by Audra Cole
Instead of being deterred, Landon’s smile widened. “Even better.”
Before I could scrape together a coherent thought, a short, barrel-chested man approached, waving at us. “You ready, Mr. Jeffers?”
Landon arched a brow at me. “Ready?”
I nodded, even though I had no idea what was going to happen next.
We boarded the beautiful plane and I had to work overtime to keep from squealing. The jet was decked out like an impossibly chic hotel room that had the fringe benefit of being able to fly. A huge suite with the aforementioned king-size bed and an attached bathroom that was large enough to fit three standard airplane bathrooms inside. Not to mention it was clean! Landon kept a hand on my waist as he led me on the tour. On the way out of the bathroom, he stepped in close and my back pressed against the wall. Sizzling heat surged over every inch of my body as Landon’s full lips lowered to mine. He stopped short and brushed a strand of my hair behind my ear. “You say you’re only here for business, but you show up wearing that dress and a pair of fuck-me heels?”
My stomach fluttered. “I came straight from work.”
Landon’s smile deepened. He wasn’t buying it. “Come on, baby, drop the tough girl act. You want me just as much as I want you.” His thumb propped my chin up, and I licked my lips the second before he closed the final inch between us and captured my mouth in a scorching kiss. He left me breathless when he pulled away. His eyes went dark as he flashed a wicked grin. “Say it, Candace. Tell me you want me.”
I raked my lower lip between my teeth. The pool of heat between my thighs was pulsing, begging for him. “Landon, I—” The words were there, right on the tip of my tongue. I needed to tell him the truth. The real reason for my visit. Maybe I could convince him to play along until the Seattle office was mine. I had to try. “I really…”
A booming voice came over the intercom and I jumped. Landon ran his hands down my arms. “Just Stevie. Probably about to tell us to get our asses in our seats so we can takeoff. Come on”—he grabbed my hand—“we’ll finish this conversation once we’re at altitude and I can get you back here.”
On wobbly legs, I let him lead me to my seat. We sat side by side on the couch. The captain came back and once he was certain we were ready to leave, he returned to the cockpit, leaving Landon and I alone again. The plane taxied down the airstrip and I clenched my teeth at the moment of takeoff. Landon wrapped an arm around my shoulders and smiled down at me. “Nervous flyer?”
I nodded. “So—uh—what did you want to do this weekend?”
Landon’s hand rested casually on my thigh. He glanced over at me and moved up to push the hem of my dress up my leg. His thumb grazed my skin and I shivered. I’d stripped off the pantyhose I’d worn all day at the office, leaving my legs bare for his exploration. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been thinking about his touch when I’d taken them off.
“I want to take you to my house, get you into my bed, and fuck you until you’d fail a sobriety test.” He slipped his hand under the dress and slid up toward my molten core.
“Landon—”
He leveled me with a dark stare. “Candace, we both know you’re not here for work. You want to finish what we stared. That’s why you’re here, in my plane, about to be in my bed.”
I dragged in a ragged breath.
His hand stilled, a mere whisper from my aching pussy. “Tell me you don’t want me. I’ll leave you alone. Be the perfect, proper host, and I won’t try to kiss you again. Tell me, Candace.”
I licked my lips. His dark eyes were intoxicating. We were still climbing altitude, not quite leveled out, but I knew my racing pulse had nothing to do with my slight anxiety over flying. In fact, I was fairly sure that someone could chuck me out of the plane with a parachute and I’d feel less freaked out.
I swallowed hard and bit down on the insides of my cheeks before whispering the confession, “I want you, Landon.”
He grinned and unbuckled my seat belt. I wasn’t sure of the protocol on a private jet, but I was pretty sure we weren’t supposed to get up and wander around before hitting cruising altitude. But, from the look in Landon’s eyes, I was also pretty sure he didn’t give a damn.
