Tall, Dark and Charming

by Erika Wilde

  She shivered and involuntarily clenched her legs together at the memories of that wicked mouth of his doing equally dirty things to her. He’d effortlessly stripped away every inhibition she’d ever had and screwed her in ways that should have shocked her—or at the very least caused a flicker of embarrassment for how indecent some of his demands had been and how eagerly she’d obeyed—but had thrilled her instead. The pleasure he’d given her had been incomparable, and probably always would be.

  She had absolutely no regrets about her night with Aiden—not the copious amounts of hot sex and not the personal stories they’d shared about her ex and his father and family. Not many people understood the devastation that came with that kind of deception from someone you loved—Daisy’s mother certainly hadn’t sympathized with her situation, and she had no other family or siblings who could have rallied around her with at least some kind of emotional support.

  So, while last night had initially been all about pleasure, it had ended up encompassing so much more than a superficial hookup. The hard part was reverting back to friends and pretending as though Aiden Stone hadn’t completely shaken up her feelings for him . . . which had gone from friendship and attraction to something more emotional and intimate. There was no denying that when she’d looked into his intense dark eyes as he’d straddled her waist and thrust into her hand there had been a shift between them, a connection she knew they’d both felt, but neither of them were prepared to examine any deeper than just knowing it existed.

  They’d both been hurt to the point that exposing themselves to that kind pain again, on any level, was too great a risk, one that she wasn’t inclined to take again anytime soon. And there was also the added obstacle of the two of them being employed with the same firm—and the potential fallout if things didn’t work out or something happened to cause tension between them. No, being friends was the safest route to take for a dozen different reasons.

  Right now, building her career was her relationship and focus, and she didn’t want or need any other distractions in her life to derail how hard she’d worked to get to where she was today. Her career was the one thing she knew she could control in her life and the one thing that gave her drive and purpose. The last thing she’d ever do was jeopardize the promotion she’d spent the past three years working toward, or the Darlington account, which was her first big client since stepping into the role of Manager of Design and Development. She had something to prove, to herself, that she could succeed on her own, to Sabrina, for believing she could handle the position, and to her mother, who’d finally expressed a glimmer of being proud of her daughter after the disappointment she’d been with Troy.

  So, while she was grateful for her night with Aiden, going forward and for the foreseeable future, she needed to put away the sexed-up woman in the mirror. With that in mind, since they’d be heading to the office for a few hours after they landed in San Diego, for the flight home, she changed into a pair of black slacks, a loose, buttoned-up top with a Peter Pan collar, and a cropped jacket. It wasn’t the same as wearing one of her conservative business suits, but it was close enough. The outfit was plain and simple yet reserved enough to put everything back into perspective.

  She brushed out her hair, trying not to think of all the provocative ways Aiden’s fingers had tangled, grabbed, and pulled the strands as he’d driven her mindless with pleasure, and deliberately smoothed it away from her face and twisted it into a tidy knot at the back of her head. As she finished, her phone pinged with a text, which was from Aiden.

  I requested a ride to the airport from Uber and they should be here in ten minutes. Ready to head down to the lobby?

  She typed back a response. Yes. I’ll meet you at the elevators.

  After putting the rest of her toiletries away, she gathered up her carry-on luggage, laptop bag, and purse, and a few minutes later, she was heading around the corner where the elevators were located. Aiden was already waiting there, and he turned his head to look at her as she walked toward him.

  Despite her earlier lecture and their agreement to keep things amicable, Daisy’s stomach did a stupid somersault at seeing him, even though they’d only been apart an hour. He was so gorgeous and sexy and now completely off-limits.

  Her traitorous heart seemed to skip a beat at the way his gaze quickly swept down the length of her, taking in her appearance. His whiskey-colored eyes spoke volumes once they reached hers again, letting her know he noticed that the brazen woman who’d spent the night in his bed had been carefully put away, and they were back to being friends and colleagues.

  Friends and colleagues who now had intimate knowledge of each other’s bodies, what gave them the most pleasure, and the sounds they made as they came.

  He smiled at her, not deep enough to show his dimple, and even she could feel that they were both struggling to put last night behind them. “Sabrina called to get an update on the Darlington account. I told her we’d give her all the details when we got to the office this afternoon.”

  Daisy nodded, grateful that their working relationship was still intact, that there was no tension or strain when it came to business, which was what mattered the most. “That sounds good. I already have some new ideas to pitch to Sabrina, and I’ll come up with a few more design elements on the flight back. Maybe we can brainstorm a bit, too?”

  “Sure. I’d be happy to.”

  She had so much to do in the next three months before the initial campaign kicked off for the account, and she wanted to make sure everything was top notch, which meant late nights and working weekends . . . and no time to think about how her feelings for this man had changed in a single night together.

  Chapter Six

  Aiden glanced at his watch for the tenth time in as many minutes. Daisy was late for their eight a.m. session with his brother Dylan to go over the app he’d been contracted to create for Darlington Jewelers, and if there was one thing he knew about Daisy, she was never late. She was always early or on time, fastidiously so, and considering how important this particular meeting was for the account, it concerned him that she hadn’t arrived yet.

