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‘‘Still, this is going to complicate things, isn’t it?’’ she asked.
‘‘You mean, am I going to look at you sitting at your desk and picture you here?’’ he asked. ‘‘Oh yeah.’’
‘‘It’s not going to be easy for me either, you know.’’ She couldn’t even imagine being in the office with him and not thinking about those wild moments out on the balcony. Stupid, Eileen. Really stupid. She shouldn’t have done this. Shouldn’t have given in to her hormones like some vapid teenager who didn’t know better.
She should have remembered that men were trouble and her track record was less than stellar.
‘‘Which is why we shouldn’t have.’’
‘‘True.’’ Eileen glanced at him, and noted that he, too, was staring up into the darkness. She wondered what he was really thinking. If he was wondering how to make a graceful exit from the bed. If he’d just fire her right now and avoid the whole embarrassing after-sex scene. ‘‘I’m only in your life—your world, temporarily. Two weeks. That’s it.’’
‘‘Should have been simple,’’ he said.
‘‘Not anymore.’’
‘‘Nope.’’
She sighed and turned onto her side. Heat from his body reached out for her and she couldn’t resist touching him again. Sliding one hand up his chest, she murmured, ‘‘Just think, our grandmothers got us into this.’’
He chuckled, caught her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. ‘‘I don’t think this is what they had in mind.’’
‘‘Hardly.’’
‘‘Look,’’ Rick said, his voice gaining strength, his fingers tightening on her hand. ‘‘What happened, happened. We’re adults. It shouldn’t be any big thing to deal with. It was just sex.’’
‘‘Amazing sex.’’
‘‘That goes without saying.’’
‘‘It’d be nice to hear, though.’’
He looked at her. ‘‘Amazing sex.’’
‘‘Thank you.’’
‘‘No,’’ he countered, ‘‘thank you.’’
‘‘Trust me,’’ she said, a reluctant smile curving her mouth. ‘‘My pleasure.’’
‘‘Yeah, I know.’’
‘‘No ego problems here.’’
He rolled over, pushing her onto her back and bracing himself up one elbow so that he could look down at her. ‘‘It’s one night. One night out of a lifetime. Neither one of us is looking for—or expects—roses and cherubs. We enjoy each other, then go back to business as usual tomorrow.’’
Eileen looked up at him, studying his eyes, his face, the curve of his mouth. She wanted to kiss him again. To taste him. To feel his tongue sweeping against hers. Hunger arced inside her again, fresh, greedy. She’d never felt like this before.
She’d been with a man before, of course. Her fiancé and then Joshua. But those experiences were nothing compared to what was going on inside her at the moment. She’d never felt the compulsion for more as she had tonight.
Even though she’d just been with Rick, she wanted him again. Now. Inside her. She wanted to feel his body moving within hers. Wanted to feel a part of him. Wanted to be locked within his embrace—and that was new.
A part of her wanted to explore these new sensations. And another, more wary part of her wanted to back off now, while she could still think logically. There was no future with Rick. He was just like every other man she’d ever come across. He wanted her to help him out at work. He wanted her in his bed. But, like every other male in her life, he didn’t want her. This wasn’t a relationship. This was simply two people who felt a…connection. Was that enough reason to enjoy each other? And could they keep it that simple?
‘‘Can we do that, do you think?’’
‘‘I can,’’ Rick said, smoothing his fingertips across her cheek, pushing her hair back behind her ear. Looking at her now made him want her again. And yet he knew he would be able to say goodbye. Because he had to. He wouldn’t let her get close. Couldn’t let her in. He’d taken one chance and got smacked for his trouble. He wouldn’t be doing that again.
Rick had learned years ago that life was easier if lived alone. Sex was one thing. Love—a relationship—was something else. Something he wasn’t interested in. ‘‘So the question is,’’ he asked, ‘‘can you?’’
She shivered at his touch, the tiny bursts of heat transferring from his fingers to her skin. Could she forget what happened tonight in tomorrow’s light of day? She wasn’t sure. Could she give up the chance to feel more of what she already had? No way. So there was really only one answer to his question.
‘‘Yes, I can.’’
‘‘Good,’’ he said, and pulled away from her.
‘‘I say yes and you leave?’’
He pushed off the bed and turned back to look at her again, a smile tipping one corner of his mouth. Her heart jumped in response.
‘‘Just going to light a few of these candles,’’ he said. ‘‘This time I want to see you.’’
‘‘Oh, boy.’’
