by Tami Hoag
Now she was in love with him, and the knowledge caused her more fear than anything else. She hadn’t known anything about dating. She wasn’t sure she knew much more about love. Part of what she had felt for her ex-husband had been love, but it had been so intermingled with dependence, with fear of the unknown, and it had been destroyed so long ago….
The opening of the elevator doors stole away any more time she might have given to brooding.
Ms. Bond ushered her into Alec’s office. Alec’s face was alight with suppressed mischief. Smiles he refused to give rein to tugged at his lips as he looked from Kelsie to his secretary. “Thank you, Mr. Bond. Why don’t you take off for lunch now?”
Ms. Bond’s eyebrows scaled her forehead. “It’s only eleven-thirty.”
“Treat yourself. Ms. Connors and I will be taking a long lunch, so there’s no need for you to hurry back. Two should be early enough.”
“Would this be a good time to ask for a raise?” Ms. Bond questioned.
“Don’t push your luck, Ms. Bond,” he said through his teeth.
“Har!” She laughed, leaving the room.
“Have a seat, Ms. Connors,” Alec told Kelsie with the formality of a little boy playing business executive. He motioned her to one of the chairs in front of his desk as he took his own seat.
Kelsie sat down, her nerves settling at Alec’s obvious good mood. She crossed her legs and folded her hands on the lap of her green dress, looking at Alec expectantly.
His body tightened with need. She was so pretty sitting there with her attention solely on him, her big blue eyes watching him. She wore her hair loose, which suddenly drove him crazy with desire; it looked so soft and wild falling around her shoulders. His fingers itched to run through it, then undo the big brass buttons that marched down the front of her dress. Would she be wearing something sexy underneath? Something lacy he could play with?
A little uncomfortable at seeing the hot look in Alec’s eyes, Kelsie cleared her throat delicately. “You said something about business?”
“You got the Van Bryant deal,” he said without preamble.
Kelsie’s jaw dropped. “For real? You mean it? You’re not suddenly into sick jokes, are you?” Mentally she was already paying off bills and picking out extra Christmas presents for the kids.
Alec laughed. “It’s for real,” he said, his heart warming at the thought that he had been able to make Kelsie look so happy.
“That’s great! That’s wonderful! That’s—” She leaned back in her chair, suddenly wary of her good fortune.
“What?” Alec asked, seeing her swift change of mood.
She took a breath, holding it as she briefly stared down at her feet. “Um… did this have anything to do with us?” she asked quietly.
“I don’t understand,” Alec said, watching her.
“You didn’t decide to give the idea a second chance because of you and me, did you? Because if the only reason I’m getting this job is… I know you’re my number-one rescuer, Alec, but I couldn’t accept that kind of favor. My business has to survive on merit, not on the good deeds of a knight in shining armor.”
Alec’s smile was an ironic one. He gave his head a little shake, dislodging a lock of neatly combed, dark hair so it tumbled roguishly across his forehead. Vena had not only expected such favors from him, she had demanded them on more than one occasion.
“What?” Kelsie asked, bewildered.
“Nothing,” he said, his smile gentling for her as he pushed his chair back and stood. “The ultimate decision was Mr. Van Bryant’s to make. He simply, flat-out loved the idea. It was exactly what he wanted. Congratulations.”
“That’s fabulous.” She sighed, her eyes drifting shut for a moment. The image of the teal blue silk dress she’d had her eye on in Van Bryant’s front window shimmered in her mind. “The timing couldn’t have been better. Have you told Steve?”
“Yes. He wanted to take you out for a celebratory lunch, but I had to tell him you were already booked.”
He held his arms out for her. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world for Kelsie to go to him. She beamed a smile up at him. “So where are you taking me?”
“I don’t see any reason to leave this room,” he said as his arms tightened around her. “I have what I’m hungry for right here.”
Kelsie giggled. “Alec! We’re in your office!”
“Mmm, I know,” he whispered, nuzzling behind her ear. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve dreamed of making love to you in here?”
“No,” she said, gasping as his palm brushed over her breast.
