Dream Lover

by Peterson, Nicola

  Maxwell put the coffee jug down and turned to her, ‘I didn’t set you up and it was stupid and unkind of me to let you think I had,’ now he sighed. ‘I am really sorry Quinn, I was angry you had been attacked,’ he held out his hand toward her. ‘I promise I did not set you up,’ he told her sincerely.

  She looked up into his face, he did look truly sorry and had obviously lost sleep over it, he looked almost as tired as she felt. Which had to be a first, he never looked tired. Slipping her hand into his, she was very aware of his strong warm fingers as they closed gently around her much smaller ones. Suddenly her heart started to race as a flash of the previous night’s erotic dream replayed only this time it wasn’t her lips he was kissing.

  ‘I’ll let you off this time.’ She couldn’t say ‘forgive’ she wasn’t sure she did, ‘but I don’t think I want to accompany you on anymore trips, not after last night,’ she informed him forcefully.

  His brow creased as she pulled her hand from his, ‘Look about last night,’ he looked slightly flustered and strangely guilty, ‘I didn’t realise that you were…’ his words faded as he seemed to go into a world of his own.

  Quinn’s brow creased while she tried to work out why he looked so troubled, he was silent so long in the end she prompted him, ‘That I was what?’

  He looked up quickly, ‘you know… so… innocent.’

  ‘Mr Cordell what are you talking about?’ she asked finishing her coffee while waiting for his reply.

  His brow creased even further, ‘You know….’

  ‘No I don’t know,’ she shook her head and sighed; if anyone’s brain should be scrambled today it should be hers but by the way her employer was carrying on it was definitely his.

  ‘You don’t?’ he looked stunned, perplexed even, ‘I thought you enjoyed last night,’ he said looking into her puzzled golden brown eyes.

  Quinn shook her head in disbelief, ‘Just how many women do you know who like being punched in the face?’ she asked as she stood up intending to go back to her room. The man was unbelievable!

  Maxwell caught her arm as she went to pass him, ‘I meant the before and after,’ he smiled, ‘but mostly the after,’ he added with a smile playing around his eyes. For a moment his fingers wrapped around her slender wrist and once again he was lost in thinking how silky soft her skin felt.

  Shaking her arm free she looked down into his smiling face, her brow creased once again, ‘before was bearable as for the after I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she looked at her watch then back down into his face. ‘Unless you want to be late you had better hurry,’ she informed him smiling to herself as he jumped up, grabbed his jacket and brief case before dashing for the door.

  An hour later the manager of the hotel and the head of security came to see her, after taking a brief statement of events they apologised and hoped the incident had not put her off staying at the hotel again in the future. Before they left the manager offered her an all expenses paid weekend for two any time she wanted.

  With nothing left for Quinn to do but wait for Maxwell’s meeting to finish she completed her packing, once she had finished she did a systematic sweep of the room to ensure nothing had been left behind. She was sat in the lounge when she realised Maxwell had probably left his packing for her to do. When she looked in his room she sighed he hadn’t even made a start. For a moment she was tempted to throw his clothes into his overnight bag but then thought better of it and carefully folded them as she put them away. When she placed his bloodied clothes in a laundry bag she made a mental note to take both his and her own to the dry cleaners on her return, although she was not sure they could be worn again.

  It was after one o’clock when Maxwell came storming back into the suite, ‘I know it’s late but have you had any lunch?’ he asked.

  ‘No I was waiting for you; I wasn’t sure what time you would finish or what your plans were,’ she replied while wondering did he do everything at a hundred miles an hour.

  He lifted her chin between his fingers and thumb, inspecting her bruised face, ‘I know somewhere we can go. Have you done my packing?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes’ she replied pointing to their cases.

  The somewhere was a very up market Thai restaurant, where their seats were in an intimate alcove away from prying eyes.

  ‘Do you like Thai food?’ he asked scowling from the menu to her.

  She smiled, ‘I like food, period.’

  He didn’t return her smile but turned his attention back to trying to decide what he was going to eat.

