Better Than Chocolate...

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“Absolutely.”

“And how do you think Jack will take you being on top?” he asked softly.

She shrugged one nearly bare shoulder. “I’m sure he’ll take it like a man.” A slow, wicked smile crooked her mouth. “How would you take it, Jack?”

As much as he hated being predictable, he was a man and her provocative choice of words tightened his entire body. “I’d uphold my end of the deal…until I could reverse positions. What if you don’t come out on top, Eve? What if Jack gets that spot?”

“He won’t.”

Jack recognized bluffing when he saw it. Eve wasn’t. She spoke with absolute conviction, as if she already owned the equipment account.

He’d seriously miscalculated. When he won the vice presidency, Eve wouldn’t be part of his team. Now that he’d actually met her, he knew she’d never work under him. Eve the Avenger was as good as gone.

Which left him free to do what he’d wanted to all evening—kiss her remarkable mouth until her composure shattered to hell and back.

3

JACK WANTED to kiss her. Eve saw it in the intensity of his look. And while she wasn’t sure that she particularly liked him, she did want to kiss him. Badly. Actually, she’d like to have her wicked way with him until they were both singing the “Hallelujah Chorus.” But the telling would be in the kiss. Sometimes reality simply didn’t live up to fantasy’s expectations.

She looked for a conversational opener other than, Would you like to explore how hot things can get between us? “Would you like a prawn?” she asked.

He pushed his plate away with one finger. His eyes fastened on her mouth. “No. I’m not hungry for the prawns,” he said, his voice low and soft.

Anticipation blossomed deep in her belly and pooled between her thighs. She returned the look, letting him see the want that surged through her.

“Are you ready to leave?” he asked.

“Yes.”

Jack signaled the waiter, who promptly appeared with the bill. After paying the check, Jack rose to his feet and pulled out Eve’s chair. It was a gallant gesture very few men bothered with and something about it struck Eve as sexy. Well, actually, right now, anything short of seeing toilet paper stuck to the bottom of Jack’s shoe would probably strike her as sexy.

They wound their way through the tables. His fingers rested at the indent of her waist and seared her through the fabric. His scent, expensive and unmistakably masculine, seduced her.

Her pulse was thundering and she wanted to kiss him quite desperately. And if the look in his eye was a barometer, he felt the same.

Urgency sent them ducking through the first unmarked door outside the restaurant. Jack tugged her into a small hallway behind him. Despite the haze of desire surrounding her, Eve had the presence of mind to notice a service elevator to the left and the muted sounds of the busy kitchen partially contained by a door straight ahead.

Jack turned to Eve and bracketed her shoulders with his hands. “I’ve wanted to do this since I saw you at the pool.”

His head lowered by slow degrees, plenty of time for her to protest or twist away. Instead, she slid her arms around his waist and murmured a breathy yes.

Anticipation coursed through her, heightened her awareness of his hands on her, his scent, the hint of wine clinging to his warm breath as he leaned closer.

His lips settled against hers. Sure. Firm. Commanding. He tasted of warm male and cool, crisp wine. And detachment. There was something very contained about his kiss that she wanted to let loose. She’d seen the heat behind his droll air. She’d felt it rush to fill the space between them, around them, within her.

He lifted his head. His dark gray eyes held a slightly dazed look and Eve reconsidered. Perhaps he wasn’t as contained as he seemed.

For a second she questioned the fairness of using this stranger as a fantasy stand-in. Then she dismissed the idea. They were just two strangers in the night. For all she knew, she was his stand-in for someone else as well.

He stroked her arms, featherlight caresses that weighted her limbs with a heated lethargy and chased away all other thought. He rained equally light, teasing kisses along her jaw.

Eve closed her eyes and absorbed the sensations. The faint scrape of his beard. The mingled scents of expensive cologne, professionally laundered clothes, and wine. His warm mouth maddening against her skin, her body alternately tightening and softening with desire.

“Oh, Jack.” She plied her fingers along his lean back.

Beneath his silk shirt, his muscles grew taut under her fingertips.

“Eve…” His husky murmur stroked through her.

She pulled him close and nibbled at his mouth with small, sucking kisses. He groaned and plowed his fingers into her hair, wrecking her loose upsweep. Some of his detachment tumbled along with her hair. Yes. Much better. Eve smiled her satisfaction around the kisses she delivered.

He molded his fingers against her scalp and ground her mouth to his for a no-holds-barred, devouring kiss.

Heat flashed through her. Need consumed her—the need to touch and be touched, to simultaneously sate and tempt. She wrapped her leg around his, feeling the hard line of his thigh and his jutting erection pressing against her. He smoothed his hands over her back and cupped her buttocks, pulling her tighter, harder against him. Her breasts strained against the hard wall of his chest. His scent, one she would forever associate with intense, piercing arousal, surrounded her.

In the recesses of rational thought, a ding registered. Barely.