  Daisy’s team was already seated at the large rectangular table, and in front of the conference room, Dylan had finished setting up his laptop and projector to display all the app’s features on the pull-down screen against the wall. This would be the first time Daisy would be meeting his brother in person, since all of the initial design and building of the app had been by phone or email since hiring Stone Media, who’d come in with the best price for what their client wanted for their target audience for the project.

  Dylan’s business had grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years, which had started as a hobby designing gaming apps in college to earn extra money. Eventually he’d branched out into creating lifestyle and social media apps and, most recently, taking on contracts for bigger companies. He’d always been a computer and software nerd, and Aiden was glad that he was doing something he loved since his brother had completely withdrawn after all the shit had gone down with their father. He was doing so well that the Roth Owens Agency was contracting with Stone Media on a more regular basis because he was cost-effective, easy to work with, and dependable.

  Before Aiden could look at the time again, his brother came up to where he was standing away from the rest of the people at the conference table. Despite being here for a presentation, Dylan was dressed casually in a pair of khaki pants and a short-sleeve collared shirt. His brother didn’t do suit and tie, and Aiden supposed it was an improvement from his more casual attire of jeans or shorts.

  “So, since we have some time to kill while we’re waiting for Daisy, I wanted to ask you why you haven’t been using the Little Black Book app lately.”

  Aiden blinked at his brother in confusion. “What?”

  “Your app . . . it’s been inactive for close to three months now. You turned off your notifications and haven’t marked any recent hookups.”

  His frown was immediate. “How t
he hell would you know that?”

  Dylan shrugged nonchalantly, always calm and laid-back. “I’d made some recent changes to the app that were significant, and I was checking for any glitches behind the scenes, so to speak. I wanted to make sure everything was running smoothly before we started selling advertising spots, and it was easier to watch your data and algorithms to spot any potential issues outside of what I could see in code.”

  “So, you were spying on me?” Aiden asked incredulously.

  His brother had the audacity to roll his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic. Spying is a bit extreme. I was observing your stats and checking to make sure there weren’t any bugs in the new programming.”

  “That’s totally fucked up, Dylan,” he said in a low, irritated voice.

  Dylan laughed, completely unfazed by Aiden’s growing annoyance. “Well, if I told you that I was doing it, you probably would have skewed the results because you would have been aware that I was studying your activity, and I wouldn’t have gotten a true account of how the app and coding were working.”

  Normally, he wouldn’t give a shit if his brother was tracking his hookup stats, but he’d deliberately turned off the app the day he and Daisy had arrived home from San Francisco, and he hadn’t been with a woman since. It was insane that he’d cut sex out for the past three months, even to him, considering he knew that he and Daisy would never sleep together again.

  But for some reason he couldn’t fully explain, he wasn’t ready to tarnish what he’d shared with Daisy by moving on and fucking another woman who meant nothing to him, because being with anyone else right now would be shallow and superficial in comparison. Hooking up with a random woman didn’t appeal to him in the slightest, not when he still couldn’t shake the memories of how Daisy had tasted against his tongue, the perfect way she’d felt moving beneath him, and how easy it had been to just be with her.

  Currently, his hand was seeing a lot of action, but no matter how he got himself off, those sessions were always accompanied by thoughts and fantasies of Daisy. Never had any woman consumed his thoughts like she did, but true to their mutual agreement, they’d maintained a professional, respectful relationship at work. With him overseeing certain aspects of the Darlington account, they talked often and managed to keep their conversations focused on business, but every once in a while, one of them would unintentionally let down their guard just enough that they both felt the attraction and desire still present between them.

  “So, what’s up?” Dylan persisted, his voice snapping Aiden out of his thoughts of Daisy. “Either you’re way off your game or you’ve met someone who’s caused your dick to be more discriminant. Hard to imagine, but I suppose anything is possible.”

  “Neither,” Aiden replied, feeling his jaw clench with aggravation over the fact that his brother was deliberately needling him. “And news flash, asshole, I don’t need your fucking app to get laid.”

  The corner of Dylan’s mouth quirked with an amused grin. “Geez, you don’t have to get so defensive. Unless you have something to hide.”

  “I don’t have anything to fucking hide,” he said on a near growl. “So knock it off, before I drop you to the floor and you and I end up in a wrestling match in front of my co-workers.” Yeah, even at their ages, they still resolved disputes and issues with a good ol’ brotherly brawl.

  God, where the hell was Daisy already? It was almost twenty after eight now, and he withdrew his phone from his pocket to see if she’d responded to his Where are you? text he’d sent a while ago. No reply, which increased his concern, and he pulled up her cell number to give her a call just as she burst through the conference room door, drawing everyone’s attention to her.

  “I’m so sorry to keep everyone waiting,” she said on a rush of breath, clearly flustered at being so late. “Rough morning and I overslept.”