  She surprised him by knowing exactly what she wanted to eat, when the waiter appeared to take her order she told him, ‘Hot and sour prawn soup with lemon grass, followed by Fried Jasmine rice with prawns, please,’ hiding her smug smile at Maxwell’s surprised expression.

  ‘Have you eaten here before?’ he asked, ‘You haven’t even opened the menu.’

  ‘No I’ve been to Thailand though, the food is wonderful,’ she enthused.

  He studied the menu a moment longer, ‘I’ll have the same,’ he told the waiter. His brow creased for a moment, ‘If you are so afraid of flying how did you manage a...what...eighteen hour flight?’

  ‘I wasn’t always afraid to fly. Two years ago the plane I was on had to make an emergency landing. It turned out that there wasn’t anything wrong with the plane it was a faulty warning light, but to make matters worse the pilot overshot the runway and the plane almost crashed. It was a dreadfully frightening experience and ever since I have been terrified of flying,’ she explained.

  Maxwell nodded, ‘Maybe it will pass one day, after you have flown and not had any problems.’

  Quinn nodded, while thinking she doubted it very much.

  Their meals arrived and the food was excellent, their conversation mostly about work passed pleasantly until they were drinking their coffee.

  ‘About last night…’ he started looking unaccustomedly flustered once more.

  She quickly held up one slim hand, ‘I would rather we didn’t talk about last night, the sooner it’s forgotten the better,’ she told him.

  He looked completely and utterly stunned, ‘Forget it?’

  ‘Yes, it never happened,’ she told him quite forcefully. ‘What?’ she asked when he stared at her with an expression of astonishment etched on to his handsome face. Once again she found herself wondering what was wrong with him today.

  ‘You don’t strike me as the type to forget it,’ he shrugged his broad shoulders, ‘but if that’s what you want, so be it,’ he added testily with a look of disbelief on his face.

  ‘It is,’ she said bringing the conversation to an end.

  Thankfully their return flight back to Manchester was not too frightening, once again due to the unexpected consideration from Maxwell.

  The look of horror on Jay’s face when Quinn walked toward the car was worth a million pounds as he looked from her to their employer then back to her.

  The moment Maxwell realised he thought he had inflicted the injury upon his p.a. he shook his head in exasperation. ‘Have you ever heard of me hitting a woman, even one as infuriating as this one?’ he asked levelly. ‘No, well it wasn’t me, all though it has crossed my mind once or twice.’

  Alarmed by his words Quinn looked up quickly only to find him smiling widely at Jay.

  At Maxwell’s insistence Quinn took the remainder of the week off, so by the time she arrived back at the office the Monday morning the bruises had faded considerably, with the help of a little make up they were virtually undetectable.

  When she walked in to her office there were two huge bouquets of flowers on her desk. One from all the staff, the other from Jay, with a short note welcoming her back to work and asking if she would like to join him for a drink after work one evening? Smiling she arranged the flowers into vases and started to sort through her post while thinking it would be nice to meet up with Jay, she had found him good company the few times she had been in his company and was really quite pl
eased he had asked her out.

  She had only been in her office for ten minutes before Maxwell yelled to her, ‘Quinn get in here.’

  ‘Yes Mr Cordell, Sir,’ she mouthed to the wall, wondering did he ever make a request without it sounding like an order.

  Maxwell watched as she walked slowly toward his desk, his gaze moving up from her long shapely legs to the sway of her curvy hips. Clenching his jaw he forced his eyes upward to her amazingly narrow waist. He sighed, Quinn hid the most fantastic figure under her slightly oversized suits, and he couldn’t help but wonder why she hid herself away? He had to force his eyes up to her face away from her breasts. Even now almost a week later he could feel them pushed against his chest as they held each other tightly. While looking into her face he held back yet another sigh, Quinn had surprised him a few times over the time she had worked for him. She was excellent at her work, efficient, charming to the clients yet still professional. Also, she had the guts to stand up to him when she thought it was necessary and every time she smiled she took his breath away. But her off hand dismissal to their unexpected sexual encounter surprised him damn it hurt him. ‘It never happened’ kept echoing around his head. Well damn it, ‘it’ had happened and lord help him he wanted ‘it’ to happen again.

