by Rose, Carol
For a moment, Eden wasn’t sure she’d heard the other woman’s comment correctly. But the meaningful smile Lauren cast her way confirmed the message in her words. Confused and stupidly—really stupidly—pleased, Eden smiled weakly back.
His sister didn’t know what she was talking about.
It didn’t really matter that Alex had singled her out to include in his family moments. She had to remember the reason he’d begun seeing her at all.
After another few minutes of watching the game, Lauren asked abruptly, “Has Alex told you about his insomnia?”
“No,” Eden said, startled by the suddenness of the seemingly random question.
Lauren’s smile grew even more enigmatic. “Ask him about it sometime.”
“Sure,” Eden said, trying not to sound half-hearted. Alex’s sister seemed like a genuinely nice person…but then Alex had seemed pretty terrific himself, up until she found out he was just using her to get his hands on the company.
Eden sat on the bleachers, surrounded by the echoing noise, wondering if she should have come today. She could have said she had to work or do something else. She didn’t need to see him here in this humanizing setting, didn’t need to have a heart-to-heart chat with his sister.
How the hell was she going to continue the necessary contact with Alex…while keeping herself from getting hurt?
***
“You’re upset about something,” Alex said an hour and a half later.
They sat in a booth having dinner at a quietly expensive restaurant. Eden swallowed her mouthful of salad and nerved herself up to deflect his perceptiveness.
“Upset?” she echoed, feigning confusion. “About what?”
“I don’t know,” he said, his expression intimate and enquiring. “You tell me.”
Eden smiled, trying not to make it look forced. Why the hell did the best damn guy she’d run across in ten years have to be a manipulative, deceitful asshole?
“I’m fine. Just a little tired.”
When Alex continued looking at her while he meditatively chewed, she added, “Maybe I’m still getting over the flu.”
“Maybe,” he agreed, taking a drink. “Are you sure I haven’t done something to upset you? Because I wouldn’t want to do that for anything.”
Damn, damn, damn. All the sudden, she was mad as hell. How could she feel drawn to this man who she knew was using her? He seemed so fucking sincere. With an up-rush of miserable longing, Eden gritted her teeth together and forced herself to look up at him.
Alex put his fork down and leaned forward to brush her hair back from her cheek. “Thanks for coming this afternoon. I really wanted to see you and didn’t want to wait till this evening.”
For a moment, Eden wrestled with a tangle of half-thoughts. The sizzle of his fingers against her cheek mixed with the draw of his words.
“We don’t usually get to see his dates.” Lauren’s thoughtful words came back to her sending another rush of longing and regret though Eden.
When he leaned forward, she’d thought he was going to come closer and kiss her. She liked his kisses, they had the flavor of hunger and risk, of experience and newness. Alex kissed really well.
He looked so damn good sitting there next to her and smelled even better.
His mouth closed over hers and heat rushed up in Eden. Why not? It felt so good. The texture of his touch drawing her in, his heat washing over her, she opened her mouth to deepen their kiss. The brush and stroke of his tongue, the mingling of their breaths, called forth hunger. Eden leaned into him.
His hand at her shoulder, he softened the kiss, drawing back to smile at her with heat in his eyes.
Held still by the trembling response inside her, Eden glanced down hurriedly as someone walked by the booth.
Why hadn’t she slept with him before? For a moment she damned herself for her longstanding policy of waiting at least a month before considering sleeping with a guy. If she’d gone to bed with him in those first few weeks, she’d at least have satisfied this ache before she found out what he was really after.
It just wasn’t fair. If she was going to get screwed over, she should at least have the pleasure of getting screwed a few times first.
An image popped into her head as it had been with increasing frequency in the last week. Alex naked, his body hot and hard, his eyes intent and beguiling…and his hands, his mouth….
For a moment, Eden’s surging lust overcame her ability to think and she sat there next to him in the booth, simmering as she desperately struggled to put her longing back into its box. They were in a damned restaurant, for god’s sake. What was she going to do? Jump him and pull him under the table?
“I hope you enjoyed yourself this afternoon,” he said, referring, she supposed, to the basketball game.
“Yes,” she said, not able to keep from thinking about the other ways she’d like to enjoy herself with him.
If only, she thought again, she’d slept with him when she didn’t know what he was up to. Now she knew and had to pretend she didn’t know and she still wasn’t getting any….
Yet.
Eden sat in the booth next to him, the warmth from his sexy body so close. It was crazy, what she was thinking, but dammit, didn’t she deserve to snatch a little something more personal out of this?
Being named CEO of Michele Cosmetics was certainly her biggest ambition, but it wasn’t going to satisfy this physical hunger. She couldn’t deny she hungered for Alex.
Why the hell not? She thought, anger and longing jumbled together. Why the hell not have sex with him?
Pretend he was the guy she’d thought he was in the beginning, the one who’d made her think she’d finally found a man she could love and trust. Today he seemed like that guy and she fiercely wanted to hold on to the feeling. To believe he really cared for her. If she could just separate out the part about the company—hold it off in some closed place in her mind—she could be with him. Spend the night in his arms, breathing in his cloudy clean scent, his hard, hot body against hers.
