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As they sped out of her neighborhood, Shondra felt a little thrill bubble up inside her. She was in uncharted waters. Although she’d grown up with money—lots of it—and had always had access to nice things, she was beginning to realize that Connor was playing in a whole other league.
When she dated the average working-class man, Shondra knew where she stood. She was the one in control—often paying or going Dutch on the bills, and dictating when and where for most dates.
Tonight felt very different. Connor was every bit as smart as she was. He had more money. And he was her boss. If she wasn’t careful, she was at risk of becoming Connor’s plaything or worse…a novelty.
Getting involved with a powerful man was dangerous. And that fed her wild streak. The one she never indulged.
Connor must have read the expression on her face, because he looked over and said, “Relax. It’s just dinner.”
So she let herself relax. Determined not to overthink things any further, Shondra sank back into the seat and enjoyed the ride, as downtown Houston whizzed by her.
Twenty minutes later Connor gave his keys to the valet at a trendy restaurant she’d always wanted to try.
“Great choice. I hear the food here is top-notch,” she said as they were seated at a private spot surrounded by potted palms.
“I thought you’d like it. The chef is a friend of my father’s. He makes the most tender porterhouse steak you’ve ever had.”
Shondra looked up from her menu. “A real meat and potatoes kind of guy—is that you?”
He grinned, flashing that smile that tickled her spine. “We’re in Texas. What do you think?”
“I think it’s not healthy to eat a lot of red meat.”
“Ah, you’re one of those.” He winked at her.
She straightened her spine. “One of those what? Sensible people who don’t plan on having open-heart surgery before the age of forty?”
Connor laughed, shaking his head. “So what are you going to order then? Please don’t say a salad. You can’t waste the superior skills of Chef Lerac on greenery.”
Shondra folded her menu. “Actually, I think I’ll have the swordfish.” She eyed him with feigned deference. “If that meets with your approval, boss.”
He looked up, not taking the bait. “I suppose it will have to do this time. But I insist you try Lerac’s sweet potato mousse on the side.”
Shondra agreed and when the waiter arrived, she didn’t bat an eye when Connor ordered for both of them. She sipped her champagne cocktail, realizing it had been a long while since she’d been this relaxed.
Lisa had been right about one thing. She worked too hard. Sixty-to seventy-hour workweeks had been routine long before her father’s passing.
Tensions had been riding high in the Braddock clan ever since her oldest brother, Malcolm, had decided to leave the family business several years ago. Shondra knew it had broken her father’s heart, but she couldn’t fault her brother. Malcolm had always been the type of die-hard defender of the people that never could have lasted in the political game. He couldn’t understand that their father had to give away a few votes to gain ground for bigger battles.
Shondra wasn’t even sure she could agree with all of her father’s decisions. But she and her brother Tyson were determined not to take sides. When Malcolm walked away, their only recourse had been to focus on their own careers.
Not wanting to get lost in the melancholy that rose when she started to think about her father, she focused on Connor. He was talking about the direction he wanted to take Stewart Industries, but she scarcely heard him.
He was a truly beautiful man. His dark blond hair, smoothed back from his face, was tucked behind each ear and hung an inch above his collar. He had a strong, rugged jaw and a sexy dimple in his right cheek. And although she was often captivated by his straight white teeth, it was only because she was avoiding the intensity of his gorgeous pale blue eyes.
Whew. How did any woman in the office get any work done? Suddenly his lips quirked into a sly smirk and he gave her a knowing look. That’s when she realized her mistake.
He had stopped talking and was watching her…watch him.
Hating to feed the ego that a man that hot had to have, she struggled to save face.
“I’m sorry. I let myself get distracted there for a second. I was trying to remember if I renewed my car insurance. I know I wrote the check, but I can’t remember if I mailed it.”
Connor chuckled. He didn’t say a word but she could tell he had noticed her ogling him.
A stinging heat rushed up her neck and bloomed in her cheeks. Picking up her water glass, she fished out an ice cube and began to suck it for a moment before crunching it between her teeth. It was a nervous habit she’d had since childhood.
Anxious to force them past this awkward moment, she began to ramble about her Mercedes and how she should replace it with a hybrid, but loathed car shopping. As she talked, she continued to play with her ice, completely unaware of its effect on her dinner companion.
