by Shayla Black
“I wasn’t really lying,” she demurred.
“You were, Tori. Every time you spoke his name or flashed that ring.” His cock hardened as he rubbed against her. “There won’t be any more lying. I’m taking control of the situation. You’re scared, but I want to show you there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“For me, there is, Cal. I don’t want to talk about it. Besides, you’re in the middle of a paternity suit.” She stopped. “You said you haven’t…”
“Not since the day I met you, sweetheart. Not with her. Not with anyone.”
Shock had her gaping, and she searched his face with her wide eyes, clearly seeking the truth. “So it really can’t be yours?”
“No. Clearing everything up will take time, but Thea will go away.” He breathed her in. Now that he was here with Tori, he wanted to take his time, focus on them, revel in the moment. “I promise there won’t be any more like her. I intend to be utterly faithful to you.”
“This is insane.” She shook her head. “I can’t have a relationship with you.”
“Why?”
“It’s unprofessional.”
Some might see it that way, but Callum suspected that wasn’t really her objection. “We have no HR policy against employees dating. Danvers, our CFO, is dating one of the sales managers. Would you call them unprofessional?”
“I-I…” Tori opened her mouth, but no other sound came out.
Cal knew he’d trapped her neatly. If she said yes, she insulted a man she often worked with. If she said no, she opened the door to a romance between them.
“What’s the real objection? Your feelings for my brothers?”
Even in this lighting, he saw her face flush. “I realize that’s not normal here in London. Maybe I’ve spent too much time in Bezakistan. And I know it’s wrong, but…”
Was it? Really? Again, he pushed the thought aside.
He leaned in, breathing over her plump lips. “I’ll make you forget them. I’ll show you I’m the right man for you.”
“I’m not here for romance. I don’t want it.”
The hell she didn’t. Her pounding heart and hitched breaths said otherwise. “Kiss me, Tori. Kiss me once. And if it isn’t as good as I think it’s going to be, if you don’t want more, I’ll walk away.”
It was a lie. There was no chance of that. He wanted her far too badly to ever give her up, but she needed the comfort of that small fib.
“You won’t tell them I lied?” Her voice all but pleaded.
“Not if you kiss me.”
She took a shaky breath. “All right. Just this once.”
His whole body leapt with anticipation. This was the start of his life. One kiss. One woman. Forever.
He waited as she rose on her tiptoes, her hands brushing against his face. She studied him as if memorizing the moment. Fingertips moved along his jawline before her thumb skimmed his bottom lip.
“I think you’re the most beautiful woman in the world, Tori.” He wasn’t going to play around or pretend he wasn’t in love with her. She should know that during every moment of her life, from this day on, he would be thinking about her, wanting her.
“And I think you’re crazy. I’m taking the dress and the jewelry back.” She brushed her lips against his.
He scowled as she pulled back. “No, you’re not and that wasn’t a kiss.”
“Hush, I’m not done.” Again, her mouth briefly met his. “And yes, I am taking them back. That’s not negotiable.”
“You think this is a negotiation?”
“Isn’t everything?”
“No, love. Some things aren’t up for negotiation. Some things require dominance, and it’s time I show you what I mean.” He cupped her nape, fingers clamping around her delicate neck, and lowered his mouth to hers. She’d used the word conquest before. He was going to show her what it really meant.
* * * *
Tori’s heart raced as his head dipped lower and his lips crashed over hers. She felt a rush of arousal burn through her veins. She didn’t need to be more aroused. She hadn’t been thinking clearly from the moment she realized she was alone with Callum and that he wouldn’t play politely anymore.
He knew she’d been lying about her engagement. She looked like a fool, but he wasn’t laughing at her and telling her she’d never needed protection against him. No. He was proving her point by invading her space and making her whole body come to life under his touch.
His mouth covered hers, heat flashing across her skin like a lightning fire.
She’d been kissed before but never like this. Softly at first, but Tori felt his leashed strength. When he kissed, he didn’t just move his lips. His whole body engaged, teasing her to slide against him. With big hands, he drew her deeper into his embrace, caressing her back, down to cup the curves of her hips. Seemingly of their own volition, her arms wound around him, her breasts crushed to his hard chest.
Tori lost herself in his scent and taste, in feeling both desired and adored. She shouldn’t kiss one of her employers, shouldn’t encourage this man. But they were alone; no one would see them. It was only a kiss, and she owed him for his silence. She didn’t have to give him more. She certainly didn’t have to give him her heart. Why couldn’t she just bask in this one moment?
With a sigh, she surrendered to his embrace. The instant she did, everything changed. The predator in him pounced, as though he scented her submission. Too late, Tori realized she and Callum shared far more than a mere kiss and she was in danger.
