“Okay. Where should I leave these letters for you?” she asked.
“Just leave them on the corner of the desk.” I took a seat in the chair to the side of the sofa and hoped it would put her more at ease by not crowding her.
I watched her walk across the floor and saw her gulp, then watched as a flush appeared across her cheek bones. She settled on the sofa, close, but not too close.
Hell, I couldn’t even remember what I wanted to discuss with her. I leaned forward and pulled myself together. “The meeting is with Oakfield Architectural Design.” Her eyes met mine. “They’re one of three companies chosen to bid on a new development that McKenzie Holdings is building just outside of town…. Is this going to be a problem?” I watched her closely and she appeared more nervous than before. “David is going to be in the meeting.” There, I’d said it.
She looked anywhere, but at me. “Lily.” She looked back to me. “Please talk to me.”
“I…He…He doesn’t know I’ve started work here. I never told him about the interview, about being offered the position, or that I was due to start work here today, or anywhere else, for that matter. I guess I just wanted something for me. He can be rather vocal, and I was really looking forward to working here, so I decided to keep quiet rather than have him lecture me.” She ended on a shrug.
“How do you want to handle this?” She nervously moved the hair falling around her neck in disarray, behind her ear. “I need you at the meeting Lily. If I could spare you, I would.” I just about managed to prevent myself from basically falling at her feet. God, if one of my brothers were here right now, they’d be falling over laughing at me for becoming an idiot over a woman I’d only just met.
“Don’t worry, Michael. Uh, is it okay to call you Michael, or do you prefer Mr McKenzie?”
I grinned at her. “Michael, when we’re alone, but you should probably use Mr. McKenzie in the presence of others.”
“Okay. We’re all adults, and David is always the professional, so hopefully he won’t get pissed at me, well, until tonight anyway,” she said trying to laugh it off.
Why the hell would her so-called boyfriend be pissed that she had a job? A job which paid well. He was an idiot.
“Lily, if he makes you nervous at the meeting, I’ll be right there, all right?” She nodded. “Now Oakfield, up to now, are actually in the lead with the bidding. I will tell you that I prefer one of the other companies, but my brothers are rather impressed with Oakfield. The meeting today is to look over some sketches that we asked all three companies to provide. I’ll look them over and listen to what they have to say, but no decision will be made until I’ve had a meeting with my brothers. I’ll want you to take notes, but don’t write everything down. I’ll let you know when I want something noted, okay?”
“Yeah, that sounds easy enough.” She smiled, which made me loose my train of thought. “Is everything okay?” she asked, fidgeting, because I’d been staring at her.
“Do I make you nervous, Lily?” I couldn’t believe I’d just asked her that. My mouth needed to reattach itself to my brain. I held my hand out. “Forget I asked you that, it was out of line. Come on, let’s go and get this over with.” Hell, I was out of line earlier as well, when I had her pinned to the door. She would be in her right mind to scream sexual harassment, but she’d felt too damn good against me.
We stood and I took hold of her elbow, then felt a shiver run through her. “Lily.” She looked at me and I briefly saw what my closeness did to her.
She hesitantly pulled away from me and started towards the door. “I’ll just grab a notebook and some pens,” she said over her shoulder as she closed the door behind her.
Fuck. I was an adult and just acted like an adolescent boy with his first crush, the same way my cock had been reacting. I really needed to get a grip.
Chapter 7
~~ LILY ~~
I sat rather heavily in the chair at my desk, not sure my legs would hold me up any longer. I wasn’t even sure how I managed to walk out of Michael’s office. I’d never been so close to begging a man to take me as I just was. My panties were wet and I was still aroused to high heaven. The reaction to my boss was so not good, but no matter who he was, I was still in a relationship with David, even if he had been acting like a first class jerk. But I couldn’t ignore the strong attraction I had to Michael, even if I wanted to.
“You ready?”
Shit. I hadn’t even heard him walk out of his office. I quickly stood and collected my notebook and pens from my desk, then joined him. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
We walked side by side down the corridor, which I presumed led to the conference room. I could smell him – all man and cologne. There was nothing sexier.
As we rounded the corner, Michael opened the door for me. I started to walk through and stopped dead at the sight of David, sitting in the conference room. His expression changed from confusion to fury. Michael walked into me and just about stopped me from falling flat on my face.
He had an arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me tight against his body. He didn’t let me go. I turned my head to look behind me and clashed with Michael’s eyes. Our faces were inches apart, my heart pounded and all I wanted to do was lean that little bit closer and taste him, but instead, I came back to my senses. “Let me go,” I whispered.
He briefly tightened his arm around me, then very slowly unwrapped himself and ushered me further into the room. David was sitting with two of his colleagues, John and Peter. He looked…. speechless. “Hello David. John. Peter.”
Michael took hold of my elbow and pushed me into the chair to his right. David still seemed at a loss for words.
“I hope the fact that Lily is now my assistant, won’t cause problems. I know Lily had nothing to do with your bid, so it certainly shouldn’t cause a conflict of interest,” Michael told them.
