A Very Merry Temptation: 'Twas the Season / Mistletoe in Memphis / Second-Chance Christmas
Pamela Yaye
Farrah Rochon
Kimberly Kaye Terry
HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY TEMPTING HOLIDAY…Twas the Season by Kimberly Kaye Terry – Overworked Nikki Danes is giving herself the perfect gift—a guilt-free affair with her firm’s gorgeous temp. But Max Hardaway isn’t exactly who he claims to be. And if he gets his holiday wish, their steamy night will be the first of many… Mistletoe in Memphis by Pamela Yaye – Essence Sinclair needs to land the holiday catering contract for Lincoln Davenport’s company…almost as much as she wants the sexy exec himself. When Lincoln glimpses the sensual chef, he’s sure all of his Christmases dreams have come at once. Will this be a holiday fling—or magic that’s made to last? Second Chance Christmas by Farrah Rochon – Last time Ayana Taylor saw Jackson Richards, he broke her teenage heart. Now he’s the best man at her brother’s Christmas wedding. And Jackson hopes to earn her forgiveness and her love—one smoldering kiss at a time…
Have Yourself A Merry Tempting Holiday…
’Twas the Season by KIMBERLY KAYE TERRY
Overworked Nikki Danes is giving herself the perfect gift—a guilt-free affair with her firm’s gorgeous temp. But Max Hardaway isn’t exactly who he claims to be. And if he gets his holiday wish, their steamy night will be the first of many.…
Mistletoe in Memphis by PAMELA YAYE
Essence Sinclair needs to land the holiday catering contract for Lincoln Davenport’s company…almost as much as she wants the sexy exec himself. When Lincoln glimpses the sensual chef, he’s sure all his Christmas dreams have come true at once. Will this be a holiday fling—or magic that’s made to last?
Second-Chance Christmas by FARRAH ROCHON
The last time Ayana Taylor saw Jackson Richards, he broke her teenage heart. Now he’s the best man at her brother’s Christmas wedding. And Jackson hopes to earn her forgiveness and her love—one smoldering kiss at a time.…
’Twas the Season
Kimberly Kaye Terry
Mistletoe in Memphis
Pamela Yaye
Second-Chance Christmas
Farrah Rochon
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CONTENTS
’Twas The Season (#u249fc84e-cd73-54f1-8b8d-99cf7c243ecd) by Kimberly Kaye Terry
Mistletoe in Memphis (#litres_trial_promo) by Pamela Yaye
Second-Chance Christmas (#litres_trial_promo) by Farrah Rochon
To my daughter Hannah, who always inspires me to be the best that I can be, I love you, Pooh Monster, aka Jr ;)
To my fly reading divas who support me, I love you all and, as always, keep it sexy ;) ~KKT
’Twas the Season
Kimberly Kaye Terry
Contents
Chapter 1 (#u01544326-fec6-5659-af6a-4591e6994448)
Chapter 2 (#u28192808-1dee-578f-b727-dc3beec328e2)
Chapter 3 (#ub31bf0bb-ebb6-5ed1-a7ef-bb88aad918d3)
Chapter 4 (#ub42f6eaa-3066-51fb-81fe-587e116940b5)
Chapter 5 (#u788d0742-fa4b-525a-bbd3-a661983035d4)
Chapter 6 (#ue180d3b4-389f-5b41-9b5b-a964dcda6bad)
Chapter 7 (#udbdc40d6-3ba9-52ec-a24c-fefd791bc46a)
Chapter 8 (#u6c35b730-fcf8-5a82-8889-294e540487ec)
Chapter 9 (#u1100b695-9401-52cd-9069-c31c921f6283)
Chapter 10 (#u36c622e1-d51c-56ab-bb22-ca90638e6c85)
Chapter 11 (#u7880914a-7a30-5f19-9e02-7feff0f06bbd)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 1
Nikki Danes took a small, cautious sip of the bright yellow sparkling wine. Her nostrils flared when the soft bubbles made contact. “Hmm,” she murmured, and glanced down at the crystal flute, still nearly full after she’d taken the token taste. She tilted her head to the side, considering the contents as though deep in thought.
“Not too bad for wine,” she continued, speaking softly to herself. She paused and narrowed her eyes, staring at the glass, considering.
If she didn’t know better, she would swear she was drinking champagne and not sparkling wine, she thought, frowning. But as she’d never actually tasted champagne, and this was just a MagHard Interior Design–sponsored employee soiree, she assumed it was wine. Although the company she worked for treated its employees well, that didn’t extend to spending thousands of dollars on champagne for the annual holiday event, aka an office party. At least that’s what she assumed.
But as this was her first time attending one, she couldn’t be certain.
“Whatever it is, I might as well enjoy,” she said, and brought the glass to her lips. She tipped her head back and took a generous drink.
The golden liquid flowed easily down her throat and her eyelids floated partially down as she enjoyed the sweet yet sharp-tasting alcoholic drink...whatever it was.
“Hmm, delicious.” She spoke aloud, softly. Again to herself. Not only was the taste delicious, it was...smooth. Intoxicating.
Nikki couldn’t be called a connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination, but it most definitely couldn’t be the corner-liquor-store variety of wine, she thought.
“So that’s what the good stuff tastes like, huh? I’d better be careful. I’ll be dancing on the tabletops if I drink too much of this stuff.” Yet she took another sip.
She found herself swaying lightly to the music as the band started up. She’d never been a fan of live bands, but her friend and cubicle mate, Tony Morales, had informed her this one was on point. He’d in fact heard the group perform at many area clubs, both straight and gay.
She smiled, thinking of Tony. Most of the time his information was gotten via the Tony connect, which was what he called his gossip trail, but this time he put the special Tony connect guarantee on it.
“The bomb...dot, tic, mami! And those tight little black leather jeans the lead singer wears...mmm. Caliente! Yeah, mami, you are most def in for a treat!”
As Tony considered himself an aficionado of all things club, she figured he knew what he was talking about. She had been disappointed when Tony had informed her he wouldn’t be attending, but really, she shouldn’t be. As much as she liked Tony, she would be crazy embarrassed if her friend knew what she wanted tonight...and more so if the night went as she planned.
Best to keep some things on the down-low, she thought, her body swaying lightly to the beat. They began to transition from the opening song to an even more upbeat one and Nikki nodded absently as they began to sing a popular hip-hop tune, the catchy beat and tight lyrics immediately recognizable.
Tony was right. Not too bad, she thought as the group began to encourage the partygoers to get to their feet and dance to the music. Although it was still fairly early in the evening, the party room, which was a sectioned-off area of the one of the hotel’s ballrooms, was already packed and an impressive number of her colleagues shuffled to the dance floor.
She brought the fluted glass to her lips again and drank as she surveyed the crowd.
Nikki rarely danced in public. Despite the mood-altering effects of the smooth-tasting wine, or champagne, or whatever it was she was drinking, it hadn’t yet given her the courage to approach the dance floor.
She knew she needed to be careful with her drinking. She hadn’t gotten around to eating the entire day, unless you counted the one Thin Mints cookie she’d gleefully found at the bottom of her backpack and devoured in less time than it took to snag it from the wrinkled plastic bag.
After pulling an all-nighter of editing a paper for her last graduate design course, she’d barely had time to take a quick shower before rushing to work, much less grab a bite to eat.
Nikki’s stomach growled and she glanced around, looking for a waiter carrying a plate of hors d’oeuvres. She needed crackers, chips...something. The music was pounding and the beat was intoxicating, yet she stifled a yawn. To say she was tired from a few nights of only getting three to four hours of sleep had to be the understatement of the year. She shook her head and blew out a breath, determined that she would enjoy the night and keep to the plan. She glanced around to see if the object of said plan was in attendance.
She felt a rush of disappointment at the same time that her stomach growled again. She needed to eat something quickly and shake off the fatigue from a demanding day.
Exhausted, she’d rushed to work hoping it would be a light day at MagHard Interior Design, the company she worked for on a part-time basis. After learning that Tony was going to be in after lunch, she’d concluded that she was going to have to work twice as hard. In half the time. She’d swallowed down an angry sigh of irritation. She’d do what she had to do, since there was a deadline assigned to their project.
That didn’t mean she had to like it. She’d muttered and complained to no one in particular but done the work in the end, barely able to keep a pleasant disposition as she did so. Since she wanted to get hired as a designer with the company and transfer out of the accounting department, she needed to be seen as reliable.
Absently she continued her search for some type of sustenance from one of the floating waiters. “Where’s a food platter when you need one?” she grumbled.
She felt a frown creep on her face and quickly erased it, vowing to stay calm. She was here to have fun. Just chill, relax and enjoy. No stress...and possibly get a little...sex.
Nikki blushed as the thought crossed her mind, but she firmed her spine and tossed her hair back over a shoulder.
She did a quick check around to see if anyone was watching her talk to herself and drink like a soldier on leave. The talking to herself was her normal routine, but the drinking wasn’t, outside of the occasional glass at bedtime to help her relax enough to go to sleep.
She finished off the drink and felt warmth in her belly soothe the grumbling. Food would have to wait, she thought.
When a waiter glided by her, balancing a smoky mirrored platter topped with filled glasses on his shoulder, Nikki snagged a second flute quickly and, with a small smile, placed the empty one in its place.
Her glance ran over him as she took a sip and lifted a brow at his reaction.
The tall, blond, handsome young waiter smiled back at her, offering a dazzling display of his pearly whites...and nearly crashed into another waiter who was also staring at Nikki.
In direct contrast to his blond counterpart, this one was dark, the color of espresso with light brown eyes and a smile that nearly made her drop the glass of wine. The man looked so good.
Hmm, hmm, hmm...fine, fine, to-the-nth-degree fine, she thought, running her gaze over him from head to toe. From the top of his jet-black, hip-length locs, secured at the back of his head with a leather wrap, to his muscled body that the uniform in no way hid, he was superb.
“Hmm. Lord have mercy,” she said, a smile growing on her face.
It grew until her face ached, her confidence boosted to the max by the attention and near collision of the two handsome waiters.
Not only had her confidence increased from the near accident, but she knew some of her coworkers had noticed as well, and that made her feel good. Damn good, Nikki thought, and ran her fingers through her curls.
She took another sip of the sparkling drink, then began to feel the mellowing effect caused by the subtle but potent champagne. This has to be champagne, she thought.
She ran a hand over her hip, smoothing the booty-hugging, designer-knockoff dress down over her slim but curvy thighs, the hem stopping several inches from her knee.
Although the dress was a knockoff, she knew it not only looked like the real deal, but she was rocking the hell out of it.
Nikki smoothed the dress down again. The move was completely conscious. The hem of the dress hit her midthigh, and although she knew she looked good in it, she was still, truth be told, just the smallest bit uncomfortable, as it wasn’t her normal modus operandi, so to speak, when she dressed.
When she felt her hands inching toward the hem again, she stopped herself before she started tugging it farther down.
Mental-check time: she had come to the party to have fun, be sexy and, if only for one night, operate under a different set of rules. The sort of rules where she threw caution to the wind and let her hair down, both literally and figuratively.
She found a tall table with an available bar stool, so she took a seat. Glancing around, she noticed George from accounting, who was eyeing her boobs like they were manna from heaven.
The creep. She suppressed a shiver.
Nikki knew he eyed any woman under the age of seventy like that. In fact, last week she’d caught his creepy ass eyeing Ms. Burke, the elderly housekeeper who cleaned the offices during the evening.
She shuddered and ignored him, barely hiding her laugh when his wife caught him staring, and without missing a beat in her conversation, reached a hand out and slapped him upside his head.
Although George’s wife missed full-on connection, her hand—which was probably as large as any man’s, since she stood six feet tall in stocking feet—glanced the side of his face as he ducked the blow.
