by Cherry Adair
“As long as I don’t have to wear corporate colors.” She glanced around the burgundy, black and silver room.
“I buy your clothes.”
“I’ll buy my own clothes.”
“Consider the wardrobe I furnish a uniform then.”
“I don’t suppose this job has a pension plan—401K maybe? How about medical, dental, profit sharing?”
“You’re damn cool about this,” Joshua snapped, torn between admiration and irritation. When had he lost control of this conversation? Forget all this damn talking. The arrangement was a fait accompli. God, he wanted to go over there, grab her and carry her off to the bedroom like a primitive caveman.
The material of her dress looked butter soft, but not as soft as her pale skin. He could clearly see the sharp points of her nipples through the fabric. He controlled the burning need to leap across the space separating them and feast on her breasts through the fabric. He wanted to rip away her clothes and taste her body. He needed to plunge deep inside her, and feel her hot, wet heat close around him.
He felt as hot and horny as he had at fifteen when he’d seen his first naked woman. He could control himself. God help him, he could. But it had never been this difficult. He was scared to move in case he lost it.
“Yes, I am, aren’t I?” Jessie folded her hands loosely in her lap and looked at him with dark, steady eyes. She tapped her fingers on her purse. Her control sent his blood pressure soaring. He’d been restless and edgy the moment he’d opened the door and seen her there. So much for his being The Glacier. What the hell was it about this woman that brought out this latent, primitive need to ravish her? He had been sexually attracted to women before. It had taken very little willpower to control his urges around them.
“Are we done talking?” he demanded through clenched teeth.
“I guess...”
With a swift move that took her completely by surprise, Joshua rose, stalked the three steps between his seat and hers, grabbed her by her shoulders and dragged her from her seat. He crushed her little yelp of surprise beneath his mouth.
It started as a kiss of mastery and domination. He wanted her to know that he was the one in control. She was his, damn her. But the moment Jessie realized what he was doing, her body relaxed against his. Her arms came up around his neck, one hand threading through his hair.
Her action softened the kiss. God, her mouth felt so damn good. He forgot just what it was he was trying to prove. She tasted sweet, her lips soft, her tongue aggressive. The suede fabric beckoned his hands. She smelled of fresh air and Joy. Enticing, and so female. She felt so incredibly good in his arms. He buried one hand in the silken mass of her hair, alive beneath his questing fingers. His other hand caressed the slender dip of her waist, the slight curve of her hip, the enticing firmness of her behind, pulling her more tightly against his agonizingly aroused body.
Joshua sighed against her mouth as her tongue came out and, as delicate as a cat, traced his lips. His hands tightened against her back. “The deal is made,” he whispered hoarsely against her throat as his fingers found the concealed buttons of her suit jacket and started undoing them with fervent haste.
“There’s one more thing,” he growled against the fragrant curve of her throat. Her hands were driving him wild as she struggled to rip his shirt from his pants. He gently bit and she made a jerky little moaning sound that drove him wild.
“W-what?” Jessie’s voice was a mere thread of sound, then faded completely as her hands encountered the naked skin of his chest. One hand slid up his back, trailing her short nails down the deep groove of his spine. The other hand slipped lower. Down his belly, her nails cool against his hot skin. She managed to unzip his pants. Her pale skin was flushed, her eyes heavy lidded and as dark as chocolate as she held his gaze.
“Don’t ever... My God, Jessie,” he groaned as her fingers cupped his sex. “Don’t ever...ah, woman!...don’t ever look at another man. I’d kill him.”
“Fine,” Jessie replied weakly as she helped him tear the buttons off her jacket.
“Twelve thousand dollars a month.”
Her mouth inched over his face back to his lips. “Ten...thousand. You...said...ten...” She used her tongue to open his lips while her jacket fell unheeded to the carpet behind her.
Joshua cupped her bottom, pulling her hard into the cradle of his thighs and firmly against his erection. Unable to stay away from her succulent mouth, he kissed her again. “Twelve,” he groaned, and she bit lightly at his lower lip.
