“Where would you want me to kiss you?” he asked.
His words were so enticing, her tongue darted out, wetting her lips in anticipation of his kiss. She wanted that kiss! She wanted it more than she wanted to inhale again.
He lifted his hand, trailing a finger down her neck to her collar bone. “Here?” he asked softly. Had he just moved closer? Ella wasn’t sure, too focused on that finger tracing a line along her skin. He actually pushed the material of her denim shirt out of the way, giving his finger more room. “Or maybe here?”
Ella realized that she was holding her breath. It was only the painful burn in her lungs that gave her the strength to inhale. Thankfully, the breath called to mind so many other things and she stepped back, shaking her head. “You’re going to get us arrested,” she muttered, looking away and putting the black lace bra back on the circular rack. She moved to the next rack, not wanting him to know that she’d been looking at bras. Which was absolutely stupid since he’d literally caught her looking at them, lifting them up to the light. Her only solace was that he didn’t know what she’d been thinking in terms of the sheerness of the bra.
“Here,” he said, handing her the black, lace bra that she’d just rejected. “I’ll be able to see your nipples through this one.” He pushed several more pieces out of the way. “I might not even need to take it off. I imagine that I’d be able to taste you through the material.”
There was an odd sound after his comment and Ella was terrified that she’d just groaned. Images of him teasing her nipples through the sheer material of the bra caused her fingers to clench around the hanger. “We can’t do this here,” she whispered, needing to get away from him before she jumped him in the middle of the stupid circular racks. Crazily, her next thought was that, if they’d been straight, they might have hidden her ravenous attack more thoroughly.
“You’re a C cup, right?’ he asked. He was sorting through the bras and panties with an expertise that should have horrified her, but actually, it intrigued her. How experienced was he in selecting ladies lingerie? And why did his perceived expertise give her a stab of jealousy? It was silly to be jealous of his past lovers. Especially since she was still trying not to become one of his future lovers. Although, she wasn’t doing a particularly good job of that. The past two times she’d been in his arms, her only consolation had been thinking of him being led away in handcuffs as her salvation from falling into his bed.
And even that image had been painful. Ella really wasn’t thinking properly. She needed to force her thoughts back into this investigation and get it done before she made a colossal mistake.
He walked over to her and she might have laughed when he held a pair of pretty lace panties up against her butt. “What are you doing?” she hissed, shifting away from him.
“You’re a size ten?” he asked, tilting his head from one side to the other, assessing her bottom.
“Yes!” she said, and turned away so that he couldn’t see her butt. “Sometimes!” Her weight shifted a lot, depending on what she was doing. She could go down a size when she was out in the field, but when she came home, she devoured convenient, unhealthy foods and went up a size. That didn’t mean she wanted him to know that though.
“You’ve got a great figure, Ella. Why hide it?”
“I don’t hide it,” she snapped, moving so that one of the racks hid her derriere. “There’s a difference between hiding it from the world and hiding one’s butt from a guy trying to size her up for lingerie purposes.”
He didn’t respond, but instead, moved back to the original rack and started matching up panties to the bras he’d already selected.
“What are you doing?” she demanded, glancing at the salesperson who was standing uncertainly off to the side, not sure if she should approach.
“I’m picking out bras and panties for you. Not the type of stuff you are probably wearing right now, but things that are sexier. Pieces I’d like to see you in.”
She shook her head again. “I can’t afford all of this!” she hissed, glancing towards the salesperson again.
“I’m buying it all for you,” he told her, not bothering to look up as he added more pieces to the embarrassingly large pile.
“I am not going to wear those for you, Malcolm!” she told him firmly.
“Ella, there is something burning between us and we need to do something about it. Otherwise, whatever building we are in is going to catch fire. Now I think we should simply take care of this lust and get it out of the way. It’s hot enough that it will eventually burn out. Then we can get back to our lives.” He paused, looking almost angry with her for the situation they found themselves in. “Are you on board or are you going to keep trying to pretend this isn’t happening?”
Ella opened her mouth, then closed it. What he said made sense. What she couldn’t reconcile about the whole scenario was her mother and this hatred she’d had for Malcolm and his father for the past several years. Her mother had been so….desperate the afternoon she’d been fired. So humiliated! Not that she’d loved her job, but it had brought in an income and she was proud of the work she’d done for the estate. She’d cooked marvelous meals, cleaned up after the older man who was generally not very nice. Then to be summarily fired…and sick…well, Ella’s mother hadn’t been able to figure out how to move forward.
Maybe he was right. Perhaps she should use him just like his father used her mother all of those years ago. Could she do it? Could she use a man sexually and just walk away when their attraction burned out?
What was the alternative though? To continue to pretend as if there wasn’t a crazy lust that consumed her every time they were within eyeshot of each other? That didn’t make sense either.
And yet, Ella wasn’t the kind of person who could use another. It was the whole point of her career. Ella loved exposing unfair circumstances so that public pressure, or law enforcement, forced the perpetrators to face their crimes. It was what she did, who she was.
“You’re over analyzing this, Ella. It’s just basic human nature.”