Shamed, his pale face flamed with color as he swiftly rushed toward the bar to refill his drink. His wife continued to talk with one of the ladies from accounting as though the incident had never occurred.
Nikki shifted her focus and turned around to survey the room.
She remembered the rules. Her rules, unique ones she’d decided would dictate her actions and deeds tonight.
In other words, she planned to not only have fun, but she was going to do something...or at least attempt to do something she’d never done before.
Pick up a man.
But not just any man, she thought, tapping the table with her nails. She was going to be a different creature than she normally was. If only for one night.
She turned around to check out the growing crowd at the office party. Although this was her second year with MagHard Interior Design, this was the first time she’d attended their office party, and what an event it was.
She swayed slightly to the beat as she analyzed the guests, casually, so that just in case anyone was watching her, they weren’t aware that she was...looking...for someone.
Fred and Ginger were just a few feet away, heads down, faces close together deep in conversation.
She covered her face and giggled...really, she needed to quit calling the pair Fred and Ginger, but everyone in the company did after the last holiday party. She had just started and hadn’t felt comfortable attending, but she’d been privy to the gossip for weeks afterward.
That party had been small, much smaller than this year’s extravagant affair, and had taken place in the office. Fred and Ginger, aka Bill and Esther, had both gotten so drunk they’d started dancing around the office, cranking up the music on the small iPod player, performing various numbers. From John Travolta’s moves in Saturday Night Fever to a painful-to-watch rendition of Dirty Dancing, the two had danced as though there was no tomorrow.
Their last dance had, unfortunately, been their last performance of the night. Ginger had leaped onto the desk and slid into a full split, dress above her thick thighs, a smug expression on her round face...a feat that Nikki had to give praise to the woman for, as Ginger was by no means a small woman.
Demonstrating surprising agility, she’d gotten to her feet and then attempted to perform a tuck and spin that would have her landing into Fred’s arms.
Despite the laws of physics seeming not to be on her side, the stunt might have worked, had Ginger not been so much bigger than Fred.
The paramedics had been called.
“But at least they had fun! And now look at them,” Nikki said and giggled softly to herself. Before last year’s party, the self-proclaimed nerds had been too bashful to talk to the other. But since returning from the ER, bandaged and bruised, the now inseparable lovebirds had been just about joined at the hip.
They would be celebrating their upcoming nuptials in the spring.
Nikki sighed, thinking of her own love life. It wasn’t like she was jealous of Fred and Ginger—nothing like that—but she had come to terms with the fact that it might be a while...a long while before she found her Mr. Right. Which was why she’d decided that Mr. Right Now would do.
Between school and the job, she had zero to no time for anything serious. The problem was that she was, well...horny.
She felt her cheeks heat, but truth was truth.
She hadn’t had good dick in... She frowned, trying to remember the last time she had.
“That is so sad,” she mumbled to herself, and took another sip.
Nikki squared her shoulders. She had never been the type of woman to have sex for the sake of it, but she had needs. And those needs had cobwebs on them. It had been so long since they’d been fulfilled.
Oh, well, what the heck. ’Twas the season to be merry and all that, she thought, and brought the flute to her mouth.
Deciding she needed a healthy dose of courage, she downed the champagne in one swallow and started coughing. Slow down...slow down, she cautioned herself. The night was young and she was in need. And as she waited for the one she’d set her sights on to help clean her cobwebs out, she didn’t need a trip to the doctor because of choking.
Damn. So much for trying to be cute, she thought as she tried to clear her throat of the liquid that seemed to have gone down the wrong pipe.
A nearby waitress quickly came to her rescue and thumped her so hard on the back she nearly pitched forward onto the table. She held up a hand and signaled the woman to stop her rigorous pounding. Then she handed the energetic waitress her empty flute after mumbling, “I’m fine, thanks.”
Nikki hazarded a guess the woman was simply trying to help, but something told her that the waitress was well aware that all that hard thumping had not been necessary. Nikki had caught the waitress checking out one of the waiters who’d been watching her during the collision. Not a worry. As fine as both waiters had been, neither one was on her menu for the night.
She grew impatient after checking the clock. She chewed her bottom lip. It was still early, but it seemed the entire staff of MagHard Interior Design had shown up tonight, and apparently had brought guests, as they’d been invited to do. The office party had grown into an all-out holiday ball, she thought. There were plenty of men in attendance, and Nikki knew she’d caught the eyes of several.
And she could probably pick one to help her out of her...situation.
But she didn’t want just anyone.
There was only one whose dark emerald eyes she wanted to catch. Nikki bit her lower lip again, hoping he’d actually come to the swanky office party. From what she could ascertain from the office gossip, odds were he was coming. She’d overheard a few of the ladies in the secretarial pool discussing that very fact. She wasn’t the only one who had her eyes him. Not even close.
She hadn’t wanted to get her hopes up too high in case he was a no-show, but as usual her friend Tony had been the one who’d found out the info she needed. Tony had inadvertently given her the scoop when he’d informed Nikki that he’d heard it from Wanda, who worked in Accounts Receivable, who’d heard it from Linda, who worked in Human Resources, who’d overheard Sheila, the assistant to the assistant manager...that he was planning to attend.
Merriment made her laugh out loud at the string of I heard it froms that peppered that particular trail.
Max Stele.
Just thinking his name brought the image of the sexy-as-hell temporary employee of MagHard Interior Design to her mind’s eye.
For two weeks Nikki had both avoided and sought to catch glimpses of the temporary office manager. And she wasn’t alone.
Tall, dark and handsome was such a cheesy description, but that was exactly what he was: six feet five inches, two hundred and thirty five pounds of pure muscle, with dark, wavy hair that sculpted his perfect head and mysterious emerald-green eyes with midnight-dark eyelashes.
She knew his weight and height because Molly from Payroll had given her his stats. She had no idea how the woman knew and hadn’t asked. Molly was odd like that—she knew some of the strangest details about people. But this time she hadn’t chalked it up to the woman’s proclivity to know unique statistics, but on the fact that every woman in the office was interested in knowing anything and everything about the handsome new manager.
Although Max was white, his skin had a deep golden tan, one that didn’t come from any tanning bed but was strictly natural, just man and sun.... She shivered and grew warm just thinking of him. Which was one of the many, many reasons that Nikki had decided he would be the one to end her embarrassingly long drought.
She glanced up and saw one of the accounting managers making a beeline for her and nearly groaned. No damn way, she thought, not feeling the least bit concerned for her lack of kindness. If she got caught up chatting with Tom, she’d never get loose, and she needed to make sure she was free when Max finally showed.
Nikki hopped off the stool and looked for an exit, then blew out a sigh of relief when a woman she recognized from Human Resources put a hand on Tom’s arm, forcing him to stop. She caught the frustrated look on his face and knew she’d been right; he’d been aiming right for her.
She felt bad, really uncharitable. It wasn’t just because Tom was short and bald that she didn’t want to talk to him, but Tom thought he had game and was a bit obnoxious, constantly bragging about his convertible coupe and expensive clothes.
Nope. Not even her type, she thought. Not on her worst day. She might be lonely, but she wasn’t desperate.
Nikki began to walk through the crowd, keeping her smile firmly in place as she nodded her head, casually making eye contact with those she knew as well as the many she didn’t. She took a sip from the glass she held. Tonight was all about the happy...and her mission. Again...there was only one man she was on the lookout for: Max.
He’d come to the office after the last manager’s abrupt departure and would be around only long enough for upper management to find and train his replacement. Other than that, no one knew much about Max. His background was a mystery. Not that it mattered to Nikki. She had one thing in mind.
After she readjusted her girls discreetly inside her new, barely-there demi bra, she glanced to the side and saw the one she’d been looking for, Mr. Tall, Dark and Fine himself staring at her from across the room.
She felt as though her stomach had bottomed out. Dear God. Fine, fine, fine...ooh. The man was unbelievably fine.
She shook her head and bit back the groan...hoping he hadn’t witnessed the coughing and the vigorous thumping that had ensued. Not to mention the dodging of Tom and all that talking to herself. She didn’t want to scare him off.
She took a deep breath and smiled. Directly at him. Game on.
Nikki felt her confidence rise as she realized that although he had a gathering of both women and men surrounding him like bees to a honeycomb, she could feel his eyes on her even as he spoke to one of the other managers.
She stared in his direction. Thanks to the champagne, she felt bold. And thanks to the new dress and sticking to her exercise regimen, she felt sexy. Damn sexy.
And from what she’d gathered from her undercover intel, he wasn’t really the kind of guy who went in for long-term relationships.
He was a get-it-and-hit-it kinda guy.
Good.
Because she wasn’t looking for that type of relationship either. Not anymore, she thought.
If the grapevine was right, not only was he a get-it-and-hit-it type of guy, when he hit it...he hit it out of the park.
She squared her shoulders and put a little extra sway in her walk as she began to make her way casually to where Max was standing in the crowd.
Game...on...
Chapter 2
Maxwell Steele-Hardaway, aka Max Stele, had come to the office party for one reason and one reason only: to get Nikki Danes, in any way he could.
The gorgeous part-time accountant had captured his attention from the first time he’d seen her two weeks ago when he’d joined the staff of MagHard Interior Design.
Temporarily joined the staff, he corrected himself, quelling the surge of irritation.
When his mother had approached him to help out the family, she’d used guilt and motherly love, but especially guilt in her appeal to her only son to help her in what she called her “time of need.” Time of need, his butt, he thought.
He loved his mother, but she was without doubt the queen bee of drama. Naomi Steele-Hardaway was also blessed with one of the sharpest business minds he’d ever known.
She ran the family’s business, MagHard Interior Design, with all the precision and attention to detail of an army drill sergeant. She’d launched the company with his father more than thirty years ago, and since his father’s passing when Max was still in high school, the business had earned the distinction of being on the Fortune 500 list, with affiliate offices all over the United States.
The fact that she’d used the trump card of her “time of need” was just her way of asking Max to come home. He shook his head. Scratch that. Demanded that Max come home.
The only question was...why.
Max pretended to listen to Michelle Grimes, one of the supervisors in Design, as she regaled him with stories about the manager he’d replaced while he contemplated his mother’s reason for asking him to help...and searched for Nikki Danes in the crowd of partygoers.
The fact that his mother had fired the last office manager made her request more palatable. At least this time the alibi made more sense. But Max knew there was something more, another reason for her demand for him to come home.
“So if you’d like, we can discuss the changes over coffee Monday?”
Max frowned and looked directly at the woman in front of him. Michelle had been one of the first execs he’d met when he’d arrived at the Austin offices. Lucky for him, the office was one of the newer ones, and outside of top management, no one knew who he was. He’d told his mother he wanted to keep it that way. She’d agreed easily to his demand, which was odd, since his mother rarely, if ever, agreed to anyone making demands of her.
“Sure, no problem,” he said to Michelle, without knowing what in the hell he’d just agreed to. When her face lit up like the Christmas tree, he felt apprehensive. Oh, hell...what had he just agreed to? he wondered as he studied the woman. Damn.
Michelle’s over-the-top flirting, starting the moment he’d arrived, hadn’t gone unnoticed. But he’d hoped to hell she would get the hint that he wasn’t interested.
She hadn’t. Obviously. He knew that part of her attraction to him was the mystery surrounding exactly who he was. He had tested the waters by using his mother’s maiden name, Steele, rather than the family name, Hardaway. But even then he’d added a twist and spelled it “Stele,” just to make sure no one made the connection.
When he told his mother, she’d given him a butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-her-mouth kind of smile and agreed.
He felt the frown deepen.
Damn it. He was here to enjoy, let go and have fun. And not think about his mother and what she was up to.
