by Anne Oliver
She looked flushed and dishevelled as she emerged from the darkness. It had to be the sexiest thing he’d ever seen in his life.
His erection pressed hard against his trousers and he pulled his jacket closed and did up the button in the hope it would go some way to disguising how turned on he was, should they have the misfortune to bump into someone on their way out.
He had to get them out of there, right now.
Grabbing her hand, he led her down the corridor and straight through the lobby and out into the cool night air, holding up a hand to stop a passing cab, which mercifully screeched to a halt for them.
It was meant to be.
Once they’d clambered into the cab and he’d given the driver his address, he pulled her hard against him, drawing her legs over his and sliding a hand between her thighs to find the naked damp heat of her again. He kissed her hard, his tongue exploring every delicious inch of her mouth while his fingers probed and slid inside her, intent on taking her right back to the edge of madness they’d achieved in the broom cupboard.
A hot and maddening ten minutes later they pulled up outside the entrance to his apartment and he passed the driver twenty pounds, and not waiting for change, pulled her out of the cab with him. He noticed with glee how she struggled to pull down her dress and gave him a look of pure filthy longing as she righted herself on her heels.
‘Come on,’ he said, grasping her hand and leading her into the lobby of his building.
Taking one look at her in her tight dress and heels, he scooped her up into his arms and mounted the stairs.
She squeaked in protest.
‘Can’t wait,’ he muttered, taking two stairs at a time in his hurry.
After somehow managing to get the door open with trembling hands, he pushed her inside his apartment and kissed her again, slamming her against the wall behind them.
Their movements were frantic now as they pulled off their shoes and he tore the shirt away from his body.
‘Where are your condoms?’ she asked breathlessly.
‘Bedroom. In the mezzanine.’
She broke away from him and walked quickly towards it, but he wasn’t finished kissing her yet.
Catching hold of her arm, he spun her around and brought his mouth down onto hers again, walking her backwards towards the spiral staircase as he did so. He grasped the hem of her dress and slid it up her body, pausing while she reached round to undo a zip at one side of it so he was free to pull it over her head, leaving her totally naked.
They reached the staircase and he kissed her again, guiding her backwards onto the first step, then up another and another until they were halfway up, the exposed heat of her bleeding into him in tormenting waves.
‘It’s no good,’ he said, breaking the kiss, ‘I have to get my mouth on that amazing body of yours right now.’
She let out an approving moan and perched her behind on one of the steps, her body giving a shiver. ‘Cold,’ she muttered, but it didn’t stop her from leaning further back, giving him the access he craved.
Dropping his head, he kissed down her body, teasing his lips and tongue over her breasts, nipping at the hard peaks of her nipples, then down her stomach to his ultimate goal between her spread thighs.
She groaned with pleasure, her breath coming out in short pants as he pulsed his tongue against her there and she arched her back, raising her hips to press harder against him. He slid his fingers easily into her again, delighting in her wild arousal as she let out a small whimper of need.
‘Tristan—’
He knew what she wanted. He wanted it too.
Drawing away from her, he scooped a hand behind her back and urged her to climb the steps again, grinning at her shock and awe as her legs wobbled beneath her, barely able to hold her up any more.
‘Look what you’ve done to me,’ she gasped, a wide delighted grin spread across her face.
‘You ain’t seen nothing yet,’ he growled, giving her a wicked smile back.
She made it to the top of the steps with his help and he lifted her into his arms, walked the two paces to the bed and dropped her onto it.
After locating a condom from a drawer in the bedside table, he discarded the rest of his clothes, sheathed himself with the latex and joined her on the bed, pushing between her thighs and kissing her swollen mouth hard.
She gasped as he entered her and he paused, worried he might have been too fast and rough and hurt her.
‘Don’t stop moving,’ she begged, her eyes wild and intense. ‘Don’t you dare!’
This was the moment he’d been fantasising about since she’d left him frustrated and alone in his hotel bed and he thrust into her, his unfulfilled need for her driving him on. She rode the movement with him, digging her fingers into his upper arms and raising her hips to meet his drives.
Their kissing was frantic, their tongues and teeth clashing untidily with the force of their pent-up desire.
He was so close, so close to losing it. He had to slow things down or he’d streak ahead of her and this would all be over too soon.
Wrapping his arms around her, he rolled to one side—somehow managing to keep them connected as he pulled her with him—so she was now sitting astride him.
‘Nice moves,’ she gasped, her eyes wide with surprise.
He smiled back, grateful for the small break to get himself under control before she started moving again. He wanted to see her come, to know he’d driven her to the point where she’d powered through her reticence and was letting him see her at her most vulnerable.
That she trusted him.
It didn’t take her long to reach her climax in this position and he held her as her body shuddered through the orgasm, her breath hot and fast on his skin as she buried her face against his neck.
