I began throwing open pantry doors and cabinets before closing them all. I cursed myself underneath my breath as my towel began to slip, and before it could fall to the ground I gripped it tight and went sliding over to the fridge.
“Please, let there be one left…” I begged the universe.
I dug through the cool contents as my skin began to pucker, and my towel was dropping dangerously low on my breasts as the bottom of my ass cheeks slowly began to peek out from underneath the bottom of the towel.
“I found one!” I exclaimed breathlessly before I reached for it and pulled it out of the fridge. I raised it up in victory and quickly turned towards Mr. Blake, and it wasn’t until I registered his facial expression that I realized what had happened.
I was standing in the middle of his kitchen in nothing but a towel.
The look in Mr. Blake’s eye was two ticks short of primal. His eyes were raking all along my body before they stopped to admire the bare smoothness of my legs. I clenched the bottle tightly in my hand while his eyes slowly drew upwards to meet mine; and when I finally found my voice again, I spoke.
“I found one, Mr. Blake,” I breathed.
My body continued to drip on the floor around me, and I watched him closely as he started towards me. His eyes were dark and his jaw was set, and as he cradled Clara’s little body in his arm, his long, strong legs carried him so close I could feel his body heat radiating against my cool skin. It puckered my arms and legs, raising goose bumps and causing my neck to flush. Then I heard his voice finally make sound.
It was low and gravelly, like a dark green Jaguar humming over newly-paved asphalt. I felt his hand slowly reach out towards mine as he wrapped his long, dexterous fingers around my hand.
“It’s ‘Derek’,” he commanded.
My entire body physically shivered in his presence while a shadowed grin broke out around the edges of his cheeks. He broke my gaze to put the bottle in Clara’s mouth, and while she gulped down the last of what we had in her home for her, he turned his icy Arctic eyes back to me as my knees began to shiver.
It was as if his gaze was leaching the very calcium from my bones.
“We should probably go get her some more,” he said lowly.
And all I could do was stare at him and nod.
“Why don’t you go put on some clothes and we can head on to the store?” he smirked.
And there was that same pompous windbag I knew him to be.
But somehow, even though a grin of embarrassment broke out upon my lips, it didn’t bother me.
“Give me a minute to get ready and we can head out, Mr. B-”
“‘Derek’,” he corrected.
“... Derek,” I whispered.
“Take all the time you need,” he smiled.
I shuffled out on one side of him and felt his skin brush up against mine. I swallowed hard at the electricity that went shooting through my body. Once I was a good distance around the corner from the kitchen, I braced myself against the hallway wall. I panted for air, my body swaying from the encounter of a few mere seconds ago, and in my dazed stupor I hadn’t realized that Derek had stepped around the corner and was watching me –
Silently, like a predator stalking its prey.
I straightened myself up and rolled my shoulders back before I found my footing. I dodged the puddles of now-cold water on the floor as I made my way back to the bathroom, and I settled for washing my more private areas at the sink with a soapy washcloth. It wasn’t the best, but it would do under the circumstances. Then I dried myself off, put on the outfit I’d chosen for the day, and piled my hair one more time on top of my head before I found my way back out to the front door.
Derek already had Clara in her car seat, and they were waiting for me at the front door.
“I hope you two didn’t wait too long,” I smiled as I tried to alleviate the tension thickening between my boss and me.
I had to keep remembering that fact.
Derek was my boss and nothing else.
It didn’t matter that my skin was now crawling underneath his gaze.
It didn’t matter that my nipples were puckering at the smile he was now giving me.
It didn’t matter that my eyes were struggling not to linger on his exposed forearms.
All that mattered was that he was my boss, and I was his employee, and the intermediary that gave me this position had only one rule for her entire company:
Never get attached.
“We’d wait as long as necessary,” Derek smiled. I caught his gaze one last time before I slung my coat around my shoulders, and his eyes grazed my body one last time before opening the front door for me.
“Ladies first,” and he waved me through.
11
Paying attention in that damn grocery store was hard enough without a few prying eyes on me as I walked the aisles, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off of Madeline’s swaying hips. My god, that water dripping off her in my kitchen was nothing short of savory; and the only thing that saved her from being thrown onto the kitchen island and peeled back for my own personal glory was the fact that I had been holding my daughter.
It’s why I was determined to hold her throughout the shopping trip.
While Madeline talked to some guy she seemed to know about the formula for Clara, I took my daughter and began walking up and down the aisles. It got me away from Madeline’s body and tore my eyes away from the curve of her ass long enough to figure out what I wanted to do for dinner. I settled on making us all some decent steaks. I didn’t cook very often, but I had a few things I was good at making.
And boy, could I make a damn good steak.
I grabbed a thick cut of meat from the back before I went in search of a couple of sweet potatoes. Just as I carried all of that and some fresh green beans to the front, Madeline came walking around the corner with three massive bags in her hands.
“Got the formula,” she smiled.
“Got dinner,” I smiled back.