“Great! I’ll uh...come by in the morning and we can go down to Starbucks. Or we can go to the new coffee shop that just opened up on the corner, near the office building. I’ve been wanting to check them out,” she continued to babble, and it became incredibly difficult for Max to pay attention to the woman. He had one woman and one woman only on his mind.
Michelle continued to speak. “I hear they make a great café fresco and they have fresh pastries, homemade! Not like those made at—”
“I’ll just bring the coffee to our meeting,” he cut in, ending her enthusiastic soliloquy. Hell, if he didn’t, she’d probably have him agreeing to crap he had no desire to agree to, as his focus was currently diverted.
“Do you want to meet at eight-thirty?” Michelle asked.
“I’m not always sure what time in the morning I will make it in. Depending on how late I’ve had to be up the night before,” he murmured, letting the very obvious meaning sink in.
“Ooh,” Michelle said, a bright blush staining her pale skin. Obviously she caught the hint he threw out.
Which was another thing he was aware of—the office gossip that he was a player, a guy who enjoyed women. But he made no attempt to rectify the rumors that circulated, both in the office and out. It helped to keep those at bay who knew who he was...or better yet, knew who his family was—and along with that, knew about the money. After convincing his mother that he wanted no one to know he was technically part-owner of the company, he’d finally agreed to help her out of the supposed bind she was in.
In actuality, his original reluctance at being at MagHard Interior Design had evaporated like steam the minute he’d walked into headquarters the morning he had started and seen Nikki.
He’d been on the elevator the first time he’d seen her.
The elevator had been crowded and he’d kept his eyes straight ahead, not in the mood to make eye contact with anyone. The packed elevator made several stops along the way, letting folks in and out and when the doors slid open, allowing the last passengers to leave, he’d breathed a sigh of relief.
Max had muttered, “Thank God,” only to hear someone yelling....
“Oh, please hold that, please!” a breathy feminine voice had begged and although he would have loved nothing more than to have the last few seconds alone until he made it to his destination on the top floor, he had pressed a finger on the door-open button.
“Thank you so much!” the breathless voice had replied as a small woman hurtled herself into the elevator. Before Max could really get a good glimpse of her, her perfume, light, unique and floral, had caught his attention.
“No problem,” he had said, turning to glance down at her.
She had looked up at him as she readjusted the messenger bag over her shoulder, again thanking him. She had smiled and two large dimples appeared in her cheeks, her almond-shaped eyes slanting, giving her an exotic look.
He had run his glance over her as she’d eased her small frame against the wall of the elevator, her gaze leaving his as a fine blush stole over her creamy brown skin. Fascinated by the obvious blush, Max had continued to stare at her.
Beauty didn’t really describe her.
Her flawless skin was the color of deep milk chocolate without a hint of cream, and was just as smooth in appearance. She had the type of skin that made a man want to reach out and touch her face just to verify if it was as soft as it looked.
Her slanted eyes, although a rich brown, had flecks of what appeared from his distance from her a lighter color. He had been tempted to draw closer to her to see exactly what shade they were, and barely restrained himself in time. Her nose was small, and set above a full set of sexy, plump lips.
His cock had stirred as his gaze lingered on her mouth.
He had forced his eyes away. If he hadn’t, he’d been afraid he’d act on the inappropriate desire he had to go up to a woman he didn’t know, lean down and kiss those delightfully full lips.
She had been dressed casually, in a formfitting black skirt, not too short, the hem flirting around her knees. She had worn a pink tank top beneath a billowy, long-sleeved white tunic, buttoned halfway and tucked neatly into her skirt.
Maybe a little bit on the bohemian side, but not outlandish. Nothing special, but on her it looked sexy as hell. The colors she had worn were a perfect foil for her dark skin, and the skirt was fitted enough that it showed off her small waist and tight butt. Perfectly, deliciously proportioned A.T.W.: ass to waist.
And what an ass she had. Perky, the round globes appeared firm, and he had felt his cock stir again at the thought of what they would feel like cupped in his hands. What it would feel like to slide his hands over their no-doubt silky-feeling perfection. She’d wake up the morning after from a night of hot sex with his handprints all over that butt of hers.
She had just enough overflow to...bounce.
His eyes had met hers, caught them on him, checking him out just as he’d been checking every fine inch of her out as well.
Good. She now knew he was interested, and as he prided himself on knowing women, he also knew he’d piqued her interest.
Max had known time was limited; the ride would only last so long.
“Which floor?” Max had asked, his voice low, guttural, his mind on what he would love to do to her even as his gaze locked and loaded on hers.
The offices of MagHard Interior Design were located in a building that the corporation owned and managed, leasing out the luxury suites in the high-rent district of downtown Austin at a premium price. His office as well as all of upper management resided on the top floor, with the two floors directly beneath for the rest of the company. One floor was dedicated to the design team, the other for administration, including Human Resources.
Max had focused his gaze on the beautiful woman, her eyes downcast as she tried her best not to look at him.
So damn sexy, he had thought. And again his dick had reacted to the visual of the offbeat little beauty. A small smile had tugged the corner of his mouth upward when her tongue had sneaked out and swiped across her bottom lip.
When she had glanced up at him, he had dropped his lids low to hide his eyes. He knew his lust had to be shining brightly; there was no way he could hide his reaction.
She had that offbeat, backhanded, casual type of sex appeal. The type that came as naturally to her as breathing.
Max had been incredibly fascinated and headed toward clinical obsession the longer he stared at her.
The elevator had jerked slightly and she had been jostled, not enough to bring her to his side, but enough that it moved her closer. His eyes had been drawn to her breasts, which bounced right along with the elevator, and the jiggle...fuck. If he wasn’t careful, Max knew he would be in trouble of accosting a woman he didn’t even know.
His nostrils had flared as he dragged in a deep breath. He had felt the overwhelming need to close his eyes, take in her intoxicating essence. It reached out and ensnarled him, dragging him in. What the hell was going on with him? one part of his mind had questioned.
Although he’d had plenty of women, he’d never felt this immediate and damn-near feverish type of attraction before that day.
The thought had hit him that the woman was turning him on in ways he hadn’t been turned on by anyone in a long time. Damn. And that was with her clothes on, in a public area...an elevator, no less.
What the hell would happen if he could get her alone? He’d convince her to take off her clothes and see if that perfectly mounded butt of hers fit into his palms with a hint of hang time, the overflow spilling over his cupped palms like two deviously ripened small melons, like he thought it would.
Max had shaken his head. He was getting ahead of himself. At the rate his mind was racing, the images that were bombarding his heated libido, he’d have her up against the wall and be balls-deep before he could even find out who she was.
He’d never been this affected by someone he didn’t know. Hadn’t spoken to.
He had known that he only had a finite time before the elevator ride ended to find out who she was, whether she worked in the office building and where.
She had cleared her throat and Max had met her eyes.
“Could you press number fourteen for me?” She had asked, her soft voice like music, the end notes floating over his skin like a butterfly’s caress.
He had frowned, the strength of her appeal unlike anything he’d ever felt.
Max had casually leaned forward to jab the button she’d requested, his gaze never leaving hers. Her eyes had broken contact, and again he caught the hint of a blush staining her pretty cocoa-brown skin.
His glance had raked over her again.
Max had learned a long time ago to go with his gut. It was what had allowed him to break away from the family and their fortune and earn his own way, and why to date he’d amassed a fortune through commercial real estate that was a force to be reckoned with, although it didn’t exactly match the family holdings. Although he held an interest in the family business, he hadn’t relied on his family to give him extra leverage.
Working for himself and not using the family name as a way to get his foot in the door, Max prided himself on the fact that he was a self-made man.
In doing so, he’d learned a valuable, sometimes painful lesson, that when he didn’t follow his hunches, his gut, it was a surefire way of fucking up.
And he had no intention of fucking up this hunch. The hunch that had told him that the woman occupying his space was important to him.
And his gut had told him this chance encounter was...going to be interesting. He didn’t know in what way, but he had felt it, deep within his core.
He had allowed the smile that had been lurking to break free, fully aware that she’d caught him staring. But it was her own fault for being so damn fine. So...intoxicating to his senses.
He had drawn in a breath, his smile widening when he saw her reaction. Her pupils had dilated. His glance had dropped to the hollow of her throat, and the banging little pulse that beckoned for his mouth to cover, caress and assure that he wasn’t going to hurt her...that he would take good care of her. His dick was now painful within the constriction of his pants.
His eyes had suddenly narrowed as realization hit after he had pushed the button. They worked for the same company. It was then he had noticed the messenger bag she had slung over her shoulder that featured his family’s crest. Many of the new employees had been given a bag with the emblem emblazoned on the front when they began to work for the company.
“Thank you,” she had said and ducked her head, but Max had caught the flare of awareness, the look of admiration that crossed her beautiful face as she had been sizing him up.
“No problem,” Max had finally muttered, realizing that he’d been staring at the woman far too long.
He had waited for her to realize that he was headed toward the same company.
He had stuck out his hand. “Max Stele. I’m new,” he had said, his voice low, his gaze fixed on hers.
Locked and loaded.
“Figured you worked for MagHard, too,” he had said, indicating the button he’d just depressed and her bag with the corporate logo.
“Oh, okay...um, I’m Nikki. Nikki Danes. I, uh, work in Accounting,” she had replied, and glanced down at his waiting, opened palm.
She had hesitated briefly before lightly placing her hand within his. Immediately Max’s much larger one had clamped down firmly. He had bit down a groan; her hand was soft and felt...right held within his. He had held on longer than necessary, and when she had tugged, gently, he had allowed her to withdraw. For now.
“Do you like working there?” he had asked.
“Well, I think I do. Depends on how the dragon is feeling today.”
He had barked out a surprised laugh at her response. As soon as the words left her pretty, full lips, her eyes had widened and she slammed a hand over her mouth, suppressing a groan. His libido and humor were at war with each other, both vying for dominance.
He had known who Nikki was referring to: Ms. Nadine Rockway, the accounting manager.
He also knew the woman had breath that could start a forest fire. But Nadine Rockway was a damn good accountant, one who had been handling the books for various Hardaway companies and working for and with his mother for years. The two were like sisters. Of a sort.
But her breath still stank to high heaven.
“Dragon lady, huh?” he had asked, staring down at her, keeping a straight face. “Is that because she’s so...seasoned?” She bit her lip, but Max had seen the glint of humor in her pretty brown eyes and he had pressed on. “Or is it because her breath could scorch the fine hairs off a frog’s back?”
“Well...that’s an interesting way of putting it,” she had stated, and they both had laughed.
“This is my floor,” she had said, the giggles subsiding as the elevator came to a halt. “Maybe I’ll see you around.”
“No doubt about it, Ms. Danes,” he had murmured.
After she’d left the elevator, her unique scent remained. Unconsciously, Max had adjusted himself in his pants, his shaft reacting again to the scent of the woman.
But as enticing as her unique scent had been, her casual beauty and the hint of her offbeat humor had snared his attention even more.
When the elevator had reached his floor, Max had stepped into the upper management offices with a new, upbeat feeling, suddenly looking forward to his stint. And all because of Nikki Danes.
Over the following weeks, he had gone out of his way to see her, finding any excuse to visit the administrative offices and catch glimpses of her. Yet for all the times he’d seen her, he’d become frustrated as hell, because he’d not once since that first moment had one damn moment alone with her.
Now nights were beginning to merge into one long pubescent wet dream, wherein he’d wake up with his shaft in his hand and sexy images of the pretty accounting assistant teasing his mind.
Despite his veiled excuses to visit the accounting department, he’d not had the opportunity to get her alone and talk to her. Not that Max hadn’t tried his damnedest.
He’d found out her lunchtime, and although he’d gone to the cafeteria, he hadn’t caught a glimpse of her. Further snooping and he’d found out she was a full-time grad student and often used her lunch periods to go and study.
