“Next time, just let me touch you!” she snapped and walked away.
It wasn’t until she was in her bedroom with the door closed that she heard his laughter. And then she realized what she’d just said. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t see her, she still blushed a bright red, groaning as she let her head fall into her hands.
Chapter 9
Marcy moaned in her sleep when she felt the touch on her bare shoulder. Her dreams were getting better she thought as sleep slowly faded away. This dream was better than all of the others she’d had. Zeke making love to her, his strong hands sliding up her body, his lips touching her skin, nibbling…oh yeah, just like that. And soft kisses…goodness…
“Marcy,” she heard a deep voice say so close to her ear that she shivered, thinking that Zeke’s lips really were that close to her ear, that they’d touched her. Marcy was amazed that her imagination was so good. His voice sounded deeper this time. Sexier. She liked that. Definitely sexier. She wanted to hear that voice again and rolled onto her back, trying to pull her mind back to dream world. It was hard though because…
Laughter?
No. In her dreams, Zeke was never laughing. He was always urging her to touch him, to do…other things. But he never laughed.
Although…his laugh was pretty nice!
“Marcy!”
Her eyes opened, surprised because Zeke never, ever, yelled at her in her dreams.
When she looked into those dark, green eyes, she understood. She wasn’t dreaming! Zeke was here, in her room, and…
“What’s going on?” she gasped and pulled the sheet higher, hiding the baby-doll pajamas that she was fairly certain were revealing her hard, tight nipples to his knowing gaze.
“You overslept,” he told her with amusement lingering in his eyes. “What were you dreaming about?” he asked softly. He was sitting on the edge of her bed, his hip pressed against hers and she knew, she just knew, that he had been kissing her shoulder! There was no way her imagination could evoke those feelings! She should have known that she wasn’t that good.
Unfortunately, her brain was still too muddled from sleep and desire. Desire that he kept instilling in her but wouldn’t finish the job! The man was a tease!
He chuckled and the sound sent heat spiraling right down to her core. “You don’t have to answer that,” he told her. “I think I have a pretty good picture.”
Unfortunately, he stood up and started to walk away! “We have only one more day here and then we fly back to Seattle.” At the door to her bedroom, he paused and turned back to her. “I really appreciate your help over the past two weeks Marcy. I couldn’t have resolved these issues as quickly or as efficiently without your help.”
With that, he walked out of the room, softly closing the door behind him.
When she continued to stare at the closed door, her mind slowly starting to function, she almost growled in frustration as she realized what she should have done. Instead of laying here in the bed like a ninny, she should have kicked the covers aside and invited the man into her bed. She’d seen his body’s reaction! She knew that he wanted her.
How could he have walked away so casually?!
Oh yeah. There was that whole “shyness” thing he wanted her to get over.
Her head flopped back onto her pillow in frustration. She really did need to get over this ridiculous shyness. Did she want to be a virgin forever? Besides, Zeke made her feel things that she’d never felt, not like any of the other men she’d dated in the past. Stronger feelings. Feelings she didn’t quite understand how to deal with, but she was more than willing to learn.
Whenever he touched her, kissed her, or even looked at her with that special look in his eyes, her stomach tightened, her knees started wobbling, and she wanted nothing more than to press her whole body against his and resolve those feelings.
What a wimp, she grumbled mentally as she snapped the sheets out of her way and hurried into the bathroom. A glance at the clock spurred her to even faster action. She really was late! But even that was his fault, since she’d had trouble getting to sleep last night because of him.
She took a fast shower and then stepped out, wrapping a towel around herself. It would be really nice if she could generate enough courage to simply walk out of the bedroom and drop the towel.
He had the courage to do something like that. He would have done it that first morning if she’d asked him to.
But had she? Nope. Was she going to do it this morning?
She wiped the fog away from the mirror and gasped at her reflection with crazy hair and no makeup staring back at her.
Nope. No early morning striptease, she told herself and hurried to the closet to get dressed. Goodness, she loved having all of her clothes dry cleaned and hanging back in her closet like this, she thought as she grabbed a freshly cleaned suit and silk blouse. It was one of the perks of traveling with a man like Zeke and it was amazing! Zeke really lived a great life, she thought.
Then again, he had an enormous amount of pressure on his shoulders. He was in charge of maintaining a company that employed tens of thousands of people, not including all of the subcontractors that helped out on every construction site. She couldn’t imagine what that must be like.
Thirty minutes after getting out of bed, she grabbed her purse and her tote bag and headed out of her bedroom, feeling more than a little nervous this time. Goodness, he’d gotten an eyeful this morning. That baby-doll nightgown was one of her more revealing ones.
Zeke watched as Marcy walked over to the coffee service, his body still throbbing with need after that ill-conceived morning wakeup call. The damn nightgown she’d been wearing had covered too much. He was honest enough to admit to himself that he’d wanted a peek. More than a peek, he thought as he watched her walk towards the coffee wearing yet another long skirt and one of those taunting silk blouses.
Once he got her out of those silk blouses, he swore he was never going to let her get back into one!
Everything she wore was so conservative and yet, in his mind, the extra coverage only teased him, driving him nuts with lust.