“Oh, you didn’t have to do that,” she interjected, “I’ve got chicken thawing in the sink.”
“Then put it back in the freezer,” I said, “because we’re having steak tonight.”
I was relieved when we got home. It is probably frowned upon to have roaming eyes while holding your daughter in a grocery store. I even shocked myself when I found out how important it was to me to keep a specific demeanor in public, even though someone as sexy as Madeline kept moving around me.
We got back up to my penthouse apartment and I gave Clara to Madeline so I could go put everything away. I turned my head and watched Madeline begin to bounce Clara to sleep, and I could hear the yawn my little daughter spewed all the way down the hallway.
I could also see the way Madeline’s breasts bounced with every step she took, and I had to start deep breathing in order to keep my thick length from straining against my jeans.
I started marinating the steaks and preheating the oven to cook the sweet potatoes, and the house was silent for a while. I figured Madeline had gotten Clara to sleep and assumed she had to lay down with her in order to do it. But, when Madeline came around the corner and took in a deep breath through her nose of the swirling smells of the kitchen, my eyes caught the length of her neck.
I would give anything to sink my teeth into that skin of hers.
“It smells good in here,” Madeline breathed.
“It’ll be another forty minutes or so, but it’ll be a good meal,” I murmured.
“Need any help?” she asked.
“All I need is to get those green beans washed, popped, and thrown into a boiling pot of water,” I said before I pointed to the bag of beans in the sink.
“On it,” she smirked.
We danced around each other in the kitchen as if we had been doing it for years. When I bobbed, she weaved, and when she went behind me I instinctively moved closer to the stove. Pan-searing a nice steak before finishing it off in the oven would give a nice taste to both the pota
toes and the meat, but something happened when I bent over and put the meat into the stove.
I caught Madeline staring out of the corner of my eye.
I knew I was irresistible: I went to the gym regularly, I kept up with my cardio, and it didn’t hurt that I had more money than I could ever really spend. Women loved my tailored suits and my broad, strong shoulders. They were good for throwing a woman into bed and pinning her down through her multiple orgasms.
But there was something about Madeline’s attention I needed –
– Something I craved.
I reared up and it caused her to flicker her gaze away, and that telltale flush that began at the base of her neck trickled up through to her cheeks.
“Seven more minutes and dinner is served,” I breathed before I tossed the rag over my shoulder.
“I’ll get us some drinks,” she murmured.
“Wine’s in the slender cabinet over in the corner.”
I heard her rustling around in the cabinet and clinking bottles together; and when a frustrated sigh ripped from her lips, I shook my head and started over to her. She was hunched over comparing a couple of bottles, and I couldn’t help but graze my eyes over her body one last time before I interjected.
“No idea what you’re lookin’ at, do you?” I chuckled.
“Ugh, no,” she groaned.
You’d say ‘yes’ with me.
I swallowed hard before I took the two bottles from her hands, and when my skin grazed against hers I saw her lightly jump. It swelled my chest with pride that I could make her feel that jumpy because it meant she wanted me as much as I wanted her.
I adored women that fought their base urges before I wore them down to their very dripping cores.
“Either one of them will do, honestly. This one’s a bit sweeter, so it might not go as well with the sweet potatoes, but it would go well with a dinner that had a regular potato instead.”
“Do you know a lot about wines?” she asked.
“Just enough to get by,” I smiled.
She was looking up at me with her big, beautiful, eyes, and for a split second, I lost myself in them. She was genuinely curious; I genuinely wanted to tell her things, and that became a bit unnerving.
“Come on. Dinner’s ready,” I bit out before I shoved the other wine bottle back into the cabinet.
I saw the confusion waft over her face. To her, we were probably having a moment. We were probably gazing deeply into each other’s eyes before we’d both proclaim some undying love for one another. She was probably expecting me to pick her up, sweep my hand over the kitchen island, knock everything off, and make slow, sweet love to her.
There would be nothing slow and sweet about the things I would do to her body.
We gathered everything for dinner and sat down at the table. I poured the wine while Madeline cut up her steak, and every time she wrapped those spit-glistened lips around her fork, all I could think about was her lips wrapped around my cock. I thought about how I would pump my hips towards her face while she moaned around my length, and I even thought about what her hair would feel like wrapped in between my fingers as I shot my sweet seed down her throat.
Dear god, why the fuck did she have to come out of that damn bathroom looking like that?
I’m completely taken by this woman in front of me. Ever since she showed up on my doorstep and began demanding things of me, she has been an enigma. I don’t take orders, I gave them, but the way she simply shrugged off my nonchalant attitude and required even more of me was… refreshing. Most women were content in being given glittering presents and being shown good times before stripping all their clothes off and rewarding me with my very expensive prize.
But not Madeline; she wasn’t like the rest.
She didn’t give a damn about what I had or what I could give her.
Hell, she wouldn’t even take the advance she was completely entitled to that night!
I wanted to make a woman like that beg for me. I needed to know that, even as strongly as she stood, she’d beg for what I could give her at a moment’s notice.
