“Just so there’s no question. I want exclusive rights. Understood?”
“Rights?” She sounded confused.
“You’re mine until I say otherwise. I will not tolerate you seeing anyone else.”
“And can I demand the same exclusivity?” she asked, lifting her chin slightly in defiance.
“Oh, I think you’ll be safe from competition.” He stood and came around to the front of his desk. His hand snaked up to remove the clip holding her hair in its twist and his fingers tunneled through her hair, before tangling in a soft knot of silken strands at the back of her head. “For as long as I can no longer resist doing this every time I see you.”
He bent and kissed her, dragging her lower lip into his mouth and pulling gently on it with his teeth before stroking it with his tongue. A shudder ran through her body, weakening the stoic stance she’d fought to maintain. Her hands fluttered up to his chest and tightened into fists on the cotton of his shirt.
He couldn’t get enough of her. But not here, not now. But the weekend? Oh, yes, that would be spectacular, and hopefully he’d sate himself with her and finally get this constant craving for Lainey Delacorte firmly under control.
He drew away from her, satisfied to see her lips swollen and moist from his kiss. Her eyes slightly off focus and a testament to his effect on her.
“I’ve left some dictation on your desk. I need it by midday,” he instructed, settling back behind his desk as she turned to go. He shifted slightly to ease the discomfort in his groin. “And Lainey?”
She stopped in her tracks and turned slowly to face him.
“Yes?”
He smiled briefly. Even she couldn’t hold back the bitterness of having been thoroughly manipulated.
“If you don’t lose that suit and the others you have just like it I will personally come around to your house and burn the lot of them. Don’t let me see you wearing anything like that in front of me again.”
Lainey pushed the top of her suitcase down and zipped it closed. Adam said a car would be along to pick her up by five a.m. Their flight to Melbourne departed Auckland shortly after seven-thirty and with the flight time, and the time difference between countries, they’d arrive at Melbourne airport shortly after nine-fifteen local time. He had a pretty full day of meetings ahead at which, he’d made it clear, he expected her to take complete notes of everything that was said.
Her grandfather had been none too pleased about this second foray away over a weekend, but she hadn’t had to remind him exactly why she was doing the overtime.
This week, her work hours had been long and draining. She’d driven home at the end of each day wanting little more than a hot meal and her bed. Thankfully, Adam hadn’t demanded any more of her than she gave in her official capacity in the office. His comment, of wanting her naked and in his bed, hadn’t come to fruition, and as each work day had drawn to a close she’d been wound tight with tension, wondering if tonight would be the night he’d ask her to stay with him. By Thursday evening when she’d left the office, tension had simmered between them like a fuse waiting to ignite an incendiary explosion.
Last night she’d gone to the casino to pay Lee Ling the proceeds of the check Adam had given her. The man’s dark eyes had glittered as she’d paid him, then he’d looked her over and reissued his earlier offer to freeze the accumulating interest on the debt if she’d go back to working for him. Her skin still crawled at the thought. She knew what his idea of work would eventually end up entailing. While she’d acted as his arm candy initially, she had always worried that sooner or later he’d press her for more.
Strange, how the idea of doing virtually the same with Adam didn’t fill her with the same dread and unease. Either way she looked at it she’d end up amounting to the same thing. She knew her naive dreams of the last weekend, that she and Adam could become more than boss and personal assistant, more than man and mistress, were totally unrealistic but a small piece of her still clung to the hope that maybe, just maybe, things between them could change.
She shook her head and sighed. That was about as unlikely to happen as her grandfather magically overcoming his gambling addiction.
A car horn sounded out on the street. Lainey lifted her case and walked to the front door, hesitating at her grandfather’s bedroom door for a moment. She placed her hand flat on the painted surface, as if she could weave some kind of spell to keep him safely there and away from the temptation she knew would be difficult for him to resist over the next three days until her return.
Her fingers curled into a fist and she knocked lightly before opening the door and popping her head in the room.
“I’m off now, Granddad. Take care, won’t you? I’ll be back late on Sunday night so don’t wait up for me, okay?”
At his murmured response she pulled the door closed again and, picking up her case, let herself out of the house and out to the waiting car. As she walked up the path all the hairs on the back of her neck stood to full attention.
Adam stood at the back of the vehicle, the boot lid already open. He stepped forward to take her case and placed it in the boot next to his own.
“I thought you were sending a taxi,” Lainey said as they both settled into his gleaming BMW.
“Change of plans.”
Lainey watched him out of the corner of her eye as he set the car in motion. Sitting in close confines like this with him was unsettling. Since he’d kissed her on Tuesday he hadn’t touched her and she’d begun to wonder just what he expected of her this weekend.
His hair was still slightly damp from his shower, and the subtle tang of his cologne infiltrated the cabin of the car, teasing at her nostrils. She tried to dampen the spark of arousal that glowed deep inside her as she watched his strong hands on the steering wheel of the car—tried to quench the sizzling imagery of those hands on her body, caressing her.