Although his identity as a member of the Hardaway family was unknown, there were two people who knew who he really was: Nadine Rockway, Nikki’s immediate supervisor and the head of the accounting department, and the chief of security and personnel, James Green.
Max knew that if he accessed the records and looked her up himself, it would be suspicious. There was no way in hell he was going to go to Nadine and ask. Without a doubt he knew that it would become a topic of conversation between the woman and his mother, something he could do without.
Which left James, a much better candidate for his mission to find out all he could about Nikki. The man had worked for the family business for years, just as Nadine had, but he was less inclined to gossip with Max’s mother. Without asking questions—he was the chief of security, after all—he’d not only pulled her personal records from the files, but he’d also loaded her full dossier on a jump drive and placed it in a sealed envelope.
Max had, without shame, plugged the jump drive into his laptop, sat back and learned everything he could about her....
It was then he had decided a company party to celebrate the holidays was in order. And not just any type. For this holiday party, he had communicated to the staff the importance of attendance and dressing up.
He wanted to see her all dolled up, he had thought with a satisfied smile on his face.
Max felt a hot glide of awareness the minute she came into the room. He was snapped out of the memory, his glance colliding with hers.
Nikki Danes.
As those around him continued to speak—it was all background noise—his focus was all on her.
He moved his head to the side to try to catch a better look at her, and fought the urge to shove Larry from the design department to the side when the obese man blocked his view. When Larry finally moved aside to chase down one of the waiters carrying a platter of small sandwiches, Max finally caught a real good look at her.
Hot damn, he thought, his eyes on the gorgeous woman. He felt as though he’d been kicked in the chest the minute he got a good visual of her.
He’d had an idea she had a fine body, but no way did he know it looked like that. His cock thumped inside his shorts in response.
The dress she wore hugged every inch of her perfect curves like a custom-made glove.
The bold, deep red color of the wrap dress complemented her deep chocolate skin tone. Her legs seemed to go on forever and a day.... Again his cock stirred, thickening, elongating in response.
Even her shoes were sexy; they matched her dress in color, with strings that tied at her ankles and formed perfect bows. Bows he longed to unwrap. He loved a woman wearing stilettos, especially one with the kind of legs Nikki had.
He mumbled apologies as he began to move toward her, blindly ignoring those around him.
He only had eyes for her. And he intended to make her his....
Chapter 3
“I made it, chica!” Startled out of her deer-in-the-headlights stare with Max, Nikki nearly jumped out of her skin when Tony spoke directly behind her.
Turning, she was caught up in a hug filled with the mixed scent of True Star and jasmine, Tony’s personal “signature” blend.
Although moments before she’d only had eyes for the man heading her way, the distraction of her friend’s surprise appearance had her grinning ear to ear.
“I thought you weren’t going to make it!” she said, pushing away and smiling up at Tony. She was used to having to look up at most people, but tonight, in the five-inch stilettos she was rocking, she was almost five foot nine, which would have put her closer to Tony’s height of five foot eleven.
If he hadn’t been wearing heels just as high. All in black except for the shiny silver vest and matching wedge-heeled shoes, he was...spectacular.
“Wow, you look great!” Nikki screamed.
“Oh, my God, no, chica, look at you! Hmm, mami, you look beautiful! A perfect ten!” he exclaimed, and Nikki gave him a fierce hug. A compliment like that from Tony was no easy thing, as he considered himself the guru of fashion. Around the office he had Nikki giggling constantly in his role as the self-proclaimed fashion police.
She spun around in a small circle for his full inspection, lightly curtsying and laughing. “So you like?”
Tony tilted his head to the side. A look entered his dark brown eyes, one that immediately told her he suspected something. “Uh-huh...and just who is this for?” he asked.
“This night is all about me,” she said breezily.
Unable to resist, she glanced in the direction Max had been coming from, quelling the disappointment when she saw he had vanished. She barely refrained from slumping her shoulders and pouting like a little kid who couldn’t find her favorite toy.
She quickly turned away, not wanting Tony and his discerning eyes to catch on.
Placing a purposeful smile on her face, she looped her arm thorough his and asked, “Can’t a girl just wanna look good once in a while?”
He tsked at her. “Hmm. I guess. I’ll let it go for now,” he said. That moment, the band began to play a new song, one that was a perfect rendition of a current pop hit.
“Ooh, let’s dance!” he continued, not missing a beat. “I told you this group was good, right?” he said, and before she could agree or disagree, Tony was dragging her onto the dance floor. As he did, she glanced over her shoulder in time to see Max, his gaze locked with hers as a woman she recognized from upper management touched his arm, speaking to him in earnest.
Nikki barely held on to the frustrated sigh. She knew she wasn’t the only one who had her eyes on Max Stele.
* * *
“May I interrupt?”
Breathless from the exertion of dancing to not one but three back-to-back songs, Nikki turned and nearly collided with the hard wall of Max’s chest.
“Oh, my,” she said, her hands touching the granitelike wall of his chest, her fingers sinking into the soft, silk fabric of his shirt.
For the past two hours, between Tony keeping her busy talking—aka gossiping his damn head off—dancing, eating and drinking, and basically having the best time she’d had in years, she had been unable to continue her “mission,” as she thought of it. That was probably a good thing, as after that first encounter Nikki hadn’t been within ten feet of Max.
After the first dance, she’d begged off dancing again and had searched out Max, only to find him again surrounded by a bevy of women. All looking beautiful, all with one look on each of their faces: lust for Max Stele.
Refusing to let that ruin her good time, she’d allowed Tony to drag her onto the dance floor again and even accepted dance invites from some of her colleagues as well as men who’d come to the party as guests.
Occasionally she’d catch glimpses of him in the party throng, but as the night had worn on, folks had gotten bolder and more liquored up and the office party had acquired an all-out club vibe: dancing, singing, drinking...and many, many hookups, she noted.
“And I ain’t mad at ’em...are you, boo?” Tony had asked her at one point when they’d caught several employees acting in a way she knew they’d be embarrassed as hell about come Monday morning.
But it wasn’t Monday morning, and everyone was having a goooood time, she thought, giggling, the free-flowing alcohol and great music agreeing with her as she nodded her head at Tony, cosigning on his statement. Nope. She was definitely not mad at anyone for enjoying the event.
So when she bumped into him, spinning away from her current partner’s arms and smack dab into his, she raised her eyes and her hands seemed to, of their own volition, come up and touch his chest. Her fingers widened, as did her eyes, when she felt the...strength of the hard wall.
Hmm.
The man was fine, she thought. And in the words of her friend, she most definitely wasn’t mad at that fact, she thought, and giggled.
He smiled down at her. Placed a thick finger beneath her chin and raised her eyes to meet his. “Having a good time, baby?” he asked.
Any other time, a man calling her “baby,” particularly one she didn’t know, would immediately turn her off.
But when Max called her that... She kept her eyes on his, unable to look away as she held her breath, feeling a blush warm her face.
“I’ve been watching you all night. Dancing, having a good time.”
“It’s...it’s been wonderful, all of this,” she said, breaking eye contact to glance around.
At that moment, the bandleader grabbed the microphone and announced a small break, and immediately the sounds of a popular, bluesy R & B song filled the ballroom. Couples began to sway together to the music.
She swallowed, unable to look at him.
But he wasn’t allowing her even that. He brought her face back around, locking his gaze with hers as he wrapped an arm around her waist, bringing her even tighter, more flush against his body as he began to sway them in unison to the music.
The lights had been dimmed even more and although she knew no one could see her expression, she felt as though her lust for this man was on display for all the world to see.
Her lust made her feel vulnerable. Exposed.
“And seeing you having a good time has made me quite excited,” he murmured low, for her ears only.
Her eyes widened and she inhaled a sharp breath.
His shaft pressed hotly, thickly against her stomach while his hand moved up and down her back. She moaned, her eyes closing as she exhaled the long breath she’d been holding.
Damn.
He did this to her and they were both fully clothed. She was on fire for him....
“More,” he whispered, bending his head down so that their foreheads nearly touched.
Startled, her eyes flew open and glanced up at him, their gazes locking.
A soft frown creased her brows. “Excuse me?”
“I want you more.”
She gulped. It was as though he read her mind. There was no way she could hide from him.
She stared up into his beautiful emerald-green eyes, which blazed down at her. Watching her.... She read his need, one that matched her own.
She felt a rash of goose bumps feather down her legs, something that happened whenever she was sexually aroused.
It had been so long since that had happened, she’d forgotten the telling goose bumps appeared without fail when she was...wet.
She clenched her legs together, her core seeming to throb. Inhaling a deep breath, she broke eye contact with him, forcing herself to look away.
This is insane, she thought, her heartbeat racing out of control.
“It’s okay,” he breathed against her ear, again reading her mind. But it was as though he held some sort of key or magic wand, because as soon as he voiced the assuring words, she felt the tension begin to ease from her. When he hugged her tightly, she allowed her body to meld, once again, into his.
As they danced, their bodies moved as one, in perfect harmony, as though they’d practiced for years. They naturally seemed to catch the other’s rhythm with the ease of seasoned pros.
This connection...whatever they had was unlike anything Nikki had ever felt. Maybe it was the wine making her feel this way, she thought. Maybe it was her desire to let loose and enjoy. To enjoy being a woman and all that meant. Maybe it was the fact that he was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen. Or maybe a combination of all of the above.
As she pressed her cheek against his chest, their bodies moving as one to the slow beat of the love song, she didn’t care what it was. She knew one thing and one thing only. She wanted this man to sex her up six ways to Sunday. And she wanted him in the worst kind of way.
A smile kicked up the corner of her mouth.
She moved her head from his chest, suddenly aware, afraid someone was watching, that someone would see what he was doing to her, even though her desire was not overt.
“I want you so damn bad, Nikki Francine Danes. In the worst way.”
And just like that, her desire and lust for him grew exponentially. His seductive pronouncement, whispered in her ear, made her glad she’d worn panties. If she hadn’t, her cream would be running down her legs right about now, she thought. She bit back a groan and restrained herself from grinding her body against his.
“Come with me, Nikki. I have a room in the hotel,” he said, and Nikki watched his sensual lips as they framed the words.
Without thinking, she lifted a finger to trace his mouth.
So sexy. Just like the rest of him.
He smiled. Her eyes were drawn to the sexy little dimple at the corner of his wickedly sensual mouth.
“Come play with me,” he said, and she moaned at the immediate response of her body.
Why not? Why not...play? The thought rushed into her mind. A naughty thought. One that, had she had a little less champagne humming through her veins, she wouldn’t dare to think. Taking him up on his offer would be unlike anything she’d ever done.
She was going to allow a man she didn’t really know to take her to his room and, God willing, have the best sex of her life. She wanted him to spank her ass...and make her like it.
She nodded her head and without a thought to anyone looking, she allowed him to guide her from the dance floor and away from the party.
Chapter 4
The ride up the hotel elevator was mercifully empty and as Max ushered Nikki inside, his glance stole over her.
She was nervous, he could tell.
He refrained from hauling her sexy body close to his. Barely.
She was shy and lived with her grandmother, he thought, an unknown smile tugging the corners of his mouth as he recalled the many things he knew about Nikki Danes.
But right now, her excitement was the most relevant thing about her. Her excitement for him.
When he’d been unable to take any more of the hot glide of her sweet body against his, the subtle way she was grinding against his shaft, Max had known the time had come. He’d felt her reaction to him. She was as turned on as he was.
Her reaction had only confirmed what he’d felt from the moment he’d met her: she was shy yet there was...fire, untapped for sure, just below the surface.
He felt like a little boy in a candy shop, mentally rubbing his hands together at the thought of what it would feel like to have her beneath him, to be the man to blow across the embers of her sensuality and release the heat.
He wanted to be the man to do the job.