Landon took me to the bedroom in the back of the plane, kissing me with growing fervor as he backed me up to the bed. He stripped my dress over my head, dropping in it a dark pool on the beige carpet before loosening the buttons on his shirt, one at a time, until my bare legs hit the bed. I toppled over and Landon chuckled as he lowered himself to cover my body. He continued the surge of kisses, each one leaving me panting and begging for more. My hand pushed away the shirt and then raked over his firm muscles. He was even sexier than my best fantasy. The fire in his eyes and the way his body moved had me ready to come. He tossed the shirt aside and then moved down, settling on the floor in front of me. He spread my knees apart and I gasped as his fingers traced up the insides of my thighs. He watched intently as he moved his hands over my curves. I rolled my hips and he smiled as he ducked his head and pressed slow kiss to the inside of my thigh. He moved painfully slowly up my leg, planting hot kisses as he went. “God, you smell so fucking good, baby. I bet you taste even better.”
A shudder tore through me as he set about finding out. His lips moved to my aching pussy and even though the thin layer of my sheer black panties, I bucked at the surge of sensations. When his tongue slid along my slit, I gripped his bare shoulders, clinging to him for dear, sweet life. He hummed a satisfied growl and the vibrations had my eyes rolling back.
Landon slipped the panties over my hips and down my legs and I opened my eyes, watching as he lowered his head between my thighs. I’d never seen something so erotic in my entire life. I dug my fingers into his hair as he moved his lips and tongue over me, tasting and teasing every inch. Loud moans poured from me as pressure wound up tighter and tighter with every stroke of his skilled tongue. When I was balancing on the edge, he pushed his fingers inside of me, deeper and deeper and I tensed for a heart-stopping moment before releasing all over his face. Landon cleaned me soft and slow as I trembled and shuddered through the all-consuming orgasm he’d given me.
He grinned as he pushed up from the floor, and I watched through half-lidded eyes as he stripped off his pants and the boxer-briefs that barely contained his huge bulge. His cock sprang free and I gasped. I’d known he was large, but seeing it—all of it—in the light of day had me wondering how in the hell he fit inside me.
Moments later, he reminded me. After slipping on a condom, slowly, while my eyes devoured him, he came to the bed and rolled me over. I pushed to all fours and he popped my ass in the air before rocking deep inside me, filling every space, and it was even better than I remembered. The passionate, hungry rush in the closet at the Valentine’s Day Mingle was nothing compared to the way he felt, slamming into me from behind, while I watched his every move in the three-paneled mirror on the opposite wall. My hands fisted the sea of soft linens as I rocketed back to the peak of pleasure. The play of his muscles as he fucked me was magnetic and when his dark eyes locked with mine in the mirror, we both released at the same time, as he buried himself balls-deep inside of me with a final thrust that had stars bursting behind my eyes.
We stayed together, watching pleasure wash and roll over each other’s faces in the mirror before he left me and let me sink down to the bed, panting and boneless. Landon padded into the bathroom and came back a few moments later, wearing his boxer briefs. I admired the view as he finished dressing before I got out of bed and slipped my dress back over my head.
“Do you know where my panties went?” I asked, glancing over the floor.
Landon turned and I saw them dangling off one finger. He wore a wicked grin and when I reached for them, he tugged them back and slipped them into his pocket. “I think I’ll keep them tonight. I want to take you to dinner and know that you’re not wearing anything under that dress.”
“You’re bad,” I said with a smirk.
“
Baby, you have no idea.”
I cocked my head. “Good thing you have all weekend to show me, huh?”
Landon growled, an appreciative smile on his face. “Damn, baby, I love the way you think.”
***
“Sunday brunch. Is there anything better?”
When it was served up in Landon’s kitchen, watching him cook in nothing but a pair of skin-tight boxer briefs, half an hour after having the hottest morning sex of my life, the answer was a ridiculously clear no.
My plan to talk him into signing on as a client, or at the very least, playing along for a few months, had tanked. I mean, we’re talking major crash and burn. But at the moment, I was finding it hard to care.
Landon placed a plate of French toast, fresh fruit, and eggs down in front of me. I arched a brow at him. “Are you even for real?”