“Derek?” she asked lightly.
Her voice ripped me from my thoughts and I realized I was staring.
“Are you okay?” she quipped. Her eyebrows hiked up lightly onto her forehead, as if to challenge me to tell her the truth.
“Just fine,” I smiled coolly.
“Uh huh…” she trailed off before she took another bite.
God, my dick was throbbing for her.
We finished our meal in silence before Madeline insisted on clearing the table. I sat there with a full stomach and watched her walk back and forth between the table and the kitchen. The way her hips swished made me wonder what she could do if I sat her onto my lap, and every time she bent over to grab more things from the table I couldn’t help but graze my eyes along the top of her shirt. Just enough cleavage poked out to tempt me, but not enough of it shone to give me any idea of what she looked like underneath those clothes.
“Have a drink with me,” I said lowly.
“I need to get back to Clara before she wakes up. I’m surprised she’s stayed asleep this long with me,” Madeline breathed.
“Just one drink,” I urged before I stood up from my seat.
“I really would love to, but if Clara wakes up it is really going to put a damper on the situation,” she smiled.
“What situation?” I asked.
I watched as her gaze slowly panned up to mine, and I watched while her eyes danced along my face. She was thinking something, I knew she was, and it killed me that I didn’t know what. I wanted to know everything about her: where she came from; who her parents were; what they thought of her being a live-in nanny to the most prestigious billionaire in New York City.
I wanted to know the woman that would beg for me – in time.
“I really should get to her…” Clara thumbed over towards the door.
“How about this,” I began. I reached out and took her hand within mine, and the electricity that surged between our fingers caused me to drop her hand as quickly as I had taken it.
The fuck was that?
“Go check on her, if it’ll make you feel better, and if you lean in to kiss her and she doesn’t stir, come have one more glass of wine. The shape of that bottle is useless when it comes to re-corking the wine, so I’ll just pour it down the sink anyway.”
“Is that really a thing?” she smirked coyly.
“It all depends. Is it working?” I smiled.
She turned my question around in her head for quite some time before a small smile broke out across her cheeks.
“Yes.”
“I’ll pour you a glass of wine and you can come find me on the couch,” I said.
“What if Clara wakes up?” Madeline asked.
But all I did was grab her glass along with the bottle of wine and head towards the main living area. I heard her pad behind me and dart off into Clara’s room, and I could feel my body mindlessly tensing as I listened for any shrieking sounds. I begged spiritual deities I didn’t even believe in for Clara to stay asleep, and when I saw Madeline slowly back out of the room, I put on my best “told ya so” smile before she shut the door and turned around.
“Wipe that smirk off your face,” she muttered as she rolled her eyes.
“Never,” I said lowly.
She walked towards me as I held out her glass for her, and when her fingers brushed up against mine that same jolt of energy cascaded up my arm. This woman was ruining me. I had no idea why or how, and I would ask every question in the book she would let me ask just so I could find out–
– Just so I could figure out why the hell I couldn’t get her off my mind.
12
I don’t know if he felt it, but I did: the jolt of fire whenever our skin happened to brush against each other. My employer’s words kept echoing in the back of my mind, but all I could do was hold my breath while we sat on the couch. I sipped my wine delicately while he
talked about his business and the building of his career, and I found twinkling stars bursting in his eyes every time he smiled.
“What about your family?” I asked.
I saw his shoulders tense at the question before he brought his drink back up to his lips.
“What about yours?” he shot back.
“I asked you first,” I smirked.
“Ladies first,” he winked.
“If you don’t want to talk about it, just tell me.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
My eyes hooked onto his face as I watched his jaw clench. His entire body seemed to wrench away from mentioning anything about his family, and all it did was pique my curiosity. But I knew better than to press because I wasn’t about to become personal about myself just to know a little more about this spoiled-rotten playboy sitting in front of me.
Except… the spoiled rotten playboy that greeted me at the door that morning was not the current man sitting in front of me.
“When is your birthday, Madeline?” he asked lowly. His eyes were trained towards the window, no doubt taking in the view of the city skyline against the black backdrop of the dancing stars in distant solar systems.
“December second. Why?” I asked.
My view was already in front of me, and I kept my eyes hooked onto the profile of his face while the cogs behind his eyes slowly began to turn.
“Just… trying to learn more about you,” he murmured.
“What brought you to New York in the first place?” he asked. He turned his head towards me, and this time it was my turn to lock up. I felt my shoulders roll back as the wine in my throat suddenly caught, and it caused me to cough it back up into the delicate wine glass I was holding before I could even catch what I was doing.
I felt a large, strong hand descend between my shoulder blades before someone took the glass from my trembling hand. The hand rubbed my back soothingly before a handkerchief came out of nowhere and covered my mouth, and before I could cough up the rest of the wine, I felt another hand smoothing the hair back from my reddening face.
Filthy Desires: A Romantic Suspense Collection Page 25