Absolute Pleasure

by Jamie Denton

  Oh yeah, she had sex kitten written all over her, she thought sarcastically as she stepped into the elevator. Her voice mail would be demanding overtime pay for collecting all the enticing offers.

  Not!

  The elevator reached her floor and Sunny walked into the corridor only to wrinkle her nose when she caught a whiff of the lingering odor of newly painted walls. She’d been one of the first to purchase a unit when the condo complex had gone up six months ago. She would’ve thought she’d be accustomed to the unpleasant paint smell by now, but with new tenants still moving in on a regular basis and anxious to decorate their homes, it was unavoidable. Not a single one of the brief glimpses she’d caught of the other units on her floor revealed the boring, standardized eggshell-white walls of her condo. She’d spied brilliant splashes of color, wallpaper designs in rich hues and even mosaic-tiled walls in the small foyer of the condo belonging to the gay couple across the hall. In comparison her place was…well, boring.

  Just like her love life, she thought. She had only herself to blame. Opportunity had come along in the form of a major hottie and what did she do? Gave him the kiss-off. Since she wouldn’t be having sex anytime soon, perhaps she should consider sprucing up her living space. Go for bold and exciting.

  She’d rather have bold and exciting sex. With Duncan.

  She pulled her keys from the pocket of her blazer when she reached her door and fingered the key for the top deadbolt. She didn’t know what was wrong with her tonight. With less than a month until her thirtieth birthday, she had everything in life she could possibly want. Professionally she had no complaints, and even the job of her dreams was within reach. On a personal level, her accomplishments surpassed those of many single women her age. She owned her own home and just last week she’d made the final payment on her Jeep Liberty. Other than a couple of credit card balances that were more than manageable, she wasn’t bogged down in debt, either, even with her new mortgage payment. Unlike her sister, Dale, who went through money like water, Sunny didn’t live paycheck to paycheck, and after deducting her down payment on the condo, her savings account remained moderately respectable. Already thinking ahead to her golden years, she’d even invested in a couple of low-risk mutual funds.

  If every aspect of her life was going so well, then why did she suddenly feel so…incomplete?

  Duncan Chamberlain, that’s why.

  She rammed a key into the second lock. She may have been living like a nun for the past few months, but no one could ever accuse of her practicing to become one. She’d been drawn to a number of men in her lifetime, so why hadn’t a single one of them ever invaded her thoughts with the same consistency as Duncan?

  Probably because none of them were Duncan.

  She blew out a stream of breath, finished off the last lock and opened the door. Juggling her purse, the weighty shopping bag and her briefcase, she disengaged the alarm system, reset the locks and lugged her packages into the small pentagon-shaped dining room. Careful not to scratch the glass-topped table, she set her things on the clear surface and snagged the cordless phone from the holder she kept on the antique buffet. She sank into one of the taupe jacquard chairs, toed off her pumps and punched in the speed dial code for the local deli, only to be instantly placed on hold.

  She flicked a speck of lint from the silk plant on the center of the dining table before dropping her chin into her hand. Duncan’s effect on her could have something to do with the sinfully sexy tilt of his mouth and the way he certainly knew how to use it. Or maybe her obsession stemmed from the way his big masculine body had felt against hers. The directness of his gaze when he spoke to her, or the way his eyes darkened to a soft warm gray when he was aroused certainly did a number on her. And how could she forget the rich sound of his deep, velvety-smooth voice? Or the way he made her laugh in a way she hadn’t done in ages.

  Try all of the above, dummy.

  Still waiting for the clerk to come back on the line, she slid out of the chair and headed for the kitchen and the ice-cold beer she’d been thinking about on the way home from work. She cut up a lime then twisted the juice from a section into the neck of the bottle before taking a long drink. Good, but nowhere near as satisfying as she’d hoped.