A tiny sound broke past her lips. Adam’s head whipped round to face her.
“You okay?”
“I’m…Yes, I’m fine.”
He gave her a short nod then focused on the road ahead. The journey to the airport was swift and in no time they were checking in at the first class counter and then making their way through to the first class lounge.
Lainey sipped desultorily at a cup of tea and picked at a blueberry muffin while Adam scoured the business papers, letting his coffee grow cold in its cup.
Lainey fidgeted. She couldn’t wait to be actually doing something. All this waiting around made her nervous. Gave her too much time to think. Too much time to remember.
In little over a week her life had changed irrevocably and through it all she’d been a pawn. An unwitting victim to the manipulations of others. And she hated it. This sense of helplessness, this drifting—it wasn’t what she was used to and she determined to get her life back on track, her track, as soon as her grandfather’s debt was cleared.
She looked across at Adam, immaculate even at this early hour of the morning, and sighed inwardly. She couldn’t keep working for him once this was over. Not under any guise. At least before she could have believed he’d had some respect for her. But now, how could she believe he would ever respect her again. She’d sold herself to him, to use as he wished, without protest. From Adam’s point of view she no doubt looked like little more than an avaricious woman with an eye to the main chance. She knew he suspected she had gambling debts, and truth be told, she did. But she could never tell him that debt wasn’t hers.
After she’d returned from Russell she’d suggested to Hugh that she try and take out a personal loan from the bank, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He’d become paranoid about the television studio heads learning about his gambling. As far as Hugh was concerned, it was okay if people continued to believe that he was in control and that the losses hadn’t impacted on his lifestyle—but nobody wanted to be associated with a loser. If anyone discovered he wasn’t the successful high roller he’d always purported to be, the studio wouldn’t think twice about dr
opping him from the anniversary series that was planned.
The personal shame would be unbearable for him. His reputation as New Zealand’s much-loved gardening guru was all he had left to hold on to. He wasn’t prepared to lose the respect of the nation.
What worried Lainey more was that Hugh still refused to accept it was an addiction. She knew, until he acknowledged that truth he’d never be in a position to ask for and actually receive the help he needed to get his life back under control.
Which brought Lainey firmly back to where she was right now. She flicked a glance over to Adam, who grimaced as he took a sip of his cold coffee.
“Here,” she said, “let me get you another one of those.”
He looked up and she saw his eyes sharpen and focus on her face, almost as if he’d suddenly been reminded that she was here at the airport with him.
“Thanks,” he answered, his attention almost immediately back on the paper in his hands.
And that just about summed her up, she realized as she wandered over to get him another fresh coffee. She was no more than a passing interest to him. Like a child at a candy store window he’d seen something he’d wanted and he’d done whatever he could to get it.
Deep inside she knew she’d been a willing partner in that. Who wouldn’t be, she tried to rationalize, when he looked the way he did. His face was a picture of symmetry, from the tiny cleft at his chin to the hollows of his cheeks and higher to the broad straight lines of his eyebrows. She remembered reading somewhere that people were attracted to faces that were mostly symmetrical. Well, they’d obviously been thinking of men like Adam Palmer on that score.
Then add to the package his powerful physique, the air of aloofness and the aura of power and wealth that accompanied him wherever he went. Yes, a woman could be forgiven for falling for a guy like him.
Into bed or in love.
Ten
Lainey’s hand shook as she poured coffee from the carafe, the movement causing hot liquid to splash on her skin and into the saucer. She quickly put down the cup and saucer and grabbed some paper towels to wipe away the stinging liquid and automatically reached for a fresh cup.
Oh, no, no way. She wasn’t so stupid as to believe she was in love with Adam Palmer. In lust, definitely, but love? Love came from similar minds, similar interests. A connection between individuals that made them as one.
Their only connection was one of physical need and what he was prepared to pay to assuage that need. And that’s as far as she would ever get with a man like him.
She wondered about the kind of woman Adam would one day love, have a family with, and surprised herself with a shaft of envy that went straight to the centre of her heart. She wanted to be that woman. Wanted it with a desperate need that surpassed everything she’d ever wished for in her life. Even as she allowed herself to dream what it would be like to wake with him every day, secure in his love, she eschewed the notion. It was about as impossible as being able to flap her arms and fly off the centre span of the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
No, she had what she had with him and she’d have to take each memory of their physical bond and lock it away into a safe and secure place in her mind. Because that’s all she’d ever have.
She walked back to Adam, taking care not to spill any coffee this time around. He looked up as she placed the cup and saucer on the table in front of him.
“Thank you.”
“No problem.”
He bent forward to pick up the cup but stopped and grabbed her wrist instead, turning her hand this way and that to survey the damage.
“What on earth did you do to yourself?”
“Oh, nothing.” Lainey dismissed the small angry red blotches on her skin and tried to pull free from his touch.
“They look like burns. Did you treat them with cold water?”
“No, of course not. It’s nothing serious.”
Still holding her he looked up. “I expect you to take better care of yourself.”