Her knees buckled as he stripped off her skirt.
“I...don’t...need your...” His fingers slipped beneath her panty hose. “Money.” The nylon slithered down her legs and she swayed against him. “I—” she punctuated each word with a nibbling kiss wherever she could reach “—have...my...w-work.” The words came out against his navel.
Joshua groaned. “Fine.” His fingers tangled in her hair. “Fine,” he said again, distracted as her fingers dragged down his shorts, deliberately skimming his rock-hard erection on the way down. Too gentle. Too fleeting. “Oh, God. That’s just fine.”
They dropped to the floor in a tangled heap of clothes and limbs, him on top of her. Joshua pulled her face up to his for a searing kiss that rocked them both. “You’re going to kill me.”
Jessie kicked herself free of the skirt and panty hose tangled around her ankles and tugged his shirt over his broad shoulders. Now he was gloriously naked, too. “Can’t,” she said fiercely, her hands skimming his wide, hair-roughened chest. “I’m...not...finished...with...you...yet!”
His laugh was muffled by the fascinating silky texture of her right breast, small and perfect. He brushed his lips over one tight nipple, then opened his mouth and closed his teeth around the hard point, and sucked it into the hot, wet cavern of his mouth. Jessie’s back arched off the floor.
She twisted her head to nip his shoulder. He tasted of soap and salt. The scent of him went to her head like fine wine. The carpet scratched her naked back, but she didn’t care. It was far more fascinating to feel Joshua’s chest hairs scraping the sensitive nerves of her breasts and belly.
“Is there...any...thing...ah!...else?” Her lips parted, and she inhaled deeply, her eyes almost closed as she felt the damp heat of his mouth laving her breast. Suck. Lick. Suck... A sharp, sweet sensation shot to her groin. She panted for breath. His fingers felt slightly rough, hot, on her skin as he caressed her other breast with his hand, while devouring her with his mouth, teeth and tongue.
“Not...that...I...can...think of...at...the moment. God, you taste sweet.” He shifted his head to pay tribute to her other breast. His soft, dark hair tickled her skin as he shifted, and Jessie got goose bumps. She slid her fingers through his hair, feeling the heat of his scalp through the cool, silky strands as she held his head to her breast.
Jessie sighed with pleasure as Joshua licked a path between her breasts. Hot and slick, his tongue traced a sensuous path down the center of her body, making her burn and shiver by turns.
He looked up the length of her body. “Touch your breasts, Jessie. Close your eyes. Play with those pretty nipples, and pretend your hands are mine.”
Jessie squeezed her eyes shut and cupped her aching breasts in her palms. Her nipples felt exquisitely hard. She pressed down. God, it felt good. Relieved a little of the urgency. She felt Joshua’s smile against her tummy, and took her nipples between her fingers, squeezing and rolling as Joshua’s hot mouth slid down her body. His hands trailed a burning path down her sides, a beat slower than his lips.
Jessie’s body quaked, and she groaned softly as his mouth brushed the nest of curls at the juncture of her thighs. She felt a brief moment of panic and clutched a handful of his hair. But what he was doing was so incredible that her fingers sifted through the silky strands, anchoring his head in place instead.
His strong hands cupped her hips, and her body trembled as his tongue parted her. She shifted, murmuring with intense arousal as he sucked and licked her clit, his shoulders keeping her legs apart. Her head thrashed on the floor. She needed more. Less. More, damn it. She grabbed handfuls of his hair as he plunged his tongue deep.
The pleasure was sharp and riveting and left her breathless. His fingers would leave bruises on her hips tomorrow, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t quite catch her breath. Couldn’t quite get her mind to work.
A low throbbing began in her belly, then spiraled hot and delicious when he moved his hand around from her bottom to slide to the inside of her thigh. His finger filled her. Her muscles convulsed around it. A second finger joined the first, Jessie moaned low at the sensation of fullness. His damp mouth returned to her clit, and tongue and fingers worked together in a magical, maddening dance that had her breathless and poised on the brink.