He chuckled and placed an identical plate at the seat beside me and then came around the island and slid into the chair. He draped a casual arm over the back of my chair and leaned in to steal a kiss. “You’re worth pulling out all the stops.”
I smiled but it fell too quickly. Landon didn’t seem to notice as he picked up his fork and started to eat. I mirrored him and we made small talk over some of the daily news articles that he pulled up on his tablet. The entire scene was the most comfortable and yet jarring experience of my life. From the outside, we were a picture of casual perfection. But inside, guilt was twisting my stomach a little tighter with each bite I took.
Somehow the real reason for my visit had been lost in the tour of Seattle, the fancy dinners, long conversations about life and love, and of course, the mind-blowing sex. I’d been lost, wandering through a fantasy for thirty-six hours and now it was time to find my way back through the looking glass to reality.
Even if it meant losing the man that had so quickly captured my heart.
I nearly toppled my glass of orange juice when my phone buzzed at the other end of the table where it sat beside my purse. “That’s me!”
Landon nodded and went back to reading the article in front of him. I stretched and grabbed the phone and jolted all over again when I saw Leticia’s name on the screen. After-hours and weekend calls weren’t anything unusual. “It’s my boss,” I told Landon.
He waved a hand. “Go ahead. I get it.”
I stood up and wandered to the other end of the kitchen before answering. “Hello, Leticia,” I said, hoping the cringe didn’t come through in my voice.
“Good morning, Candace. Listen, I know it’s your day off, but I wanted to check in and see if you had time to go through some profiles that I think might work for Landon Jeffers. I know he just signed on, but I think we need to move quickly on this match.”
Hot panic surged through me. “Oh? Um, sure, yeah. I can take a look.”
“Great!” Leticia exclaimed, clearly oblivious to me reticence. “Here’s my thinking, when we have the Seattle opening, we can have Landon there and have him say a few words. It’ll be free press for his company, and obviously great for our grand opening.”
“Oh—” My eyes shot to Landon who was sipping his coffee. “I don’t know if that’s—”
“I actually already emailed him about it,” Leticia continued.
“You did?”
The squeak in my voice caught Landon’s ear and he gave me a curious glance. I waved a hand and then spun on my heel. “Leticia, I’ll have to get back to you…”
“Okay, doll. Take a look at those matches and I’ll see you tomorrow. Let’s do coffee at nine thirty?”
My eyes slid closed and I nodded. “Yeah. Okay. See you then.”
“Everything okay?” Landon asked.
I pivoted slowly and drew in a deep breath. It was the perfect opportunity to come clean. I couldn’t wait until later, right before he put me on a plane back to California. “Landon, there’s actually something I need to talk to you about.”
He tapped at the screen of the tablet and it went dark. He pushed it aside and gave me his full attention. “Go ahead.”
I paced to the other side of the large marble-topped counter and leaned down, bracing myself on the smooth surface. I sucked in another breath and then let it all spill out. The whole ugly story. Everything from the real reason I’d been intent on signing him, the deal I’d made to get control of the Seattle office, and even the forgery of his signature and the whopping lie I’d told to get the promotion.
Landon waited, without saying a word, until I was done. Even then, he didn’t speak. Silence spanned out for what felt like forever until I finally dared to meet his eyes. They were darker than normal and from the set of his jaw, I could see the tension and anger not-so-subtly masked. “So this has all been a lie?”
“I’m so sorry, Landon. This whole thing—”
He raised a hand. “Stop. I don’t want to hear excuses. Forgery is a crime, Candace. If I wanted, I could press charges.”
My heart slammed frantically inside my chest and a wave of fear swept over me. I was standing in his kitchen, in little more than a long t-shirt and a pair of panties. He could throw me out of his house. Call the cops. Not to mention that a man like Landon had the power to completely ruin my reputation, professional and otherwise.
Landon’s jaw flexed and then he tore his eyes away from me. “Pack up and get dressed. I’ll have a driver come and take you to the airport.”
