By the end of her second week at the Foundation, Kate had learned three things.
One: the nonprofit world was far more political than she'd imagined.
Two: Jade wasn't just a boss — he was a force. Charismatic, strategic, and unreasonably attractive even when he was yelling at spreadsheets.
And three: it was dangerously easy to fall for him when you saw him every day.
Their stolen moments grew bolder.
A graze of fingers when passing reports.
A glance that lingered too long in meetings.
A kiss in the elevator when no one else was around.
But tonight? Tonight, the building was nearly empty. The office lights dimmed one by one, and only the quiet hum of the city remained below.
Kate sat at her desk, the glow of her computer illuminating her face as she edited the press release for the new outreach program. She didn't hear the soft click of the door until Jade's shadow fell across her desk.
"You should've gone home an hour ago," he said, leaning against the frame.
She smiled without looking up. "Says the man who just got out of a call with Dubai."
"I'm the boss. What's your excuse?"
She chuckled. "Trying to impress the boss."
He walked into the room, loosening the top buttons of his dress shirt. "You already did that. Thoroughly."
She looked up, heart skipping at the way his eyes darkened the moment their gazes met.
"I shouldn't be here," he murmured.
She rose from her seat slowly. "Neither should I."
They stood like that for a moment — silent, breathless — before he closed the distance between them in three strides.
The kiss was different this time.
Hungrier.
More desperate.
His hands cupped her face as his mouth claimed hers, tongue brushing her lips before deepening the kiss. Kate melted into him, arms winding around his neck as he pressed her against the edge of her desk.
Her blazer slipped from her shoulders as his hands explored her waist, sliding beneath the thin fabric of her blouse. He groaned low in his throat when her fingers tugged his shirt free from his pants, trailing down to unbuckle his belt.
"Tell me to stop," he murmured, breath hot against her neck.
"I don't want you to," she gasped, nails raking gently down his back.
He lifted her onto the desk, knocking aside her laptop and pen like they were afterthoughts. Her legs wrapped around him instinctively, pulling him closer, deeper into the firestorm that had been building between them for days.
His kisses trailed down her neck, to the hollow of her collarbone, then lower still, as he slipped her blouse open button by button.
She arched into him, fingers threading through his hair. "We'll get caught," she whispered.
"No one's here," he said between kisses. "And even if they were…"
He didn't finish the sentence. His mouth returned to hers with a hunger that stole her breath, consuming her piece by piece.
And for that one hour in the quiet glow of the city…
They didn't care.
---
By the time they came back down to Earth, her hair was tousled, her lips swollen, and her skirt wrinkled beyond repair. He helped her fix her buttons with surprisingly gentle fingers.
"Next time," he whispered, brushing a kiss across her temple, "we're not doing this on a desk."
She laughed breathlessly. "Next time?"
"Oh, there'll be a next time."
She looked at him, heart swelling. "We're playing with fire, Jade."
He met her eyes. "Then I hope it burns."
---
What they didn't know… was that someone had seen them.
From the shadows outside the office suite, a junior communications officer named Evelyn Torres had stopped by to grab her forgotten phone.
And caught a perfect view through the glass door — a view that made her eyes widen and her career instincts kick into high gear.
She didn't make a sound.
She just turned around…
And smiled.