  Returning to the table, she pulled her mail from the shopping bag. Bank statement, a couple of utility bills, a credit card statement, the quarterly reminder that her car insurance was coming due and a thick white linen envelope from her folks. She smiled wryly at their hypocrisy, wondering if her nontraditionalist parents even realized the irony of a formal invitation to celebrate something as traditional as thirty years of marriage. An anniversary which just happened to fall the day before her thirtieth birthday.

  The clerk finally picked up the line and Sunny placed her order. She included Tiramisu with her pastrami, then decided she needed even more comfort food, adding a pasta salad and a side of marinated mushrooms. The clerk promised to be at her door in forty-five to sixty minutes, which gave her more than enough time to shower.

  After calling downstairs to let the doorman know she was expecting a delivery, she slipped a twenty from her wallet and set it on the table in the entry before heading for the shower. She emerged fifteen minutes later refreshed, but that incomplete feeling continued to plague her.

  She dried off, then pampered herself in a feminine ritual she generally refrained from during the work week by smoothing tangerine-mango-scented lotion over her skin. The thought of a bra held zero appeal, but until the deli dude made an appearance, she decided against letting the girls roam free for the time being. With optimum comfort still at the forefront of her mind, she slipped into a white lace bra and a matching pair of panties. Tugging a loose-fitting white cotton tank top over her head, she settled on a pair of pale yellow French terry shorts. After coating her damp curls with the goopy stuff the hairstylist at the salon made her promise she’d use religiously, she padded across the earth-toned Berber carpet to her dresser for a pair of socks. The temperature could soar to one hundred and fifty degrees and her feet would still be cold.

  Before she could sit on the dusty teal comforter to pull on her socks, the doorbell rang. She hadn’t realized she’d been in the shower that long.

  Rushing down the hall, socks still in hand, she snatched the twenty off the table. Without bothering to peer through the peephole, she unlocked the two deadbolts followed by the useless, insecure lock inside the knob, then swung open the door.

  Shock rumbled through her. The lively staccato rhythm in her chest beat like a frantic drum. A knot formed in her stomach, then slowly drifted south, creating a warmth inside her in a way only one man possibly could ignite. Duncan.

  Damn, he looked good. And so much more appetizing than the food she’d been expecting. He wore a pair of dark jeans lightly faded in all the right places that clung to his lean hips. The sleeves of his white, gauzy button-down shirt were rolled back to reveal those mouthwatering forearms. He looked deliciously appealing, and way out of her price range.

  She blinked. Once. Twice. Three times before she remembered to frown at him. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

  His gaze swept over her, slowly, meticulously. Not at all unlike what she’d spent far too many hours imagining he’d be doing with his hands tonight if she hadn’t come to her senses.

  “It’s Friday. We had a date, remember?” The promise of a smile teased his lips.

  Her imagination sparked.

  The temptation to throw her arms around him and apologize for being stupid and stubborn and rude overwhelmed her. Unfortunately, there’d be no acting out of that particularly fantasy anytime soon.

  Disappointment that he was off limits jockeyed for position against relief that she still possessed enough intelligence to understand her actions came with consequences she wasn’t willing to take.

  Her gaze traveled down the length of him. Disappointment beat the pants off relief by a mile.

  “Mind if I come in?” he asked.


  Yes, she minded. She minded a lot. While she was at it, she also took issue that he’d been occupying her thoughts since they’d met when she needed to concentrate on how to capture a seducing, thieving scammer. Duncan’s mere presence made her question the wholeness of her life, and that bothered her, too. And if she was honest, then she had to admit that what she really wanted was to forget all her silly concerns and lead him straight into her bedroom where they could make love until nothing else mattered except mindless pleasure.

  Against her better judgment, she stepped back and waved him inside. “How did you find me?” she asked once he closed the door behind him. “I’m not listed.”

  He turned the power of that damned smile on full-blast. “When I want something, I go after it.”

  Her knees went weak. Forget the bedroom. The sterile, boring white tiles in the entry were looking better by the second.

  She set her socks and the twenty on the hall table, then rested her backside against the edge before wrapping her fingers over the edge of the smooth wood. Not to test its durability, either, but because being so impossibly close to him stretched the limits of her resistance. “What do you want, Duncan?”