Connor quickly found the shoe on the other foot as he watched Shondra tease him with her ice cubes. Only moments ago, he’d been awash in masculine pride as he watched her open appreciation of him. He was used to women finding him attractive, and it pleased him in particular to know that Shondra wasn’t immune.
But his smug attitude didn’t last. In her fluster, she began a seductive game of pulling ice cubes from her glass with her neatly manicured nails, sucking them gently with her perfect plum lips, then plopping them into her mouth.
It was mesmerizing and his pants were becoming uncomfortably tight. He’d had women attempt seductions in a variety of ways, but there was never any challenge in that. Shondra’s unconscious act was more erotic to Connor than a thong-clad girl gyrating on a pole.
Connor watched Shondra with new appreciation. He’d found her attractive from the start. Wearing only a bit of eyeliner and lip gloss, she didn’t hide her beauty under a lot of makeup. Her glossy hair was parted slightly off-center and fell in brown-black curls past her shoulders. It was the perfect frame for her heart-shaped face. She was all cheeks and dimples, with a girlishly wide smile that belied her normally serious demeanor.
He was glad she’d worn a dress tonight. It was a simple dark pink tank dress that tied behind her neck, smoothed over her ribs and flared from her hips to her knees. It left plenty of her rich, cocoa-brown skin to gleam in the candlelight, making Connor long to find out if it was as soft as it looked.
Connor knew his father wouldn’t approve of his dating an SI employee. And until tonight, he’d found it easy to resist what few temptations he’d found at work. But after his flight back to Houston with Shondra, discussing business, politics and current affairs, he found himself wanting to look beyond her professional image.
Their easy flirtations were leading Connor to suspect he was in over his head. Her effect on him was more than just the thrill of breaking the rules.
The waiter appeared with their orders not a moment too soon for Connor. It gave him something other than Shondra to focus on, and it gave her something else to do besides frustrate him with those damn ice cubes.
He sliced into his porterhouse, cooked to a perfect medium-rare. “Ah, it looks like Chef Lerac has outdone himself. How is your swordfish?”
Shondra cut into her fish with her fork and tasted it. “Mmm, it’s delicious. Would you like to try some?”
“Only if you’ll take a bite of this.”
She shrugged. “Sure, I’m not morally opposed to eating beef. I just don’t have it very often.”
He held out a juicy pink cut of his steak. And instead of eating it off his fork, as he hoped, she traded utensils with him, offering him a tender slice of her swordfish.
Connor sampled what he was offered. The flavors were clean and simple, but he definitely preferred the savory spice of his steak. “It’s very good—”
He lost his breath watching Shondra chew the steak with her eyes closed. “Oh my God, that practically melted in my mouth.”
“Would you like another piece?”
She eyed his plate guiltily, as though she wanted more but didn’t want to ask. Without hesitation Connor cut a bigger chunk and placed it on her plate.
He’d only taken a couple more bites before he noticed that Shondra had finished what he’d given her and was eating her fish with much less enthusiasm than before.
He grinned wickedly. “Are you regretting your decision not to get the steak?”
Shondra smiled sheepishly. “Yes.”
Connor’s brows rose. He’d expected her to hold her pride by denying it. “An honest answer. For that you deserve a reward.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
Connor picked up her plate and swapped it with his own.
“Oh, no!” She gasped. “I can’t let you do that.”
He waved her off. “Nonsense. You’d be doing me a favor. I probably eat too much red meat. After all, I’d hate to have open-heart surgery before the age of forty.”
Sacrificing his meal proved to be well worth it. Despite her reluctant acceptance, she treated him to a rapturous stream of “mmms” and “ahs” that raised his temperature.
After dinner, the valet pulled his car up to the curb. The young kid was grinning from ear to ear. “Here’s your car, Mr. Stewart. That was my first time in a Bugatti. She sure is powerful.”
“Yes, she is,” he said, handing the kid a tip.
As he steered Shondra toward the car, she commented, “It really is pretty. I guess it’s really fast, too?”
He typically brought the car along on first dates, because he typically dated women who knew exactly how rare and expensive a Bugatti Veyron was. Shondra, on the other hand, had only seemed mildly impressed that it was so “pretty.” And, strangely enough, that pleased Connor.
