The Virgin Secretary: A Billionaire Romance

by Cross, Veronica

  It was his turn to send her a doubtful look. “Tess, you can’t honestly not know by now.”

  She wasn’t oblivious, but he was still a bit of a mystery. He had that ultra-smart, ultra-kind vibe, but there were so much passion and desire in his gaze that she wasn’t quite sure how to reconcile them both. He was too nice to be as attractive as he was; she thought. It just wasn’t fair to equip a man with such powerful weapons.

  “Know what, exactly, Mr. Booker?” Tess didn’t bother to actually hide her grin. Something about him made her feel a little bolder than she would normally be. It was refreshing to know exactly how he was feeling about her; she liked not having to guess.

  “You know that I’m more than a little enamored with you, obviously.” He leaned all the way across the island and kissed her lightly before returning to his breakfast. “Besides, you owe me one, right? I want to see you paint something.”

  “Are you offering to be my model?” Tess lifted a mug to her lips, trying to hide her laughter.

  He scoffed. “I would never assume such a lowly position - I’m obviously offering to be your muse. Much more consistent with my status.”

  “Well, every good muse is a model at some point. Besides, don’t you know that I paint most of my muses naked?”

  He looked up, seeming surprised for a moment before he adjusted his expression to one of resignation. “I should have known; you just want to get me naked. I guess it’s understandable; I mean, look at me.”

  Tess nodded knowingly. “It’s true, you’re an artists’ dream. Both Adonis-level beautiful and super humble,” she said, drawing out the word ‘super’ for effect.

  “You forgot expert kisser.”

  No longer particularly interested in breakfast, Tess mirrored him as he leaned in across the table. “Now that one I’m just not sure about. Maybe a demonstration would help,” she added with a pseudo-passive shrug.

  He came around the island, breakfast abandoned, to pull her closer. Tess eagerly melted into him. She could get used to being around a guy like Alex. Especially if he kept kissing her like that.

  ---

  “C’mon, we’re already here. You promised to let me be your muse.”

  “Since when is a muse required to be naked, anyway?” She grumbled, partly amused but also a little nervous. Alex had insisted that this was exactly how he wanted to spend his day with her, despite her protests that he would be bored out of his mind watching her paint.

  “Please?” His smile was infectious, and she found herself unable to resist him.

  Faking a resigned shrug, Tess started idly arranging her canvas. “Yeah, sure, okay. I’ll paint you like one of DiCaprio’s French girls. Strip.” As an afterthought, she turned to actually meet his eyes and said, “Please.” One eyebrow arched, he started loosening the buttons on the white shirt he wore, deliberately maintaining eye contact. He was teasing her, and unfortunately, she knew it was working. “Saying please, now, are we?”

  “Just trying to be polite,” she breathed, finding it hard to focus on his eyes while he bared his remarkably toned abs.

  “I suppose that’s progress from before. You can be quite cruel when you want to, Tess.” He was referring to her grumbling from before, but she scoffed and tried to ignore him. His belt landed with a muffled thud on top of his shirt. “Has anyone ever told you that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar?”

  “I don’t particularly care for flies,” Tess shrugged. As he moved to loosen the button on his jeans, she knew that if she wanted to focus at all on her painting, she was going to need for him to be at least partly clothed. There was no sense in challenging herself beyond the necessary. Though, she had been spending more and more time wondering just what making love to him would be like; not that she expected to be admitting that to him just yet.

  “Stop there, I like that look. Put your glasses back on and sit here.”

  He obeyed, but he couldn’t resist teasing her. “Would my nakedness make you uncomfortable?”

  “Do you have any idea how many people I’ve painted naked? I’m a professional, Mr. Booker,” she insisted, not bothering to hide her laugh. She couldn’t deny that he was a very attractive man, but she could certainly control herself. Although, after their conversations on the balcony, she wasn’t so sure that she wanted to.

  “So, what should I do now?” He seemed a little uncomfortable, shirtless on the stool with his hands awkwardly on his knees. She couldn’t imagine an oncology researcher spent much time in front of artists.