As he pressed deeper into her mouth and his tongue touched hers, she couldn’t seem to care about the reasons giving into him was a terrible idea. She could only feel.
The kiss turned carnal, their mouths mating. Tori had no real experience with this sort of passion, so she followed his lead, toppling into a dizzying whirl of need. It felt like the times she’d spun around and around as a child until euphoria took over.
She shoved aside the thought that now, like then, she’d eventually fall down.
As Callum tightened his hands on her hips, she met the stroke of his tongue and brushed her body against his, so lean and strong. She caressed the strength of his back, sinking her fingers into the solid bulges of muscles under his wool tuxedo coat. Having that material between them felt wrong. She wanted her hands on his skin, to know how hot it ran when he was aroused and how smooth it would be under her touch.
Over and over he kissed her, their breaths loud in the silence. Then he nipped at her lips and pulled back to stare into her eyes. The jolt of their connection zinged through her like an electrical charge. Tori couldn’t catch her breath.
“Tell me you feel it, too,” he demanded in an impassioned whisper.
“Yes.” The word fell from her lips.
Callum didn’t wait another second before diving deep into their kiss again. His hands roved over her body, tracing the curve of her waist, cupping the swell of her ass. Restlessly, he smoothed his fingers up the line of her spine, over her shoulders—then began again, each time skimming closer to her breasts.
They ached for his attention. She moaned in need.
“I want you, Tori.” The words rumbled across her skin as he left her lips and started kissing her cheek, her ear, down to her neck. “You want me, too.”
She let her head fall back. She would stop him in a moment. Just a little bit longer. She could have a few more minutes before reality intruded. In these stolen moments, she would pretend there weren’t a million reasons they shouldn’t be together and that this closeness could last in the real world. For these few seconds, she could fool herself that Oliver and Rory hovered nearby, aching with need and lust, to put their hands on her, too.
Suddenly, Callum lifted her onto the conference table, settling her on the glossy wooden surface. He shoved her dress up around her hips and stepped between her legs. Then he took her face in his hands and looked at her as if he could barely wait to unleash all his pent-up lust on her. At his sizzling expression, pure heat co
ursed through her, sparking down between her thighs.
She needed to stop this.
But when he kissed her again, instead of pushing him away, she latched onto him, arms around his waist, and tilted her head back to give him unfettered access.
With a growl, he delved into her mouth again, possessing and devouring, while he slipped a hand inside her bodice and cupped her breast, thumbing her sensitive nipple.
Tori’s breath caught, then she groaned.
“You feel so good, love. I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you,” he murmured against her lips. “Let me make you feel good, too.”
“We can’t do this,” she managed to say.
Tori was well aware her actions didn’t match, but she couldn’t stop herself from pulling him closer when she should have pushed him away.
“Not here, anyway.” He pinched her left nipple and gave it a sharp pull.
The sensation startled her, penetrated her. Her breast swelled against his hand as though asking for another tug. That little bite of pain had her panting.
“Just let me touch you now.” He stroked his way from her breast to her thigh, curling her leg over his hip. “Let me show you how good it’s going to be between us. It will be my punishment for tricking you into the dress. You’ll know all night that I’m aching and hard for you. After your pleasure, we’ll return to the ball, and I’ll keep your secret from my brothers. We’ll do nothing else until you’re ready, but let me have this moment with you, Tori.”
She nodded before she could think twice. What would it really hurt? With her heart pounding and her body poised, she felt so close to something she wanted so badly. Yes, she’d experienced orgasm…but not one given by another person. She ached to know that sensation, why Piper glowed when her husbands entered the room. No one ever had to know. She could keep her heart intact. And when she returned to Texas at the end of her contract, she would have a special memory of them together.
Callum moved quickly, pushing her skirt up higher. Then he dropped his hand right over that spot, barely covered by her lacy undies. “You’re so wet.”
She hadn’t realized that. “Sorry.”
He groaned and slipped his fingers under the elastic, directly over her flesh. “Don’t be. That’s all for me. If I had time, I would get on my knees and lick up all that cream. Would you like that? Would you like my tongue in your pussy?”
She didn’t know from experience, but if he did so with the same gusto and finesse with which he kissed, Tori bet having his mouth down there would feel divine. “Yes.”
“Good, because eventually we’ll get to that. We’ll get to all of it.”
She couldn’t breathe. He dragged a single finger up her thigh, over her labia, before finding her clit and rubbing in soft circles. Tingles and heat rushed her. Sure, she’d touched herself, but experiencing a man’s deft fingers made it different. Callum’s hand was huge and deliciously callused. So masculine. She spread her legs, wanting more of him.
“There’s something you haven’t asked about,” he whispered in her ear as his thumb kept up the decadent torture. His fingers played at the entrance to her sex.