His fingers rotated, he sucked harder, and Jessie let out a wild cry as she came in a hard, sharp spasm that lasted an eternity. Her fingers fisted in his hair, and for a moment everything went black.
When she managed to open her eyes, she saw his face above her. She raised a leaden arm and looped it around his neck, drawing him up. His body was heavy, damp with exertion.
The slide of his body against hers made her pulse leap higher and faster. He kissed her, and she tasted herself on his lips. His tongue bladed into her mouth, hot and slick, demanding and insistent. Jessie had never been kissed like this. Never been the focus of anyone’s attention to this degree. It was intoxicating. He was intoxicating. She slid her tongue against his, mimicking his movements.
He braced his elbows on the floor on either side of her, but his lower body, and thick pulsing shaft, lay heavy and welcome between her legs.
Snap out of it! Jessie cautioned herself, horrified at her response to him. She hadn’t wanted to enjoy his lovemaking quite that much. “More,” she demanded, when she was finally capable of speech. She shifted her hips.
“More?”
Terrified by the depth of emotion she’d just experienced, Jessie’s heart started pounding for an entirely different reason as she started to panic. She couldn’t afford to form any sort of emotional attachment to Joshua Falcon.
She couldn’t. Wouldn’t. Must not.
She was here for one thing. And one thing only. Oral sex wasn’t going to cut it.
Please don’t bind me to you. Just have sex with me, and keep it impersonal. Please. Ha, fat chance! As her mother used to say, “Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.” Jessie was getting far more than she’d bargained for when she’d taunted the devil into making love to her.
“Finish it,” Jessie begged. She had to have sex and get out. She wanted to run far, far away.
“Patience.” Joshua smoothed her hair back from her damp brow, his eyes softer than she had ever seen them. “I want to look at you. You’re so beautiful. Beautiful and so damned responsive. The perfect mistress.”
Yes, Jessie thought, an odd twinge pinching her heart. That’s what I am, a mistress. A business arrangement. Give me what I want, and I’ll give you what you want. A fair trade...
Oh, God. Please don’t take more than my body.
Jessie tugged at his shoulders until his heavy, welcoming weight covered hers. She reached down and closed her fingers around the hard length of his penis. It felt thick and long, silky and...alive. “I want you deep inside me,” she begged, not at all sure that her body could accommodate him now that she felt the size of him. Oh, God. What if it didn’t fit?
“It’ll fit just fine. Trust me,” Joshua murmured against her throat, and Jessie realized she must’ve said her thought out loud.
With a hoarse cry, he slid into her slick heat. Jessie gasped as he filled her, stretched her slowly. Oh, so slowly... “Oh, yes...give...me...baby,” she panted hoarsely.
He plunged deep.
Jessie hissed out a surprised breath at the sharp sting, froze, then tried to arch away. For a moment the pain was so intense she gave a keening cry, her nails digging into his bare back. He didn’t stop, and she was fiercely glad. “More. More. More,” she chanted as she adjusted to his width and length. “I want you. I want you. I want you.”
His large hands clamped on her hips, and he gave her a feral smile, filled with triumph. “You have me.” He began to move again, his thrusts sliding her body on his shaft in a slick, thrilling roller-coaster climb of sensation.
His thrusts grew stronger, deeper, harder. Jessie wrapped her legs around his pistoning hips, and dug her heels into his lean flanks, feeling the bunch and clench of his muscles.
The sensation was too intense to bear. Jessie’s head thrashed on the carpet. Her body felt too tight to remain whole. “I can’t...”
“You want more?” he demanded, jaw tight with the strain, dark hair sticking to his sweaty forehead. His pale gaze ate her whole.
Jessie tried to focus her eyes. “No. Yes.”
He slid in deeper. “Yes?”
She moaned.
He slid out almost all the way. “No?”
She wrapped her arms more tightly around his shoulders and held his hips in place with her legs. “Bastard.”
“True. But is that a yes, or a no?” He thrust deep.