  What the hell? That was certainly a first for Daisy in his three years of working with her. He watched her put her things down on the table in front of the first vacant chair, then start toward him and Dylan to meet his brother. She looked perfectly put together in one of her modest, buttoned-up suits with her hair pulled back in one of her normal knots, but her face revealed something else entirely. Her complexion was pale, and her lackluster eyes reflected an exhaustion he’d noticed a few weeks ago that had progressively gotten worse. Clearly, that fatigue was catching up to her.

  He was well aware that she’d been staying late at the office working on the Darlington campaign and taking work home on the weekends. He understood that this was her first campaign since her promotion and she wanted to make a good impression all the way around, but he didn’t want it to be at the detriment of her mental and physical health. Except the times when he’d asked her if she was okay, she’d brush off his concern and always assured him that she was just fine.

  “I really do apologize,” she said as she reached the two of them and managed a smile for Aiden’s brother as she shook his hand. “You must be Dylan. You look just like Aiden.”

  Dylan held her hand a little longer than necessary, studying her with way too much interest for Aiden’s liking. “I am, and you must be the lovely Daisy Parker.”

  The first bit of color swept across her cheeks at his flirtatious compliment before she glanced at Aiden. “Are all the men in your family this ridiculously good-looking and charming?” she asked in a light, teasing tone.

  “No, just me,” Dylan replied before Aiden could, and gave her a dazzling grin that revealed the crease in his cheek that matched Aiden’s.

  Put the fucking dimple away, Aiden was tempted to roar since he knew exactly how Daisy had reacted to his, but he somehow managed to bite back the stupid thought before he made an idiot of himself.

  “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person,” Daisy said, her tone and demeanor back to being professional. “I’ve kept everyone waiting long enough by arriving late, so I’m going to take a seat so you can get started on your presentation.”

  She walked away, and Jesus Christ, Aiden nearly blew a gasket when Dylan’s gaze dropped to the outline of her ass in the black skirt she was wearing before he glanced back at Aiden with curiosity and intrigue.

  “I like her. She’s smart and pretty,” he said in a low voice that kept his comment between the two of them. “Is she single?”

  “No,” Aiden said, all but barking out the single word, and it was Dylan’s startled look that forced him to temper his tone. “I mean, yes . . . she’s single, but she doesn’t date.”

  Dylan smirked at him, undeterred. “That’s because I haven’t asked her out yet.”

  With that smartass parting remark, his brother walked away and went to his computer to start the presentation. With Aiden’s stomach twisting in knots, he took his seat across from Daisy, who had a notebook open and the printout of the features of the app that Dylan was going to demonstrate to them today.

  With his brother’s words rattling around in his head, Aiden surreptitiously glanced at the woman his brother intended to ask out at some point. Months ago he would have said that Daisy wasn’t really the kind of woman he pursued, and truthfully, she was probably more Dylan’s type. But that was before their night together in San Francisco, when she’d literally ruined him for any other woman. And what was he going to tell his brother, anyway? I fucked her first, so she’s mine? Yeah, that would be real mature.

  Images flashed on the screen against the wall, and the PowerPoint slide show began. Dylan effortlessly slipped into a more professional mode as he described the app’s various features and how each one of them worked—for both the customer and for the client in terms of gathering data and analytics.

  Even though Daisy still appeared tired and a little off, she kept her focus on Dylan and his presentation. She made a ton of notes and asked questions along with the rest of her team, and his brother easily addressed any concerns and discussed suggested changes to the app. Aiden listened to all the comments and made a few of his own, and every time Daisy talke
d, it gave him a valid excuse to look at her, but all he could see was the exhaustion that lined her face, the dark smudges beneath her normally bright eyes, and the way she rubbed at her forehead wearily when she thought everyone’s attention was on Dylan.

  Aiden didn’t like what he saw and was legitimately worried that Daisy was burning the candle at both ends, that the stress of overloading herself was finally catching up to her. But when he asked and she insisted she was fine, it was difficult for him to argue. He was concerned—as a friend, of course—and wasn’t sure what to do at this point about the changes in Daisy, if anything at all.

  Two hours later, the presentation ended and most of Daisy’s team gathered up their notes along with the handouts Dylan had passed around that provided more in-depth information on the app. The group filed out of the conference room, but Aiden remained behind with Daisy and Dylan. And when she approached his brother, Aiden casually walked up to him, too, not wanting to give him an easy opportunity to ask Daisy out on a date.

  “Thank you for such a thorough demonstration on the app, Dylan,” Daisy said graciously. “I’m really excited about what you’ve done. A few more tweaks and I think we’ll be able to show it to the client and get their take on the final product.”

  Dylan powered down his laptop and closed the computer. “I’m glad you’re happy with the app. I definitely aim to please,” he said with a playful grin. “So, I was wondering if you might be free—”

  “To review the changes to the app next week?” Aiden said, cutting off his brother and redirecting Dylan’s question while ignoring the what the fuck are you doing frown Dylan shot his way.

  Daisy looked momentarily confused that Aiden had finished Dylan’s sentence, but eventually answered. “Sure. Whatever day is good for you, Dylan, just let me know.” The smile she gave both of them was strained. “If you two will excuse me, I need to take care of a few things I didn’t get a chance to get done this morning since I was late getting into the office.”