“I don’t want you to.” She held still, savoring his hot lips barely touching her skin as he spoke, whispering the words, as if moving or speaking too loudly might break the spell.
“I’m going to think,” he repeated. “Do you have plans for tomorrow night?”
Holy shit. If she had, she’d cancel them in a flash. Taking a risk, she reached out and laid her palms on his lean chest. He flinched as if she’d burned him, his breath breaking against her temple. But he didn’t pull away. “No plans. Shall I come over?”
He laughed, more a gasp for air, and let go of her shoulders, wrapping his hands around her wrists and staring fiercely into her eyes. “I will call you. If I can’t talk myself out of this insanity, I’ll take you out for a proper dinner and we’ll discuss.” He set her hands away and let go, stepping well back. “No more touching. I’ll watch you to your door.”
She shrugged out of his coat and handed it to him, the air that much colder for its lack, her already aroused nipples tightening painfully. On impulse she rubbed her arms, squeezing her breasts together so he had to look. “Brr.”
He dragged his gaze up and gave her a half smile that had a tantalizing hint of cruelty to it. “You know that, if we go ahead with this, I will make you pay for every time you’ve teased me that way.”
She nearly melted. “Oh God—I hope so.”
He smiled in truth and shook his head. “Minx. Go.”
She took a few steps, then looked over her shoulder to see him standing there, coat draped over his arm, the wind tugging at the dark fabric, a desperate hunger in his eyes. Desire surged through her and something more—anticipation, delight, feelings both hot and sweet. Pressing her fingers to her lips, she blew him a kiss. Then hurried to the front doors, held open by the doorman, who gave her a pleasant nod.
“Good evening, Ms. Dolors?”
“Best ever.” She looked back to see Alec still waiting for her to get safely inside. “Looking to get even better.”
Chapter Eleven
Oddly enough, he slept long and deeply. By all rights he should have tossed and turned, plagued by lurid dreams of Amber as he had been for weeks. Indeed, falling asleep with the candy scent of her skin still swirling in his head, he’d expected the fantasies to ride him even harder.
Instead, he awoke refreshed, remembering no dreams and feeling suffused with a vicious optimism. Looking forward to seeing her that night.
I never pegged you for a glass-half-empty kind of guy. No, he wasn’t, was he? In fact he must have donned rose-colored glasses somewhere along the way to be contemplating this step, to think it could possibly turn out well. He’d figured on waking early, as usual, which would have given London enough time to advance to a civilized hour for a phone call. Now with it past one there, he hoped he’d be able to catch Luke at all.
“Alec!” Luke picked up on very nearly the first ring. “Have you had enough of the Yanks? I can find a place for you straight away.”
Alec stood and looked out at the city, smiling at the sound of his old friend’s voice. “Not yet, though I miss London.”
“I can’t imagine why. Dreariest spring imaginable. You’re no doubt better off. Perhaps I’ll move there.” The sounds of children shrieking filled the background, along with a referee’s whistle.
“Wouldn’t that be a brilliant idea?” Alec laughed, knowing well that Luke would never leave the company he’d lovingly built through twenty years of solid effort. “How’re Suze and the kids?”
“Fine, fine. We’re at a football match for Charlie.” Luke paused. “You’re not one to call me up for chitchat. Since we can’t meet at the pub, how about you just come out with it?”
This, then, was why it had occurred to him to call Luke for advice. He wouldn’t mince his opinion and Alec needed a strong dose of reality.
“I’ve a hypothetical for you.”
“Is that so?” The background noises dimmed as Luke must have stepped away from the crowd. “Again unlike you, but I’ll accept your ‘asking for a friend’ gambit.”
“An older man considers an affair with a much younger woman. Who works in the same company.”
“Is she a direct report?”
“Yes, through a few layers, though that could be altered with reasonably little fuss.”
“I assume this hypothetical younger woman is on board with both plans?”
An image of Amber under the slanting light in the shadowed alley—eyes shimmering with sexual promise as she gazed up at him, her slender fingers hot through his shirt as she offered to come over—tore through him with swift and agonizing arousal. “Yes,” he managed. “We’ve discussed.”
“So much for hypothetical. You don’t need me to tell you this is a bad idea, Alec.”
“Perhaps I do, as I’ve had no success convincing myself.”
“Again, unlike you. Is this about Tess?”
“Is there a point at which everything I do is not about my devastating divorce?” Alec replied, with some bitterness. Which Luke didn’t deserve.
“Says the man who pulled scorched earth on his entire life as a result of said devastating divorce,” Luke pointed out with wry patience.
“It’s been two bloody years.”
“So, you’re saying you’re over it? Ready to walk the streets of the homeland again, visit all your old haunts—perhaps look at one bloody photo of her?”
Alec took a deep breath. Luke had sat through many a whiskey-sodden evening at the pub, offering advice and just listening. More than any other, he knew what that divorce had done to Alec, so he couldn’t resent that knowledge. Wasn’t that why he’d called?
“You’re right. I shouldn’t do this. Thank you for being the voice of reason.”
“I never said that.”
“You called it a bad idea.”