  ‘Yes,’ she stood by his desk with her lovely soft hands clasped together, her soft golden eyes looking straight down into his.

  ‘Sit down, I want to talk about London,’ he forced his mind away from thinking about her hands running across his chest, her lips on his throat and the soft catch to her voice when she called him ‘Max.’

  She shook her head, ‘And I’ve told you I don’t.’

  ‘Damn it Quinn sit down,’ he brought his hand down on the top of his polished desk with a thud then pointed to the chair, ‘sit,’ he demanded.

  So Quinn sat with an exaggerated loud sigh.

  ‘Now, I feel… uncomfortable about what happened,’ he looked even more troubled, ‘I don’t like to feel I’ve taken advantage of an innocent young woman…’

  ‘You don’t what?’ she interrupted shaking her head, ‘Look Mr Cordell I have a mass of work to catch up with, I haven’t a clue what you are talking about, further more you have apologised and I have accepted.’ The puzzled look on his face deepened, which in turn puzzled her. ‘There is really nothing to be gained by going over it all again. Giles has been sacked; I’ve been given a free all expenses weekend for two at the hotel. The end,’ she informed him forcefully, wondering why he kept harping on over something she would rather forget.

  He opened and closed his mouth, she didn’t remember. All that heart thumping wonderful sex and…and she really didn’t remember. How the hell could she forget he wondered?

  ‘Okay, go,’ he waved his hand at her, ‘go!’

  She stood up and walked away while he sat like a lovesick pup and watched her every step until she disappeared through the door. ‘Damn,’ he muttered resting his head back on his chair he closed his eyes and remembered.

  He’d woken up during the night unsure of what had disturbed him; he had just turned over when he heard Quinn calling his name. Well abbreviated his name, which he hated, anyone who called him ‘Max’ was quickly corrected. But there was something about the way she said it, with a soft husky catch to her voice that made his insides melt.

  ‘Max, don’t let him hurt me,’ she had called out and he had almost broken his neck pulling on his shorts as he ran to her, when he opened the door to his bedroom she was standing in the lounge trembling with fear. Her long hair in disarray, the strap on the tiny silk nightdress she wore had slid off her shoulder and now the silky top barely covered her breasts.

  ‘There’s no one here Quinn, go back to bed,’ he told her not attempting to close the short space between them. He didn’t trust himself, with her long legs and full breasts on show and that look in her big golden eyes; yes he knew he had to stay far away from her.

  Quinn looked uncertainly toward her own room then back to him, ‘Please make him go,’ she whispered. In the soft light he could see her eyes were full of fear, her fingers plucking nervously at the hem of her nightdress. ‘Please,’ she repeated, ‘I’m scared.’

  Maxwell moved quickly toward her room and pushed the door open and just as he thought found it empty. ‘There is no one here Quinn, go back to bed,’ he said standing back from the doorway for her to enter.

  ‘Are you sure?’ she asked her eyes darting nervously around the dimly lit room.

  He walked quickly across to where she stood and slipped his arm around her slender shoulders, he could feel her trembling. Taking her into her room he pulled back the sheets on her bed, ‘Get in, there’s no one here,’ he pushed her gently down onto the bed, ‘go to sleep you’re quite safe,’ he told her as he sat on the side of the bed, intending no more than to reassure her she was secure.

  ‘Please don’t leave me,’ her eyes darted nervously around the room, ‘please Max,’ she whispered pressing her face against his chest.

  He intended only to push her head down onto the pillow; he lifted her head from his chest and looked down into her face and the next thing he knew he was kissing her, gently of course because of her sore mouth. She had the sweetest mouth he could ever recall kissing. Her soft sighs and whispers excited him and when he touched her body she sent him up in flames. When her short silk nightdress rode up her firm thighs and he found she was naked his heart hammered and his body hardened. Her sore mouth was forgotten as they kissed each other passionately, when she wound her long slender leg around his muscular thigh he slid his hand down ward and caressed her. Quinn’s climax left her panting and him so hot and wound up he had to have her.