“Landon, please—”
He shot me a stony glare and my mouth slammed shut. I nodded and then raced from the room. The damage was done. I’d made my bed, and now, Landon would never be in it again.
Chapter Twelve
I didn’t see Landon again. His driver was waiting for me in the foyer when I descended the grand staircase and ushered me outside to the waiting car. I craned around in my seat, looking for any sign that Landon was watching me go, but couldn’t spot him. At the airport, his driver provided me with a one-way ticket back to California. Coach. And I was gone.
Monday morning, I was prepared to come clean to Leticia at our nine-thirty meeting, but she jumped into excited chatter as soon as I walked into her office. “Good morning, Candace! Great work with Landon! I don’t know what you told him, but he got back to me last night and agreed to speak at the grand opening. He sent me back the basic questionnaire and even chose three of the profiles I provided and he’s flying down to go on some dates later next month! I’m telling you, by the time we open the Seattle office, we’ll have him engaged. Oh, my gawd! Wouldn’t that be too perfect? We could have him and his gorgeous fiancée there on stage together.” Leticia gave a contented sigh as she sat back. “It’s going to be beautiful!”
My mind reeled, unable to put together the pieces of the last twenty-four hours. Landon kicked me out of his house, hadn’t spoken a word to me since, but then inexplicably bailed my ass out of trouble? Was that it? He just didn’t want me to lose my promotion? Or was it some kind of revenge thing? He wanted to get back at me for screwing with him. After all, what better way than forcing me to watch him and his beautiful fiancée proclaim their love to the whole fucking city, knowing I’d be sitting in the front row.
Was he really capable of that? The truth was, I didn’t know. I’d fallen hard and fast for Landon, but in reality I hadn’t spent nearly enough time with him to get to know every quirk and bend in his personality.
Leticia beamed at me. “You did it, Candace. The Seattle office is yours!”
“Thank you, Leticia.” I forced a grateful smile. “This opportunity means so much to me.”
Or, at least, it had.
***
The months sped by on fast-forward as the preparations for the Seattle grand opening came together. Landon did follow through on his promise to come down and date a few of the women in our database but I gave the file over to Georgia—under strict instructions that I didn’t want to know the details—and although curiosity threatened to eat me alive, I didn’t ask her what was going on or whether or not Landon was well on his way to his own happily eve
r after.
I’d wait for his engagement announcement to come through the mail and pin it to my success story board just like all the others. Eventually it would stop hurting.
Right?
With two weeks to go until the grand opening, I was sent up to Seattle for a week to finalize the details for the party and to start getting settled in my new office and doing interviews for my support staff. Everything was a blur of chaos and a sprawling “To Do” list and I didn’t slow down until I was in my seat on the airplane. Only then did everything crash back, and I regretted not asking Georgia to accompany me on the trip.
Flying into the Sea-Tac airport was tougher than it should have been, as though each hour twisted the knife a little bit more. I was gutted by the time the wheels touched down, and I kept my eyes downcast as I hurried through the airport, trying to shove aside the assault of memories of both the day Landon and I arrived together and then the whiplash of emotions when I was sent packing less than two days later.
I went straight to my hotel room and ordered a bottle of wine from room service. My first meeting wasn’t until the following morning, so I changed into a pair of yoga pants and a comfortable sweatshirt. The first glass relaxed me, but it wasn’t long before I was pacing my hotel room like a caged tiger. Eventually, I threw on a pair of sneakers and headed out. It was the middle of August and even Seattle had accepted that it was time for some sunshine. The sun was setting as I headed out of the hotel but the air was warm enough that I didn’t need a coat. I wandered around and eventually found a spot by the waterfront and parked my ass on a bench to watch the sunset.
My phone rang. “So much for peaceful meditation,” I grumbled as I retrieved the device from my purse. The number was local but I didn’t recognize it. Figuring it was the hotel’s front desk, I answered with a curt, “Hello?”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were in town?”
I whipped around, suddenly afraid I was having my own spy movie moment where someone with a pair of binoculars was watching me from the lofty heights of one of the high rises.