A sense of overwhelming elation rushed through him as she held him tightly in a possessive grip. Like she didn’t want to let him go.
It made his heart beat faster.
He gave her a few moments to pull herself together before flipping her onto her back again and losing himself in the hot tightness of her body. She wrapped her legs round his back and urged him on, bringing her head up to kiss him as he came, shuddering with relief as all the tension he’d been bottling up poured out of him.
They lay quietly together afterwards, their limbs tangled around each other, and he experienced a sense of peace he’d not felt in a very long time.
She was good for him, like nothing else on earth that he’d found. Not work, not friends, not money.
This. Just this.
Her quiet and calm and gentleness. Like a harbour in the storm of his life.
‘Why did you run away so quickly after we spent that first night together?’ he asked quietly into her hair.
Pulling her head away from where it nestled against his shoulder, she gave him an artificially stern look. ‘It wasn’t because I wanted to keep you in a state of sexual fervour so I could manipulate you the next morning.’
He smiled back and tipped his head in a show of regret. ‘Yeah, I know that now.’
‘I would never do anything like that. I do have some integrity, you know.’ She untangled her legs from his and he felt the distance she’d created between them keenly.
‘I know, I know and I’m sorry for accusing you of it. I’ve been feeing a bit...messed up...about Marcy leaving me and it affected my reasoning.’
There was an awkward pause where he wished he could take that confession back.
‘How long did you say you were together?’ she asked finally, not looking him in the eye.
‘Four years.’
She didn’t respond to that and he sensed it was time to lighten the mood before she fell too heavily into her thoughts. There was no greater mood killer than talking about exes.
<
br /> ‘Who’d have thought the night would end this way. This is much more fun than schmoozing with rivals and sponsors.’ Finding her leg with his hand, he drew it back over his body and kissed along her jaw, running his tongue along the underside to make her shiver.
To his disappointment she stiffened instead.
‘I don’t want anyone at Flash to know about us,’ she said, her voice muffled and strained.
Flopping back against his pillow, he ran a hand over his forehead. ‘You’re uncomfortable about shagging the boss?’ He said it jokingly, but knew it would be obvious from a trip in his voice that her apprehension bothered him.
‘It’s just...it could make things really awkward for me there. I don’t want anyone thinking I got my promotion because we’re sleeping together.’
‘They wouldn’t think that, they all hold you in very high esteem. You should have seen how they reacted after I fired you, I didn’t think I’d make it out alive at one point.’
Her brow furrowed. ‘Really?’
‘Yes.’ He kissed her again, sliding his hand along her side and round to her pert backside, feeling her shiver with desire under his touch.
He loved how she reacted to him, as if she had no control over herself.
‘I should go,’ she murmured.
He tensed instinctively, increasing his grip on her. No way was he letting her leave right now, not when they’d only just breached their divide.
‘Tough luck, Tallulah, you’re not going anywhere for a while,’ he said, rolling her onto her back and trapping her beneath him.
His heart lifted as he felt her relax and heard her delighted sigh.
‘I was hoping you might say that.’
NINE
Lula woke in the dark to the sound of running water.
As the fug of sleep lifted, memories from the night before flooded back and adrenalin spiked her blood as she realised she was still at Tristan’s place.
Heart in her throat, she turned to stare at the brightly lit digits of the alarm clock on the bedside table and relief poured through her when she saw there was still time to go back to her flat and change before getting into work for the Breakfast Show.
Flopping back onto the pillows she ran a hand over her tired eyes.
What had she been thinking?
She never should have done this—allowed her yearning for him to cloud her judgement—surely it could only lead to pain and heartache. He wanted different things to her—had a different life somewhere else. One that he clearly still hadn’t come to terms with changing on him. She was just a distraction.
But she wanted to be more. So much more.
And she couldn’t give him up now.
Sitting up in bed and flicking on the side light, she saw that Tristan had left the door to the en-suite bathroom open and she could make out the blurred shape of him through the semi-opaque glass of the shower screen.
Her skin immediately heated as she remembered how his body had been wrapped around her the night before, driving her wild.
Too wild.
She was going to have to find a way to keep her sexual and emotional needs separate if she was going to survive this.
The water shut off and she pulled the sheet tighter around her as he came back into the bedroom, a towel slung low on his lean hips and his amazingly honed body sleek with moisture.
‘Morning,’ he said, giving her one of those killer smiles that made her heart beat faster and heat rush straight between her legs.
She should leave before she lost her cool.
‘I really should get going or we’ll both be late for work and that would really set tongues wagging,’ she said, focussing on getting out of bed with the sheet still wrapped around her so as not to tempt him with her nakedness.
Tristan walked round to her side and pulled the sheet away from her, then gently, but firmly pushed her back onto the bed.
Leaning his strong body forwards he pinned her down onto the mattress.
