by Jess Dee
She was on a mission and time was wasting. “This is a list of companies I’m thinking of approaching for money for the sibling program. Can you please do a little more research on them? Find out who the right people are to contact and when would be the best time to contact them. Also, please make up six more files of the proposal and send them off to those people. By the time I phone them, I want them to know who I am and why I’m trying to get in touch with them.”
Penny looked confused as she took the sheet of paper from her. “You’re still trying to raise funds?”
“Yes,” she said, trying to keep the bitterness from her voice. “I’m afraid I had no luck at Riley Corporation yesterday.” There was the understatement of the century. “I have to look elsewhere.”
“I don’t understand…”
“Let’s just say, um, AJ Riley and I didn’t get off to a great start. He’s somewhat less enthralled with the project than I’d hoped.”
Penny shook her head, looking no less puzzled for Lexi’s explanation. “Well, if that’s the case, why did Mr. Riley just phone to say he’d approved your request?”
“What?”
“AJ Riley phoned not five minutes ago. He was in a hurry and didn’t speak for long, just told me to tell you that you had the go-ahead. The funds were yours.”
Lexi gaped at Penny.
“I was on my way to your office to tell you when you buzzed,” the secretary said.
“What the fuck is he up to?” Lexi muttered to herself.
“Pardon?”
“Nothing.” Lexi shook her head. “Just thinking out loud.”
What the hell kind of a game was Riley playing? He’d made his expectations quite clear. If she wanted the money, she’d have to sleep with him again. She’d told him where to shove his offer, yet he’d gone and approved the donation anyway. Just what exactly did the conniving bastard want in return?
More importantly, would she accept the money? How could she and still look him in the eye? She knew what he thought of her. Far as he was concerned, she’d earned it. A good night’s sex for a healthy little donation.
Good work, Tanner.
Now what? Would he expect her to sleep with him again? A small “thank you” for his generous gift? Would she want to sleep with him again? Bugger. She hadn’t meant to think about that.
The bastard had her in a no-win situation. If she accepted the donation, she looked like a hooker. If she didn’t, the program suffered.
The bastard. The cold, callous, heartless, cruel, vindictive bastard.
“He must be a nice man,” Penny said thoughtfully.
“Oh, yes.” Lexi snorted. “He’s a real charmer. Tell me, did he say anything else to you?”
“Just that he’d be in touch and you should wait for his call so you could iron out all the little details.”
“I should wait for his call?” Lexi asked, suddenly livid.
“That’s what he said.”
Lexi grabbed her keys and bag. “Arrogant asshole,” she snarled. “How dare he assume I would sit around waiting for his call?”
It was Penny’s turn to gape. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to have a chat with that nice man. If he wants to iron out the little details, believe me, I’m more than willing to press a couple of facts home.”
—
She marched into Genevieve’s office, gave her a curt nod and walked straight to Riley’s door.
As she reached for the handle, the secretary blurted out, “Miss Tanner, you can’t go in there.”
Watch me. “Is he in a meeting?”
“No. He asked not to be disturbed.”
“Too late. He’s already deeply disturbed.” She threw the door open, stepped inside and slammed it shut behind her.
He looked up from his work, his face bland, save for a raised eyebrow.
“You and I have a few details to straighten out,” she told him without preamble.
God, did he have to look so unbelievably sexy in his designer suit and loosened tie? Did he know that icy look of his got her so hot she could just about combust in his office?
What was it about the damn man that made her want to kill him and fuck him all at the same time?
His tone matched his expression. “Well, well, Lexi. Isn’t this a surprise?”
Surprise? More like a nasty shock. She hated him, yet all she could think of as she glared at him was how good he’d looked naked.
“Mr. Riley, I’m sorry,” a breathless voice said behind her. “I tried to stop her. She just barged straight in.”
He gave an almost imperceptible nod. “That’s okay, Genevieve. I’ll take it from here.”