She looked beautiful by candlelight.
Tiny flames flickered around the room, tracing halos of golden light against the flowered wallpaper. Beyond the windows, the storm still raged, rain pelting at the glass, lightning and thunder growling and snapping, like ferocious beasts demanding entry. The four-poster bed looked wide and soft and compelling, as Eileen lay across the clean white sheets, her bare body a temptation no man could resist.
And Rick had no desire to resist her.
He couldn’t remember ever feeling this hunger before. The sizzle and snap of heat that burst into life every time he touched her made him yearn to feel it again. Watching the candlelight play on her smooth, pale skin made his palms itch to touch her again.
Eileen was unlike any woman he’d ever known.
Hell, everything about her was different.
Unique.
Her attitude, her laugh, her scent. She smelled of roses and sunlight—a compelling mixture to a man too used to burying himself under mountains of work, shut away in corporate towers. She laughed at his work ethic. Teased him about taking himself too seriously and fought him when he gave orders. And he was enjoying himself far too much.
Which should have worried him—but he was too hungry for the taste of her to think about it now.
He crossed the room to her, his skin tingling in anticipation of the brush of her body against his.
She went up on both elbows, cocked her head to one side and smiled. ‘‘You know, something just occurred to me.’’
The pale light in the room danced on the ends of her still damp hair and glistened in the water drops like diamonds. That stray thought brought him up short. Hell, he’d never been particularly poetic before. ‘‘Yeah? What’s that?’’
She drew one leg up, sliding the sole of her foot up the length of her other leg in a long, slow caress that caught his gaze and stole his breath.
‘‘Do you always go armed with condoms when you travel with your secretary?’’
He stopped at the edge of the bed and dropped one hand to her calf, smiling when her eyes closed at his touch. His fingers drifted along her skin with a feather-light caress. ‘‘Nope. Remember when we stopped for gas?’’
‘‘Uh-huh,’’ she murmured as his hand slid higher, higher, past her knee, up along her thigh.
Rick smiled, remembering the impulse that had told him to buy a couple of the dusty packages of condoms he’d found on a back shelf. ‘‘Stop-and-shop gas stations carry a lot of items these days.’’
She dropped backward onto the mattress and arched her hips as his fingers brushed the juncture of her thighs. She sucked in a gulp of air and released it from her lungs slowly. ‘‘Thank heaven, you’re a careful shopper.’’
He watched her through narrowed eyes. Flickering light played across her features as she practically vibrated under his touch. ‘‘One of my many gifts.’’
‘‘What’s another?’’ She lifted her hips into his hand, her breath hitching as his fingertips stroked her center.
‘‘You’re about to find out.’’ Rick’s heartbeat pounded in his ears. Blood rushed through his veins, creating a heat that made him feel as though he were standing in the center of a roaring fire. His breathing strangled, he gave into the urges riding him and grabbed her legs. Pulling her quickly around, he turned her abruptly on the mattress and yanked her toward him.
‘‘Hey!’’ She grabbed at the sheets beneath her as if holding on.
‘‘Shut up, Ryan.’’
‘‘Excuse me?’’ She lifted her head to stare at him.
Tugging her to the edge of the bed, he spread her legs with a gentle touch, then sank to his knees in front of her. ‘‘I said shut up.’’
‘‘What the he—’’ She stared down at him. ‘‘Rick…’’
He looked at her and his breath stopped. Candlelight danced in her eyes and brushed her skin with a soft golden haze. She looked beautiful and wild and lush enough to steal a man’s soul.
If he let her.
Rick wouldn’t.
He just had to have her.
‘‘Trust me,’’ he whispered, his voice a hush, lost in the fury of the storm beyond the cozy, softly lit room.
Lifting first one of her legs and then the other, Rick laid them across his shoulders, then scooped his hands under her bottom. Her body trembled and she arched her hips, squirming as if trying to free herself. But she wasn’t trying hard.
‘‘Rick, you don’t have to—’’ She reached one hand out to him.
‘‘Like I said—shut up, Ryan.’’ He locked his gaze with hers as he took her. His mouth covered her center. Her eyes went wide, her mouth dropped open and air rushed from her lungs in a whoosh.
She watched him take her, and feeling her gaze on him fed his own hunger. He licked her soft flesh and she whimpered, threading her fingers through his hair and holding him to her as if afraid he’d stop. She needn’t have worried. He couldn’t stop. The feel of her body melting beneath his touch inflamed him. Her sighs filled him. He tasted her, dipping his tongue within her tender flesh, sending her higher than she’d ever been before.
