by Donna Hill
“For some reason I believe you could manage to even put the boogeyman under your spell.”
The air stalled in her chest. Her eyes flew up to his and the ground shifted beneath her, then settled.
“Seven-thirty,” he murmured in that cool undertone that inflamed her. He turned around, crossed the hall and entered his room.
Chapter 8
Alexis drew in a long breath and studied herself in the full-length mirror mounted on the bathroom door.
She’d chosen a sleeveless blouse in a white rayon blend and black broomstick palazzo pants with a wide waistband. Her accessories were silver; a cuff bracelet and teardrop earrings.
She checked her watch. It was 7:30 p.m. She didn’t want to keep him waiting, but she didn’t want to appear overly eager either. She sprayed the space in front of her with her perfume and then stepped into its floating scent.
Since she’d returned to the room she’d been unable to shake his last statement. No matter how hard she tried to spin it, he was coming on to her and she wasn’t imagining it. Her insides jumped as she picked up her purse, checked for the essentials and left her bedroom.
* * *
Graham came to the dining room early. He sat at the bar. He needed a drink to smooth him out, massage the rough edges.
Whatever happened tonight during dinner would determine which way the rest of the evening went. He’d already made up his mind that if Alexis gave him the vibes that she wanted more than just dinner, he was ready to push aside company rules and personal ethics.
He finished off a shot of bourbon, turned halfway on the bar stool and everything stood still. Alexis was in the doorway. She hadn’t seen him yet and he took that moment to watch her while she was unaware, capture the look of wonder and expectation on her face and imprint it forever in his memory. And then her searching eyes found him. Her eyes brightened and her slow, sensual smile lit up the room.
Graham stood as she walked toward him. Her outfit gave her the illusion of floating across the floor. A sexy angel.
“Evening...you look...stunning.”
“Thank you,” she said, her throaty tone an even lower octave.
“Would you care for a drink first or are you ready...to be seated?”
She placed her purse on the bar. “I think I’d like a drink first. But I’m sure they could bring it to our table.”
Graham kept his eyes on her, dazzled by her in a new way, while he signaled for the bartender.
“What can I get you?” The bartender looked from one to the other.
“I’d like an apple martini,” Alexis said.
“Refill on the bourbon.”
“Coming right up.”
When the bartender returned with their drinks, Graham let him know that they were ready to be seated. Shortly the hostess approached and took them to their table. It was tucked away from the front and off the path of foot traffic. It was about as private as it could get for a hotel restaurant that didn’t require special reservations.
Graham held Alexis’s chair while she sat down.
Alexis took in her surroundings. “Nice. Different ambiance at night.”
“Yes, very,” he said, watching her over the rim of his glass.
Alexis lifted her glass and brought it delicately to her lips and briefly wondered if it would happen in her room or his.
“I want to hear more about you,” Graham said, “family, friends, exes.”
She laughed and took a sip from her glass. “Plenty of exes.” She angled her head demurely. “Well, I’m the only child of a single mother. Sounds like a Lifetime Movie, huh? My father left when I was about five.” Her gaze drifted off for a moment. “I never understood why.” She frowned. “As a kid I internalized it. It had to be my fault. Right?” She looked at him and then looked away. She shrugged. “I got over it more or less.”
“Did you ever see your father after that?”
She shook her head. “Nope. But my mother did everything she could to make up for it. She worked like an indentured servant. Long hours, six and seven days a week.” She sipped her drink. “She made sure I never wanted for anything, but that I understood hard work and the importance of education.” She rested her forearms on the table. “I think I pretty much spent my life making sure that I lived up to her expectations. Don’t get me wrong,” she added, holding up her hand. “I don’t regret it. It made me the woman that I am.”
“Does your mother live in Atlanta?”
Her expression changed. “She passed,” she said softly.
Instinctively, he reached across the table and covered her hand with his. The contact was electrifying. His fingers wrapped around her hand.
She exhaled. “It was one of the reasons why I decided to take the job. I would have never come if she...had still been with us.”
The waitress returned with their salads. “Your meals will be out shortly. Can I refill your drinks?”
“Yes,” Alexis said.
“And you, sir?”
“No. I’m fine. Thanks.”
The waitress left.
“What about you? What about your family? Where did your passion for education reform come from?”
“For Barbados or Bajan families, education is paramount. My mum sent me to England when I was ten to live with relatives.” He waved his hand. “Let’s just say they were strict. My escape then was books.” He couldn’t tell her his real-life story, how he grew up in spite of what was done to him and how he lived. He didn’t want her sympathy. He could have easily been a character in a Charles Dickens novel.
“What about your exes?” she asked, turning him away from his dark thoughts.
“A long list I’m ashamed to say.” He pressed his hand to his chest. “It was me not them,” he said, feigning sincerity.
Alexis tossed her head back and laughed that throaty, sexy sound and Graham imagined himself planting kisses along her slender neck, in the hollow of her collarbone...behind her ear.