“If you’re sure?”
“I am. Thank you,” he added dismissively, and the door closed behind her.
“What the hell are you up to, Riley?” she demanded. “What’s the deal with the money?”
His eyes mocked her. “I thought you’d be happy to have the funds. Isn’t that what you wanted all along?”
“Don’t mess with me. You behaved deplorably yesterday. You knew full well I never expected to hear from you again. So just what is it you’re trying to achieve?” She marched forward, set her hands on the desk and stared him straight in the eye. “Nobody would insult another person like you did me, and then decide in favor of giving them money. It doesn’t make sense.” She took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes. “You don’t make sense. I can only surmise that you have some hidden agenda in all of this, and I want to know what it is.”
Riley smirked. “You make it sound like I’m running some sort of covert operation.”
“I have no idea what kind of operation you’re running, I just know I don’t like the way you run it. What’s the deal, Riley? Why are you giving me the money?”
“Frankly, that is none of your business.”
“None of my business?” she spluttered. “It’s one hundred percent my business. This project is my baby.”
He eyed her in silence for a minute before conceding. “I think it’s a good project.” A muscle twitched in his cheek. “That’s reason enough.”
Bull. That wasn’t close to reason enough. Riley was hiding something and she knew it. The tone of his voice told her quite clearly that whatever it was, it was deeply personal and, she suspected, really none of her business. Although curiosity nipped at her, she didn’t push the issue.
Her program had suddenly found life again, when an hour ago it was almost dead.
The teeniest tiniest possibility existed that maybe she would get the sponsorship from Riley Corporation after all. First, she had to clear up any confusion or misconceptions.
Lexi had to make it perfectly clear that whatever happened, if she did accept his sponsorship she would not offer sexual favors in return.
“What about the strings?” She almost didn’t want to hear the answer.
“Strings?”
Oh, the innocence with which he asked. She could have kicked him. “What strings does this money come attached to? What do you want from me in return?”
He focused his cold eyes on her chest, and against her will her breasts heaved. “I thought I made that clear yesterday.”
“Bastard,” she hissed. “I won’t get into this again. I did not sleep with you for your money and I will not sleep with you in return for money. Period. Thank you for your…offer. I reject it. Cold.” She straightened her back in preparation to leave.
He spoke before she could turn around. The low, seductive quality to his tone stopped her from going anywhere.
“You don’t like the…strings attached?”
“It’s not just the strings I don’t like. It’s you, too.” She fervently wished she could say that and really mean it. As much as she loathed him, her body still responded to his proximity and to his masculine smell and seductive voice. Prickles of awareness ran down her spine and lodged in the small of her back, sending pulses of desire thrumming through her body.
“I think
the strings could be rather…fulfilling, don’t you?” He sat back in his chair and looked her up and down. His movements were slow and lazy and captivated her with their leisure. “Perhaps I can make the offer a little more enticing?” He stared at her from beneath a thick fringe of black lashes. His eyes were fiery rocks of blue ice, desire blazing in them.
The look on his face paralyzed her. She couldn’t move, couldn’t draw breath.
“Something happened when you barged into my office.” He lowered his voice. “I got an erection, Lexi. I still have it. I’m aroused…very aroused.”
Her jaw dropped. Of all the things she’d expected him to say, this was not one of them. His words weaved their magic through her senses, magnifying her awareness of him. His voice rippled like velvet over her skin, and her mouth filled with the taste of his salty flesh. His scent surrounded her, mixing with the remembered smell of their lovemaking—musk and man.
She shivered. Damn it, she didn’t want to respond to him, didn’t want to want him like she did.
“You hate the thought of it, don’t you?” God, his voice. It was so rich and so deep she could almost burrow into it. “The thing is, you’re aroused too. I can see it.” He lowered his eyes to her chest, and her breasts burned beneath his blistering gaze. “Your nipples are tight, like little pebbles, pushing against your bra. Just like in Melbourne.” He took a deep breath. “How would you react if I kissed them now? Placed my mouth over the turgid tips and sucked on them?” He looked into her eyes. “Would you like that?”