She kept her face down, shyly, away from his. Instinct was guiding him with her, as it did for everything.
Everything that mattered, he thought.
He shoved that thought aside, as for a moment the relevance she had for him was...new. Something he’d never experienced.
He’d examine that later. Right now it was all about having passionate sex with her.
Again he ignored the inner voice warning him it was more than just sex. He was marking his territory, an instinctual need to claim what his subconscious had marked as his three weeks ago.
He reached for her and brought her closer to his body. He knew that he needed to keep her grounded to him, that like the little hummingbird she appeared to be at the moment, it wouldn’t take much for her to take to the air and fly away.
She was shy, he got that. She didn’t seem to have much experience and there was no telling what was going on in her mind.
She seemed to have a war going on inside her, one he’d give any amount of money to get a true view of. He found that the more he was around her, the more...vested in her he was becoming.
But if he had his way about it, by the end of the night—the weekend, as he’d booked the room for Friday night through Monday morning—his little hummingbird’s wings would be firmly and decidedly clipped.
Without thought he reached over and brought her close, giving her no time to react. He wrapped his arms around her slight body, bringing their bodies into tight alignment, and slanted his mouth over hers.
Max couldn’t deny himself the feeling of her lips, the softness of her touch, for another moment.
* * *
When she felt the smoothness of his firm lips against her mouth, Nikki melted against him.
Not sure what to expect after the suddenness of the kiss, she braced herself for the sensual assault he’d given her on the dance floor.
Her hands fisted the fine cloth of his shirt and she held her breath. He softly kissed her, feathery strokes teasing her mouth, his tongue snaking out to lick her lips.
As he kissed her, he kept a hand on the back of her head, keeping her steady, but without pressure. She moaned into his mouth, the gentleness of the kiss her undoing.
Soothing her. Guiding her. Like an animal in the wild stalking its prey...before it pounced.
The ghost of a warning rang in the back of her mind, but she forced it away.
When the elevator came to a halt, he pulled away, his hands still holding her. An enigmatic smile graced his sensual lips.
Again he held out a hand and wordlessly she placed hers in it, giving him silent permission to guide her into whatever the night had in store.
She followed him out of the elevator, her nerves taut. It wasn’t until he stopped and turned to face her that she glanced around, surprised to find that they were inside the room.
“Is this what I think it is?” she asked, and felt foolish the minute she did, laughing lightly.
If she’d been in the right frame of mind, she would have recognized that they were going to the top floor when he placed the key in the slot on the elevator panel that gave access to the top floor. The penthouse.
She glanced around, surprised, but trying her hardest to be the picture of cool sophistication as she took it all in.
“Wow,” she blurted, and felt inadequate and gauche the minute the words left her mouth. The very antithesis of cool sophistication, she thought, and rolled her eyes at herself. But it was such a spectacular room, so vast, so elegant and beautiful that wow was the only word she could come up with.
She jumped when she felt his big hands land on her shoulders and felt slightly embarrassed by her nervous reaction. He turned her around to face him.
He smiled lightly, but in his eyes the fire from what they’d started, what was burning, lingered. Yet he tilted his head to the side, considering her.
She felt the nervousness that began in her gut bubble and churn, and she swallowed down the sudden anxiety.
What the hell was she doing with this man? She knew next to nothing about him and had simply decided that he would be the one to “clean out her cobwebs”? Her doubts about her mission began to war with the light buzz from the alcohol.
“I don’t want you to do anything you aren’t ready for, but I want you,” he said, his deep voice sending shivers over her body. He brought her close so she could feel the evidence of his arousal. “But only if you want this.” He brought his mouth down to touch hers lightly, his firm lips covering her mouth as he lightly bit down. Not hard enough to hurt, not at all. But enough that she felt the sting.
Her pussy began to throb.
“I know you enjoyed the party,” he said when he released her, a small smile toying with the corners of his sensual mouth. “It’s what I wanted, why I planned it. But again...I don’t want you to do this if it’s not what you want.”
He brought his hand up and caressed the line of her jaw, the small smile still lurking in his deep green eyes.
It was as though he read her mind. Again.
Nikki knew she couldn’t and wouldn’t blame it on the alcohol.
She reached up and traced a finger down the line of his aquiline nose until her finger reached his lip, brushing over the hard yet sensual line of his mouth.
He took the tip into his mouth, sucked on the digit, eliciting a moan from her.
“I want you to want me as badly as I burn for you. As badly as I’ve wanted you from the first time I saw you in the elevator,” he said, and tugged her toward him.
The tug was slightly...rough. Matching the tone in his voice. She knew he was holding on by a thread. Yet he wanted to make sure she was comfortable with her decision.
For whatever reason that calmed her, even as her passion for him grew.
“But...only if you want it,” he said, and with that he took her hand in one of his while the other unzipped his slacks. Deftly, he brought his shaft out and he boldly used her hand to cover his hard, thick, long dick.
“Oh, God...yes,” she moaned, closing her hand around him. He lifted her into his arms and carried her across the room toward the king-size bed. She reached a hand up and said softly, “It’s been a while. Please be...careful with me.”
She saw a flare of something flash in his beautiful green eyes before he nodded his head. He whispered softly against her mouth before covering it with his own, “As though my life depended on it.”
Chapter 5
“Be careful with me,” she’d whispered, her voice hesitant.
Those four words had nearly been his undoing. In them he heard more than the obvious. He heard her telling him something more, something his heart recognized as meaningful, deep and pure.
After placing her on the bed, he’d made quick work of his own clothes, shucking his slacks from his body, nearly ripping his shirt from his chest in his haste to feel her skin on his.
He watched her in the soft amber glow as she in turn kept her gaze on him.
Watching him undress.
His dick thumped against his shorts. He withdrew his wallet from his slacks and quickly, deftly, removed three of the tiny square foil wrappers. It would be enough to start.
“Do you like what you see?” he asked, his voice rough as he turned to face her. He saw her eyes widen at the three condoms. He kept their gazes locked as he drew his shorts down his legs.
She inhaled a swift breath, her eyes widening even more as she took all of him in.
His laugh was low and purely masculine.
“Yes,” she breathed, her tongue coming out to snake across her full, beautiful lips. And just like that, she had his cock swelling in response. From just one glance at his cock.
If he wasn’t careful, this would be over before he started.
His inclination had been to strip her clothes from her body and see just how beautiful she was, naked and exposed beneath him.
He’d forced himself to chill and try his damnedest to take it slow and not scare her. So he started at her feet, removing the sexy high heels after carefully untying the pretty ribbon tied in a loopy bow.
He brought her leg close to his after slipping the shoes from her feet, one by one, and ran his face along the silky skin, his eyes closing shut.
When he placed her dainty foot in his palm, he brought it instinctively to his mouth, his eyes seeking hers.
He ran his tongue over the top, up the length until he reached her ankle, his tongue stroking and licking the smooth skin.
When she moaned softly, he bit back a groan.
She was so responsive to his touch. His dick hardened painfully.
“God, your skin is so soft, so smooth,” he said, and allowed his hands to run up the length of her thighs. She moaned as he found her panties and pulled them down, past her knees, her legs, until finally he tossed them to the floor.
“We won’t be needing those.” His voice was heavy with need.
He brought his mouth to her thighs, working upward, his tongue leaving a hot, wet trail as he moved up her body. When he stopped at the junction of her thighs, he felt her body tremble.
Slowly, he lifted her dress, easing it up and away, releasing the front ties of the wraparound dress to reveal her beautiful naked body as she lay before him like an erotic offering.
He nearly came on the spot. He grabbed his cock unconsciously as he beheld her beauty.
He’d had an idea what she would look like naked, but no way in hell could he have imagined she’d look like this.
His hands came out to grasp her tiny waist loosely as he stared, transfixed with her magnificence. Her hips were full and jutted out enough to make a man salivate. He stared at her high, firm breasts and imagined the feel of them in his hands.
Slowly he traced up the length of her body to take the small, perfectly sculpted globes into his hands. Like her ass, her breasts had just the right amount of...overflow. He bounced them lightly, stroking a finger across the nipples, and groaned when the dark wine nubs hardened beneath his probing fingers.
Perfection.
She laughed softly, bringing him out of his dazed fascination. Her full mouth curved upward. Her feminine laughter mirrored his earlier one. It was the kind of soft laugh that let a man know his woman knew exactly what she was working with...and what she was doing to him.
Max’s dick was hard as granite, yet he forced himself to go slowly. He ran an appreciative glance down her body.
She allowed her legs to drop to the side so that her pretty kitty was exposed. He brought a hand up to stroke across it.
Although her hair was cut low, she had a tiny tuft right above her lips. He ran a finger over the curls and a growl of need broke from his throat.
“So damn fine...even your pretty pussy is fine,” he said roughly.
He brought his eyes to meet hers. There was an air of expectancy in the room. One they both knew would be fulfilled....
He went down on her.
Placing his hands beneath the bend of her legs, he lifted her thighs, nudged them apart and lowered his head.
His tongue stroked one long caress across her pussy, end to end, from the back of her entry to the tip of her clit. He laved and sucked.
Her moans filled the room as she tossed on the bed.
He chuckled low, lightly against her pussy. He knew she loved his oral loving. Truth was, he loved giving it to her just as much.
Her scent, her taste were unique and different. Intoxicating.
He paused and heard her whimper. “Shh...I’ll take care of you, baby. I just need time with this pretty kitty of yours,” he said, his fingers coming out to separate her lips. “Is that okay?” he asked as she moaned, unable to answer him.
He separated her lips with his fingers and groaned at the sight of her glistening inner lips. It made his balls tingle when he noted that the inner skin of her lips was a slightly lighter shade of brown than her outer lips, the contrast sexy as hell to him. He dipped his fingers inside and gently skewered them in her body, withdrawing her moisture. He brought it to his lips and sucked her juices clean.
His nostrils flared as her heady, unique smell of arousal engulfed him, making his balls tighten and his cock thump, hard, painfully, against his thigh.
“Max...” she groaned, her feminine pleas for him to continue making his own breath catch.
“Okay, baby...I’ll give you what you need,” he said. “Do you trust me?” he asked. And as badly as he just wanted to do her, suck her and fuck her, her trust was...important. More important than his raging hard-on. More important than the fact that he didn’t know if he’d ever felt like this about a woman he’d been around for such a short time. Much less not had communication with outside of one time.
He waited for her reply, as hard as it was to do that and not touch her. She nodded her head, her tongue coming out to lick her lower lip. “Please...make love to me.”
That was all Max needed to hear.
He brought his face down again, to her entry.
He gloried in her pussy, suckling the clit deep into his mouth as his tongue came out and flicked rapid strokes over her lips. He couldn’t get enough.
Her moans and cries filled the room as he continued laving her, his tongue doing to her what his cock would soon be doing, stroking, fucking...loving.
He knew she was close to the edge. Max’s index finger came out to feather over her tuft as he continued stroking her, using his mouth, lips, tongue and fingers to bring her to screaming release.
He didn’t stop suckling her until her cries stopped and her trembling body collapsed.
He moved his head, taking in her glistening pussy, the sexy way her legs were wide open, her dress not completely shed from her body as she lay on top of it.
Sexy as hell. He grabbed his shaft, running a finger over the top, feeling his own precome as he stared down at the woman who, for whatever reason, had become more important to him than any other woman had in all of his thirty-two years.
The thought should have scared the shit out of Max.
But it didn’t. He reached over for the first condom of the night....
“I’m not through with you yet...”
Her drowsy eyes flew open.
Chapter 6
In blissful contentment Nikki lay in the center of the king-size bed, her body melting into the soft mattress.
Satisfaction buzzed in every fiber of her being after being on the receiving end of Max’s oral loving. Even as her body finally began to calm, her quivering thighs beginning to relax and her thudding heartbeat slowing to an even rhythm, every molecule was still alive with feeling, every nerve ending sensitive to the lightest touch.
