Read Online BWWM Interracial Romance 1: Professional Relations by Elena Brown - Free Book Online Page B

“What have you done to upset me?” she asked him, confused.
    Bradley shrugged, and Regina could see that he looked upset—distressed. “I don’t know what it is. The only thing I can think of is that when we… that night, you must have been upset by something I did.”
    Regina swallowed against the tightness in her throat.
    “I want to apologize, if that was the case. I should have been more respectful. I should have asked you out instead of just taking advantage of your emotions right then.” He extended the box towards her. “I brought you a peace offering.” He smiled slightly, and Regina thought that if she didn’t know any better, she would think that he was actually worried.
    She took the box and opened it; inside was an old generation iPod, fully charged—she noticed as she turned it on. She smiled slightly to herself as she saw that it was absolutely packed with music; some groups and bands she had heard of and many she hadn’t.
    “I noticed you love music,” Bradley said. “I’m kind of a music fanatic myself, so I thought you’d appreciate it.”
    Regina’s smile grew. It was an incredibly thoughtful gift; she could see the charger cable tightly coiled in the box underneath where the iPod had lain. There was something underneath the cable as well—Regina lifted the cord out and saw that there were two tickets to an upcoming music festival.
    “What’s this?” she asked, looking from the tickets to Bradley’s face.
    He was blushing slightly, the bright pink of blood rushing into his pale skin giving him almost a glowing quality that Regina admired. “I had hoped you would be willing to go with me,” he said, licking his lips self-consciously. “If not, I mean, you can go on your own, or with whoever you like.”
    Regina bit her bottom lip, eyeing the tickets with both appreciation and concern. She knew she shouldn’t go on a date with Bradley; she didn’t know what involvement he had with her current state of career insecurity. On top of that, she told herself, it was a bad idea all around to date a coworker.
    But she couldn’t deny that even while she had been avoiding him, Regina had been plagued by thoughts of Bradley’s skills as a lover. The brief, hurried tryst they had shared had reawakened her sexuality, and more than once she had awakened in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, her body on fire from a vivid dream of what it would be like to have him again. Part of her brain pointed out that if she got close to him, she could potentially root out his sabotage, if he was involved in it, and find out a way to get the justice she deserved. Another part of her mind thought that if she was in bad odor with the management anyway, she might as well enjoy herself while she still had a job. A third part of her brain screamed that it was a stupid idea, and bound to bite her in the ass. That she should reject the gift, tell Bradley that she wanted a professional relationship, not a personal one, and move on with her life.
    “I’d love to go with you,” Regina said. She blushed slightly. “But you realize we can’t tell anyone about this.”
    Bradley nodded slowly. “There’s a lot of rules and regulations about inter-office romance,” he agreed. “But we can do this, I think. I hope.”
    Regina felt herself smiling, excited and giddy as she hadn’t been in years. “Well this will certainly make working late a lot more appealing,” she said, feeling daring and courageous. Bradley stood, stepping around the desk and leaning in to kiss her lightly on the lips.
    “I look forward to it. But isn’t it a bit late, even for you? Geez, woman, get home and have dinner and go to sleep. You’re not going to get anything worthwhile done this late at night.” He lifted her up out of her chair and kissed her again, more hungrily this time, his hands trailing over her body.
    Regina broke away from the kiss, laughing and pushing him playfully away. “If you keep that up I’m going