“It may be that, but it also may be good for you to do something off the straight and narrow. Perhaps this girl is meant to end this self-enforced penance you’ve toiled under.”
That gave him pause. “Is that how you see what I’ve done?”
Luke sighed. “Hold on.” He muffled the phone but his shouted “Well done, Charlie!” echoed through.
“I should let you go—I’ve interrupted.”
“Not at all. Just tossing out the occasional cheer to encourage the boy. Hate to see what a muddle he makes of it all.”
“That makes the both of us then.” Alec caught his frown in the faint reflection of the glass. He sounded like a sodding loser.
“You, my friend, made a mess of nothing. Tess is entirely to blame for all of it, the treacherous bitch. I’ve said as much before. One day you’ll listen.”
“You have to say that, as my friend.”
“Doesn’t make it untrue,” Luke agreed with cheer. “Does this sweet young thing know of your particular predilections?”
“The core of her attraction, in fact. Why else would she be interested in a man old enough to be her father?”
Luke whistled, soft and low. “Tell me she’s gorgeous.”
“She is. Of the intelligent variety. Looks like a sexy Alice in Wonderland.”
“You have to do this, if only so I can live vicariously through you.”
Alec laughed—and it felt good, freeing up some of the logjam of feeling as if he might be a Very Bad Person for even considering this course of action. Hell, who was he kidding? He’d never manage to stay away. If the past weeks had demonstrated anything, they’d shown he stood no chance of resisting her another moment. The prospect of being with her that night made him near insane with anticipation.
“And if I destroy my career doing so?”
“Hang on, I’m still mentally undressing my sexy Alice in Wonderland. Ah, yes. If it comes to that, all the better for me—you’ll come back to Lond
on in disgrace, forced to work for me for slave wages.”
“Seriously. What about the workplace landmines—have you any useful advice for me?”
“Simple. Get her out from under your supervision.”
“Done.” Or would be, by Monday.
“Then you have two courses of action. Keep it under wraps or go to your partners and lay it out. I knew a couple did that—in another firm—she with the company and he a client. Asked for and obtained permission to date. I take it you have no company rules forbidding such?”
“None. How did it work out for the couple you knew?”
“Badly. Relationship fizzled, as they do. A reason perhaps to give yours a whirl on the down-low, to see if this is a fling or something more. No sense making a fuss if it’s meant to burn out in a few weeks. If you’re confident she won’t turn on you for harassment. She could, you know.”
“I know.” Amber, leaning over the table. I’m on fire now and nothing cools it. I keep thinking it will go out, but it just grows hotter. “She’s not the sort.”
“Well, you’ve always been an excellent judge of character.”
“Except for Tessa.”
Luke paused long enough for the sound of a goal made in the distance to leak through. “I don’t think so. People change, my friend. You had good years with Tessa and you parted ways because you ended up wanting different things. It happens.”
Though he knew Luke had the right of it, he couldn’t quite bring himself to agree. Somehow his heart couldn’t make sense of what his brain understood. And it made him question his own judgment—of character and otherwise. Especially now, with the same unrelenting hunger Amber had described driving him onward.
The hunger he intended to satiate for them both and damn the consequences.
* * *
Alec hadn’t been what you’d call chatty on the phone. Good thing that curt tone seriously did it for her. From him, instructions to be ready at six, that he’d call up for her and to wear a cocktail dress sounded more enticing than all the glad-handing another guy might offer.
Kiki, sprawled on the couch with her reader and an ice pack on her forehead, seemed less impressed. “Short convo.”
“It’s not like we needed to discuss world politics.”
Her friend narrowed her eyes. “You’re giddy. I’m going to make you watch St. Elmo’s Fire again so we can revisit what happened to Demi Moore when she dated her boss. If you sell off all the furniture and I walk in to find you freezing yourself to death, I won’t be nice about it.”
“Omigod, I can’t believe you’re using an eighties movie to scare me. We weren’t even born then.”
“Great cautionary tales never lose their impact. Look at Les Mis.”
“Now I’m going to be destitute and cutting off my hair and selling my teeth to support my illegitimate daughter? That reminds me—I’d better buy condoms. Or do you think he’ll have them? He’ll probably have a favorite kind.”
Kiki adjusted the ice pack and groaned. “Do me a favor and don’t have sex with him yet. Go out to dinner, okay, try on the dating thing. Hold off on letting him collar you or whatever kink you have planned.”
“We have talked. Last night counts as a date. Besides, he’s not like that.”
Kiki cracked open one dubious eye. “I thought you were hot for him because he is exactly like that.”
“Well...” Kiki had a point. But she also didn’t know Alec. “It’s hard to explain—and I don’t have time, anyway. I need to go shopping. Get my nails done. I wonder if I could get in for a body polish at the last minute?”
“Why am I even bothering to attempt to talk sense into you? You’re a hormonal whirlwind. Worse than prom night.”
“Don’t harsh my buzz.”
Kiki snorted. “Fine. Whatever. If you can get a body polish for me, too, I’ll go. I feel like a turtle, my skin is so scaly.”