  With no recollection of taking his shorts off, but they were and he was inside her soft warm welcoming body, making love to her gently at first ensuring he didn’t hurt her. Max covered her breast with his mouth, his lips moving from one firm breast to the other, his hips against hers in slow unhurried thrusts until she climaxed again then he moved harder and faster. But the third time she climaxed he couldn’t fight the strong pull deep inside her body, which took him, head long into his own breathtaking release.

  When she had refused to discuss what had happened between them he had thought it was because he hadn’t been in her bed when she woke the next morning and she was either disappointed or angry or both. He would have there only for the fact he had got up to use the bathroom, when he came back she had spread out across the bed and he couldn’t get back in beside her without disturbing her. Then he thought maybe she was embarrassed because she had acted out of character. Or maybe it hadn’t been such a wonderful experience for her and she just really did want to forget it.

  But good or bad everyone remembered the first time they made love, with the possible exception of Quinn Morgan.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Quinn sat down at her desk with a despondent sigh she was dog-tired even though she had spent the past five days doing nothing at all. It was hardly surprising she was so tired, she was not sleeping properly and when she did manage to sleep her dreams were full of Maxwell Cordell. She scowled and tried to work out why she should be having such erotic dreams about him. He wasn’t the first man she had met she thought handsome, so why did she keep having the same dream over and over. Not that she ever let Maxwell Cordell have the slightest inkling she found him attractive, the man was an arrogant, conceited, bully and the last thing she would let him know was that she agreed with every woman who saw him he was the most handsome specimen of a male that walked.

  But heaven help the woman who fell in love with him she often found herself thinking.

  During her time off recuperating Quinn’s elder brother, Dan called to see her one evening. Not wanting to worry her family unduly she had avoided telling them about the attack, knowing they would over react, especially her two brothers.

  Just as she expected when Dan saw the bruises on her face he immediately thought Maxwell Cordell was responsible and it took a great
amount of time to convince him it wasn’t him.

  ‘If he so much as looks at you the wrong way, I’ll see he never does again!’ Dan had warned her. ‘The man sounds like a bully I really don’t understand why you are still working for him,’ he complained to her.

  ‘Because it won’t be for much longer, once Paul is back at work I will be going back to my own job,’ she argued with him. Regretting not for the first time she had ever told her family about Maxwell and his bad temper.

  During the first days back at work the rumours spread about Giles’s attack on Quinn; and every so often a little more spice was added to the story until it was out of all proportion. The latest version was he had beaten her unconscious and was only saved from being murdered by the timely intervention of Maxwell! After yet another sympathetic look followed by, ‘you are so brave to come back to work, are you sure you’re ready?’ Quinn went so see Maxwell.

  ‘Have you heard the rumours about my attack?’ she asked him a mix of concern and annoyance crossing her beautiful face.

  He shook his head, ‘No, people don’t tend to tell me gossip, why what is it?’ He asked concerned, he did not like rumours they were usually wrong.

  Quickly she told him the latest version of the truth, ‘Then of course there’s the part where you beat Giles so badly he was hospitalised and needed stitches!’ she finished horrified at the thought of such brutality.

  ‘No, actually that bit is true,’ he said with no hint of regret.

  Quinn’s eyes widened in alarm, ‘You didn’t!’ she gasped.

  ‘Yes I bloody did, he got exactly what he deserved. Besides, if anyone is going to hit my p.a. it will be me,’ he added with a smile. ‘Don’t worry about the rumours; I’ll make sure everyone knows the truth.’ He could see she was concerned about him having hit Giles, ‘Don’t worry about Giles; I didn’t hit him that hard. I don’t know why you are so concerned about him, it was nothing to what he had in mind for you,’ he told her honestly.