She stared up at him, trying to reconcile everything. Unfortunately, there were too many issues coming at her. She couldn’t keep up. “Is it though?” she asked him. “Are we really that animalistic that we should simply follow our urges?”
He smiled slightly at that. “Is that what you think is going on between us? Simple animalistic urges?” he mocked. Moving closer, he shook his head. “No, Ella. That’s not what is happening. I agree that there is something primal about our need for each other. And yes, I feel a strong urge to pull you into that dressing room and do some pretty raunchy things to your delectable body.” He paused, pulling her closer. “But that’s not all that’s happening, is it?”
Ella looked up into his eyes and silently acknowledged that her opinion of him had changed. From the night he’d saved her in the warehouse, she’d struggled to keep thinking of him as the bad guy. But if he wasn’t the bad guy, then who was? And what was happening between them? Even now, as he pulled her closer to him, she wondered what he wanted from her. More importantly, she wondered if she could give that to him.
“You’re moving too fast, Malcolm,” she whispered. “I need time.”
“How much time?” he asked as his fingers tightened on her waist.
She had to laugh at his impatience, although it also felt really nice. No man had ever wanted her like this. Yes, she’d had men find her attractive. But that was different.
“I don’t know. Can we just…?”
“Yes. We can slow down,” he said, finishing her sentence. He laughed slightly. “At least, we can try. Is that better? Does that give you the reassurance that you need?”
She smiled and, for the first time since she’d met him again, Ella moved closer to him. “Yes. Thank you.”
He stared at her for a long moment, then sighed heavily and looked around. “You chose a damn good place for this conversation,” he grumbled.
At the same moment, Ella l
ooked around. It was at that moment that they both remembered where they were. “Good grief!” she laughed and stepped out of his arms.
“Exactly,” he replied and pulled his wallet out of his pocket. “We need to talk,” he ordered and picked up the bras and panties he’d selected. “I’ll be right back.”
“You’re not buying those for me, are you?’ she asked, horrified at the large stack of items. “Those bras are each about a hundred euros or more!”
He grinned, winking at her. “I can’t wait to see you in each and every one of them.” He walked away, handing the pieces to the salesperson. A few moments later, he returned and kissed her. It was just a brief caress but it felt shockingly nice.
“What was that for?” she asked.
“I wanted to kiss you. You looked kissable. So, I kissed you.” He took her hand. “Come along,” he urged. “We have things to do. I have a list.”
She followed him, tugging at his arm to slow him down. “What kind of list?” she asked, looking around at the other shoppers self-consciously. Several women glanced in Malcolm’s direction and Ella glared at them, furious that they would dare to flirt with him while he was walking next to her, holding her hand. How rude!
“A list of men who might be involved in that secret club you are so interested in.”
She shot a stink eye to yet another woman, ignoring Malcolm’s chuckle at her efforts. “You mean the secret club that you are also a member of?”
“If you say so,” he replied and towed her into a store with beautiful, designer dresses. “I think you should try on this one,” he suggested, handing her a red, sparkly dress with a deep V neckline.
Ella scoffed and ignored the dress. “I’d never wear something like that.”
“Why not? You’d look amazing in it,” he told her, but placed the dress back on the hook.
“Because those sparkles are nice and exciting, but every time my arm brushed against my side, the skin on the inside of my arm would get scraped. Not a comfortable dress.”
He looked at the dress, then tilted his head as if conceding her point. “Okay, so pick out another dress.”
“I don’t need an evening gown, Malcolm. My world doesn’t involve a lot of fancy parties.”
“You’re attending one with me tonight,” he said and pointed to a gown of shimmering blue silk. “What about this one?”
Ella fingered the gown for a moment, then saw the price tag and gasped, pulling her hand away. “Not even on a dare!’ she told him, moving towards the door of the store.
“I’ll pay for the dress, Ella. But I need you at the event tonight.”
She stopped and turned back to him, shifting her beat-up messenger back on her shoulder. “What kind of event? And why do you need me?”
He picked up another dress, one in maroon with a pretty, jeweled neckline. This one came up to her neck, but had a slit on the skirt that would probably show off most of her thigh when she moved.
“Because three of the men on our list will be attending. Since it’s black tie, you need to dress up.”
That captured her attention. “What list?”
“That list that I just mentioned. About the members of the secret club?”
She bit her lip, wanting to point out again that he was a member of the club. But shouldn’t she simply prove it instead of stating it again?
“Fine. What time?” she asked.
He handed her three dresses and tilted his head towards the dressing rooms. “Go try these on.”
“You can’t buy me dresses,” she protested.
He laughed. “Think of it as my punishment for whatever crimes I’ve committed in the past. You can wear one of the dresses tonight and then sell it at a consignment shop tomorrow, get several thousand dollars for it and give the money to charity. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?”