  “We’ll get to what I want later,” he said, boldly taunting her. He set a thick envelope she hadn’t even realized he’d been carrying next to her. “You wanted copies of my files, remember?”

  He was certainly asking a lot since she could barely recall her own name.

  His knuckle grazed her hip. Her breasts tightened, followed by the most delightful tremor that chased down her spine. He didn’t appear to even notice the distress she was under.

  She cleared her throat. “You should’ve sent them to my office.”

  “I was coming here, anyway,” he said and shrugged.

  “Apparently I didn’t make myself clear that we wouldn’t be seeing each other tonight.” The man was far from obtuse. Arrogant? Without a doubt, his presence offered her enough proof to solidify that belief. But dense? Hardly. He’d simply chosen to ignore her decision.

  Rather than moving away so she could breathe, he deliberately invaded her space. Bracing his hands on the surface of the table, he bracketed her hips and leaned toward her, holding her captive.

  An unwilling prisoner? She hadn’t yet decided, but no seemed as good an answer as any.

  “I wasn’t sure who I spoke to yesterday.” A devilish light entered his gaze and her heart started hammering all over again. “It sure didn’t sound like the Sunny I know.”

  No, she probably hadn’t, she thought guiltily. “The Sunny you thought you knew is currently unavailable. At least until this Sunny wraps up SEDSCAM.”

  Was it her imagination or did he just lean in closer? Since she’d just admitted to multiple personalities, she didn’t think she was in a position to objectively assess the situation.

  “What changed between Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon?”

  Nothing. Everything.

  He did deserve an explanation. Georgia and Ned had been in her office when he’d called and she’d gladly opted for the coward’s way out by taking advantage of their presence to avoid having to quantify her decision.

  “Sunny?” he pressed.

  She let out a breath, wishing he’d back off, but wanting him closer at the same time. “I’m being watched,” she told him. “SEDSCAM has become my test case for a position in ISU. Klabo himself is monitoring my progress on this one, and that means I can’t afford so much as a whiff of impropriety.”

  He shrugged. “So?”

  “You obviously don’t understand what a chance like this means to me.”

  “No, I get it.” He removed one hand from the table and drew his fingers lightly down the length of her leg, from the hem of her shorts to her knee, then back up again. “But one has nothing to do with the other.”

  She struggled to ignore the heat uncurling in her belly and concentrate on their conversation. The sudden dampness of her panties when the heat of his palm slid more boldly down her leg made a mockery of her attempted lucidity.

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” Her breath caught. “Of course it does.” She reassessed her earlier position on dense. His or hers, she couldn’t begin to fathom. “You of all people should know you don’t stop being an agent at five o’clock. Remember the oath we swore to uphold? The one that talks about integrity? Well, that just happens to hold meaning for me, okay?”

  “What we do after hours is our business.” The tips of his fingers slipped beneath the hem of her shorts, drawing enticing, distracting patterns beneath the fabric along her thigh. “I don’t think we’ll have any trouble separating business from…”

  His lazy smile widened when he dipped his finger along the inside of her thigh. She shifted, easing her legs slightly apart to give him plenty of room.

  “Pleasure,” he finished.

  He really didn’t need to stare at her mouth like that. She had no trouble whatsoever discerning his meaning. “There’s nothing to separate.” Except maybe Duncan from his clothes.

  He dipped his head and nuzzled the side of her neck. A rush of breath left her when his tongue nailed the sensitive spot between her shoulder and neck.

  “Besides, what’s the point?” She tipped her head to the side. “Once I join ISU, it isn’t like I’ll even have the energy for a personal life. Longer hours, constant travel, not to mention the drain—”

  He gently nipped at her skin, stilling her argument before he soothed the spot with his tongue. “Sounds like a convenient excuse to me.”

  “It’s reality. My reality.” Between his fingers gently massaging her inner thigh and the delightful little love nips against her throat, her current reality was becoming difficult to ignore.

