delicate jaws. He’d tripped over his words whenever his glance at the technical team had fallen on Isabella.

He’d had to stop looking just to get through the damn talk. Luckily the presentation seemed to have gone over well. The Q and A had been intense but friendly, and the staff seemed to have good heads on their shoulders.

Isabella had sat there, nodding sometimes, chewing on her lips at other points, but hadn’t asked any questions. Oliver’s heart thudded in his chest. Usually presentations didn’t faze him. But he’d never tried giving one when he actually knew what someone sitting in the room looked like naked.

Or at least he had known. His brain was rapidly trying to fill in the blanks as to what Isabella’s naked body might look like now.

You could find out. Nope. Oliver exhaled. Not even going there. Their past was the past for a reason.

Sandra paused in the hall near an office that bore her name. “There’s a nice pho restaurant nearby. Katiya from human resources will be joining us as well,” Sandra said.

“Excellent.” That from Eli.

“Oliver?” Isabella had a deeper smokey voice now, but utterly recognizable. It slid into Oliver’s brain and down his body, tightening his heart and heating his blood exactly as it had in high school, back when he never said no to that temptation.

So you like me, too? Good, ’cause I like you, I.

As he had then, Oliver turned and there Isabella was, hopeful, surprised, and far sexier than he had any right to be after all these years. “Hi, Isabella. Long time.”

“I’ll say.” She ran a hand through her hair. Same nervous tic. Oliver knew that look, too. No, Isabella certainly didn’t want to kill him.

Damn.

Oliver stuffed his hands into his pockets, partly to keep himself from reaching out and pulling Isabella into the embrace he wanted, and partly to hide what that stare did to his d**k.

“You two know each other?” A hint of surprise colored Eli’s voice.

“We went to high school together.” That was a much shorter explanation than she was my best friend and lover and broke my heart so many times it’s a wonder it still beats.

“A long time ago,” Isabella said.

Not long enough. He’d thought he’d gotten over Isabella, that the years had removed the need to touch that skin and taste those lips.

Maybe they had, but somewhere along the line, those same traitorous years had transformed Isabella from a cute girl into a smoking-hot woman, and Oliver wanted to know all those little details all over again. Right now. “Fifteen years.”

He’d flown all this way to escape Kris and run headfirst into the biggest regret of his past.

Life was so unfair.

“Anyway.” Isabella fiddled with her watch, but never stopped looking at Oliver. A hint of frown on her face . “You’re probably busy today, but let’s grab lunch sometime and catch up?”

Of course. Isabella always had a plan for Oliver. Saying yes to it was such a bad idea, even if he did want to see what was under Isabella’s shirt and taste the skin there. “Sure.”

“Great!” And there was the smile that always melted Oliver’s heart and kick-started his lust. Same effect, too. “Send me mail when you know your schedule.” Isabella nodded to Eli and Sandra before vanishing down the hall.

“Sorry about that,” Oliver said.

“Not a problem,” Sandra said. “Always interesting to catch up with old friends.” She gestured and they headed toward the entrance.

Oliver felt Eli’s silence and a glance confirmed his perplexed expression. Well, at least he had that.

Throwing Eli off his footing was the office pastime, even more so than Ping-Pong. He’d take victory anywhere he could find it.

Especially when what he wanted was Isabella Park naked and in his bed—the hell with all the years and the anger and the f*****g guilt.

Oliver rubbed the bridge of his nose. s**t. This trip was going to be a lot harder than he’d thought.