Tori could barely maintain her train of thought. “What?”
Was that her voice? She sounded so breathy and come-hither, like a vixen capable of tempting a man to insanity. Tori had never imagined she could sound so seductive. She liked it.
“This is my punishment,” Callum ground out. “I’m going to please you. Then I’m going to walk around with my cock in knots all night. Eventually, there will be punishment for you too, love, for lying to me, for keeping me away from what belongs to me. Don’t you want to know what I’ll do to you?”
“God, Callum, that feels so good.” Why did he keep talking? She writhed closer, moving against his hand, trying to steal more of the shocking pleasure. “Don’t stop.”
His free hand tweaked her nipple hard. “No. You don’t control this. If you move like that again, you’ll get the punishment I’m promising you much sooner.”
She stilled. His voice had gone so hard, so rough. She’d never heard him be anything but gentle with her. “What are you doing?”
He circled her clit again, so achingly soft. He took her right to the edge again. “I’m taking control. You’re excellent at your job and you should know I will attempt to follow all of your advice when it comes to the boardroom, but I’m the Master in the bedroom—or wherever I happen to be fucking you.” He inserted a finger inside her, and he hissed. “You’re going to squeeze my cock so tightly. You’re so hot and wet and ripe. It will be hell to wait to get inside you.”
His words melted her, along with his touch. It took everything she had not to move against him. By forcing her to remain still, he robbed her of all control. He took the power, drew out the sensual torture. Stole her ability to think. Normally, her mind didn’t have an off switch. Now, she could only focus on doing whatever necessary to keep his hands on her.
“Please, Callum.”
His finger worked inside her, marking perfect time against the thumb at her clit. Pressure built between her thighs. So much glorious pressure. She was moving toward something she’d never felt. All those little pleasures she’d managed to give herself were nothing compared to the shimmering explosion she sensed right around the bend. So close. With her body poised and on the edge, she knew she was close.
“Oh, all of this pleases Callum,” he murmured. “But you’re going to give me even more. Once we’re settled in and we’ve negotiated all the terms—yes, we’ll negotiate, despite what I said earlier—you’ll pay for the lie. You owe me for all the long months you kept us apart. I would have seduced you the day we met had it not been for that silly ring on your finger.”
She sat, spread open wide, trying to be so obedient. She clutched his free arm and held on as he eased his thick finger in and out of her. He pressed his hard cock against her thigh. As often as she’d fantasized about being the woman who made him ache, the reality felt surreal. But it was true. Gorgeous Callum Thurston-Hughes had an erection for her. The bad boy of the football world wanted her and he was proving it.
As much as she should, Tori wouldn’t refuse him now. If he stepped between her legs and tried to make love to her, she would likely welcome him. Decorum and professionalism didn’t stand a chance against the blistering want he created inside her. Therein lay the danger of getting too close to any of them. She’d always known it, felt the sizzle from the moment she’d met them all, but now the roar of arousal drowned out the warning bells gonging in her head.
“Your punishment, love? I will spank that gorgeous backside of yours,” he promised. “Very soon. Until it’s pink and perfect and you’re begging me to fuck you.
Tori sucked in a breath. She wasn’t shying away from his soft threat. Instead, she envisioned how he would spank her. Would he lay her across his lap or tell her to bend over in front of him? Would he slowly draw her skirt up or order her to stand naked in front of him?
The concept of Callum smacking her backside with his hand shouldn’t be appealing. She’d always considered herself a strong, independent woman, so taking such a punishment from a man who meant to control her sexually should horrify her. Instead, it just made her flesh slicker and more ready for Callum’s cock.
“Let me see you fly, love. Let me see how beautiful you are when you surrender.” Callum pressed against her thigh, his erection nudging her insistently. “Come for me.”
His thumb pressed down hard and his finger curled inside her channel, finding the exact spot that sent her straight over the edge. The pressure converged. The burst of pleasure dazzled. Euphoria swam through her veins as her body bucked. With his kiss, Callum captured her cry, swallowing down the sound of his name on her lips.
Then bliss took over, and she sagged in his arms, perfectly content with the haze of pleasure she found herself wrapped in.
Suddenly, a stronger beam of light flooded in from the door and she heard a familiar voice spea
k. “So while I’m dealing with one of your ex-lovers, you’re in here with another.”
Oliver.
Tori’s haze lifted and cold reality set in. She gasped and tried to scramble off the table.
He froze and stared. “Tori?”
She closed her eyes, horror spreading through her. What was she doing? No, what had she done?
In no hurry at all, Callum slipped his hand out of her panties and threw his arm around her. “Sorry, Ollie. We tried to keep quiet.”