She inhaled a deep breath. The breeze, coming from the lazy sway of the ceiling fan overhead, was like little erotic pricks to her overly sensitive skin.
It wasn’t only the fan that was causing her hypersensitive nerve endings to jump. Most of that had to do with the slow, wickedly sensual flicks of a talented tongue and soft kisses from a pair of firm lips delivered to her clit as she came down from her high, from the hottest man she’d ever had between her thighs, she thought. She felt a small giggle bubbling forth out of sheer happiness.
She felt sooo good.
She inhaled a deep breath, but kept her eyes closed. No way could it get any better, she thought....
“I’m not through with you yet.”
Her eyes flew open and she stared down at the dark head between her thighs.
“Max, wait, I—” The rest of her plea broke off when she gasped, her back arching high when he spread her legs wide and blew on her pussy.
Immediately her body reacted. As though she hadn’t just had the best orgasm of her life—she’d never had the type of sexual satisfaction that she’d just experienced. But she wasn’t tired or listless...that same satisfied body got energized in less than two-point-two seconds.
The minute she felt his warm breath on her kitty, she felt her clit engorge, as though in welcome of what was to come. What more sensual delights it was going to enjoy.
Her nipples hardened and those goose bumps returned with a vengeance when she heard his deep, masculine laugh. She opened her eyes and sought his gaze and her heart seemed to clench just the smallest bit when she caught the sexy little dimple that appeared in the corner of his cheek. And then she felt his cock, hard, thick...long, brush against her thighs as he raised his body.
With feline grace he leaned over and grasped the condom from the bedside table. Her heart began to thud, her nipples tight as she watched him tear it open with his teeth and discard the wrapper.
Her pussy clenched as though with a mind of its own as Nikki watched in helpless fascination when he grasped the base of his cock in one hand.
Even though his hand was large, he could barely circle it.
Her throat convulsed.
He kept her gaze locked on his when he began to roll the protection down the long...impossibly long and thick length of his rigid shaft. With the precision of a drill sergeant, he covered that beautiful monster.
She felt oddly mesmerized, almost dazed, watching the way he rolled the condom over his length, while at the same time her body was electrified. The effect was unexpectedly erotic.
And he hadn’t even touched her with it.
“Ohhh,” she moaned, barely aware she’d even made the sound, she was so caught up in the sensual web she found herself entangled in.
His eyes darkened in reaction to her response, a flush appearing on his lean face.
“Goddamn, you’re fine. So damn sexy...so responsive,” he growled, his voice now lower than she’d ever heard it. As he finished the task of placing condom on shaft, his voice was so low and guttural it was close to animalistic.
Nikki felt her feminine power rise in satisfaction. She knew that his voice became like that because he was close to the edge. A fine line for sure, but it was hot, wickedly hot, to know that she was the reason he was dangling so close to the edge.
She knew his need was riding him, hard.
She also knew she should be afraid and if she had any sense at all she would grab her clothes and run for the nearest exit, knowing good and well that what he had in store for her would be unlike anything she could imagine, much less had experienced.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda...it was all white noise to her.
He stopped and stared down at her, his hands falling down near his waist.
She had never seen a man so...vibrant. So alive. She inhaled a breath, her eyes darting down, taking in his massive manhood that proudly stood long and stiff away from the lighter-colored nest of curls surrounding it. His balls were heavy, perfectly rounded spheres.
She felt a yearning to place her tongue on them, softly lick them as he had licked her so intimately. To hold them in her mouth, see how they felt housed inside.
Oh, God, what was happening to her? What was he doing to her? she thought. She’d never felt so...alive. So sexual...
“You keep looking at my cock like that, my balls, and this won’t last,” he said bluntly. Instead of scaring her, his words empowered her even more.
Nikki leaned up enough that she could touch him. She ran a hand down over his stomach, the hard abs beneath bunching under her caress.
Growing bolder, she ran them down further until she reached the top of the sandy-colored, wavy hair surrounding his shaft.
She licked her dry lips.
“Do it.” He bit off the demand, roughly.
Her eyes sought his.
She blew out a breath, a case of nerves halting her even as her hands lightly grazed his sac, heavy with need and come.
“I won’t make you do anything. You have to tell me you want me, Nikki,” he said. “You need to show me.”
She swallowed down the nervousness, knowing that this was what she wanted, what she needed.
Her hands cupped his sac, her eyes widening at the weight. Although she’d made love before, it had never been so...intimate as it was with him.
She wanted to kiss it, lick it, but stopped.
She smiled shakily at him and felt relief when she saw the same lust in his eyes as before, despite her inability to go through with touching him with her mouth.
He took her hands within his, kissed her open palms and laid her back down. “We will only do what you are ready to do, baby. I will never rush you for anything more.”
That made her want him even more, if possible.
She drank him in as he poised above her, staring down at her from his emerald-colored eyes, his dark hair wavy and long, lightly resting on top of his wide shoulders, one thick, curly lock lying across one of his brows.
Her eyes roamed over his thick chest, heavy with muscle begging for her touch. He resembled a beautiful, dark fallen angel to her. Untamed. Wild... Hot.
With her heart racing, she opened her arms, inviting her fallen angel to come to her and give her whatever he wanted...in whatever way he wanted to give it to her.
She’d deal with regrets, if she had any, later...much later.
Chapter 7
The minute Nikki opened her arms to him, Max pressed her beautiful body down on the mattress, carefully covering her small body with his much bigger one.
He needed to feel her...
“Hmm. Damn, you feel so good against me,” he whispered, his hands coming out to grab her waist before slipping down and grasping her hips.
He wanted to go slow, be gentle with her, but his need threatened to override his rational mind and he feared if he didn’t get control ASAP, he’d lose it and go balls-deep inside her before she was ready for him.
He brought his forehead to rest against hers.
“Are you...are you all right?” She asked the question breathlessly and he cursed himself, believing she was faltering beneath his weight.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to crush you,” he said, and began to shift his weight, stopping when he felt her small hand on his forearm.
“No, I’m fine! You’re not heavy...” Her words stopped him and he remained where he was, only shifting her legs so that he lay between them.
“I just wanted to know if you were, you know, okay?” she asked, and he groaned painfully.
“I am. I just needed a moment so I didn’t...hurt you. You’re so small,” he moaned into her neck, unable to resist the temptation.
She reached her hands up to wrap around his thick neck, replying, “I’m small, but I’m not fragile. I won’t break,” she said, and he dragged in a deep breath when he felt her turn her face into his neck, kissing the side with her full lips, her tongue boldly coming out to flick the lobe of his ear.
“Keep doing that, little girl, and you just might get what you’re asking for.”
“That’s what your mouth is saying...”
It took a moment for her sexual teasing to register. When it did he was torn between being turned on even more—if that was even possible—to admiration for her cute wit.
His dick jumped and the war was over before it started.
He needed her, now.
“Let me test it first,” he replied in a coarse voice. “I want to feel that pretty pussy of yours wrapped around me, trust me. But I won’t hurt you,” he said, and captured her lips with his before she could reply.
He shoved her legs farther apart, spreading her wide, and, placing his hand between them, sought her out. As he continued to kiss her, their mouths dueling as their sexual play grew heated, he inserted first one finger inside her clenching, tight heat.
“Oh, fuck!” he said, and slowly added another. Her walls came out to clench and tighten on his fingers, so tightly he knew he really had to prepare her.
He began to pump his fingers slowly into her vagina until she moaned against his mouth, grinding her hips as she sought more of him.
He slowly added one more finger, skewering it inside her even as she grew wetter with each drugging kiss, each twist of his fingers inside her body.
She whimpered against his mouth and he felt her need rising. But he had to make sure. She broke contact with his mouth, even as he continued his sensual assault. Panting, her chest heaving, she continued to work his fingers even as she pleaded, her voice barely above a hoarse whisper, “Max...oh, God, what are you doing to me?”
“I want that pussy juicy for me, baby.” Max could barely respond; his need was now making thought and communication painful to attempt.
“I—I’m ready, please,” she cried, keening and moaning when he continued.
He withdrew his fingers and brought them to his face, licking them clean as he’d done earlier, her essence flowing down the side of his hand.
His lips pulled back in a feral grin.
She was ready for him.
He leaned up and away from her, grasped his shaft at the midpoint and brought it to her entry. He leaned in and slowly began to feed her his cock. Slowly, carefully, inch by inch he gave her himself.
He felt the moment her feminine walls began to protest before the cry left her lips. He knew she was small and he was by no means even average. His dick was big, but he wasn’t a brute. He’d go without before he’d hurt her. The thought of her being hurt by anyone, including himself, brought along with it a surge of unreasonable anger.
He tossed the thought of why that was to the side and waited for her.
“Baby...oh, my God, you’re so big, I—” Her voice broke and soft whimpers tore at him.
He brought his mouth to hers and softly kissed her, whispering nonsensical shushing noises, seeking to give her solace.
He was only halfway in.
He brought his finger back out to play, this time focusing on her clit. Within seconds he felt the gush of liquid saturate the digit and relief made him tremble.
He slowly began to screw his hips and feed her more of himself until he’d given it all to her.
He captured her cry of pain and pleasure with his mouth, shoving his tongue deep.
“Nikki, baby, you are so hot...so tight and slick on my cock,” he grunted as he slowly began to stroke in shallow, controlled movements. “Damn, you feel good on me!”
Slow, measured, slick kisses mimicked the way he dragged in and out of her heat. He repositioned her legs so that he hit her clit with each advance and retreat of his cock.
With each hot glide, each stroke, he felt the hair around his groin brush against her smooth pussy, making his cock damn near explode with the incredible dual sensation.
On every level she intoxicated him. Her scent, her body...the way she moved. She was the total sexual package.
He lifted her legs so that they lay over his arms and, grasping her hips, he began to ride her.
Jostling her body as he rotated his hips, knifing into her sweet pussy, he gave short, controlled thrusts as her cream came out and saturated his dick, running down the side of her leg as she loudly cried her pleasure.
With a shout he threw his head back, the muscles in his neck straining, his arms shaking and sweat running freely down his face.
“Yes!” His roar filled the room as he ground into her moist warmth, his straining arms caging her within his embrace.
He felt her body tense and clench and knew she was ready to release. He thrust once, twice, and felt her body let go. When he felt her tightening walls and scream, he reached down and swallowed her cries with his mouth.
Within moments they went up in flames together, the orgasm intense, unlike anything he’d ever felt. It was as though a thousand butterflies were feathering his dick, toying with his balls.
Moments after they climaxed and lay back on the bed, spent, Max knew that his world would never be the same again. He thought of the file he’d had put together on her and the fact that he wasn’t exactly who he said he was. How would she react when he told her about the latter? There was no way in hell he’d ever tell her about the former but he knew that he would have to tell her who he really was if he wanted any type of real relationship with her.
He turned to look at her. Her beautiful eyes were closed, a content look on her gorgeous face.
“Damn,” he whispered, thinking, wondering how in hell he was going to tell her of his deceit.
Chapter 8
Monday morning found Nikki struggling to keep her mind on her work, and she forced herself not to check the clock again, for the twentieth time in as many minutes, to see when Ms. Rockway would emerge from her office and depart for her break. Then she would feel comfortable catching up with Max for their lunchtime tryst, one that they’d been meeting for every day at lunch for the last two weeks.
She hadn’t seen him since he’d kissed her goodbye and left her house Saturday.
Even thinking of what they were doing, where he would decide to...do her this time, filled her with heady anticipation. She felt her face flush and her panties grow damp and drew in a shaky breath.
What he’d said in his panty-dropping voice on the phone to her earlier that morning, in the guise of asking her to get Ms. Rockway’s signature on some made-up requisition, still made her blush.
