“I’ll make grilled cheese sandwiches, we can watch a movie and you can continue your lessons,” she whispered. She smiled up at him and, astonishingly, she nipped his ear before pulling away.
Victor couldn’t remember ever wanting a woman as badly as he wanted Lana. And the more he had her, the more he wanted her. It was becoming an obsession he couldn’t do without.
And when she looked up at him with those soft, blue eyes, with suggestions of a cozy night, just the two of them and lots of potential, he could barely keep his hands off of her. “I think I can accommodate you easily,” he said.
He took her back to his place and handed her a large shirt for her to wear. “You should leave some clothes here,” he suggested and couldn’t believe he’d just said that. He’d never lived with a woman. He’d never even allowed one to sleep here with him before because he preferred to sleep alone. But the idea of Lana leaving him after making love sincerely bothered him. He wouldn’t even wake her up in the morning except to make love to her again, wanting her to be in his bed when he left for work in the morning.
As he opened a bottle of red wine, he watched her cook and realized that he was even leaving work earlier each night in order to spend time with her in the evenings, asking Jimmy to pick her up and having her here so he could enter this place and see her smiling greeting. He liked coming home to her and that astonished him.
He hadn’t thought about it, but she’d been here every night to meet him, or he’d picked her up at her place for the past six weeks. And throughout it all, he’d never been so satisfied, although that was a difficult adjective to apply to himself right now. As he watched her turn over the sandwiches, the large shirt he’d given her skimmed over her cute little bottom. He knew she wasn’t wearing any underwear, since he’d torn it off of her at the office. He moved to the side, pouring the wine into two glasses while his eyes watched her incredible legs. Sure enough, he was privileged to see a small glimpse of her smooth, sexy bottom as she twisted, putting the sandwiches onto plates and turning back to turn off the stove.
She smiled over at him and his erection increased. Her smile was so beautiful and alluring.
They spent the evening watching movies, sipping wine and making love on his sofa. When the movie finally was over, he lifted her into his arms and carried her back to his bed where he tucked her in beside him.
As he watched her lashes flutter down against her smooth cheeks, he wondered what it would be like to see her every day, to know she was here, working on her books in his office or out on the terrace. He couldn’t believe how much he liked the idea, how much he wanted her to agree to his plans. He thought about waking her up and suggesting it, but she was sleeping so peacefully and at that moment, she curled up against him, her arm sweeping across his stomach and her breath coming out in a contented sigh.
Instead of waking her, he pulled her closer and leaned back against the pillows. He wasn’t tired, only needing four or five hours of sleep himself. Instead, he started making plans in his mind, forming arguments and setting up storage places for her furniture. Actually, it might be better for her to sell it, he thought. It would give her extra cash and she wouldn’t have the monthly expense of paying for storage. All around, it was a win-win situation, he knew.
Chapter 7
Lana was hurrying. Victor was waiting downstairs. He was talking on his cell phone to someone discussing numbers but she knew he’d be finished soon. He was taking her somewhere for dinner but he wouldn’t say where.
As soon as she opened the door to her apartment, she sensed something was wrong. She stood in the doorway, looking around. Nothing was out of place that she could see but everything looked a little more messed than she’d thought she’d left things. Her hand rested on the doorknob, the small hairs rising on her neck. When she saw the discarded bottle top laying on the counter, she shivered. She never drank beer. How had a beer top gotten onto her counter?
Lana was grateful for her instincts and slowly started backing out of the apartment, trying to be as quiet as possible so as not to alert anyone if they were still in the apartment. She just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.
A movement in her bedroom startled her and she froze. Her mind told her frantically to get out, to run and slam the door in the process. But her feet would not obey the command. Fear had taken over and she was paralyzed. Her eyes widened as the shadow moved and Lana almost screamed. But even her vocal cords were not obeying her command, so desperate was her fear.
And then he appeared, beer in hand, hair disheveled and she had to gasp in surprise. “Drew!” she almost shouted, the intensity of her relief making her hot and cold at the same time. She put a hand to her forehead as the terror finally drained out of her, leaving her body weak. Sagging against the door, she dropped her hand and glared at him. “What are you doing in my apartment?” she asked angrily.
Drew’s smirk only hinted at bad things to come as he walked toward her. “Ah, my little Lana. What do you think I’m doing here?” His shrill laughter only heightened her sense of alarm.
“I’m sure I couldn’t guess but you need to leave. Immediately.”
He chuckled in response. “Why should I? My name’s still on the lease. Legally, I’m just as entitled to be here as you are.” He moved closer to her, his eyes dropping from her shining brown hair down to her Prada high heeled shoes, lingering as they passed over her breasts pushing against the soft, cashmere coat Victor had insisted on buying her. She hated the way his look made her feel and cringed inwardly all the while trying to appear calm and in control outwardly. She didn’t want to give Drew any more power. He’d had enough during their marriage and she wouldn’t do that again.