“Worried I’ve damaged the merchandise?” Lainey answered without thinking.
Adam’s eyebrows drew together in a frown. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
All she could think about was the texture of his fingers as they curled around her wrist. Could he feel the way her pulse raced beneath his touch? Could he sense the streaks of heat that unfurled from their skin to skin contact and shot up her arm toward the rest of her body, igniting her nerve endings in a way that only Adam could extinguish.
“Don’t belittle yourself like that. We both know you made a choice to be here with me, and you’re being well recompensed for that choice.”
Oh, yes, well recompensed indeed. His reminder, bringing it all back to the money, gave her the armor she needed to drag her crazy thoughts back under control.
Right up until the moment he turned her wrist and brought it to his lips, touching the soft white skin lined with a tracery of blue veins in a caress that rocked her to her core.
When he let her go she was shaking.
“I’ll go and run some cold water over these,” she said unevenly.
She felt his eyes bore into her back the entire distance across the lounge to the ladies rest room, as if some invisible thread bound them together. Relief washed through her as the door swung shut at her back. As she let the cool tap water run over the small scalds on her skin she began to wonder just how she would ever get through this weekend without letting her true feelings for Adam Palmer show through. Because she had no doubt he’d cast her off as quickly as last week’s news if he had any inkling as to the fact his assistant had fallen in love with him.
They were met at Melbourne airport by a chauffeured limousine which sped them toward the city center in efficient luxury. As they pulled into the portico of their hotel, a liveried doorman opened the car door and summoned a bellhop to collect their luggage. Adam took Lainey by the elbow and ushered her inside.
“Let’s see if our suite is ready. We have some time before our first meeting today and I want to go over a few things with you beforehand.”
She’d never forget her first sight of the lobby of the hotel. A gleaming marble water feature dominated the entrance with a twin staircase winding up on either side in a lazy figure eight to two more water features at different levels. Light sparkled off crystal chandeliers hanging in glorious splendor from the ceiling and massive gilt edged mirrors lined the walls. It was like stepping into another world.
And that’s exactly what Lainey decided to do for the weekend. To pretend that this was another world—a world in which she and Adam were a couple, together because they wanted to be and not because of any outside influence.
When they let themselves into their suite her world became complete. The expansive view over the Yarra River and the Melbourne city skyline reinforced the almost fantasy-like sensation that had struck Lainey downstairs in the lobby, and right now, rest was the last thing on her mind. Right now, all she wanted to do was turn to the arms of the man who’d entered the room behind her and show him, with deeds since she could never say as much with words, how she felt about him. To steal a slice of forever and file it away in her memory for that time when she’d have to walk away.
One of the porters arrived with their luggage immediately after them and Lainey left Adam to deal with him while she inspected the rest of the suite. Her breath escaped her in a whoosh as she entered the bathroom of the main bedroom.
Marble tiles, the color of antique gold, lined the floor and the walls, and even here small chandelier fittings refracted light over the room. A spacious two-person spa sent her imagination into overdrive. Since their time in the pool and in the poolside shower last weekend Lainey could barely look at water without reliving the bittersweet sensations Adam’s touch evoked.
She was suddenly acutely aware of the brush of bare skin at the top of her thighs. Skin exposed by the holdup stockings she’d chosen to wear today beneath her well-cut business suit. A suit that bore no resemblance
to what she’d worn earlier in the week.
She gripped the edge of the twin basin vanity and stared at herself in the mirror. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes shone back at her, bright with desire. Certainly not the look of the competent assistant Adam expected to accompany him to the round of meetings they had scheduled today. A movement at the door behind her made her look up.
Adam stood, framed in the doorway. Their eyes met in the mirror. Emerald green clashing with the darkest of sapphire blue. And then he was close behind her, his hands on her hips. His fingers burned through the fabric of her skirt and she felt his fingers tighten. He bent his head to the exposed curve of her neck and nipped her skin lightly.
“Yes,” she moaned, the sound a feral echo wrenched from deep inside her.
He bent and nipped her again, his hands sliding down over her hips now and to the hemline of her knee-length skirt. She heard his sharp intake of breath as he eased her skirt up, exposing the lace tops of her stockings and the tiny thong panties she wore. She watched him in the mirror, feeling almost like a voyeur, as if it wasn’t her body, her legs, he was touching.
One hand skimmed the tops of her thighs while the other bunched up the fabric of her skirt at the small of her back. His fingers trailed gently over her skin, over her buttocks, down the crease of fabric that led to the heated core of her body. He cupped her from behind, his middle finger stroking her through the now damp fabric of her panties and she shivered in response.
Back and forth he stroked her, and with each touch she pressed her buttocks back against him, against the hard length of his arousal. Tension coiled tighter and tighter within her and she rode wave after increasing wave of pleasure. Each surge taking her closer yet not close enough.
He eased his finger beneath her panties, brushing against her clitoris and sending a bolt of sensation to fly through her body before following the edge of her thong and pulling the garment down over her hips.
Pretend Mistress, Bona Fide Boss Page 9