  “Well, what do you want to look like when I paint you?” It was a question she asked all of her models; sometimes it was hard to capture an interesting portrait without a deeper concept of who the subject was.

  He considered her for a minute. “The kind of man you’d want.”

  What?

  Tess eyed him warily for only a moment before approaching him, and she watched as he overpowered the sudden urge to look away from her, embarrassed. She knew he was determined not to show any vulnerabilities, especially not here in her territory. Feeling a little bad for him, she tried to reassure Alex with a smile before telling him what to do.

  “Your posture is terrible; I like that. It adds interest,” pushing past her surprise, she tugged his elbow forward on his knee so that he wasn’t leaning on it so much. She nudged one of his feet with her own, so it was on the floor, and adjusted his shoulders with light touches, wordlessly arranging him until she was satisfied. Her fingertips brushing across his shoulder jump-started the desire he’d been so cautiously suppressing since her brother called him yesterday.

  “Now,” she muttered with a satisfied clap. “Look at me.”

  Tess could tell that he didn’t generally like being told what to do, but this was an easy command for him obey; surely, he didn’t want to miss a second of this. Tess, meanwhile, was so serious and so focused that she forgot that she was supposed to be guarded and distant. “Is this where I say cheese?”

  “That’s a hell of a jaw workout for a muse; this is going to take a while, so don’t bother.” Pausing a moment, she studied his eyes behind the dark frames. “Just keep your eyes on me; I want to capture the full effect of an Alex Booker stare down.”

  He didn’t really have a witty reply to that, but she got the feeling that he didn’t mind the chance to watch her for an extended period of time. So, instead of fighting it, he settled into her suggested pose and made small talk as she worked her magic.

  Her sketching was quick, confident. She studied him every once in a while; her gaze impassive. She felt like they were battling to see who’d break first. He teased her, she touched him, and so on until one of them broke.

  “If you’d like to disrobe, I’m going to start working on your lower half,” she stumbled on the last part of the sentence, momentarily breaking her professional facade. He grinned for a moment, and she knew that he thought he’d won.

  Knowing that she couldn’t let that be the end of their battle, she steeled her will before turning her attention back to him.

  “Ready?” He asked, returning to his place on the stool and mimicking his old pose. He hadn’t made any comment at all on the fact that he was naked, probably drawing out her discomfort.

  “That’s not where you were,” she sighed, trying to appear bored with the situation. She took a longer path to him than strictly necessary, coming around him from behind. She took only a moment to admire his broad shoulders before setting her very serious artist face back in place.

  She laid one hand on his side, just under his arm, with her other hand pressing the top of his shoulder back. “I thought you liked my bad posture,” he asked nonchalantly.

  She arched an eyebrow. “Good muses don’t talk back.” He grinned again, clearly not taking her severity very seriously. Tess sighed, not ready to give up just yet. “There’s something off about your legs,” she trailed off, coming to face him dead on. Slowly, deliberately, she traced a finger from his knee to mid-thigh and back. He visibl
y twitched when she pressed her palm to the side of his kneecap, spreading his legs slightly wider. She met his eyes, very careful not to look down at his cock.

  He was still smiling; she mentally cursed his easy going nature. It was going to take more than that to fluster him.

  “Something’s still not right; I wonder…” She knelt down, one hand on each of his knees. He watched her hungrily when she reached for his shoulders from where she was on the ground. She could feel her own heart beating as she pressed against his chest, just over his heart. He leaned back as she guided him to, and her fingertips traced a path from chest, to ribs, to stomach.

  Finally, as she brushed the skin under his navel, his eyes closed and he breathed out. On her knees before him, she watched the rapid changes in his expression. “You minx,” he breathed, flexing his hands to stop himself from reaching out to touch her. “If you want to finish that painting, you’d better stop.”

  Now that she had won, it was really hard for her to remember why she had resisted him at all. She’d lost all interest in painting.