She settled her attention back on him. “You were telling me on our way down here on the train that you usually try to catch a few shows when you’re in town. Music?”
He nodded. “Absolutely. D.C. has some of the best blues and jazz clubs outside of New Orleans and New York.”
“I had no idea.”
“Then I feel compelled to introduce you to the jazz scene of the nation’s capital.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
He raised his glass in promise.
Their dinner arrived and in between bites they debated about the NBA finals, dished on the demise of the Lakers, offered their own solutions to the communities destroyed by hurricanes and tornadoes, their favorite college players and their draft chances.
Basketball somehow segued to sharing stories about vacations. Alexis told him over bubbles of laughter the trip that she was supposed to take with her best friend Naomi Clarke and never went, but it was where Naomi met her husband. She opened her purse and took out her cell phone and showed him her array of pictures of Naomi and her brand-new goddaughter.
“A real beauty,” Graham said of the baby. “How long have you and Naomi been friends?”
“Forever.” She giggled. “Not quite. Since college. Same sorority. Roommates. Worked at the same university. And we are like night and day. Let’s just say that Naomi is my conscience.”
“Really?” His brow rose.
“Hard to believe that anyone would have any influence over me, huh?”
“Yes, very.”
She playfully swatted his hand. “What about you—your friend that you went to the game with. He must be a very good friend.”
“He is.” He told her the story of how they’d met.
“You. Are. Kidding. Me. That’s what I call a die-hard fan.”
She shook her head in bemused disbelief. “To get on a plane to see a game.”
Graham shrugged. “In our defense the trip was during the NBA Finals.”
“Whatever,” she chuckled.
The waitress returned and took away their plates. “Dessert?”
Alexis shook her head.
“I’ll take the check,” Graham said.
Alexis fingered her purse. The evening would come to an end in a matter of minutes. Then what?
“It’s still nice out. How about a stroll around the block to walk off this food,” he suggested as if he’d read her mind.
After paying the bill, Graham and Alexis stepped out into the moonlit evening. They strolled along E Street for several blocks, quietly taking in the sights, the night-lights that twinkled against the veil of darkness and the illumination of the Washington Monument in the far distance.
“Anything you think we need to add for tomorrow’s meeting?” Alexis asked, quietly, not really caring about the answer but only wanting to hear Graham’s voice.
“You know what I think?”
She angled her head to look up at him. The deep, dark centers of his eyes picked up the light and reflected it back at her. “No...” she said on a breath. “What do you think?”
Graham stopped walking. He clasped her arm and turned her to face him. She glanced up at him, expectant and knowing.
“I think,” he stroked the curve of her jaw with the tip of his finger. A shiver rippled through her. “I think that we make a formidable couple.”
Couple? But before she could process the implication, he’d lifted her chin and the world around her was blocked out as he lowered his head and touched his lips to hers.
Testing...teasing...tasting...taking.
He cupped the back of her head and eased her into the kiss, deeper and sweeter.
Heat coursed through her even as she shivered against him. He pulled her closer.
Here she was standing in the middle of Washington, D.C., making out with the sexiest man on a public street, and the man was her boss, and people were probably watching, and she hadn’t “made out” in public since her high school prom, and she didn’t care. She didn’t care where she was or what anyone thought. The only thing she cared about was how he was making her feel and she didn’t want it to stop.
Graham’s hands slid down the sides of her face. Slowly he eased back and looked down into her eyes. “I’ve wanted to do that from the moment you stepped those long legs into the car at the airport,” he breathed against her mouth.
Her heart was pounding like mad her chest. “Funny, I thought the same thing.”
He chuckled and ran his finger along her bottom lip, eliciting a sigh from her. “I told you we make a formidable couple.” He briefly glanced right then left. “Let’s not cause an international incident.”
“At least not right here,” she said with a wicked gleam in her eyes.
He took her hand and they retraced their steps back to the hotel.
The return trip took an eternity or so it seemed, and they kept stealing surreptitious looks at each other as if to reaffirm to themselves that what they were about to do was real—a game changer.
Electricity snapped between them as they stood pressed side by side in the elevator, working hard to contain themselves in front of the other passengers. The elevator dinged. The doors slid open.
Graham gently gave Alexis’s hand a reassuring squeeze. She still had time to back out. What they were about to do was potentially messy and went against every grain of good sense that she had. She ran down the list of why they shouldn’t do this even as she slid the card through the slot on the door, pushed it open and stepped inside.
Then she turned into his arms and the heat of his mouth covered hers and she drank in the taste of him as her tongue dueled and danced with his. She still had time to say no, even as his fingers played with the button of her pants, loosened it and they floated silently to the floor. She could bring this all to a halt if she stepped back instead of pressing herself against his rock-hard erection; or if the scent of him didn’t arouse her in ways that took her breath away or if his fingers hadn’t found their way beneath the elastic band of her panties and eased them down over her hips.