I watched David glare at me, which was starting to piss me off. I lost my job, so why shouldn’t I have found another one? Okay, perhaps I should have told him about it, but I really didn’t want a lecture, which is what I would have gotten.
“How long have you been here, Lily?”
I knew that tone of voice. He was pissed. “I started here this morning.”
His eyes narrowed. “So.... while we were being intimate this morning, you didn’t think to tell me?”
Bastard.
“Enough.” I jumped when Michael banged the table with his fist. He looked just as pissed as David. “Do you have a bid to make or not?” Michael demanded.
Peter cleared his throat at the little confrontation and started waffling on and on. All the time, David was sitting glaring at me, giving his input for his company’s proposal here and there. He was an ass. Why was I only just seeing that now? How the hell can anyone who gave a damn about someone blurt something ‘intimate’ out?
Michael sensed my unease and slipped his hand under the table, then caressed my hand before he entwined his fingers with mine. I held tight and caressed along his thumb. It was so wrong, but it felt so good. It was soothing, but my blood still sizzled.
If holding hands with Michael made me feel hot and bothered, what would it feel like to be held by him, skin to skin? He squeezed my hand and released me, then he ran the back of his hand along my thigh and hip before he brought his hand back above the table. The trail his hand left had my sex quivering with need.
He looked at me, his gaze scorching. “Can you make a note of that?” He smiled, knowing what he’d done to me.
With a shake to my hand, I started to put pen to paper, but couldn’t remember what was said. My mind had been on Michael and not on the meeting. He realized my predicament, so he repeated what he wanted noted.
We didn’t touch for the rest of the meeting, which carried on just fine, and David seemed to have stopped being a jerk. I still couldn’t believe he announced to everyone that we had sex this morning, something I really would have preferred Michael not knowing. Admittedly, I should have correc
ted him and pointed out that David was the one being intimate, while I’d just laid there and accepted him.
John passed Michael the copies of the documents and drawings he was keeping for his meeting with his brothers, so I stood and hoped for a quick escape. I glanced towards Michael and realized he had too much to carry back to his office.
“It’s okay, Lily. You head back if you want. I can come back and retrieve the rest,” he said.
I couldn’t do that. I really just wanted to stay close to him. It had felt good having him touch me during the meeting and I wanted his hands on me again.
“It’s okay. I’ll stay and help.” He frowned over my shoulder. I turned around and saw David standing there.
“Lily, can I have a word please, before I leave?”
I sensed the tension between Michael and David. I turned to Michael. “I’ll only be a minute.” He looked worried, which made me hesitate, then I turned back to David. “Let’s go over there.” I walked off and left him to follow.
“What the hell are you doing here, Lily?” He was still furious with me.
“I needed a job. I applied and got it. It’s a good company to work for and you should be happy that I’ve found another job so quickly. It pays more as well.”
“Well, I’m not happy. Why can’t you just let me work, while you take care of the apartment or something?”
What the hell! “I can’t live on fresh air, David.” I was astonished. He wasn’t even pissed because I’d kept the job a secret, but because I wasn’t jobless and free to look after the apartment or something.
“I would give you housekeeping.” He was still pissed.
Well I was too. “I’m too old to get ‘pocket money’ and what the hell was that in there about this morning?” I asked as I poked him in the chest with my finger.
“McKenzie was looking at you, so I wanted him to know who you woke up with this morning.”
“You’re an ass. Considering he knows I live with you, I guess he already knew I would have woken up with you this morning. That really was uncalled for.”
“Lily. We need to get back to the office.” Michael called. Thank God. I really didn’t want to be anywhere near David.
“Okay. I’m done here.”
I started to walk back to the table to collect my belongings and some of the papers for Michael, when David took hold of my arm.
“I’ll see you at home, Lily. Don’t forget we’re meeting Daniel and Val tonight,” he said, loud enough for the whole room to hear.
Michael looked about ready to lose it. I pulled my arm away. “Whatever.”
I followed Michael out of the conference room.
Chapter 8
~~ MICHAEL ~~
What the hell did Lily see in that bastard? I’d never felt like hitting anyone before like I did him. All through the meeting he glared at Lily, making her feel uncomfortable. I’d wanted her to know she had some support, so I’d slipped my hand under the table and ended up holding her hand, which had felt damn good. She caressed my thumb, while I imagined it was my cock. The contact and the fantasy, of course, had me throbbing painfully in my trousers.
It was nearly five hours since we’d met, and I already wanted her all for myself. I felt possessive of her. Back in the conference room, all I’d wanted was to punch the bastard and to tell him she was mine now, and to stay away from her. I’d lost all reason. I should have listened to Ramon the other night going on and on about the fact that I needed to get laid. It had been a hell of a long time and perhaps if I hadn’t felt so damn horny, I might have actually been able to act like a CEO and not a hormonal teenager.
“Are these all right on here?” Lily asked.
I nodded and watched her place the documents onto the conference table in my office.
“Do you think you’d be able to type the notes up this afternoon?” I smiled at her and wanted her to smile in return. She did and it set her whole face alight. She was beautiful.