The whole damned scheme with the company was going to come out into the open soon and then her chance to hold Alex and make love to him would be gone.
He’d want nothing to do with her ever again if she managed to swindle him before he swindled her.
But now he sat next to her, so close and touchable. He wanted her. She knew he’d wanted her from the beginning. For the last few weeks he’d clearly kept from warming things up between them. She could only surmise that he had some chivalry about using sex to get a business deal consummated. The hospice-volunteering side of him?
In the end, however, he’d know that she, successfully or not, had been double-dealing. Powerful men didn’t get all hot about women who scuttled their acquisitions.
But he was hot for her now and suddenly she knew she had to make the most of this moment. She deserved this much anyway.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The drive from the restaurant to his place took five minutes in the glittering, frosted night. It seemed as if they were marooned alone together, isolated in the warmth of his car, only they two in the world.
Eden wondered, as they walked down the marble foyer and waited for the elevator, if she were an idiot to be here with him. But she wanted this. No matter how confused she felt about who he really was, she needed to be with him.
Grabbing this moment was all she could do.
Alex unlocked the door to his place and held it open for her, the heated look strong in his eyes.
Walking in, the city glittering below them from the wide expanse of windows, Eden turned to face him, her breath coming fast.
How she ached to make love to him. For this moment, she refused to think that love had nothing to do with the two of them being here together.
Trailing her hand over his muscular shoulder to curl around his cord
ed neck, she brought his mouth to hers. Readily, he met her, his arms powerful and taut around her body. Their mouths mated hungrily, tongue and breath, lips sampling and savoring.
With a soft moan, she leaned into him. It felt so right.
Eden opened her mouth wide beneath his questing, reveling in the haze of need that carried her forward.
Rock solid, he stood in the darkened room, his mouth mating with hers like the exchanging of souls. She felt the pounding of her heart and pressed closer to him. If he would just be here with her like this, for now, it would be enough.
With his mouth on hers, she could stop thinking, stop agonizing over work and her choices, stop thinking about Michele and betrayal. All she needed and wanted was him, wrapped around her, his body deep in hers.
Their kiss hot and hungry, he growled low in his throat and she felt an answering leap in her blood. Alex’s hands were warm on her back, strong and gentle. From the curve of her shoulder down, he stroked until his hands fanned out over her rear.
He pulled her tighter against him, his hands bracketing her hips. Hard against her pubic bone, his arousal promised a pleasure she needed.
She deserved this, a mindless, consuming night of passion with him. His touch, his slow, beckoning smile. Everything else in her life required so damned much work. No thought at this moment. Making love to Alex right now was what she craved.
He might hate her later, when the dust settled with the company, but now he cherished her, his mouth, his hands kneading, stroking her.
She held her hand to the back of his head, his soft, short hair feathering between her fingers. She wanted him, needed this.
Embracing the sensation of the heated, hungry man in her arms, Eden pressed her body tighter to his. The fire licking through her demanded more. As if in answer, he suddenly lifted her up in his arms, striding forward into the shadowed apartment.
Her arm around his neck, Eden allowed him to carry her into his bedroom, the details of the space a blur. He set her on her feet at the foot of the bed.
“Do you want something to drink?” His voice was husky as he turned on a lamp before returning to where she stood.
“No.” She reached up, taking hold of the lapel of his jacket. “You’re too clothed.”
The corner of his mouth quirked as she began loosening his tie. “Isn’t that my line?”
“No lines,” she whispered, leaning forward to place a tantalizing kiss on that corner of his mouth. “No games.”
“No games,” he agreed with a ghost of a laugh, “I really hadn’t planned on using those handcuffs I gave you.”
For a second, Eden’s smile felt frozen on her face at his reference to their set-up first meeting, but her mind couldn’t hold out for more than a second against the combined forces of her besotted heart and heated body. She wanted him. Just for now, she needed him.
Deliberately pushing away the intrusive thought, Eden bent forward, nuzzling her face into his neck.
His hands rested on her hips, his long fingers shifting and smoothing her through the silk of her dress.
“Good,” she said breathlessly. “I don’t have them with me. No toys at all. Just us.”
“Not a problem. You’re all I need,” he said softly, his hands leaving her hips to tug at the tie at her waist holding her dress together.
Slowly, they undressed each other, their bodies brushing. Eden paused in loosening his belt when he cupped her naked breasts in his hands, his thumbs brushing over her nipples.
She’d never pined for D-cups. Her breasts were nicely shaped and perky enough to satisfy all but the most porn-addicted lover. Alex’s hands smoothed and molded her flesh, his gaze glued to them. She saw him moisten his lips before he bent to draw a nipple into his mouth.
Hunger zipped through her, sizzling her to her core. Jerking again at his belt, her breathing grew more labored and she felt her legs trembling. When she’d conquered his belt and pants, they fell to the floor, leaving him wearing only briefs.
God, he was beautiful to look at.
Bare-chested and nude except for the briefs, he knelt on the carpeted floor before her and pressed his face between her breasts, his hands kneading her hips.
Eden braced herself against his warm, solid shoulders, pleasure coursing through her as he put his mouth on her.