Amber went with basic black. Nothing wrong with a classic. Or with the dress’s full skirt and uneven hem that bared her legs above the knee in front and trailed dramatically to her ankles behind. Though the purchases meant digging into her savings—something that would appall her father if he knew. Of course, everything about this likely would—she also bought new lace lingerie to match. Including an underwire push-up bra that did spectacular things for her breasts in the heart-shaped bodice. On Kiki’s advice, she kept her jewelry demure and simple, and left her hair down, though she curled it meticulously.
“Not the red lipstick,” Kiki interrupted, handing her a warm-up glass of wine at five forty-five. “The light pink.”
“Red looks better with the black. The pink makes me look like a teenybopper.”
“And you think he doesn’t love that? Trust me.”
“Suddenly you’re all on board?”
“I’m swept up in the hormonal whirlwind,” Kiki replied in a dry tone. “Besides, you look amazing and it’s nice to see you so revved. I hope it’s what you’ve been wanting.”
“Aww...thank you!” She hugged Kiki’s bony shoulders.
“Even if I am a little worried.”
“I’ll stick to the signal system if I’m not coming home. I’ll check in.”
“Good. Though at least he’s a known quantity, more or less. I’m more concerned about how this could end.”
“I can’t think about that right now.”
“Well, if we did, we’d never color outside the lines. What’s youth without at least one disastrous love affair?”
Her cell rang and she pounced as Kiki shook her head at her enthusiastic squeal.
“I’ve arrived, though I’m early,” Alec purred in her ear, sounding considerably less curt this time. “Take your time.”
“On my way!”
She grabbed her heels and ran barefoot down the flights of stairs, stopping in the lobby this time to pull them on, then clicking past the grinning doorman to find Alec out front where he’d been watching her through the glass doors, leaning against the car in a dangerously sleek dark suit, holding a bouquet of pink roses. He raised an eyebrow. “Do you never wear your shoes before hitting street-level?”
“The elevator is glacially slow. Stairs and stilettos make for a dangerous combination.” She was out of breath from running down so fast. Or from the sight of him and the prospect of the evening to come. Not to mention the swooningly romantic gesture of the roses.
“For you.” He handed them to her with a flourish and a self-deprecating smile. “The color made me think of you.”
Kiki had called it on the pink. She buried her face in them, breathing in the thick scent, more than a bit flustered.
“You’re blushing,” Alec observed with a half smile and an intense look in his eye.
“Sorry.”
“Not at all. I find it...” He opened the car door and held out a hand to help her. “Most appealing,” he finally finished as she stepped in. The hesitation and his altered tone made her wonder what other descriptors he’d considered using.
She arranged herself, making sure her dress wouldn’t wrinkle abysmally as he walked around to the traffic side and let himself in. The shaded partition had been raised this time, screening the driver from view. No newspapers in sight—instead the shelf held an ice bucket with a bottle and two crystal flutes.
“Champagne?” Alec asked as the car pulled smoothly away from the curb.
“Yes, please.”
He poured for them both and handed her the flute shimmering with golden bubbles, much like the nervous excitement fluttering in her belly. “Cheers,” he said, tapping his glass to hers.
She sipped, then grinned in delight at the smooth, perfectly crisp flavor. “Delicious.” Remembering, she pulled her phone out of her beaded evening bag and sent Kiki their all-clear signal of two dancing girls.
; “What is that?” He narrowed his eyes at her phone screen.
“An emoji. Texting Kiki.”
“Say the word again.”
“Emoji. It’s this emoticon language. Kiki and I have a system worked out for dates with...” She trailed off, realizing how it sounded.
“With strange men?”
“Um. New ones anyway. We set it up when we first moved to the city.”
“Probably wise. So what does that one mean?”
“Oh no—I can’t reveal the code! What if you took me captive, sold me into a third-world bordello and used the signals to counterfeit that I was safe?” She wrinkled her nose at him.
“I doubt I could find these emojis on your phone in the first place.”
“I notice you don’t declare that you would never take me captive.”
“If I did, I’d never sell you, but keep you for myself.” The words and the desire running beneath them set her system humming. A buzz that intensified when he picked up the hand not holding the flute and kissed the back of it, eyes on hers. “You look very beautiful tonight.”
“Thank you.” From the heat in her cheeks, she knew she must be blushing even harder. “I didn’t expect all this.”
“All of what?”
She hesitated to use the word romance. This might count more as seduction in his book. As if he needed to employ those methods with her. “Flowers, champagne, fancy dress. I don’t know.” She shrugged when a line formed between his brows. “Don’t get me wrong—I love it. I...” Am screwing this up.
“Thought this would be about sex?”
Isn’t it? “Maybe?”
He nodded, a bare dip of the chin, as if confirming something to himself. “We may have come to this evening via a rather crooked and treacherous path, but I’m not a fellow for casual sex.” He shook off some thought and continued. “If we’re going to do this—as it seems we are—we shall do it full out. We’ll be exclusive for as long as it lasts and, issues of discretion aside, I plan to treat you as my girlfriend in every way. If that’s not acceptable to you—why are you smiling that way?”
“I just kind of love it when you tell me how things will be, the way you say it. All formal and didactic.”
Under His Touch Page 10