  “Stop what?” She asked, feigning innocence. “This?” She pushed her palms from their resting place atop his knees to his inner thighs, pausing for a long moment as close to his cock as she could be without actually touching him. The paints on her hands left streaks of color as she touched him, leaving a visible path everywhere she went. “Or was it this?” She dragged the backs of her hands up to brush his stomach again. He groaned, his hands on hers, pulling her closer.

  “I want you,” he growled, leaning his forehead down to hers. “I want you so bad, I can’t stand it.”

  “Then take me,” she whispered back, not bothering to disguise the smile in her voice. “I’m yours.”

  His lips crashed onto hers, his hand behind her neck. Just as it occurred to her that it was awfully hot to be wearing so many clothes, he slid her cardigan off her shoulders, following its path with his lips, all the way to her wrists. Although he tried to avoid the wet paint on her hands and clothes, he still managed to get a streak of yellow paint across his cheek, somehow.

  Not liking the fact that she was still on the floor, she stood, leaning down to kiss him again. He pulled her into his lap, letting her straddle him. His erection was pronounced, now, and the friction between him and her jeans made them both groan. Before she knew it, she was topless, and he was doing that thing with her lower lip that she liked so much. She moaned, too absorbed by what he was doing to be embarrassed by the noise she was making.

  She almost didn’t notice when he stood up, carrying her effortlessly to the shabby couch tucked away in the corner of the studio. He tossed her gently onto the cushions and followed her down, stripping what was left of her clothing on the way. He lifted himself up slightly, admiring her body while he held her hand over his heart.

  “Feel that?”

  “Among other things,” she murmured in reply. His erection was pressed against her leg, and she was hyper aware of the heat coming in waves off of his body. With one hand resting behind his neck, she pulled his lips to hers. Their kiss didn’t last long, though; his lips wandered as her eyes fluttered shut. The feel of his almost-beard against her overly sensitive skin left her gasping for air. He traced a path between her breasts before flicking his tongue over her nipples, in turn, paying agonizing attention to each.

  Tess strained against his hold, trying to sit up. “You’re driving me crazy.”

  “You made me sit on that stool half-naked for ages; do you know how hard it was to watch you, fully clothed, being all serious and artsy? Studying my body?” He growled, pinning her hands at her sides, punctuating his words with kisses to her ribs, her stomach, her hips.

  “If this is your revenge, I should antagonize you more often,” she half-laughed, but let out a strangled kind of gasp when she felt his breath between her thighs. “Oh.”

  Hands still pinned, she arched her back in response to his exploring tongue. He was gentle, at first; lightly flicking in and out of her, over her clit, up a little farther, and then right back down. His touch was so intimate, it was almost a little unnerving. She trusted him, despite her first impressions, and she didn’t want him to stop.

  He worked his tongue steadily, watching her reactions carefully as he adjusted to exactly what she liked. Soon, she was panting his name as he brought her to climax.

  “Oh, Alex. Don’t stop.”

  She thought she saw a smile, but then he did something indescribably pleasurable with his tongue and what she was going to say died on her lips, replaced with a whimper as she came.

  She laid back, panting, and he crawled up next to her, lazily trailing a hand through her hair. He traced the streaks of paint across her body, admiring the artwork. Their eyes locked.

  “That was…” Tess paused, speechless. “Wow.”

  “Wow?” He asked with a smile, teasing his fingers across her collarbone.

  “Now you’re just fishing,” she said, biting her lip, as per her habit, to mute her laughter. Not wanting to let him have all the fun, she reached between them and squeezed his balls lightly.

  “And if I am?” He kept his voice level, but Tess heard the slight waver when she repeated the motion.

  She hummed, caressing him slowly. “How about I just show you how much I like you, instead?”

  Before he could answer, she rolled over to lie on top of him and took control. Her hands wandered as their lips locked. Pressing one finger to his lips, she settled back to straddle his thighs. From there, she handled his erection with care, letting him enjoy the view while she did her thing.