“I changed the lease after you left,” she quickly explained. “It's all legal and you have no right to be here.”
His eyebrows shot up at that explanation. “Well, wasn’t that smart of you? I wouldn’t have anticipated anything that intelligent coming from you.”
“More flattery, Drew?” Her insides were twisting painfully and she was embarrassed that she had married this shell of a man. He was so pathetic and all she could think about was getting back downstairs to Victor. She would have to hurry, she knew because Victor wouldn’t wait downstairs for long.
“Drew, you have to leave,” she said firmly.
“Why? Your boyfriend going to come up and kick me out?”
Lana wished that were the case but, despite Victor’s amazing amount of muscles, she couldn’t imagine him resorting to violence. He was much too urbane.
“Let’s just say there’s no point to your presence in this apartment and leave it at that?”
Drew laughed harshly. “What you’re saying is that you don’t have a boyfriend, do you?” He turned and walked over to her desk. His hand picked up a stack of papers. He turned to mock her. “Can’t get a man of your own so you’ve resorted to inventing your own? What happened to your receptionist job? Not working out for you?” He dumped the papers back onto her desk and Lana wanted to rush over and save the stack, half of which fell to the floor in his careless replacement. “You won’t get published,” he sneered. “You don’t have it in you to be in that kind of cutthroat business.”
“What do you want?” Lana demanded, not bothering to contradict his assessment of her character or her writing skills. It made her proud of her accomplishments now that he was saying she’d never make it anywhere.
“Tell me about your receptionist job?” he asked, leaning against her desk as if he had all the time in the world.
Lana took a deep breath, disgusted with him and refusing to be intimidated. “Drew, you ask that question as if there was something wrong with being a receptionist. But I’ll have you know that there are a lot of people out there who enjoy the interaction with new people and are very good at being a receptionist. They enjoy it and take a great deal of pride in their work.”
“How would you know?” He actually rolled his eyes at her defense of a group o
f unknown workers.
She straightened her shoulders. “Because I was one of them. I genuinely enjoyed meeting new people each day as well as the people who worked in the office. Their requests weren’t demeaning. In fact, helping them with small tasks made me feel good and needed. I was useful. I can’t say the same about being married to you. So in fact, you walking out on me for another woman was the best thing you ever did for me. I’m different now and I’d appreciate it if you would leave this apartment immediately before I call the police and have you arrested for trespassing.”
Drew chuckled. “You’re bluffing but you’re pretty good at it.” He walked across the small den toward her. “Now be a good girl and cook me some dinner and we’ll talk about getting back together. Okay?”
Lana couldn’t contain the revulsion from showing on her face at his suggestion. “Get out, Drew!” she stated emphatically and held the door open for him, praying he would leave before Victor came looking for her.
He sneered at her. “Going to play hard to get? I won’t apologize for leaving you. You were a pathetic creature before.”
“I’m the same person I was two years ago.”
His eyes traveled over her figure once again, his head shaking back and forth. “No way, darlin’. I don’t know what it is, but you’re definitely different. And I like it.”
He moved closer to her and Lana realized her mistake in standing firmly by the door. She was now trapped as an arm came out to snatch her around the waist. “How about we adjourn to the bedroom and see how much of a change has occurred. Are you still boring in bed?” he asked a moment before his mouth covered hers.
Initially Lana was too shocked to move but when his lips started to move and she felt his tongue demanding entry to her mouth, the revulsion increased, snapping her out of her frozen state. “Ugh!” she pushed at his shoulders but he wouldn’t let her go, his arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her close. “Get away from me!” she shouted, trying to get out of his grasp but he was still stronger than she was and he only laughed maliciously as she wiggled against him ineffectually. “Drew, let go!”
The panic increased when she felt his body harden against her thigh and she felt the bile rise up in her throat. Praying for strength, she pushed with all her might against his shoulders, her face turned away, her nails clawing at his skin wherever she could get him. “Get away!”
Suddenly, she was free and almost fell to the floor when Drew’s weight was gone. She looked around, confused but saw with delight when Victor tossed Drew out of her apartment against the wall of the hallway. He landed with a thud, then fell to the floor.
“I believe the lady asked you to get off of her,” he said, his fists clenching at his sides.
He swung the door shut and turned quickly, pulling his cell phone out of his coat pocket. “Jimmy, there’s a man on the floor outside Lana’s apartment. Make sure he’s not there when we leave in a few moments.”
He snapped the cell phone shut and looked at Lana. Instantly recognizing her terrified expression, he muttered under his breath, then took her gently into his arms, holding her close but not threatening her with his arms.
“I’m sorry, Lana. I didn’t get her sooner. He never should have touched you.”