He was trying to focus on an issue with a contract but all he could think about was peeling that material away and discovering her nipples. He desperately wanted to know what color they were, to see her breasts without anything in the way. He wanted to hold their full weight in his hands, to touch the skin, taste the peak. He suspected that they would overflow his hands and he wanted to…
Hell! He wasn’t just going to tear up those silk blouses, he was going to shred every one of her skirts. Her slender ankles were all he could see at the end of her legs and he wanted to push that material away and explore every inch of her legs.
He wasn’t even going to allow himself to think about her hands, pulling his eyes away from the image of her dainty fingers holding the coffee cup. They were elegant and looked soft. Too soft. He could too easily picture those fingers wrapped around his…
“We need to get going,” he grumbled, slamming his laptop closed with more force than necessary.
He was going to have to change tactics, he thought. Waiting for her to become more comfortable with him was killing him. He loved being here with her like this. Traveling and having her in the same suite, they’d been living together for two weeks. He’d gotten to know her schedule, loved seeing her when she walked out first thing each morning and noticed how she slowly wound down from the day. She was such a bundle of energy, but around nine o’clock each night, she crashed. Exhaustion for his little spitfire came on fast and furious. It was pretty cute, he thought.
But it was morning now and, for the first time, he’d seen the way she’d woken up. For such a bundle of energy, Marcy slept hard! He’d been kissing her shoulder and watching her breathe for several moments as he’d tried to wake her up.
Okay, he’d admit that he hadn’t tried very hard to wake her up initially. She’d just looked so…amazing…lying in that bed, surrounded by the white sheets…
Damn, but she was beautiful! All that dark hair spread out over her pillow, her curls going everywhere, her face clean and fresh looking without any makeup. He wasn’t the kind of man who normally liked a fresh face on a woman, but with Marcy, he did. Definitely. There was an elegance about her with makeup on but a sensuality without it. He wasn’t sure which was more erotic, but he was leaning towards the makeup-free state at the moment. Possibly because makeup-free meant she was in that damn nightgown and he was still thinking about peeling it off her.
Of course, unzipping that skirt and watching it fall to the floor was yet another nice fantasy. One that he was determined to act out. Very soon.
New plan. Obviously waiting for her to become more comfortable around him wasn’t working. He should have shifted into high gear sooner, he realized, as she poured herself a cup of coffee. As he watched those delicate hands hold her cup, his mind was already picturing her doing something different with those lovely fingers. So instead of waiting, he decided that he was going to kiss her at every opportunity. Thinking about the construction site, he knew there were many places where he could put this plan into action.
I’m going to kill him, she thought, as she walked behind him, stupid hardhat on her head and clipboard in her arms. She was trying to take notes while he walked through the construction site, but he kept pulling her off into private alcoves or behind large piles of supplies so that he could kiss her. Or if he wasn’t doing that, he was touching her! Sometimes it was just a gentle touch to her arm, and other times he put his large hand on the small of her back.
To an onlooker, none of his touches were inappropriate. Well, the kissing was definitely inappropriate, but did she tell him to stop? No way! In one sense, she loved it! She loved looking around, anticipating when he might pull her off and kiss her until she was silly or moaning or begging him to keep going.
But in another sense, she wanted nothing more than to toss her clipboard to the side and push him back up against one of the walls, do the same things to him that he was doing to her.
Of course, she didn’t do that.
Nor would she tell him to stop kissing her whenever he wanted to. Oh no, she’d keep going. She pictured herself ripping the buttons off of his tailored shirt and sliding her hands inside, running her fingers over all of those muscles she knew were underneath that tame material.
She’d whip his belt out of his pants and toss it behind her, then unzip his pants and…yeah, she’d touch him, stroke him. She couldn’t wait to feel the hard length of him in her hands. She’d read about it so often, had even done that once to a boyfriend. But that was as far as she’d gotten, not really enjoying the sensation at the time.
She’d like it with Zeke though. She was sure of it! She’d felt that erection against her stomach so often over the past two weeks and her hands were itching to feel him, to explore him.
She shivered. She wanted to taste him!
“You okay?” Zeke asked, feeling her shiver because his arm was around her. Ostensibly, his arm was there to help her pick her way over a set of boards that were stacked up along their pathway, but she knew that he wasn’t really helping her. He just wanted to touch her. And she wanted him to touch her, so she didn’t tell him that she was fine. She didn’t explain that she was perfectly capable of walking over the boards by herself. In fact, she leaned into him a bit more, wanting to feel his arms around her, loving the way he touched her. Yes, it was driving her crazy. No, she wasn’t going to stop him because she wanted -needed- his touch too much.
Zeke was becoming an addiction.
Marcy blushed and looked away. “I’m fine!” she replied quickly and started writing something on her clipboard.
“You already wrote that down, Marcy,” he teased and pointed to the words right above her pen.
Marcy’s hand froze and she forced her eyes to focus. “Right,” she whispered and dropped her hands. “Moving on,” she urged.
Zeke chuckled, his fingers sliding against her arm as if to help, but it was more of a teasing caress. “Yes. Moving on,” and Zeke led the way to another floor of the construction site.
