by Cat Schield
“I don’t know.” London’s gaze hardened. “And isn’t that the whole point? That we cut off all contact? With each of us handling the other’s problems, no one was supposed to be able to trace anything back to us. A onetime meeting at a random event between strangers. Wasn’t that the plan? Yet here you are following me from my company. Giving me some sort of technology that I’m supposed to use. What if I get caught and it gets traced back to you?”
“Don’t get caught.”
London made a disgusted noise. “Can this be traced back to you?”
“No. The person I got it from is very careful.”
“Couldn’t that person get into Tristan’s files? Isn’t that what they do?”
“If I wanted to hire the hacker, you’d be unnecessary. And it would be pointless for me to ruin Linc’s life on your behalf.” Everly neglected to mention the hacker had already tried and failed to access Tristan’s laptop remotely as she shoved the USB drive at London. “Just do your part and it will all work out.”
Before London could reply, Everly turned on her heel and walked away.
Leave it to a spoiled princess like London McCaffrey to ruin everything. Of course, she wasn’t the only problem. Zoe’s progress in taking down Ryan Dailey had stalled, as well. At least Tristan’s ex-wife wasn’t likely to fall for her target. Crosby had done a number on Zoe during their marriage and subsequent divorce. Chances were Zoe would never trust any man ever again. That worked for Everly. These three men were the worst of the worst and each one of them deserved every terrible thing that would happen to them.
Eight
London spent the days leading up to her dinner with Harrison pondering how she wanted the evening to go. She’d already decided to sleep with him and had prepared her bedroom with freshly washed sheets, flowers and candles for ambience. He probably wouldn’t notice any of those touches, but she was an event planner. Arranging the environment to enrich the experience was second nature.
Plus, she didn’t want him to catch her off guard a second time. What had happened between them at Upstairs had been amazing, but a little more spontaneous than she was used to. Tonight would be different. She knew what to expect. Could Harrison say the same? Would he realize that she was ready to take things to the next level? After getting her off in a public space, shouldn’t he?
By the time he showed up at her door, a bottle of white wine in his hands, she looked poised and pulled together without any sign that she’d spent the weekend cleaning and the last two hours exfoliating head to toe, changing clothes a dozen times, reapplying her makeup twice and generally behaving in a frantic fashion.
“Wow,” Harrison said, his sea-glass eyes taking in her appearance.
London had chosen a silky wrap dress in blush pink that flattered her curves and made her feel both sexy and comfortable at the same time. She’d painted her toenails a matching pink and left her shoes in her closet, showing the different side of her personality that came out in her own space.
“Thanks,” she murmured. “Come on in.”
“Did you know that we’re neighbors?” he asked, sliding his arm around her waist and bringing her body up against his. “I live in the building next door.” He bumped his nose against her neck right below her ear and breathed deeply. “Damn, you smell good.”
“Really?” Her toes curled as she draped her arm over his shoulder and tipped her head to give him more access. “I mean about you living next door.”
“Crazy, right?” With a sigh, he set her free and brought up the bottle between them. “You said we were having seafood.”
“Scallops with risotto.”
“Sounds delicious.” He accompanied her to the kitchen, glancing around him as he went. “This is nice. How long have you lived here?”
Her unit faced east, with large floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the Cooper River. She’d fallen in love with the condo’s hardwood floors and small but high-end kitchen with its white cabinets and marble countertops.
“Three years.” She wondered if he’d think the space too neutral. She’d painted the walls a crisp white and paired it with a pale gray sectional, accessorizing with crystal and silver. “How long have you owned your place?”
“Almost five years.”
“I’m a little surprised you have a place downtown. You strike me as someone who would prefer a big garage and a lot of outdoor space.”
“I’ve thought about selling, but with my schedule it’s easier to live somewhere that I don’t have to take care of anything.” He was standing at the sliding glass door, looking past her wide terrace and the dark river to the brightly lit Ravenel Bridge. Now he swung around and stepped up to the broad kitchen island. “Need any help?”
She pushed the wine and a corkscrew in his direction. He filled two glasses and brought her one by the stove.
“You cook, too,” he said, sounding pleased. “You’re a woman of endless talents.”
“I like trying out new recipes. I used to entertain a lot, but it’s been a while since...” She stopped abruptly, remembering all the dinner parties she and Linc had hosted here.
“You had anyone to cook for?”
She nodded, wishing she hadn’t summoned the specter of her ex-fiancé with her careless words. “Maribelle comes over once a week to update me on her wedding plans, but she’s worrying about fitting into her dress and so I tend to serve her healthy salads with boiled chicken.”
“You can cook for me whenever you want,” Harrison said. “Most days during racing season I’m so busy that I live on protein shakes and takeout. Sometimes the racing wives take pity on me and drop by with a home-cooked meal.”
“You poor baby,” she teased as her phone began to ring.
London noted the caller and winced. She’d been dodging her mother’s calls for a week now. Someone had filled Edie in on the new man in her daughter’s life and the four voice mails she’d left London had been peppered with her disappointment and unwelcome opinions.