Like that? Hell, the very thought of it had her liquefying in his office. Her mouth still hung open, making speech difficult.
“I would,” he continued. He laid his palm flat against the middle of his desk.
“Almost as much as I’d like to bend you forward over my desk, bunch your skirt high above your hips and slide your thong down your legs.” He paused and looked below her waist. Her skirt might as well have been invisible. He stared straight through it at her panties. “You are wearing a thong, aren’t you, Lexi? Is it black? I think it is. Black and lacy.”
Actually, it was deep purple, and much as she wished it wasn’t, it was very, very wet.
“We’d be standing there, where you are now, so you can look out the window while I inch the lace down your legs.” Involuntarily, her eyes left his face and flashed to the window. Once again, the breathtaking panorama astounded her. Not quite as breathtaking, though, as the man in front of her, sitting by his desk idly undressing her with his eyes and seducing her with his words.
“I’d move slowly, of course, so I wouldn’t miss one centimeter of your silky skin.”
He looked contemplative for a minute. “Would I take them off with my hands, or my teeth? I can’t quite decide.”
Tingles ran up her legs as if his teeth grazed her outer thigh.
He shook his head. “My hands, I think. That way I can see the view. Not the same view you’d be watching, obviously. I’d be staring at your naked ass. I’d be watching as you shove it backwards, and upwards, and tease me with a glimpse of your feminine core.” The timbre of his voice changed, lowered a notch. “It’s wet, Lexi, isn’t it? It always is when you’re around me.”
Her breath caught in her throat. She had trouble focusing. All she could see, really, was her naked butt in the air and him staring at it, hunger etched in his eyes.
Hell, yes, she was wet. He was right—she always was when she was around him.
“I’ll spend a long time just staring at you, watching you gleam in the sunshine.
Watching the cream ooze out as you wait for me to touch you.”
He licked his lip and she realized she was gnawing on her bottom lip in the exact place where his tongue touched his mouth. The realization was erotic in the extreme. She let her lip slip away from her teeth as she studied his mouth and could almost feel the warm moisture of his tongue on her own lip.
He focused on her mouth, his breath uneven. “I will touch you,” he promised. “Just not with my fingers.” He clenched his hand into a fist. “Even though they’re itching to massage that cream all over your lips. Even though I’m dying to rub your pretty little clit until you writhe beneath the contact.” He paused. “I won’t use my fingers, because you don’t want them.”
Oh, dear Lord, was he ever wrong. She wanted them so bad she could imagine them between her legs.
“I won’t use my tongue either,” he said, and again he licked his lower lip. “Much as I’d like to taste all that sweet honey on offer, to lick away every last drop, I won’t do that, because it’s not my tongue you want.”
Oh. Yes. It. Is. The thought of him kneeling beneath her, between her legs, with his face lifted upward and his mouth kissing her intimately, made her tremble uncontrollably.
“No.” He shook his head. “Not my tongue. See, I’ll use my cock. It’s hard and it’s ready and it’s what you need. It’s what you want. I’ll push your back down, gently, until your breasts are squashed against the cold, smooth wood of this desk.” He relaxed his hand, ran it over the wood in much the same way she wished he’d run it over her lower back. “Then I’ll pull your hips back so that you’re high, and you’re open, and you’re ready for me. And then,” he paused and closed his eyes for a minute, as if in pain. “And then,” he said in a hoarse voice, “I’ll fuck you. I’ll shove my cock so deep inside you, you’ll scream for more. I’ll shove every last inch in so deep you’ll think we were one person.” His voice caught and he opened his eyes. “And I’ll do it over and over again until you think you can’t take it for one…more…second. At which point…” he stopped, stared straight into her soul and said, “I’m going to make you come. It’ll be the sweetest, most powerful orgasm you’ll ever have and you’ll be glad you’re lying on the desk, because if you weren’t, the strength of your climax would knock you off your feet.”