His lips seeking first one breast and then another, he reached between her legs and stroked her moist, hot flesh.
Eden shuddered, her body a chaos of sensation. He was so perfect, so everything she’d ever wanted. The cool air around her naked body contrasted with the hot sensation of his mouth at her breast, his hands urgently discovering her body. Still bracing her hands on his shoulders, she allowed him to nudge her to sit back on the bed as he knelt between her splayed legs.
“God,” he breathed, his lips trailing over her, his hands firm on her knees. “So hot and sweet.”
Shuddering, she felt his breath against her skin, his lips following, soft and warm. Each kiss sent a jolt through her and she lie back, throwing her hands out to clutch at the bed as moans of pleasure escaped her throat.
“Oh, yes,” she cried, her body hazed with his loving.
He was good, she thought muzzily. Everything so perfect.
Teasing at her, then spreading her labia with gentle hands, he kissed her at her core, nipping softly, laving the hard bud at the apex of her thighs over and over. He blew softly at the damp curls, trailing hot kisses before returning to draw her again into his mouth.
Lying spread on the bed with Alex kneeling between her legs, she surrendered the last vestiges of rational thought. No worries about tomorrow, no guilt, only hunger and sweetness and the knowledge that she belonged here like this with him. Nothing in this world could be more right—at the moment. And she couldn’t think past this moment.
Swimming in heat and need and escalating arousal, her legs spasmed as a wave of sensation rippled through her. And then another.
Her naked skin damp and heated, she cried out, her knees clenching around him. Pleasure swept over her, again and again as she peaked. Through the roaring in her ears, she heard his encouraging murmurs.
Had he ever not encouraged her? The thought shot through the clouded shimmering that engulfed her.
As she lie trembling in the aftermath of her climax, Alex crawled onto the bed beside her, his hand stroking her belly and breasts. His briefs bulged with the evidence of his own arousal.
Turning, she slipped a finger inside the waistband and eased her hand in to stroke him. She wanted him, needed him to share her pleasure, to join with her in that ultimate connection.
Eden murmured, “Take them off.”
Removing his underwear at her behest, Alex stretched out next to her, his body lean and muscled with the light hair on his chest arrowing down to his now-visible erection. He was so damned gorgeous.
Reaching over, Eden pulled his mouth to hers, their lips meeting in a deep kiss. He felt incredibly good, his skin smooth and heated, his arms powerful and sheltering.
Trailing her hand over his bicep, then his chest, she skimmed down to his abdomen, taut with excitement.
“Damn,” he breathed. His breath sounded harsh in the room as she circled him, enjoying the heaviness and length of his erection. Alex groaned, falling back on the bed as he lifted his hips to her touch.
Eden was pierced, at that moment, with a determination, gripped in her desire to love him as thoroughly as he was loving her. No matter the craziness awaiting them with the dawn, she could only be with him now, as completely as she could.
Sitting up, she measured the width of his chest, her hands cherishing as they splayed over his flesh. Firm and pliable, his skin rippled beneath the pads of her fingers, her palms curving over each contour, enchanted with the sensation of touching him.
Where the room had seemed cool when she was first naked
, she felt nothing but heat now, her body sizzling at his nearness and the promise of their joining.
Emotion rose up in her, tangled and unclear as if she saw only jagged corners and angles. Love and longing, regret and tenderness. A fierce sense of possessiveness. He was hers, dammit. No one else’s.
Eden rose up on her knees, bending forward to lay her mouth on him, tasting the clean, saltiness of his skin.
Moaning again, he stroked her, his hand sliding over her breast and her waist to clench, involuntarily it seemed, on her hip.
He was truly amazing, gorgeous in the slope of his powerful thighs, the breadth of his chest, the fine musculature that proclaimed his fitness.
Not a muscle man gleaming with oil and improbable bulges, but a man who looked as if he worked and played hard.
Ringing him with one hand, she cupped the contrasting softness below his erection, gently squeezing.
Sitting up, he rummaged in a drawer next to the bed. “Here, sweetheart. I can’t wait any longer.”
She rolled the latex over his hardness, her body humming with his touch and a mindless, breathless anticipation.
Again, Alex groaned. He lie on the bed next to her, his fingers stroking and delving into her folds, drawing her closer to the edge. On fire and mindless with love, she climbed astride his prone body, the damp cleft of her pelvis soft against his hardness.
His breath caught and he said, his voice rough, “Let me feel you.”
Lifting up, she positioned him at her entrance and shifted back to take him at last into her body. The thought left her incoherent with anticipation. She’d wanted him, ached for him, so long.
“Ahhh,” Alex hissed as they melded.
Her body adjusting to his intrusion, she moved over him, taking him in further with each stroke.
Long and slow with each movement, she set the pace. Beneath her, he crooned her name, his hands cupping her breasts, plucking softly at her nipples as he rose to meet her.
“So beautiful,” he muttered, his hands avid on her.
Over and over, they moved together, the only sound the squeaking of the bed and their own sighs of pleasure. Time spun away and she fell into the welcoming embrace of pure sensation. Him in her, melded together by the bond of their hunger.