“Do you need to get that?” Harrison asked.
“No.”
His eyebrows rose at her hard tone. “Is something wrong?”
“She likes to put her nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“And where’s that?” Harrison leaned his hip against her kitchen island and kept her pinned with his gaze.
“Everything about my life.”
“Has she heard you and I are seeing each other?”
“I really don’t want to spoil our evening with a conversation about my mother.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He sounded unconcerned, but London didn’t want him to get the wrong impression.
“I don’t care what she thinks. It’s none of her business who I see.”
“But I’m not the one she’d choose for you.”
“It doesn’t matter who she’d choose.” A defensive edge shaded her tone. “I’m the one dating you.”
“I’ll bet she was happy you were marrying Linc Thurston.”
For what she had planned later, London needed this dinner to be perfect. That wasn’t going to happen if a conversation about her mother’s elitist attitude ruined the mood.
“If it’s okay with you, I really don’t want to talk about my mother or my failed engagement.”
“I understand.”
Something about his somber response warned her he wasn’t satisfied with how the conversation had ended.
“I think the risotto is done,” she said. “Do you mind bringing the plates over?”
They moved to the dining table and sat down. Candlelight softened Harrison’s strong bone structure and gave his sea-glass eyes a mysterious quality as they talked about his race the day before and she updated him on the jazz group she’d booked for his brother’s birthday party.
While they ate, London devoured him with her eyes. He was a daredevil. And a c
ompetitor. The sort of man who set his eyes on the finish line and went like hell until he got there. Which was why she’d imagined the evening progressing a different way. She’d figured the sexual tension would build during the meal, leading them to fall upon each other before the dessert course.
Instead, Harrison kept the conversation moving from one topic to another. They discussed their parents and favorite vacations growing up. She discovered he hated any drinks with bubbles and she confessed that she was a French fry junkie. It was fun and easy. Yet as they finished the white-chocolate mousse she’d made, and then worked together to fill her dishwasher, London couldn’t stop her rising dismay.
Had she made a mistake when she’d assumed they would end up in bed tonight? Harrison seemed as relaxed as she was jumpy. Each brush of his arm against hers had sent her hormones spiraling higher.
Now, as the dishwasher began to hum, she turned to face him. They stared at each other for a long, silent moment. Hunger and anxiety warred within her as she waited for him to make a move. When the tension reached a bursting point, London lifted her hand to the tie that held her dress closed.
It was time to be bold with him. With a single tug, her dress came undone. Harrison remained silent, watching her as she shrugged the material off her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor.
Standing before him in a silk chemise and matching thong, she gave him a sweet smile. “I thought we might watch a movie,” she said, toying with a strand of her hair. “Unless you have something else you’d rather do.”
He expelled his breath in a half chuckle, one corner of his mouth kicking up. “We are going to be good together,” he declared.
“I know.” She twisted a handful of his warm shirt around her knuckles and tugged. “Kiss me.”
He obliged, but not in the way she’d hoped. She needed him to claim her mouth and stir her soul. Instead he tormented her by drifting gentle, sweet kisses over her cheeks, eyes, nose and forehead.
“The things I want to do to you,” he murmured near her ear.
Relief flooded London even as her breasts ached for his touch. “Like what?”
“Take you into the bedroom.” His hand cruised up her side, thumb gliding beneath her breasts, inciting her to arch into his caress with a wordless plea.
If only he’d sweep that thumb over her nipples. Instead he shifted his palm to her back.
“And then?” she prompted, frustration apparent in her voice.
“Strip off your clothes.”
Oh...hell...yes. Now they were getting somewhere.
“And...then...?”
“Lay you on the bed and spread your gorgeous legs wide open for me.”
“Oh...”
His erotic words made her quake. And she suspected that what this man could do to her with his words wouldn’t begin to compare to what would happen when his hands and lips met her skin.
“How does that sound?” he asked.
She nodded, excitement momentarily taking away her voice. “What else?” she asked in barely a whisper.
But he’d heard her and smiled. “I’d kiss you everywhere until you were writhing in pleasure.”
“Yes, please.”
“I’m going to warn you right now,” Harrison said. “I’m going to talk during sex.”
“What?” Heart thumping madly, London stared at him in helpless delight. “What sort of things are you likely to say?”
“I’ll definitely be discussing how beautiful you are and how much you turn me on.”
“Do you expect me to answer?” At this point in their relationship London wasn’t sure she was ready to crack open her heart and divulge all her thoughts and feelings.
“No expectations. Just relax and listen.”
“Relax?” Was he kidding? Already her muscles were tense and nerves twisted in agonized anticipation of his touch. “I feel as if I’ll shatter the second you touch me.”
“That’s not going to happen,” he assured her, easing his lips onto hers.
The contact made her sigh. With the release of her breath came a shift in her emotions. Anxiety diminished, replaced by eagerness and undulating waves of pleasure. Instinctively she knew Harrison wouldn’t do something that would break her heart. In fact, he might just heal it. If only she could let him.