It had been a struggle to think of anything else than how it felt when he ate her out, the way he carefully and with great attention to detail licked and laved every part of her body. And the fact that he let her know in no uncertain terms that their lunch ritual was as hot for him as it was for her meant even more to her.
The first surprise had been his unorthodox approach to lovemaking. She never knew what to expect.
Although they had only officially been seeing each other for two weeks, and their sexual trysts weren’t exclusively lunchtime only, there was something about what they did during lunch that was not only sexy as hell to Nikki, but also strangely...sensual. As kinky as he got, as quick as some of their lunchtime trysts were, they were intimate, sensual and...fun.
She felt the smile grow. Just what the doctor ordered.
“I get off just looking at you, did you know that?”
The hotly voiced question whispered into the Bluetooth in her ear made Nikki jump. She’d picked up the call from her cell without looking to see who it was.
She would definitely have to give him his own ringtone, she thought, glad her supervisor wasn’t around, knowing the blush she felt had to be showing on her face.
She glanced around to see if Max was near, disappointment surging when she noted her immediate area was free of anyone outside of the accounting department.
She sunk down lower in her chair, lowering her voice. In an attempt at nonchalance, she opened a document and pretended to work.
“Oh, yeah?” she asked, suppressing a giggle at the very schoolgirl way he was making her feel.
“Yes, baby. Those long legs of yours in that pretty skirt make me wonder if you are wearing any panties today. ”
“Max.” The soft sigh brushed from her lips at the unexpectedness of his intimate question.
“Yes, baby?”
She laughed, low, a lover’s laugh. “Why do you say some of the stuff you do?” she replied, glancing around to see if anyone was near.
“I like to share things that make me wonder with my baby. Now...what color did you go with?”
“Black,” she said, and bit the corner of her lip, her smile creasing her face.
“Sheer or lace? Bow or not?”
“Lace with a white bow. You haven’t seen these. Yet.”
“Hmm...yet, huh? I like the way you think. I will make it my mission to see every pair you own. And remove them from that pretty little ass of yours,” he finished, his voice rough with a need she could hear through the phone. “There is a plumbing problem in one of the smaller conference rooms. I had maintenance lock it up until someone can come and fix it.”
“And you’re telling me this why?” she asked, but already knew the answer.
The backs of her thighs peppered with goose bumps, her nipples constricting.
“Come up to the management floor, room 1801. And put your panties in your pocket. You won’t be needing them.”
“Ooh,” she breathed.
“I’ve got something special waiting for you, baby,” he continued, and Nikki’s eyes widened.
“Wha-what is it?”
“You’ll just have to come up here and see. And remember...no panties.”
He hung up and Nikki sank back in her chair.
“Oh, my God...is he serious?” she asked, but she knew the answer.
Her pussy quivered in anticipation and she could feel her own wetness in her panties.
Which was her answer to whether she was bold enough to actually do what he was daring her: go up to management and have a sexual tryst in the middle of a working day.
She rose swiftly and called out that she was headed for lunch. Not waiting for Ms. Rockway to come out and stop her with a last-minute request, Nikki walked to the ladies’ room and went into a stall to remove her panties.
Her face heated, she stuffed them into her purse and then walked briskly to the elevator and made her way up to meet Max.
She tested the door after glancing down the hallway to make sure no one saw her, then slipped inside. Immediately Max was on her, pulling her into his arms and locking the door behind her.
His warm, firm lips pressed against hers. His hands moved over her back, rubbing softly, then shifted to cup the globes of her butt, eliciting a moan from Nikki.
He released her ass and moved his hands around to the front and began to unbutton her blouse and deftly unsnap her bra. He tugged off her shirt, exposing her breasts, which bounded free. He lifted her and placed her on the conference table, coming to stand between her legs.
“We don’t have a lot of time. But we have time for this,” he said before kneeling in front of her.
“Max.” She breathed the one-word plea.
He lifted her skirt and glanced up at her, approval in his eyes. “Good girl...you listened,” he said, and winked. She laughed, then her breath caught when he began to stroke his tongue over her slick center.
She slammed her hand over her mouth to stop the shriek from emerging, afraid someone would hear and come running to her rescue.
He began to lick at her wet lips in earnest, the smooth yet rough touch of his tongue sending tremors through Nikki’s body. She gripped the edges of the desk, holding on for dear life as his tongue continued its assault over the lips of her vagina in hot, languid glides. Glides of his tongue that left her...aching.
She moaned, her head hung low as she accepted his ministrations. When he stood, she barely suppressed the cry of denial, but was soon rewarded when he drew his slacks down his legs, revealing his thick, muscled thighs and beautifully sculpted cock.
Her low-lidded eyes observed his ritual way of sheathing his shaft and within moments he was deep inside of her.
As he stroked and rolled his hips, she held on for the ride, her head thrown back as she matched him stroke for stroke.
Just when she thought it couldn’t get any better...
He picked her up, not losing the connection, his shaft still embedded deeply inside her warmth, and strode over to a big, oversized leather chair. It was different from the others, so she knew he’d brought this one in.
Just for this.
“Oh, baby,” she moaned into his mouth when he sat them down, allowing her to straddle him, her legs dangling over the sides of the oversized chair.
“I thought you might like being in control,” he said, giving her that one-of-a-kind, panty-dropping masculine laugh of his that she loved so much.
“Hmm...you know me so well,” she purred as she began to ride him. Her walls clamped down on his length as his hands came up to hold onto her ass, allowing her natural bounce and his hard-driving thrusts to carry their bodies toward release. As they made love, their bodies quickly, easily caught the rhythm in a harmony that defied definition. Natural, symphonic, unique...as though they were made for each other.
Chapter 9
Back at her desk, a smile on her face, Nikki realized that she had to bring Tony into her confidence and with that she fessed up to what had happened at the ball and what was going on now. Tony was her friend and besides that, he was way too astute not to figure it out, when, ten times out of ten over the past couple of weeks she had returned from her lunch break with her hair in a different style and a glow in her cheeks that she couldn’t begin to hide.
She opened up to him. While not giving the more intimate information, she told Tony that she and Max were seeing one another.
She’d expected Tony to go all gushy on her and completely over the top, but he surprised her, speaking with none of his normal flamboyance and theatrics, but instead sounding like a mix between a big brother who was concerned about her being taken advantage of by a supervisor—which technically Max was to her—and cautioning her against getting involved with someone from management, even if he was temporary.
She stored the caution in the back of her mind, but really, she had no intention of stopping the sensual train ride she found herself on...her new favorite motto was Toot Toot, All Aboard.
She sobered, thinking of Max and her newfound lust. The minute she thought it, she blushed. She shied away from calling it anything more than what it was. And whenever her mind took her there, she loudly hushed it.
While it might not be love, it was...new, exciting and different. She chuckled and put a hand over her mouth. Yeah, different was a way of putting it.
With Max she never knew what to expect.
They’d spent the weekend together that first time, and although she’d assumed it was going to be a one-time thing, and had actually convinced herself that she was perfectly okay with that, she knew that once was far from enough with Max Stele. He was intoxicating to her. Multifaceted.
Mysterious.
She bit the corner of her mouth, thinking that he was a little too mysterious. He’d been gone from the office for the past few days and when she asked him where he was, what he was doing, he’d smiled and told her he had some business to conduct. Which to her mind was him telling her it was none of hers. Business, that was.
She shrugged it off, again telling herself that what they had was not a long-term affair. And that fact had been made more evident after she’d asked him how long he’d be at MagHard Interior Design, and what his plans were after they found a replacement for him.
They’d just finished making love, and were sitting at her kitchen table, naked and eating leftover pizza. She loved the spontaneity he’d brought to her world. What she didn’t love so much was the mystery that seemed to be as much a part of the Max Stele package.
She’d started by asking him what he planned to do after...
“After?” he had asked, watching Nikki as she took a healthy bite of the gooey pizza he’d had delivered from her favorite neighborhood joint, Bosses Pizzeria.
As soon as she had swallowed, she had reached for a glass of sweet tea he’d poured for her and took a small sip, carefully gauging his reaction to her mild query about his future plans.
“Yes, after you leave the company. It is just a temp gig, right?” she had asked, knowing about as much today as she had less than two months ago when he’d started at the company. “And how did you get it anyway, the job?” she had asked. That was another thing that slightly bothered her. Although she was a new employee, she hadn’t been aware that they hired temps in management. She’d asked Tony about it and he’d said that in his five years with them, they hadn’t.
Max had taken a careful bite of the pizza, frowning slightly as though he was considering how to answer her question.
She had become aware of the small things he did, telling gestures to her that told her more than his words normally did.
While she had blabbed on and on about her life, about how she’d grown up with her grandparents and had a happy childhood, about the schools she’d attended, he’d told her...nothing.
Well, almost nothing. She’d been able to pry out of him that his mother had been a single mom, and that he was the youngest of three siblings. And the rebel.
She’d laughed. Yeah, she could totally see him as the rebel.
Small bits and pieces here and there: he had attended college, gotten a B.A. in architecture—which had surprised her—and later a master’s in business and...that was about it, she thought with a frown.
Telling her that although he’d grown up in Texas, he’d lived the past few years in the Midwest. Which accounted for his lack of a tan, she’d said with a snicker, earning her a swipe on the butt from him.
But it was the things beyond the what’s your favorite color and what did you want to be when you grew up that she began to want to know about him.
The longer she was around him, the more she wanted to know him. Beyond the superficial. She had sighed and shook her head.
“Forget it, it’s not a biggie,” she’d quipped. She had hopped up from the table, grabbed her dish and made for the sink.
He’d caught her, swinging her around, a frown on his face as he took the dish from her hand.
He had palmed both sides of her face, his look intense as he stared down at her.
He had opened his mouth to speak and shut it.
Making her want to smack him. She had known there was something he wasn’t telling her, and the more he held on to it, the harder it was becoming for her to pretend like it wasn’t there...that something between them.
* * *
Max needed to be prepared for anything Nikki threw at him. He thought back on that date with her, the mountain of questions she’d thrown at him.
That morning he’d gotten up and realized two things. One: that while he thought he’d been falling in love with her, he knew it was already a done deal; the woman had his heart on lockdown and the key hers to do with as she wanted.
Question was, would she throw away the key or store it within her own heart?
He’d left her sleeping and drove his car to the office. Wondering what the hell his next course of action was.
The answer had surprisingly come from his mother.
His cellphone had rang, indicating she was on the line. He had been in communication with his mother from the moment he’d taken over the office, and although the topic had stayed within the confines of business, i.e. a good replacement for Max, as she assumed he wanted out ASAP, it had, of course, gone to the personal.
“Mom, I’ve met someone...” he’d begun, and paused. “Someone I want you to meet.” He stopped, waiting. A shout, scream, exclamation...something.
He knew it had to be significant for his mother. He’d not only never brought anyone home to meet her, he’d never even discussed a woman by name, much less told his mother he wanted her to meet the woman.
“Well, it is about damn time, Maxwell! I’ve been waiting for you to bring Nikki to me for the last week. Or at least to tell me about her, from your own mouth!”
“What? You knew?” Surprise left his mouth wide open and had he not been paying attention as he drove he would have wrecked his car. As it was he barely missed swiping another one as he swerved to miss.
“Well, of course I knew, darling. Nothing goes on in the company I don’t know about,” she had said, her cultured voice smug and eliciting a reluctant laugh from Max. He knew how his mother knew....
“So, old dragon breath knows about us, huh?” he had asked and they had both laughed.
Max sobered and paused.
His mother waited for a minute before she had said, “That’s the reason I brought you to the company. You needed to meet someone special. But before you bring her to me, she has to know who you are, son.” Her tone had been quiet and motherly.