Lana held him with her arms, wrapping herself up around his warmth and letting her body absorb his strength. “Thank you for that,” she whispered, ashamed that she was so thrilled that he’d protected her. Wasn’t she supposed to be a strong female and be able to take care of herself? She thought about it for less than a fraction of a second before reliving the thrill of seeing him toss her ex-husband out. It had to rank on up as one of the best moments of her life.
“How did he get in here?” he demanded, still holding her in his arms, his hands feeling her body to make sure she was truly okay. Victor tried to get the image of her horrified expression out of his mind but he kept seeing her features, eyes closed, revulsion on her face and her hands trying desperately to push the guy away from her. He hadn’t protected her and he blamed himself.
“He’s my ex-husband. He had a key.”
He pulled back slightly. “You didn’t have the locks changed when he left?”
Lana looked down at his tie, ashamed that she hadn’t had the forethought to do something like that. “No. At the time, I couldn’t imagine any reason why he would bother. I changed the lease so it was only in my name. But at the time, I couldn’t spare the money to change the locks. And then, when I did have some extra cash, I just didn’t think about it.”
Victor sighed, not passing judgment since he hadn’t been in her shoes. “You can’t stay here,” he said, hearing the dissipating sounds of Jimmy dragging a resisting man down the hallway. He felt her stiffen in his arms and tightened his hold. “You’ll have to stay at my place until we figure out what to do next.” He released her and looked down into her soft, blue eyes. “Go pack your bags. You’re not coming back here, Lana.”
Lana stared up at him, her eyes huge and shocked. “You want me to move in with you?”
“Yes. For as long as you’d like. I’ll help you find a new place to live, but you’re not staying here another day.”
Lana didn’t want to argue with him. She smiled up into his face, her body moving closer to touch his jaw. “You’d do that for me?”
“In a heartbeat,” he said. He didn’t tell her that he’d been considering this for the past several days and just hadn’t figured out how to introduce the subject. He knew she was just out of a bad relationship and didn’t want to push her too quickly, but nor was he going to let her get away from him. He just needed time to convince her that they could make a go of it.
If he had to take it in stages, then so be it. Moving into his place was the next step. After that, he’d figure out how to stop her from moving out. A marriage proposal might be too soon at this stage, especially since he’d just physically thrown out her previous husband, but he’d work around her aversion to marriage eventually.
Victor put a hand to the small of her back. “Go pack all your clothes,” he told her, taking out his cell phone and calling his secretary. “I’ll get movers in here to pack up your furniture and move it into a storage facility until you find a place you want to live.” He didn’t mention he wanted that place to be right with him. Patience, he reminded himself.
Lana happily walked into her bedroom and quickly packed up all the clothes she could fit into her one suitcase. She didn’t have more than one because Drew didn’t like to travel so there hadn’t been a need to have a suitcase. She was so excited about Victor’s offer she didn’t care about the rest of her clothes. She wanted him so badly, on so many levels that it scared her at times. But, she reasoned as she closed her case and zipped it up, she would take whatever he could offer her and work out the details later.
The living arrangement wouldn’t last. She didn’t even try to convince herself of anything different. Victor was a bachelor and this was only a temporary arrangement. She’d have to be careful and quickly find a new apartment so she wouldn’t get in his way too much. The worst way to end a relationship, so she’d read, was to invade a person’s space. Moving in with Victor definitely qualified as a personal invasion.
One week, she told herself. She’d spend most of her time this week finding a new place and she’d impose on him as little as possible.
Pulling her suitcase out of the bedroom, she found Victor pacing through the small confines of her apartment. “Do you need your computer?” he asked, quickly walking over to take her suitcase from her fingers. He lifted it as if it weren’t over forty pounds and Lana was again amazed at his incredible strength. A man who worked in an office shouldn’t be so buff, she thought to herself.
“Ummm…” she stopped fantasizing about his muscles when he raised his eyebrows in question. “Yes. I’ll need my computer,” she answered finally and rushed over to shut it down and pack it in the case with the plug and mouse. She shoved the papers into her bag, resolving to sort them
out later. She wanted to hurry and get out of here, not wanting to be in this place anymore. It was tainted with Drew now and she didn’t like it.
The next fourteen days were a crazy blur. She spent the mornings editing and polishing her manuscript, then the afternoons roaming through the apartments for rent, seeking to find something within her price range that looked decent with enough space. She found three that would work well and called Victor, excited about the possibilities. As soon as she told him about the apartments, he demanded to look at them before she considered signing a lease.
As soon as he walked into the first one, he found several reasons to eliminate it from her list. When he toured the actual apartment, he stood in the middle and shook his head. “No way, Lana. This definitely won’t work.”
The same thing happened at the other two and Lana had to concede that his points about the apartments were valid. So she continued searching. The same thing happened with all the apartments she showed him.
The Tycoon's Seduction Plan Page 11