“Thousands,” he said, nibbling at the corner of her mouth. He gave her a teasing kiss, dipping his tongue in to touch hers, then withdrawing. As he sifted her hair through his hands, he kissed her eyebrows, traced their slight arc with the tip of his tongue, grazed them with his teeth. “You have the sexiest eyebrows.”
Kelsie had never considered her eyebrows an erogenous zone until now. Alec made love to them with his mouth, setting off a trembling sensation that raced down her body and settled between her thighs. She tried to wiggle away from him, managing only to worsen the situation as she came into more intimate contact with his aroused body.
“Alec, stop trying to seduce me,” she said with no authority in her voice at all. Her resolve had gone as weak as her knees.
“Why?” he asked, chuckling deviously.
“Because you’re so darn good at it!” Kelsie answered, knowing she shouldn’t give in to him here but knowing she would. She had no kind of control when Alec touched her.
His fingers went to the top button of her dress, freeing it and then to two of its companions below. “Let’s see if you’re wearing something sexy for me, sweetheart,” he said, easing the dress back off her shoulders.
A purr of satisfaction rumbled low in his throat, and he smiled as he uncovered her. The camisole she wore was pearly pink satin with a panel of sheer ivory lace down the center. Tiny pearl buttons drew a line from between her breasts downward, disappearing into the belted waist of her dress. He unfastened them with ease.
“Alec, we shouldn’t.” Even as she uttered the puny protest, Kelsie’s thumbs hooked under Alec’s red suspenders and began tugging them off his shoulders. “We’re in your office; anybody could walk in.”
“They’ve all gone to lunch,” he said, maneuvering Kelsie so she was half sitting on his desk, the narrow skirt of her dress riding high up her thighs. He ran his hands up her legs as he lowered his head toward her breast.
A brisk rapping on his office door jerked Alec’s head up.
“Alec, you home?”
Alec swore swiftly and eloquently. Kelsie scrambled from the desktop, wildly looking around for a place to hide.
“Under the desk!” Alec ordered in a frantic whisper. Before Kelsie could protest, he planted a hand on top of her head and shoved. The next thing she knew, she was on her fanny in the cubbyhole on Alec’s desk, staring at a pair of gray argyle socks and black and gray wingtip shoes.
Alec dropped into his chair just as the door opened and Art Parnell stuck his balding head in. “Art, come on in.”
Parnell was a small, chubby fellow with a foot-long lock of black hair he combed from the right side of his head over the top.
“Here are those figures you wanted—jeez, you look like hell,” the man said, taking a seat in front of Alec’s desk.
“Do I?” Alec was still breathing hard, his face was flushed, and his tie was askew. He raked a hand back through the disheveled mass of his hair, trying vainly to restore a modicum of order to it. Hoping to look nonchalant, he shrugged his suspenders back into place.
“You’re a slave to this place, Alec. You work too hard. I’ve got just the thing for you,” the little man said, his beady eyes gleaming. “There’s this little redhead in the mailroom who’ll really deliver, if you get my drift—”
“I don’t think so, Art,” Alec interrupted. The last thing he wanted right now w
as one of Art’s never-ending play-by-play accounts of his disgusting extracurricular activities. “I’m seeing someone.”
“Not often enough by the look of you.” Parnell chuckled.
Under the desk Kelsie made a face. What a vulgarian! And, while Alec’s answering laugh was less then halfhearted, she was none too pleased with him either. He’d been awfully quick to stuff her into this convenient little spot. Now she had a hole the size of Vermont in her panty hose and her neck was beginning to cramp.
“You’ve been spending too much time looking at that secretary of yours. Man, her face belongs on a wrestling poster! Do you believe what she said to me when I made that suggestion for the Christmas party? I’ve got nothing against women with brains—as long as they’ve got plenty of T and A to go along with it! Right?”
While Parnell laughed at his own tasteless joke, Alec gave him the same sort of pained, tightlipped smile he gave his dentist.
“You ought to dump that old broad and get a sportier model, if you know what I mean.”
“Oh, I couldn’t get rid of Ms. Bond,” Alec said. Suddenly his breath lodged in his throat. The look on his face was one of near pain.