He had sighed. “I know, Mom, but it’s not that easy. There’s more to it. I know information about her that I wouldn’t know...shouldn’t know, I guess,” he had said, uneasily broaching the subject of how he’d used his influence with the chief of security to gather information about Nikki. “I’m not sure she’s going to be keen on how I, uh...acquired it,” he had said, not even comfortable with his mother knowing what he’d done. The way he’d invaded her personal life.
“The fact that you had James Green do a little digging into her past, Max?” she’d asked.
Why he was surprised was beyond him. As she had said...nothing went on that his mother didn’t know about.
The rest of the ride into the office, he’d listened as his mother both fussed at and guided him on his next course of action.
“At the end of the day, it’s your decision on how to go forward. Telling her who you really are...she’ll understand that. She’ll understand your reasons. They’re valid, son. As a woman I feel confident telling you that,” she’d begun and Max felt a semblance of relief.
Her next words snatched his security blanket away.
“But as for you digging into her past...go gently with that. You don’t have to tell her, she’ll never know...but tell her. If you want a real relationship, you have no other option.”
And with that sage advice, Max had gone into his office and downloaded everything onto a jump drive, both his dossier...and the one he’d collected on Nikki.
After he loaded the documents, he knew what a man facing life in prison or freedom felt like when waiting for the jury’s verdict.
Chapter 10
A few days later, Nikki woke up slowly, lazily from a night filled with restless sleep. She reflected on the past three weeks since she and Max had become involved. They had been filled with excitement and passion, and now uncertainty.
Her mind took her back to their last encounter.
It was the first time she’d spent the night at his place, and although she’d warned herself not to make too much of a big deal about it, a part of her knew that it was significant. Just as she knew there was much, much more to Max than met the eyes.
She’d known that as soon as he’d driven into the upper-end neighborhood where he lived.
Tension had fairly radiated off of him, but she’d kept silent, not asking the burning question...how does a temp manager afford to live in the clearly affluent West Austin suburb? An area like this?
She nestled deeper into the down comforter and pulled it up to her chin, not really ready to get out of bed, but knowing she had to. Her boss expected her staff to be in the office on time, and did not like to hear excuses.
Memories of the previous night still lingered. After each time they made love, their intimacy grew. But more than that, they had begun to share things with each other, things beyond the sexual.
She’d told him of her desire to be a designer at MagHard, hopefully soon as she received her master’s degree at the end of the semester.
She’d lain in front of him, warm and satisfied from his latest lovemaking.
“And I know that with dedication and commitment, I can do it. I’ve already learned a lot from my time at MagHard,” she’d confessed during their pillow talk.
He’d been silent before he spoke. “But you want more than just to be a designer at the firm, right? Don’t you want to...branch out, start your own company?” he’d asked, and she’d sighed, nodding her head in the dark, running her fingers back and forth over the back of his hand that he had wrapped around her midsection as they spooned.
She smiled. It was as though he had read her mind. Sometimes the intuitive questions he asked seemed as though...he had a blueprint to her heart. The thought was as scary as it was enticing. No man had ever...gotten her, she’d always thought.
He’d kissed the back of her neck and asked, “What made you laugh?”
She snuggled back into his embrace and shook her head, a small smile playing around the corners of her mouth in the dark. “Nothing. Everything. I like you, Max Stele,” had been her only reply, the region of her heart seeming to expand with the knowledge that she was falling in love with him.
After that night’s marathon session they’d stayed up late, sharing their childhood stories.
She hadn’t wanted to pry, but she wanted...yearned to learn more about Max.
“There’s something that has been, well...on my mind,” she had said, broaching one of the subjects that she had only recently been thinking about.
He’d brought her into his arms and held her close, his head on top of hers as he feathered it back and forth.
“What’s that?” he had asked, his tone casual, yet she felt the tension that radiated from him the minute she spoke.
“Remember the night of the party?”
“Hmm, vaguely. Something comes to mind,” he had said, pressing his shaft against her butt as she was spooned in front of him, one of his big arms loosely wrapped around her waist.
She had smacked the hand at her waist. “I’m being serious, pervert!” she had said with mock anger. Even when she was trying to be serious, he tried to bring levity to the moment.
“Hey, I resemble that remark,” he had replied and she groaned before joining in his laughter.
She grew serious and plunged ahead. The question had been nagging at her all day as she recalled the evening that began their...affair.
“What’s my middle name?” she had asked lightly and held her breath, waiting.
“Francine...why?” he had countered smoothly.
She paused, bit the corner of her mouth and jumped in. “How do you know that? Have you been spying on me?” she had asked.
There was only the briefest of pauses before he responded. “Why would I do that? Are you hiding something?” And for a moment Nikki had wished with all her might that she had the nerve to turn around and face him, to see his expression as he deflected her question with a question.
She felt her gut turn. “No, just wondering how you knew my middle name,” she had asked, and waited.
“It’s in your personal file, baby. How else would I know?” The answer had made her gut sink just the smallest bit. “Although I’m the temporary manager, I had to know about all key and essential personnel, so I read a few files. Yours was one,” he had replied, his voice casual.
“Key and essential personnel? Me?” she had giggled, keeping it light.
“You’re key and essential to me,” he’d said and with that quip, he’d flipped her on her back and explained—or showed her—how key and essential she was to him.
She blushed at that memory of their lovemaking, but then grew reflective as more details unfolded from that night.
There was no way he’d gotten her middle name from the file, because she hadn’t put it on her employment record. Not her full middle name. Most thought she was simply Nikki F. Danes. She only included her middle name on one social media site, but that was not a public profile.
But he’d called her Nikki Francine Dane.
She had forced herself to rise, and looked around the simple but beautiful furnished room. She’d been awestruck when he’d brought her into his home, the upper-end condo one of only a few in the affluent neighborhood.
She hadn’t wanted to appear like a country bumpkin, but she was impressed and more than a little curious about how he could afford it.
“Which begs the question, who are you, really, Max Stele?” she said out loud. Not expecting an answer.
“I’m Maxwell Steele-Hardaway, Nikki...and I need to talk to you.”
Nikki spun around and gaped, staring across at Max, her face losing color as the significance of his name, apparently his true name, sank in.
Her face scanned his, noting the grim lines bracketing his sensual mouth...her eyes going to a file in his hand. One he held out to her.
“People don’t really use folders anymore. Everything is learned and created on disk. But I thought it would be easier for you to read this here and not on a computer. It seems so cold to read things from a computer. At least to me,” he said, his deep voice, which normally turned her on, this time confusing her.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, frowning, pulling the ends of his robe closer around her body.
She felt dread coursing through her body as he walked toward her. He held out his hand, motioning for her to take the folder.
He wanted her to read it.
She looked from the folder in his outstretched hand back to his face, which was devoid of any real telling expression.
She knew the answers to some of the questions she’d been having about him were inside.
As much as she wanted to know, as much as she’d known he was hiding something from her, suddenly she found that she didn’t want to know.
When she finally nodded her head, ready to accept it, whatever it was, he covered her hand with his.
She glanced up at him and he laughed, a slightly nervous-sounding laugh, and one that was completely unlike what she’d expect. Nervous and Max went together like oil and water. He was the most confident man she’d ever met. Her brows drew together.
“It’s not earth-shattering, baby. What’s inside,” he said when her frown deepened. “It’s just that...I want more with you.” His words made her heart pause, hiccup a little and resume its normal beat.
“I want more than I ever thought I would. I didn’t think I would feel the way I do, never thought I would...fall in love. But I have.”
“Baby...” Her eyes flew to his, her gaze searching his out. She felt the sting of tears in her eyes. He loved her.
And she was crazy in love with him, and now...
“But before we went any further, before this amazing, beautiful thing we have could grow, I knew I had to come clean. So...” He paused and looked deeply into her eyes. In his she saw, clearly, his struggle. She drew in a breath.
“I need you to know this is only one part of me,” he said, his eyes indicating the file. “And what I did was only because I wanted to get to know you. Even from the first moment I saw you on that elevator, I wanted to know you.”
With that he handed her the file and turned, leaving the room and closing the door behind him.
All kinds of emotions were swirling around in Nikki’s head, from high elation—the minute he’d said that he loved her, she had wanted to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him until neither one of them could breathe—to fear and dread. As he’d said he loved her, his face had been so solemn, not happy at all, and she’d wanted to slap him and cry knowing that she wasn’t going to like whatever he had to tell her.
She took the file and sat down on the bed, her eyes widening as she began to flip through the documents, her brow furrowing and her stomach hollowing out as she realized it appeared to be Max’s résumé...and hers as well. But it wasn’t the normal résumé she’d given to the company.
There were pictures of her, from the time she was young to her most recent time as an employee of MagHard. The information went way beyond what she’d given to the company upon her employment.
He had her life in front of him. Everything she loved, liked to do, family life...hell, even her favorite nail polish was listed in the extensive folder.
He hadn’t had to find out who she was. He had already known.
Which made her feel as though he was nothing more than a con. Blueprint to my heart, my ass, she thought, tears streaming down her face.
Max Stele...aka Maxwell Steele-Hardaway had had the blueprint for her heart at his fingertips all along.
Chapter 11
“Just take me home.” Her demand was curt and to the point.
“Nikki, baby,” Max began, reaching out to touch her. He had to touch his baby, had to bring her to his body and make her forgive him...make her understand.
“I was falling in love with you, goddamn it, and it was all just some kinda—” Nikki paused in her quiet anger, her voice little above a whisper, her face scrunched in anger and tears running down her face. “Some kinda game.” She said the final word as though it were a curse word.
“God, no, baby! It wasn’t a game. Look, I know it wasn’t right, I should have told you who I was. I—”
“I don’t give a shit about your name, Maxwell Hardaway...as much as it pisses me off that you didn’t feel as though you could tell me that very important information...I get it. I get who your family is, and how you wanted distance from it.” Her words had filled him with hope until she continued.
“I respect that you made your own way and didn’t use your family name. All of that I get!” she continued, her voice beginning to rise as she faced him.
“What I don’t get is how...why you felt you had the right to dig into my past like that. Why not just ask me. Unlike you, I had—have nothing to hide.” She turned from him and wrapped her arms around her waist, the position defensive, angry...hurt.
He couldn’t let her think that. He reached out and spun her around, forcing her to look at him.
“It wasn’t like that, baby, please. I knew from the moment I first met you, the moment you walked into that elevator that I was sprung like an addict,” he said, laughing harshly. “I didn’t know how...what to do. I had never felt like that, had such a strong reaction like that, so immediately, for a woman. The more I saw glimpses of you around the office, I knew I had to learn more. I wanted some sort of...” He paused, running his hand through his hair, spiking it over his head, thinking of the right word. “Leverage...” he finished, finding the word inadequate the moment he said it.
He had known it was the wrong word when her dark complexion lost all color and appeared ashen.
Her mouth firmed and a small tic formed in the corner of her pretty, full lips.
Priding himself on his strong gut instincts, he shut his mouth, even though he had to fight to do it.
Her chest was still heaving, the tears drying on her pretty chocolate-colored skin. Her pain was his pain. But he knew she wouldn’t want to hear that.
He felt the mist in his eyes turn to real tears, tears he’d never shed in his life for a woman, as he saw the response to the evidence of what he’d done to her, how he’d betrayed her. He knew there was nothing that would convince her that he’d had no intention of using the information for any other purpose but in his stupid, egomaniacal male way of finding out as much about her as he could.
Leverage.
The word hung between them in the silence, heavy and thick.
“I am not an acquisition in some kind of merger, Max. I am a woman. I was your woman.... Now take me home.”
He stared at her, feeling like his heart was being ripped from his chest. Slowly he nodded his head and watched, his body and mind numb, as she slowly turned away and, with her head high, went into the bedroom to dress.
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