Except she couldn’t.
A giant lie hung between them, casting a shadow over every beautiful emotion that swelled in her chest. Her subterfuge ate at her more and more each day. She longed to be with Harrison even as she recognized that one day her guilt would destroy everything good between them.
Butterflies whirled in her stomach as he grazed his palm up her arm and brushed the strap of her chemise off her shoulder. She pushed all thoughts of the future away as the silk dipped low on her breast. The slide of the soft material tickled her skin and turned up the volume on her eagerness. A tremor shook her as his mouth skated down her neck and into the hollow of her throat. She wanted him. Wanted this. It was simple and at the same time complicated. But mostly it was inevitable.
His fingertips grazed the lace-edged neckline, sweeping the fabric downward. The material momentarily snagged on her sensitized nipple, drawing a sharp gasp from her lips before it fell away, exposing her warm skin to the cool air.
“Your breasts are perfect,” he murmured, sliding his lips over their upper curves.
His words sent desire lancing straight to her core. She sank her fingers into his thick curly hair, her throat aching as she held back a cry of protest when his lips glided away from her aching breasts and returned to her shoulder.
With her free hand she slipped the other strap off her shoulder and bared both breasts. “I need your mouth on me. Please, Harrison.”
Instead of doing as she’d asked, he leaned back and regarded her expression. Hunger darkened his eyes, strengthening London’s desire and bolstering her confidence.
It wasn’t as if she was an innocent. She’d known passion, had given herself over to lust and fast, desperate sex.
But what she felt for Harrison wasn’t just physical. She genuinely liked him. Appreciated his wry sense of humor, his ability to read her moods and even his fondness for pushing past her boundaries. Deep in her soul she recognized they’d be good together. Better than good. Fantastic.
She and Linc had been together for three years, and with all the time they’d spent apart, she had rarely pictured them making love and grown so horny that she ached for release. Yet almost from the start Harrison had awakened unstoppable cravings. Cravings that on one occasion, all alone in her bed late at night, had compelled her to take matters into her own hands or go half mad.
“Are you wet for me?” He crooned the words, driving her hunger even higher.
“Yes.” She gasped the word as his fingers moved between her thighs and grazed across the narrow panel of her thong, sending pleasure lancing through her. She rocked her pelvis in search of more.
“So you are,” he purred, stroking her again. “Can you get even wetter?”
“Keep that up—” Her voice broke as he applied light pressure to the knot of nerves between her thighs. A blissful shudder left her panting. “And see.”
He gave a husky little laugh.
“What if I bury my face between your thighs and taste you?”
Her legs had been on the verge of giving out before his offer. Now yearning battered her, making her achy and needy. But mostly it made her impatient.
“Harrison,” she blurted out.
Every part of her was shaking. Her knees were threatening to buckle. But instinctively she knew he’d take care of her. She wouldn’t crumple to the ground. He’d be there to lift her and carry her into pleasure unlike anything she’d ever known.
“Yes, London?”
His clever fingers slipped beneath the elastic of her panties and stroked her so perfectly
she thought she might die from it. She clenched her eyes shut and struggled to draw enough breath into her lungs to tell him what she wanted.
“I don’t want our first time to be here,” she said, though she was on the verge of not caring that she’d spent hours setting the stage for a perfect evening. “Take me,” she gasped with what air his skillful touch hadn’t stolen from her, “to the bedroom.”
* * *
Harrison didn’t care where their first time was as long as she was happy.
Without a word, he bent down and lifted her into his arms. She gave up a joyous laugh as she roped her arms around his neck and dropped soft kisses along his jawline while directing him down a hallway.
Her bedroom was like the rest of the condo. Cool and refined with a few decadent touches like a fuzzy throw rug, a vase of pink roses on the dresser to scent the air and a dozen flickering candles casting wavering light over the gray walls.
She’d planned this, he realized. Invited him for dinner with the purpose of sleeping with him. What a woman.
He set her on her feet inside the door and pulled her into his arms for a long, sexy kiss. Electricity jolted through him as she drove her tongue into his mouth and let him taste her desire. Rich and vibrant, the kiss promised fantasies he hadn’t yet dreamed up.
Tonight was about finding out more about London. And something told him she was going to surprise him.
“I’m obsessed with your mouth,” she said when he broke off the kiss and set his forehead against hers. Trembling fingers skimmed over his lips. “I can’t stop thinking about all the places I want you to kiss me.”
He answered her with a smile, letting his eyes speak for him. Gaze locked on his lips, she sighed.
“I’ve tried to fight this,” she continued. “Tried to remain sensible, but just hearing your voice gets me hot.”
Harrison smoothed his palms along her spine and across her hips. He didn’t want to say or do anything that would stop this confession. She made him feel things he’d never known and it was heaven to hear her echoing his own needs and desires.
“How hot?”
“My skin burns. My nipples ache. I want you to take them in your mouth and suck hard.”