Was this really necessary, she wondered? He was doing a full on inspection of the entire building! There was no need! The construction manager was good. He’d worked for Steele Industries for years!
But nooooo! Zeke went room by room, floor by floor. Never in her life had she realized how many closets and private spaces there were in a building! At every opportunity, Zeke kissed or touched her, never giving her body enough time to come down from the lust he’d inspired from the previous touch or kiss.
She followed behind him, her eyes taking in his broad shoulders. Why in the world had he taken off his suit jacket? He always wore his jacket! When she’d first started helping him out, she’d suspected that he was born wearing a suit jacket because he never took it off. His brothers would show up to meetings in just their shirts, ties in place, but Zeke always looked put together with his jacket on.
But was he wearing it today?
Nooooooo! The man was walking around, those enticingly broad shoulders stretching the material of his shirt. If she wasn’t drooling over those shoulders, she was staring at his butt.
His butt!
Marcy had never been a woman who had ever admired another man’s butt. Never in her life! She’d seen men in various pants, obviously, but never had her eyes been drawn to the man’s posterior.
They were now! Zeke’s butt was amazing! Since there was absolutely no give in his waist, just rock solid muscle, she suspected that his butt would be just as firm. Her mind jumped to the image of pressing her fingers against his butt when he was….
“Marcy, what do you think about…?”
She jerked her eyes upwards and blinked, trying to focus on his words. Her pen poised over the notebook on her clipboard but….
Nope. No clue what he was saying.
Zeke saw the flushed color in her cheeks and her dilated irises. Hell, she was right where he was and he was struggling to hide his body’s reaction to all of their activities already today.
“We should go,” he growled and put a hand to the small of her back. It was late afternoon already. His pilot was standing by. Getting her out of here, away from temptation was essential.
“Where are we going?” she asked, trying to keep up with his longer stride.
Zeke glanced down and then had to look away, but he slowed his pace. Her breasts were bouncing against the silk of her blouse, making things worse. “We’re heading back to Seattle.”
The construction elevator took them back down to the ground floor, but Marcy couldn’t ask him any other questions because there were too many other construction workers riding down with them.
The construction manager, Leon, saw them exit the elevator and smiled, walking over to them. Marcy could sense that the construction manager was nervous. It wasn’t often that the CEO of one’s company showed up to do a surprise inspection.
Marcy opened her mouth to say something but Zeke interrupted her. “Everything looks great,” he exclaimed cheerfully, shaking the man’s hand. “You’re doing a great job.”
Marcy glanced at her clipboard filled with issues he’d noted as they’d made their way through the building, but he shook his head when she started to ask a question, pulling her towards the car.
When they were driving down the road, heading towards the airport, she looked over at him, not sure what to make of this latest crazy shift. But he looked determined to break all the speed limits rushing to the airport. Instead of asking him a few of the dozens of questions that popped into her mind, she lifted her cell phone out of her tote bag and dialed the number for his flight crew, letting them know that they were on the way.
“We’ll be there in,” she glanced over at the speedometer, “well, shortly,” she told the pilot, cringing at the speed.
Zeke caught the look she was trying to hide and chuckled, some of the sexual tension easing ever so slightly. Only
Marcy could push him into a sexual frenzy and then bring him back to sanity. Only Marcy. “Sorry,” Zeke mumbled as he lifted his foot from the accelerator. “No need to get us killed on the way there.”
Marcy agreed, but she still didn’t understand what was going on. One moment, they were in the building and she was having a very nice fantasy about…well, naughty things. And the next moment, they were going faster than the speed of sound trying to get to the airport. This whole day had been a confusing, chaotic blur.
Zeke drove the rental car right onto the tarmac, pulling up right beside the stairs that had been pushed against one of the Steele Industries private planes. Tossing the keys to an airport employee, he walked around to Marcy’s side and took her hand, helping her out of the vehicle. Walking up the stairs, he nodded briefly to the flight attendant and pilot. “We’re ready when you are, Pete,” he snapped to the pilot, who simply nodded his head and ducked into the cockpit.
Marcy hurried over to one of the large, comfortable leather chairs and buckled her seatbelt. The flight attendant did the same and she watched as Zeke tossed his jacket onto one of the chairs, sitting down in another and loosening his tie.
Out the window, Marcy saw people hurrying around, preparing the plane for takeoff. Their luggage had been transferred from the hotel to the plane at some point during the day. Another person, most likely an airport employee, jumped into the rental car and drove it off of the tarmac, the stairs were pulled away from the plane and her eyes widened when she saw a man with those funny, cone covered flashlights begin to direct the plane. Obviously there was a window for takeoff. Marcy had already grasped that private planes had a great deal more leeway in landings and takeoff times since they had a special airport. They didn’t need to worry about the larger commercial flights either. This was a completely different way to fly.
Glancing over at Zeke after takeoff, she realized he was already on the phone discussing something, but she was too dazed to absorb it all. The soft lull of the aircraft as it zinged through the airspace lulled her to sleep. After the restless sleep she’d endured last night, she could barely keep her eyes open.
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