“Excuse me.”

Eve and Jack broke apart. A uniformed staff member stood expectantly with a room-service cart. Eve realized she and Jack were blocking his exit. Tugging her dress down, Eve moved aside so the waiter could pass.

Once upon a time, like pre-tonight, she might’ve been mortified to be caught in a semipublic makeout session. Now she was simply caught up in the throes of heavy-duty lust with no room for embarrassment.

“Sorry about that,” she apologized as she moved aside.

“No problem.” The blushing waiter trundled past and pushed his cart through the kitchen door.

Jack turned to her. “We should probably find a less public place.”

“I know just the spot.” Eve hit the call button and tugged him into the elevator with her when it opened. “Are you claustrophobic?” she asked over her shoulder as she pressed the close button.

“No, I’m not.” Jack stepped closer and wrapped his arms around her from behind. Eve pushed the stop button and leaned back into his lean body. He nuzzled the side of her neck and the back of her shoulder, his arousal nudging between her buttocks.

“Mmm.” Eve sighed her approval.

“Where do we go from here, Eve?” he asked, his lips never leaving her bare neck.

“Wherever we want it to take us.” She turned in his arms to face him. Leaning in close, she let her voice drop to a husky octave. “Where do you want to go, Jack?”

“What destinations are available?”

“Paradise. But it’s not a one-way ticket. We can’t stay and we’ll end up back where we started. But it should be an interesting trip with a few excursions along the way.”

“Are you sure you want to offer this trip?” he asked. She saw how much he wanted her, in the harsh lines of his face, the heat in his eyes; felt it in the hard ridge of his arousal, the brush of his lips. Yet he’d offered her the chance to change her mind. It was charming, sweet even, and altogether too romantic for a one-night stand.

“Positive. As long as you realize it’s a one-time offer,” she said.

“What if I enjoy paradise so much I want to go back?”

“Return fare isn’t an option.” No way. She wasn’t making another bad man decision. Besides, she was already thinking of a more immediate problem. She had never had a one-nighter and she wasn’t sure of safe-sex etiquette. “When visiting a foreign place, safety precautions are a necessity. Are you suitably equipped?”

He offered a wry smile. “I’m ready for travel.”

Thank God. “Then what’s your room number, Jack?” Going to his room kept her in control of the situation. Then she didn’t have to worry about getting him out of her room afterward.

“How do you know I’m not Jack the Ripper?”

She started. How did he know LaRoux’s nickname? Then she dismissed the notion. Of course he didn’t know Jack. It was a standard play on the Jack of infamy.

She got the impression he wasn’t used to picking up women for one night either. At least not successfully, given all the opportunities he kept offering her to back out.

“I’m a black belt. I can take care of myself.” Her mother had insisted she have every obscure training known to man. As a result, Eve knew a little bit about a lot of things but was a master of none. Technically she was only an orange belt, but he didn’t need to know that. He, however, should be more careful picking up strange women. “How do you know I’m not that crazy woman from Fatal Attraction?”

“Even if you were, I don’t have a wife or a bunny. Besides, a woman who doesn’t want my real name isn’t likely to stalk me.” His warm breath brushed against her neck. And then his mouth was doing the most incredible things to the tip of her earlobe, a nibbling/laving combination that feathered sensation down her spine.

“Oh…” she sighed. She thumbed his flat, male nipples through his shirt and his entire body tightened against hers.

“Eve…”

“Jack, we’ve got about one minute before someone checks out why this elevator’s stopped.” She would be mightily bent if this fantasy were interrupted now….

He reached around her and pushed a button, rendering the elevator operational again. “I want more than a minute to satisfy your curiosity.” He clasped her hand in his and brought her hand to his lips. His warm breath and firm lips grazed the sensitive flesh of her palm. She shuddered. “You do remember when the topic came up, don’t you?”

“Oh, yes.” Her hip pressed against him and she laughed, a low husky chuckle she barely recognized as her own. “And it’s still up.”

“Well, I’m going to try very hard. I think it will probably take more than once. Sometimes brief and to the point is good. Other times a lengthier, more in-depth approach brings greater satisfaction. I think we should try both and see which you prefer.”

“I’d like to start with brief and to the point. I’m not sure I have the patience to make it through the longer version. But I do think we need to get to your room.”

Jack reached around her and pushed the button for the fourth floor. Finally, they were on their way. Eve buried her fingers in his hair and tugged his mouth down to hers for another melting kiss.

This man, or perhaps it was the circumstances, had stirred a hunger in her that she’d never felt before. Except maybe those fantasies she’d contrived around Jack LaRoux.

The doors slid open and Jack dragged his mouth from hers with flattering reluctance. He kept his arm wrapped firmly around her, his hand intimately branding her hip as they left the elevator. He paused, obviously disoriented. “Oh, yeah. It’s this way,” he said.