‘No you don’t, I’m not ready to let you go yet.’ He smiled into her eyes.
‘But we’ll be late,’ she squeaked, just before he brought his mouth down hard onto hers, sending her senses into overload.
‘Nah, we’ve got plenty of time yet,’ he mumbled against her lips, sliding his hand down her body to find the needy heat waiting between her thighs. ‘Anyway, I’m in with the boss. I’ll make sure you don’t get fired for being a couple of minutes late.’
Before she could open her mouth to protest about the dubious morals of that sentence, he kissed her again and all rational thought flew right out of her head.
* * *
She was very nearly late for work, but managed to squeak in with a couple of minutes to spare.
Luckily, her Broadcast Assistant, Claire, had got the studio ready and had a cup of tea waiting for her. Claire didn’t say anything as she handed it over, but Lula could tell from her smile that she suspected something interesting had happened last night for her to turn up looking so flushed and flustered.
She somehow got through the show without sounding too flaky, even though every time her thoughts skittered back to Tristan—which was about once every twenty seconds—her body felt like it had burst into flames.
He was waiting outside the studio for her when she came out, leaning against the wall with one leg crossed over the other as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
‘Lula, can I have a word in my office please?’ he said, his expression businesslike and controlled, but she caught the gleam of mischief in his eyes which made her insides tingle with excitement.
Once inside his office, he locked the door and pushed her against it, kissing her passionately, as if they hadn’t been allowed to touch each other for weeks rather than a couple of hours.
His enthusiastic attention made her weak at the knees. She’d never felt desired like this before and it overrode any hesitancy she had about messing around with him at work.
He was driving her crazy and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.
* * *
Tristan couldn’t seem to get enough of her.
Even though he knew she was reluctant to get up to anything in the workplace he couldn’t stop himself pushing for it anyway. He enjoyed the excitement of dragging her off into a quiet room and driving her wild with lust until she dropped her weak defences against him.
They made it a whole week, snatching moments at work and seeing each other every evening, either at his place or hers, until it all came crashing down around them.
And it was all his fault.
They’d interviewed another candidate, for what he now thought of as his job, the following Monday afternoon.
He hadn’t warmed to this woman either, his gut telling him she wasn’t quite right for pushing the station forwards and he assumed Lula felt the same way until the excited look on her face registered in his brain.
‘She’s perfect!’ Lula said once the candidate had gone, her eyes shining with glee.
‘Seriously?’ He frowned, niggled that she would think this woman could do a better job than him.
Not that it was his job, he reminded himself. A dull ache throbbed in his chest as he thought about leaving the station in someone else’s hands and going back to his business in Scotland. The idea held absolutely no appeal any more. He felt needed here and he’d finally begun to win the staff’s respect, which meant a lot to him.
‘Look, it’s my duty to make sure only the very best person takes over from me. The place is in enough of a mess after Jez’s mishandling of it, it doesn’t need someone inexperienced setting it back even further.’
Her look of surprise quickly turned into a frown of annoyance. ‘What, like you, you mean?’
‘Okay—’ he held up
a placating hand ‘—fair enough, I don’t have experience in the radio industry, but I know how to run a business and I’m not convinced that this woman does yet. She’s only run one small station before and I don’t think we can afford to take a leap of faith on her.’
‘One small, very successful station that’s now winning awards.’
Her face had shut down of emotion and he felt her resistance, like he’d walked into a wall of ice. It only made him want to melt her more.
Getting up from his chair he moved to where she was sitting and knelt down between her legs, pushing them apart to make room for his body and running his hands up the insides of her thighs.
‘Are you challenging the boss, Lula?’ he growled in his most down and dirty tone, hoping to raise a smile from her. Things had got all too serious here suddenly and he wanted to bring back the levity they’d enjoyed between them for the last week. Even though he’d been aware occasionally that she was struggling with their affair, he’d brushed his concerns to one side, congratulating himself on the fact she couldn’t bring herself to stop it.
Just as he couldn’t. Despite the voice in his head warning him she needed more from this fling than he was able to give her, he couldn’t stop it now. She was like a drug. A very sexy, life-altering drug.
The look in her eyes flickered between annoyance and lust and he took this as a cue and leant forwards, pressing his lips against hers and lifting one hand to cup the back of her head and stop her from pulling away, until he felt her give in to him.
He didn’t register that someone had come into the office until he heard a high, female voice behind him.
‘Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise you were busy in here.’
Breaking away from Lula, he looked round to see Darla looking at them with an expression of pure disgust on her face.
Something hard and heavy fell in his chest.
He backed away from Lula quickly, standing up and running a hand through his hair, as if neatening himself up would take away the image Darla had just seen.
Idiot.
‘What can I do for you, Darla?’ he said, trying to force authority into his voice, but she clearly wasn’t impressed.