She couldn’t stop the chuckle at his suggestion. “Fine! I’ll try on the dresses.” She disappeared into the fitting room and tried on the first dress. She took off her jeans and tee-shirt, feeling painfully bourgeois to be shopping in a store like this one. But it felt pretty good too. She’d never really played dress up as a kid, preferring to run around outside in jeans, getting mud and grass stains on the knees. Only a couple of months ago, she’d been in a village surrounded by huge trees with wide, strong branches. In the afternoons, she’d climb into the trees and work on her story, writing what she’d discovered over the past twenty-four hours, or just sit in the tree reading quietly, the long branches allowing her to curl up and relax.
But as the shimmering fabric slipped over her figure, Ella couldn’t suppress a small sigh of joy. The fabric was soft against her skin and, as she turned to look at herself in the mirror, she was stunned at the difference.
“Ella? Are you okay?” Malcolm called from the other side of the dressing room door.
Her fingers trembled as she touched the material, smoothing it over her figure slightly. “I’m fine!” she called back, but even to her own ears, her voice sounded strangled.
“What’s wrong? Come out and let me see!”
Come out? Let him see? No way! She couldn’t let him see her like this!
“Ella, come on out. Please?”
His voice was deep and commanding, but Ella continued to stare at herself in the mirror. Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought that she could look like this. The design of the dress made her waist look tiny, and the neckline draped over her chest, causing her average-sized breasts to look…bigger? No, that wasn’t really the word. More enticing? Yes.
She looked like a pinup model from the fifties. Yes, that’s what this dress did for her. She looked…sexy!
The dressing room door opened and Ella spun around. For a long moment, he didn’t say anything. He simply stood there, taking in her figure in the shimmering dress. Then his eyes moved higher, looking directly into hers and he nodded. “Yes. That one will work nicely tonight.” A moment later, he stepped out of the dressing room. “Try on the next one.”
For a moment, she stood in the dressing room, stunned by her overwhelming reaction to the sensation of his eyes caressing her body. But then she snapped out of her trance-like state and reminded herself that she didn’t even like the man. “I thought this one would work,” she called back to him.
“It’s perfect. But we might need other dresses. I don’t know what we’ll discover tonight, so it’s better to have options for the future.”
Ella let her fingers slide down the material of the next dress, almost afraid to try it on. And yet, eager at the same time! How could she have so many conflicting emotions running through her head?
Ella was a practical kind of person. When she needed food, she ate. If she needed clothing, she pulled on a pair of jeans. Prior to meeting Malcolm, her life had been fairly black and white. Now she was surfing through shades of grey, and she wasn’t sure how to surf!
“Here’s another one,” she heard his deep voice as he opened the door and…stopped. “You haven’t changed.” He handed her a strapless black dress done in silk. “Try this one next,” he ordered and stepped out of the dressing room. “Come out here when it’s on.”
She huffed a bit as she stood there in the dressing room. “You’re getting a bit dictatorial, Malcolm.” But she still pulled off the first dress and slid into the black silk. There was no way she’d admit to him that she was just as eager to try on the dress as he was to see her in it. That would give him too much power. Balance, she thought as she slid the zipper up here back. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get it all the way up and the bodice gaped in front of her as she twisted and contorted, trying to pull up the zipper.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine!” she called back to him. But he must have heard the frustration in her voice because a moment later, he stepped into the dressing room.
“I’ll get that,” he told her. His voice was huskier. Deeper. And as he moved behind her, she saw his eyes in the mirror. They were a dark, intense blue, conveying
that his lust just under the surface was barely controlled.
“I don’t need your help,” she whispered, afraid of him touching her. It had been one thing when she’d had clothes on. But in this dress, her back and shoulders were bare. Skin to skin. He’d touch her! He would…
She gasped when his fingers slid along her spine. He watched her shiver under his fingers. When his fingers caressed her skin, it only confirmed what was in his mind. “You’re not zipping up the dress,” she whispered to him, their eyes staring at each other as their heartbeats pounded.
“I’m not?”
She shook her head.
“Maybe, I think it looks perfect just like this,” he teased.
She rolled her eyes and shifted the material so it more completely covered her breasts. “Do you really want me at an event looking like this? With the dress half-zipped?”
He laughed and zipped up the dress. “I suspect that, if we were alone, we would be very late for whatever gathering was on the agenda.”
Ella suspected that he was right. And unfortunately for her peace of mind, she wasn’t sure if it would only be him doing the delaying. The way he’d touched her sent shivers of awareness shooting through her. Delicious shivers. Amazing shivers. Ella wasn’t even sure that she cared about being in a dressing room.
He stood behind her, looking at her figure draped in black silk. His hands slid up her arms to rest on her bare shoulders as his eyes continued to sizzle. “We’ll take this one as well.”
Ella sighed. The dress cost several thousand dollars! “I can’t buy these,” she told him. “My bank balance is pretty good right now, but these dresses are way out of my price range.”
“You’re not buying them,” he repeated. “Remember, the cost of these dresses is the first part of my punishment for my misdeeds,” he told her, then slid the zipper back down. All the way down. The end of the zipper allowed her underwear to peek out and he looked down, noticing. One long finger even slid over the elastic of her panties. She couldn’t see his eyes, but she was fairly sure that she knew what he was thinking. Mostly because she was thinking the same thing.
The Secrets of Seduction (The Ladies of The Burling School Book 7) Page 5