“You okay?”
“F-fine,” he stuttered, drumming his knuckles against the top of his desk, while underneath it Kelsie had decided to take advantage of the situation. “It’s j-just a—a muscle spasm. Must have—a-strained something running.”
“Running.” Art grimaced, patting his paunch lovingly. “I get all the strain I need in the sack.”
“G-good for you,” Alec said hoarsely, squirming on his chair. Short of reaching under the desk—which would have been a little conspicuous—there wasn’t anything he could do to stop Kelsie from her little game. He wasn’t so sure he wanted her to stop. What he wanted was for Art Parnell to make himself scarce. “You know, now that you mention it, I’m not feeling too well, Art. You’d better leave. It’s probably the stomach flu.”
Parnell shot out of his chair. “I just had it,” he said, backing toward the door. “Cripes, I lived in the bathroom for two days. You’d better lie down or something, Alec.”
“Oh…” he said in a soprano voice as Kelsie’s fingers moved on his thigh. “I will. Right away. Good-bye, Art.”
As soon as Art was out the door, Alec bolted across the room to lock it.
“Kelsie Connors,” he said with a growl, half laughing as he stalked toward the desk, “you little witch. I’m going to get you for that stunt.”
Kelsie stayed put under the desk, holding her stomach, laughing. “Maybe you should just go down to the mailroom, Alec.”
He muttered his opinion of that suggestion as he dropped down on his knees and reached under the desk to drag Kelsie out. She pretended to struggle, giggling as he tickled her. Alec hauled her up off the floor and into his arms, kissing her wildly. He hugged her against his chest, and gave free run to the desire that had been building inside him.
What was left of Kelsie’s control dissolved, and she kissed him back, groaning as he brought one hard thigh up between hers, inviting her to arch against him. The hunger she felt for him was overwhelming. Every cell of her body ached for his touch. The first time she had felt this kind of need it had frightened her. Now what she felt was a ravenous sense of anticipation, because she knew Alec could satisfy her hunger and leave her feeling exalted instead of empty.
She jerked his suspenders down and went for his tie, her hands fumbling frantically until she nearly choked him. Alec jerked the strip of silk from his shirt collar and dropped it on his desk, hurrying his mouth back to Kelsie’s for another kiss. His need for her was beyond anything he’d ever known. They were like fire and dynamite when they came together. He wondered if Kelsie realized how rare that kind of explosive mutual passion was.
Buttons flew off his shirt as her hands sought to touch his chest. Her dress pooled at her waist. Alec bent her back over his desk, his mouth closing hotly over a breast, while his hands chased her skirt up and yanked hose and panties down. Kelsie braced a foot on the arm of the desk chair, lifting her hips to Alec’s touch, moving in time to the rhythm his boldly teasing fingers set.
Giving herself over to the tidal wave of sensation that engulfed her, Kelsie lay back on the desk, writhing and moaning until she didn’t think she could stand much more pleasure. She tugged on Alec’s hair, dragging his head up. Her breasts were gleaning, her nipples swollen and red.
“Alec,” she said with a gasp, her pulse racing.
He pulled her up, claiming her mouth once again as Kelsie’s hands went to the waistband of his pants. They groaned into each other’s mouths as her hand closed around him. Alec’s hand settled over her and silently taught her how he liked to be stroked, a lesson that was short-lived as his need raced out of control.
They raced toward fulfillment, reaching it together. Alec caught Kelsie’s soft, wild cries of completion in his mouth. He strained against her, her body holding him deep inside as wave after wave of unbelievable pleasure tightened her around him.
Finally Kelsie relaxed, laying on the desk. She smiled up at him as he leaned over her. They were both panting as if they’d just run the New York marathon. Alec smiled back. She looked like a centerfold model, sprawled on his desk with her dress still belted around her waist, her breasts beautifully bare.
His desk looked as if it had been ransacked. There were papers everywhere, the mug that held pens and pencils had overturned, as had his coffee cups. Now there was a small puddle of coffee soaking into yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, and his lamp was dangling over the edge of the desk by its cord. It was the kind of mess that normally would have made him nauseated. At the moment he couldn’t have cared less.