Yes, even then she could have stopped him when his thumb brushed across her pulsing bud and made her inner thighs tremble and her knees weak and a moan escape. She could have stopped him, but hell, she didn’t want to.
“It seems you have the advantage,” she said in a ragged whisper while Graham rained hot kisses along her exposed neck. “You have me out of mine but I have yet to have you out of yours.”
“Don’t let anything I’m doing stop you,” he whispered as he eased a finger inside of her.
Alexis gasped. Her body arched. She gripped his shoulders and her fingers surely left their imprint as the sensations rolled through her. Pure instinct guided her fingers to pull his jacket from his shoulders, unfasten the tiny white buttons, unbuckle the leather belt, unzip the metal zipper and release him.
Graham gritted his teeth when the butter softness of Alexis’s hand encircled and then stroked him ever so gently. The pad of her thumb ran a teasing caress across the head and he nearly lost it. He gripped her wrist. Alexis smiled. She took him by the hand and led him to her bedroom.
Alexis backed into her bedroom with a smoldering look in her eyes that directed Graham to follow her lead. She stopped when she reached the foot of the bed. She stood in front of him, illuminated only by the full moon and starlight that filtered in through the floor-to-ceiling window.
She lifted her blouse over her head, dropped it dramatically to the floor then reached behind her and unhooked her bra, before slowly lowering one strap and then the other. She paused, stripper-style, before she shimmied out of her bra, spun it on her finger much to Graham’s delight, and then let it drop. She crooked her finger beckoning him and he walked toward her.
She hooked her thumbs around his loosened pants and pushed them down over his hips. He stepped out of them. Alexis’s eyes roved hungrily over him. Graham removed his shirt, tossed it next to his pants. He came toward her. Her breath caught. The determination in his gaze and in his stride was as thrilling as it was frightening.
He hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her nakedness hard and flush against him. He nibbled her bottom lip. “Feel free to stop me,” he said, his voice hot. He lifted her up, cupping her derriere in his large hands. She expelled a short gasp and wrapped her legs around his waist. His erection pressed against the slickness of her opening. He bent his knees slightly, shifted Alexis into position and pushed up inside of her.
All of the air rushed from her lungs expelling a cry of indescribable delight. She locked her fingers around his neck and arched her back when he lowered his head to suckle her breasts. The nerves and muscles quivered as if electrified, setting off one jolt after another each time he moved in and out of her, levering her body up and down his erection at will, as if she weighed no more than a loaf of bread.
Incredibly, he managed to walk them to the bed without missing a stroke. He lowered her to the bed and settled between her tight thighs.
His mouth covered hers while his hands caressed her curves, tingled her skin, set her on fire. Now he could have all of her. He looped her legs over the curve of his arms and pushed her thighs back until her ankles rested on his shoulders and then he entered her—fully and completely.
Alexis’s eyes flew open. A strangled cry hung in her throat. The overwhelming sensation of him filling her stunned her, stilled her body. The way he had her positioned left her totally open and vulnerable to his every thrust. She could do nothing but take him, stroke after deep stroke. Tears of ecstasy filled her eyes. He rotated his hips so that with each downward thrust he brushed her clit sending jolts of blinding pleasure rushing through her li
mbs. Ensnared in the throes of sublime joy, she lost all sense of the world around her and became a vessel of pure feeling.
Graham never knew sex could feel this good. From the moment he’d met Alexis he’d tried to imagine what she would feel like draped around him like Christmas wrapping paper. Nothing in his experience had prepared him for the complete surrender of his soul. He could feel her in every inch of his being. He wanted to be everywhere within her at once. He wanted to memorize every curve to take the image with him wherever he went. He wanted to feel this feeling always but the intensity was too great. His heart raced like a stallion let loose on the open pasture. His skin was on fire and he felt the telltale swelling, the tightness in the pit of his belly and she did too.
She stroked his back, cupped his rear end and pulled him closer, harder. Graham groaned and her name hissed through his lips like water tossed on a heated stove.
The rhythm escalated. The panting rose. Sweat popped off their skin. Alexis’s fingertips dug into his flesh, holding on because surely she was falling off the face of the earth. Graham touched her center.
Their bodies rose and fell in unison. Pulses quickened. Moans filled the air. Faster. Harder. Now.
Graham ground into her one last time and the explosion burst from him. Her insides gripped him, released him, sucked him and shook her like a rag doll with their intensity.
Wave after wave of pleasure flowed through and between them until they collapsed—beyond spent. Their breathing rapid and sporadic filled the sex-infused air.
Chapter 9
The weight of his body felt good on hers, Alexis thought through the haze of afterglow. O.M.G. That was the only coherent thought that she could put together and it kept repeating in her head like a scratched record.
True, she had a fair share of lovers in her life and she was pretty sure that Ian would forever remain in the annals of greatness, but Graham...well...O.M.G. She exhaled a long, satisfying sigh.
“Hmm.” He nuzzled her neck and gingerly lifted himself, sliding his weight partially off and only keeping her pinned with his leg draped across her.