“Yes, yes, yes,” she panted. Her hips met each plunge, her body straining for release. Her long hair tangled across her damp face and chest. She ran her hands down the slick, hard plane of Joshua’s back, feeling the flex and twist of his muscles beneath the satin of his skin. She dug her short nails into his hips. “Now,” she begged, hoarse and breathless, body on fire. “Please. I can’t take any more.”
“No.” He kept moving. Changing the rhythm, changing the speed, changing the depth of his thrusts until she was about to come. Then he’d back off slightly until the moment passed, leaving her body screaming for release.
“Now. Now. Now,” Jessie gasped, breathless and dizzy.
“Now?”
“Yes, damn it! Now!” she said hitching her hips and clamping her heels down to bring him in harder. One more deep thrust, she thought, just one more...
He slid a hand between their sweat-slick bodies and touched her, rubbing a finger in her moisture.
“Joshua!” Jessie’s body immediately convulsed, and she cried out as she climaxed hard and fast.
Joshua continued his deep pounding rhythm until his cry echoed hers.
He collapsed against her, turning their joined bodies so they lay side by side on the plush carpet. Then he cradled her trembling body to his, his hands making broad tender sweeps down her naked back. His breath was harsh in her ear as she melted under his touch.
“Is it always like that?” Jessie was caught unaware by a yawn, and snuggled into the safe harbor of his arms. His laughter vibrated through her. Her eyes were too heavy to open as he brushed a kiss across her hair.
“No, usually it’s not quite as hard and fast. Sometimes it’s long and slow.” Amazingly he felt himself swell inside her again. Joshua moved his hips slowly, enjoying the sleepy warmth of her.
“Give it to me, baby?” he asked, amused, and her eyes narrowed before she shrugged and glanced away.
She closed her expressive eyes and relaxed beneath him. “I watch a lot of movies, what can I say?”
“The dialogue is vast and varied.” He assured her dryly, “We’ll have time to explore every nuance of postcoital conversation.” He glanced down to see the steady rise and fall of her beautiful breasts and realized with amusement that, contract or not, she was his new mistress, and she was fast asleep.
Using a gentle touch, he traced the perfect symmetry of her face, still flushed and damp from their lovemaking. With gentle mockery, he whispered softly, “Nice of you to forewarn me you were a virgin, Jessie.”
* * *
JESSIE WASN’T USED to answering to anyone. Especially someone who had sent her home at an ungodly hour the morning after with his stony-faced chauffeur, then called her the next day as if nothing earth-shattering had happened. Her car had been delivered back to the cottage by invisible pixies in the middle of the night.
Joshua had called to tell her he would be in New York for two days. He’d left two messages on her answering machine while she’d been out seeing clients. She’d wanted to ask him if sex with her had been so bad he had to flee the state. She hoped to God that their lovemaking had taken. She didn’t think she could go through it again. The intensity of climax with him had been almost terrifying. It had left her shattered and shaky and not quite as confident about her own control of the situation.
Jessie pulled her car into the narrow road leading up to the gatehouse. She’d been single-mindedly concentrating on a hot, steamy bath for the last hundred miles.
It was midnight, and she was absolutely exhausted. She’d gone to see a client in Redding, three hours away, leaving early enough to beat the commute traffic in San Francisco and arriving at the client’s small ranch just in time for breakfast.
After she and Karen King had talked drapes and case goods, the two women had wandered outside to see the show horses Karen and her husband bred. Their animals had won competitions from Canada to Brazil. Peter’s den was filled with trophies and ribbons.
The last time she’d been out here, Karen had put her up on a placid cow pony and she’d laughingly complained. She’d expected a nice, civilized ride this time, too. But Karen, knowing her preference for a challenge, had put her up on Billy. By the time she realized that she and the horse had completely different ideas, it was too late. She had the bruises to prove it.
Jessie was surprised to find Joshua parked outside her cottage—hadn’t even noticed his car at first. She’d forgotten to leave the porch light on. The bitter cold hit her as she got out of her car. The wind snapped the bare branches overhead, and moaned around her solid little stone cottage.