“No problem.” She held her hands up and wriggled her fingers. “Super quick fingers here.”
I laughed as I watched her leave, and before she shut the door, she winked. Bloody hell!
There was a lot of paperwork she’d stacked on my desk, but instead of sorting through it, I left that and checked my email to see if there was anything from Sebastian. Nothing. I picked up my cell and dialed his number, and was shocked as hell when he answered.
“Sebastian, were the hell are you?” I ran my fingers through my hair.
“I’m still in San Diego and our pal Roger is standing guard. What the hell is going on?”
I smiled. He didn’t sound too happy. “Lucien’s called. He wants you to fly to Denver. Don’t ask why, because I have no idea. He just asked me to get you on a plane. So now you’re found, Roger will give you a ride to the airport so you can go and calm the baby down.”
He roared with laughter. “You did not just call our eldest brother a baby? That was a good one. Just wait until I tell him.”
I groaned.
Lucien used to be just like Sebastian, but all that changed when he got torn up in a car accident. He now hid from the world in Colorado. He visited, but preferred his own space.
“Just go Seb, please. Make sure he’s okay, then bring him home, if you can, for the picnic in a couple of weeks.”
“Shit. I forgot all about that. Okay, will do.”
After I’d disconnected, I tried not to think about Lucien and how broken my brother was, and started to go through the spreadsheets Dale had prepared for me yesterday. It turned out to be easier said than done thanks to the image of Lily in my head.
The thought of her going home to that idiot was making me see red. I didn’t have the right to react like I did, but I couldn’t stop myself. The attraction was instant, on both our parts. I hadn’t mistaken that. There was something about her that called out to me and for once the thought of having more than a one-night-stand didn’t leave me running scared. I knew that with Lily, once she came to me, I wouldn’t let her go, because she would be mine.
With a heavy sigh, I decided to distract myself with work. But before I started to sort the paper work out, I transferred the spreadsheets that I really needed to work on to a USB, so I could work on them at home. I then stood and walked towards the conference table to sort through the documents and sketches from Oakfield.
Four hours later, Lily entered with her arms full of paper. “What on earth do you have there?” I asked, going over and taking some of them from her.
“A cup of coffee,” which she passed to me. “The typed notes, documents that a courier brought over, and the post, which I discovered, unopened, in a filing cabinet, I didn’t even know existed,” she said breathlessly while sorting them out into neat piles on my desk.
“Wow, you have been busy.” I took a sip of coffee, which felt damn good going down my parched throat.
“I don’t like sitting around doing nothing.” She smiled at me. “It looks like you’ve been busy as well.”
I laughed. Not one bit of the conference table was showing because of all the paper spread over it.
“Your brother rang.”
Those three words froze me, mid-drink. “Which one?”
“The one who likes to flirt.”
I saw red. “Sebastian,” I said in a tight voice. “What did he say to you? I’ll kill him.”
She walked over to me and placed her hand on my arm. “Michael please. He didn’t offend me. He just wanted to know who I was, although I did draw the line when he asked for my dress size.”
Shit. “You need to stay away from Sebastian. He goes through women as fast as people go through bread.”
“That’s a new one,” she chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’m not interested in your brother.”
I couldn’t look away from her. She was standing so close to me. I reached out to her and my hand caressed her face. She turned into my hand and kissed my palm. I put my cup down and moved closer. I took hold of her hand and laced
my fingers through hers. My blood heated at her close proximity.
My cock was ready to burst free and wouldn’t stop twitching. God, with one touch I would come.
“Michael, what’s happening?” she whispered.
I sucked some much needed air into my lungs and moved my hand from her face, then rested my forehead against hers. “I don’t know…. but you need to go home. Now.” I stepped back from her, which was the hardest thing I’d ever done. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Lily.” I watched the woman I wanted more than anything, leave my office. Knowing she was going home to the bastard who didn’t deserve her, bothered me more than it should.
Chapter 9
~~ LILY ~~
What was happening to me? All I’d wanted was to stay in the office with Michael. He pulled at my heartstrings like no one ever had. He’d looked so alone, standing in his office, wanting me. I would say he found it just as difficult to let me go as it was for me to leave. I found myself really looking forward to tomorrow and seeing him again. Now I only had to worry about David.
David. What the hell had happened to our relationship? It was actually driving me crazy, trying to put my finger on when everything started to change. I couldn’t say it was sudden, but more like a gradual, steady decline.
Five months ago, we’d gone to his boss’s home for the weekend, along with some other colleagues who were working on a particular contract. The weekend had gone well, and gradually since then our relationship had started to disintegrate. Now I cringed whenever he came near me, which was so not good.
I briefly rested my head against my apartment door, dreading what I was going to be walking into when I opened it.
With a sigh, I put the key in the lock and opened the door, only to be greeted by dark silence.
Standing in the apartment, I closed and locked the door, then walked towards the lounge and stopped dead at the sight that greeted me. I was left totally speechless.
Seduce (McKenzie Brothers) Page 3