  “Trust me, it’ll get ugly.” She tightened her grip on the edge table. “Been there before and hated that.”

  “Ugly?” He tongued the hollow of her throat. “I doubt that,” he said against her skin.

  She tipped her head back, thrusting her breasts forward, willing him to touch her, to cup the weight in his palm, to take her into his mouth. “You’ll eventually resent my career,” she continued to ramble, “which will turn me into an intolerable bitch, who will drive you away. We’ll say mean things to each other, you’ll break my heart and it’ll end badly. Who needs the headache?”

  He lifted his head and looked down at her with those get-lost-in-me eyes that had changed to a deep, smoky gray with just a tad too much arrogance. “I’ll break your heart, huh?” He pried her fingers from the table and lifted her arms over her head, then whipped off her tank top and tossed it on the floor.

  Appreciation filled his gaze as he looked at her. Her heart took a dive off a cliff when she caught sight of the barely discernable tremble in his hands as he lightly drew his fingers over the slope of her breasts.

  “I think you could.” In fact, she was sure he would, provided she was dumb enough to fall for him. He’d easily shatter her heart into a million irreparable pieces. Then what would she have? Boring walls and a broken heart.

  His thumb circled her nipple. “You think too much.”

  The tug of desire was so sharp she couldn’t think straight. “Just a sampling of my bad habits. See? It’s starting already.”

  “Babe, we haven’t even begun.”

  She knew without an ounce of doubt he was referring to something far more incredible. His hands found the waistband of her shorts and she didn’t consider not standing so he could push them over her hips. She barely managed to kick them aside with her foot when he took hold of her hips and lifted her fully onto the hall table. She reached for him, but he ignored her silent plea to bring their bodies together. Instead, he hooked his hand under one of her knees, lifting her leg to rest her foot on the edge of the table. If it weren’t for the flimsy lace panties, she’d be completely open and exposed to him. Vulnerable. With her hands on his shoulders to steady herself, she understood her trust in him exceeded any she’d ever given to anyone before.

 
He lifted her hands from his shoulders, then placed them behind her, narrowing the space between them. With his fingers laced through hers, he held her immobile, then dipped his head and kissed her. His mouth was hot, demanding, the kiss bordering on fierce in its intensity. This was what she would be giving up, and she wasn’t sure she had the strength. Was she really willing to risk everything she’d ever worked for, for a few nights of what promised to be unbelievably memorable sex?

  She tore her mouth from his. “Duncan, wait.”

  He didn’t. Instead he set her skin on fire, placing kisses along her jaw, trailing a fiery path down the column of her throat to the slope of her breasts.

  “What if we get caught?” she asked.

  He lifted his head to look at her. Desire burned in his eyes. Oh hell, the way he was looking at her, she decided she didn’t give a rat’s ass if her condo was bugged with a direct link to Klabo’s office. No way was she letting this man out of her sight until they finished what he’d started. She’d deal with tomorrow, tomorrow. Or the day after that. Or…

  “Forget I said anything,” she said.

  A crooked half smile canted his lips. He removed his hands from hers and settled them on her waist, his thumbs dipping teasingly beneath the lace of her already damp panties. “The threat of discovery is a powerful aphrodisiac. Heightens the pleasure.”

  “As if we need any help in that—” The rest of her statement stilled on her tongue as he drew the length of his finger lightly over her exposed core. His touch, combined with the press of lace against her sensitive flesh created one of the most erotic sensations she’d ever experienced. “Area,” she finally finished. “Oooh, do that again.”

  He did, applying the slightest amount of pressure. Her hips bucked against his hand. “You like that, don’t you?”

  “Hmmm,” she murmured, dropping her head back against the wall. She closed her eyes, arched her back and surrendered the fight to a battle she had no desire to win. She sighed with pleasure when the warmth of his mouth, closed over her breast, the heat of his tongue flicking against her nipple through the lace of her bra. She wanted him, needed him in a way she couldn’t remember ever wanting another man. More than her next breath or the next beat of her heart.