He knew, for a change, that her attraction to him had nothing to do with his bank account. And despite their exchange of heated looks, he knew their rapport was based on more than the physical. Until then, he hadn’t even known he was looking for more.
Shondra wanted to know if the car was fast. Connor resisted the urge to snort at the understatement. Instead he reacted on impulse, pushing the keys into her hand. “Wanna drive it?”
Handing over his car keys was something he never did. And if he was expecting her to hesitate, he was wrong.
“Hell yes!” she said, circling around to the driver’s seat.
The heavy-duty engine roared to life when she put the keys in the ignition. She pulled into traffic with a jerk.
Shondra looked over at him and laughed. “Don’t look so nervous. I’m a great driver. I just need a second to get used to a car with this much horsepower.”
Connor gripped the door handle. “I’m not nervous,” he lied. “I just want to make sure you realize this is one of the fastest-accelerating vehicles that’s street legal. Take it easy.”
She increased her speed, unfazed by his words. “Get a lot of traffic tickets, don’t ya?”
Connor laughed. “No comment.”
He busied himself cranking up his favorite hip-hop station on the satellite radio so she wouldn’t see him fidgeting.
It didn’t take long for Shondra to get into sync with the car and gingerly maneuver through the downtown streets. She looked over at him as the speakers started vibrating from the thundering bass. “You’re not playing that for my benefit, are you?”
Connor’s brow wrinkled in confusion before he felt the back of his neck start to burn with embarrassment. She thought he was playing a rap song because she was black.
“No, not at all. This is what I normally listen to.” Anxious to prove it, he dug a few CD cases out of the glove compartment. “See. Ludicrous, Chris Brown…Snoop….”
She shrugged indifferently. “Okay. Do you have any Rascal Flatts or Faith Hill?”
He grimaced. “Country music?”
She laughed. “Of course. It’s my favorite.”
He studied her profile. “Really? Don’t you like hip-hop?”
She shook her head. “Not that much. Don’t you like country?”
“Not at all.”
Shondra shot him an incredulous look. “How can you be a born-and-bred Texan without liking country music?”
“Very easily. And I could ask you the same thing. Seventy percent of popular music is hip-hop. What’s not to like?”
“Seventy percent? You made that up.”
He shrugged. “So, it sounds true, doesn’t it?”
She laughed and they agreed to compromise by switching to an 80s station. Cindy Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” started playing, and Shondra bounced in her seat and started singing along.
Once they drove out of town, Shondra really opened the car up.
A wild giggle burbled out of her throat and Connor was fully captivated. He laughed along with her, getting an extra rush from watching her experience the Bugatti’s power for the first time.
So Shondra had a wild streak. He liked that a lot.
Shondra pulled Connor’s car to a screeching halt in her driveway and turned off the engine. “That was amazing. Thanks for letting me drive.”
“No problem. Once I was sure you weren’t going to kill us, it was really fun. Especially watching you sing at the top of your lungs while doing one-eighty.”
Shondra’s eyes went wide. “I did not drive that fast.”
“Yes, you did. But don’t feel bad. In a Bugatti one-eighty is like sixty. It’s such a smooth transition you don’t even feel it.”
She clutched a hand to her racing heart. “I’m lucky we didn’t get arrested.”
His wicked grin flashed. “That’s the thrill of it, isn’t it?”
Together they walked up her driveway, Shondra’s blood still sizzling from the adrenaline rush. Connor had all the makings of a billionaire playboy. Just the type she’d carefully avoided all her life.
She was starting to wonder why. Billionaire boys had billionaire toys that were really fun to play with. But could she afford to play in Connor’s sandbox?
They stopped in front of her door and Shondra looked up from finding her keys to thank him for the evening. Before she could get any words out of her mouth, he was pulling her close.
The next thing she knew, she was flattened against his chest and his soft, firm lips were on hers.
A flash of hunger shot through her in his strong, purposeful embrace. Shondra gave herself a moment to enjoy his kiss—soft and heated with just the tiniest flick of tongue—before she pulled away, breathless.
“Connor,” she said when she finally regained her voice. “Thank you for dinner and a really fun evening. But as much as I’d like to continue where we just left off, I really don’t think it’s wise for us to get involved. After all, you’re my boss.”
Her throat ached a bit as she said the words, and part of her wished she could take them back as soon as she’d said them.