“I love you,” he whispered as he unbuckled the wide leather belt at Kelsie’s waist. He unbuttoned the two buttons that held her dress together and opened the garment wide, bending over to press soft kisses to her tummy.
“I love you,” he whispered again, gathering her into his arms to kiss her mouth.
“I love you,” she whispered back.
With the initial urgency past, she closed her eyes and simply enjoyed the feel of his body against hers as he held her to him. But as it had their first night together, their desire returned in a hurry. Kisses grew hungrier, touches more demanding. Kelsie couldn’t stop thinking how wonderfully erotic it was to be totally naked in Alec’s office.
“Alec,” she cried, her body moving against his in a subtle caress. “I’ve never needed like this before.”
“Me either,” he said, his body clearly demonstrating just how much he needed her. He held Kelsie close, one hand stroking down the smooth, beautiful curve of her back. “This is special, honey. Most people never find what we have together.”
He stood back and methodically shucked shoes, socks, and slacks, then took Kelsie by the hand and led her away from the desk. They stretched out on the soft, thick carpet in front of the cordovan leather sofa, kissing and touching. Alec moved to kneel between Kelsie’s thighs, lifting her hips and joining their bodies once again. They made love slowly, taking each other to the edge, but always pulling back, prolonging the pleasure.
In the end, Alec took control. With one hand he parted the soft, swollen petals of feminine flesh and stroked her with the lightest of touches, setting off an avalanche of feelings. With eyes full of love and the shadows of desperation, he watched her face as ecstasy claimed her. When she had stilled beneath him, he held her tenderly and found his own completion.
They helped each other dress—a curiously sweet, quiet endeavor.
Kelsie still felt naked, even with all her clothes on. Her body was humming with awareness. Every nerve ending had become hypersensitive. She had a business meeting in less than an hour, and all she could think of was curling up in bed beside Alec for the rest of the day.
Dangerous. The word was like a thin cloud of smoke ribboning through the corridors of her mind. It appeared out of nowhere to send a sharp stab of fright throug
h her but vanished when she tried to examine it and find its origin. It was never far from her mind, but she could never get hold of it. All she knew for certain was the more she loved Alec, the more that word came to mind, and the more frightened she became.
NINE
“WHAT NOW?” ALEC muttered to himself as he drove past Kelsie’s house. The place was ablaze with lights. He had to go halfway down the block before he could find a parking spot. If this was some kind of party, he wasn’t in the mood. He was beat. On top of putting in extra hours at the office trying to get everything ready to shoot the first series of ads for Van Bryant’s, he’d been spending as much time as he could insinuating himself into Kelsie’s life.
His plan was to show her A: that he was truly interested in her life, and B: that all her little clubs and causes were not going to provide her with excuses to escape the serious relationship they were building—or would be building as soon as she decided the world could run without her constant supervision.
He hadn’t missed one of Jeffrey’s youth hockey games. He had watched Elizabeth master a double-toe loop in skating class. He had bravely volunteered to take a sick cat to the vet—he still had the claw marks to prove it. He had joined the Humane Society and had volunteered to speak at a Junior Achievers meeting. Still he wasn’t seeing more of Kelsie, not in the way he wanted to.
It didn’t make any sense at all. Since they had admitted their love for each other it seemed as though she had been avoiding him. She said she wanted to spend more time with him, but it wasn’t happening. Of course it was the Christmas season, which complicated everyone’s schedule. Maybe that was the problem.
Alec had tried taking his own advice, and his father’s, about biding his time with Kelsie. The trouble was, he wasn’t by nature a patient man. He was used to setting a goal, then bulldozing over whatever he had to to reach that goal. He didn’t seem to be making any headway in this situation, and he was beginning to feel frustrated and a little desperate.
The time for patience was over. If he had to drag her kicking and screaming, he was going to get Kelsie away from her thousand and one responsibilities for a couple of days of peace and quiet. They would go somewhere out of the way, have a serious discussion about their future together, and spend the rest of the time making love.