  Her right hand pumped up and down his full length. She kept her pace slow, deliberate; she wanted him to feel everything she was doing with her left hand across his thighs and stomach, too.

  “You’re beautiful, Tess,” he murmured, reaching for her face. She let him but arched an eyebrow.

  “Just lie back and enjoy.” Tess leaned forward, palms pressed to his chest, lips pressed to his mouth, before sheathing him oh-so-slowly within herself. His cock throbbed as she rose up and nearly off of him.

  “Fuck, this is heaven.” Alex’s hands came to rest on her hips, guiding her pace. It wasn’t long before Alex’s penis reached her G-spot, and Tess spasmed with newfound pleasure.

  She sank down, taking all of him, and swiveled her hips slowly, enjoying the full feeling that his considerable length allowed her. He practically growled when she stopped, and she took a moment to revel in her control.

  It was only a moment, though. Her coy smile seemed to trigger something primal in Alex. “I think it’s time you were properly fucked, love.”

  Just as her expression turned to one of surprise, Alex flipped the tides of control. He sat up, kissing her hard with one hand tangled in her hair and the other settled on her back. With his tongue pressed deep into her mouth and his cock still throbbing within her, she couldn’t decide which pleasure she wanted to focus on more. She was overwhelmed by the sensations and the heat between them.

  As Alex lifted her off of him, she whimpered, knowing that it was definitely the fullness that she wanted most. He grinned, breaking their kiss. “Just a second. You’re going to like this,” he assured her, brushing her hair back gently behind her ears. His touch was gentler than she was expecting, and she leaned into the palm he had rested against her cheek. He kissed her there, and there was a subdued moment during which her throbbing desire subsided, and Tess realized just how much she liked him, amazing sex notwithstanding.

  He stood, pulling her with him so that their kiss wasn’t broken. She followed, unwilling to let the moment end until he backed her against the arm of the couch. Panting, Alex tilted her chin to meet her eye. Tess noticed a mischievous glint that hadn’t been there a moment ago.

  His hands gripped her hips, hard, and he breathed against her ear. “Bend over.” He did most of the work for her, flipping her around and grinding his cock against her ass. She moaned, gripping the fabric of the couch as her thighs rested ag
ainst the arm.

  For a moment, the pressure of his weight lifted. He caressed her backside gently; once, twice, in a circle. There were smudges of green and blue over her legs, matching the patches of color on Alex’s hands.

  He spanked her abruptly, and then leaned down to kiss her neck and murmured, “You like that?”

  “Yes,” she breathed. “Yes, Alex.”

  He spanked her again. Tess’s eyes fluttered shut as she gripped the couch a little harder. She would have sworn she was practically dripping at this point, aroused as she was. She waited impatiently as he covered himself with a condom. Kneading her ass again, leaving smudges of the forest green she’d used to fleck the brown in his eyes. Just as she groaned again, he said, “I’m going to take you now, hard and fast.”

  “Please. I want you, now, please,” she panted. His grip on her hips tightened again as he positioned himself, rubbing the tip of his cock against her opening, teasing her. She moaned, and he plunged himself back inside her.

  “You feel so good,” Alex grunted, grabbing her hair and grinding into her.

  “So fucking good.”

  “Move,” she pleaded. “I want to feel you move.”

  “With pleasure.” He did as she asked, pumping in and out at a steady rhythm until she cried out. She had never felt so hot so fast; every thrust felt just right, and she found herself coming to peak pleasure quickly.

  “Alex, I’m going to-” With a strangled sort of shout, they came together. They both took a moment to breathe, neither in any particular hurry to disentangle. Tess could only imagine how much of a mess they both looked; each had streaks of paint across their arms and faces, and she was pretty sure there was blue in her hair.

  They ended up on the couch again, Tess lying back on Alex’s chest while he played with her hair. Time seemed to have stopped; the world outside ceased to exist. They dozed off as the sun set and the shadows across the well-lit studio lengthened.