One hand kneaded her bottom while he swept the other around to dip first one finger, and then two, into her depths. She shuddered, lifting herself into his mouth.
‘‘Rick, that…feels…so…good. Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.’’
Her broken voice, her breathy words, carried on the next clap of thunder, and he instinctively gave her more, pushing her farther, faster.
Eileen moved with him, rocking her hips, reaching for the wonder she knew was waiting for her. She watched him, unable to tear her gaze from the sight of him taking her so intimately. His gaze burned into hers. Candlelight flickered over his features and he looked dark, dangerous and too damn good.
He lifted her bottom off the bed and she was dangling in his grasp, his mouth the only stable point in her world. His hot breath dusted her most intimate flesh and his fingers and tongue worked her body into a frenzy of sensation that pooled in her center and spiraled throughout her insides. Her heartbeat drummed in her ears. Her breath staggered. She couldn’t hold out much longer. Couldn’t make it last, despite wanting his mouth on her forever. The end was crashing down on her and she rushed to meet it.
She cupped the back of his head, holding him to her as she cried out his name. He kept kissing her until the last of the tremors subsided and, when she thought she might shatter, he eased her back into the middle of the bed.
Her vision blurred as she looked up at him, kneeling between her legs. ‘‘You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?’’
‘‘I try.’’
‘‘Well, you’re doin’ fine,’’ she assured him, and told herself that it didn’t matter if her heartbeat was somewhere around three hundred. If she died of a heart attack right now, she’d meet death with a satisfied smile on her face.
‘‘Glad to hear it.’’ He grinned and leaned over to snag another condom from the bedside table. As he tore the foil packet open, he looked back at her. New desire shimmered in his eyes, sending a wicked spiral of want and need spinning through her. Surprise and pleasure shifted inside her, opening her to more sensations, making her wonder where this was all leading. Making her stop and think. Which she didn’t want to do at the moment.
Thankfully, Rick splintered her thoughts and sent them packing when he asked with a wink, ‘‘Ready to go again?’’
Six
In the candlelight, his skin gleamed like polished oak. Every well-defined muscle stood out in sharp relief and all Eileen could think of was that she wanted to trace every inch of his body with her fingers. Her lips. She wanted him as she’d never wanted anyone before. She couldn’t seem to get enough of him. And that thought shimmered briefly in her mind before she set it aside to explore later.
There would be plenty of time for thinking once the sun came up and their one-night bargain ended. For now…there was Rick. Nothing else.
‘‘Sleep,’’ she said, ‘‘is vastly overrated.’’
‘‘Is that right?’’
‘‘Oh yeah,’’ she said, and squirmed slightly on the bed, scooting closer to him, feeling the brush of his hardened body against her core. ‘‘It’s a known fact. You don’t need more than twenty minutes sleep a night to function at your best.’’
‘‘That’s a relief,’’ he said, pulling the condom from the packet.
‘‘Wait,’’ she said. ‘‘Let me.’’ She snatched the condom from his grasp. Half sitting up, she covered the tip of him with the pale latex, then slowly, sinuously, rolled it down along his length.
He sucked in air with a hiss.
Her fingers folded around him and squeezed gently.
His eyes closed and a muscle in his jaw twitched.
She touched him, sliding her fingers up and down the hard, solid length of him, then stopped to boldly cup him. His eyes opened and the candlelight reflected in those dark depths made him look dangerous again as he pulled her hand away.
‘‘That’s it,’’ he muttered, and leaned over her. He grasped both of her wrists in one tight fist, holding her hands against the bed, high over her head. She writhed and twisted beneath him on the bed, moving into him, lifting her hips, inviting him in.
Rick surrendered to the fury pulsing within. Desire scratched at him. Need howled inside him. Hunger raged in him. And when he pushed himself into her body, it all escalated. His heartbeat raced, his blood pumped and his breath staggered in and out of his lungs. All he could hear was her sighs. All he could feel was her breath as he lowered himself to kiss her. She nibbled at his mouth and planted her feet on the mattress to rock her body against his. She was all.
She was everything.
And for tonight, she was his.
Releasing his grip on her wrists, he groaned when she dragged her nails along his back. Then she pulled his head to her breasts and he pleased her, suckling, drawing, pulling at her nipples, first one, then the other. The scent of her drove him wild, the taste of her created hungers he’d never known before.