She knew he was right. No way she’d be physically capable of taking all that pleasure standing up. Her knees would give in the second he plunged into her.
“While you’re coming, while you’re so high on the sexual gratification only I can give you, I’ll come too.” He closed his eyes again, as if the effort involved in keeping them open was just too great. “The way you shudder when you come, and the way you clench around my cock… Christ, I’ll have no choice,” he whispered. “You’ll milk me of every last drop. Leave me depleted and exhausted and fully, fully satisfied.” He took a deep breath. “We’ll both be fully satisfied.” His eyes opened. “Afterwards, I’ll collapse on top of you. Then, for a very long time, neither of us will have the energy, or the will, to move.”
Neither of them spoke. They simply remained as they were, she standing, he sitting, and stared at each other. The only sound was that of uneven, raspy breathing—his and hers.
An interminable length of time passed before Lexi broke the silence. “I… Well…
Right then.” Because after that, what else could she have said?
It must have had an effect on Adam, because he snapped out of his trancelike state.
He rested his elbow on the edge of the desk and dropped his forehead into his hand.
“Christ, Lexi, I’m sorry.” His voice was rough. There was no mistaking the sincerity in it.
He shook his head. “I never meant for that to happen.”
Lexi gawked at him.
After another moment, he raised his head and looked at her. Both the icy glare and the hungry stare were gone. He just looked tired. “I was way out of line and I apologize.”
He shook his head again, as though unable to believe what he’d just done. She could barely believe it herself.
Then he shrugged and straightened his tie. “The donation comes with no attached strings. I…Riley Corporation would be happy to give you the money. I spent a long time reviewing your proposal last night and I believe your project is both necessary and useful.
I think it would benefit any child who took part in it. It’s that simple.”
; The man changed personas faster than she changed outfits on a bad clothes day. He perplexed her.
“I’m not sure what to say,” she told him. She wasn’t even sure what to think. His verbal seduction left her body humming crazily from overstimulation and lack of fulfillment. His change in attitude stunned her. Was she supposed to be the professional social worker all over again, here to make a formal acceptance of a donation for her POWS program? Or was she supposed to be the spurned, insulted lover who, for the third time, had fallen for the evil, sexy charmer who treated her like dirt?
At this point, the only thing she was capable of being was enormously aroused and virtually speechless.
“There’s nothing to say,” he answered. “My partner, the financial director of Riley Corporation, Matt Brodie, will be in touch with you to discuss the transfer of funds. You can tell him whether you’d prefer it in a lump sum or in monthly deposits. In addition, we’ll need to handle the press. As soon as they get wind that we’ve made another donation to the hospital, they’ll be sniffing around for details. Matt will liaise with our PR department about that. I will expect monthly reports on the progress of the program and detailed analyses of where the funds have been used. I can get that from Matt.” He paused and made a note of something in his diary. Then he looked her square in the eyes.
“Any questions you have, Matt will be happy to deal with. Genevieve will give you his card on your way out.”
“You won’t be involved in the process from now on?” Lexi asked.
“No. I’ve done my share. The rest can be handled by Brodie and his staff.”
She could scarcely believe what happened. On the one hand, everything fell into place. She had the funds, she could start the program and she could watch her idea come to fruition. On the other hand, he’d just cut her out of his life and passed her on to someone else so he wouldn’t have to deal with her anymore. From now on, there would be no reason to meet Adam Riley again.
Why wasn’t she filled with elation?
“Well, then.” She smiled nervously. “I suppose all that remains to be expressed is our gratitude.” She tried to slip back into social work mode. “On behalf of POWS and the hospital, I thank you for your donation toward the sibling program. Please rest assured the money will be put to good use and many children will benefit from your generosity.”