Her thighs shook and her stomach tightened as she dove headfirst into an orgasm that had her seeing spots. She rode out the wave until every touch she received caused tiny little aftershocks.
When she calmed down, Andrew removed the blindfold and helped her back into her dress. Penny was confused. She knew he hadn’t come and she wasn’t able to tell if the other man had either.
She tried to grab Andrew, wanting to give him the same kind of relief she’d received. He gently brought her around to face him.
He took her hand and softly kissed it. “This was for you, sweets. We only wanted to give you pleasure.”
She swallowed hard. “It doesn’t feel right.” And it didn’t. Penny always took her greatest pleasure in making her lovers enjoy sex as much as she did.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get your opportunity to return the favor.”
She turned away from Andrew. In the dark she didn’t even know where the other man was now.
“Oh really?” She wasn’t opposed to having another evening like this, several more in fact.
“I think we all would like another chance to play.”
Suddenly the room was bathed in soft light. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust.
Andrew tipped her chin up. “You are quite beautiful. Your skin is all flushed, your lips swollen. Dante, come take a look at her.”
Icy-cold reality doused Penny’s heated satisfaction.
It couldn’t be. There was no way in hell… She held back the tears that filled her eyes as she listened to footsteps approaching.
“Turn around, Ms. Lane.”
She closed her eyes. Fuck me! This was so not happening. She was frozen in place.
“Dante, what the hell is going on?” Andrew asked.
“Turn around, Penny.”
Anger wiped her embarrassment clean. It swirled red-hot in her belly as she faced the man who’d made her work life dreadful over the past few months.
He was also the man she’d had a crush on since high school.
When Dante had started working for the company, she’d been able to lock the memories of high school away. They were both adults now but seeing him here, bringing her to orgasm with his very talented tongue, made her feel like the teenage girl who’d dreamed of kissing him.
God, why did he have to look so beautiful? His lips were glistening and she flushed crimson, knowing it was her juices wetting them. She trembled as he stepped to her, raising one finger to trace her mouth.
It catapulted Penny back to her senior year in high school.
“Good job on the set.” Dante smiled as they sat on the edge of the stage.
“Thanks. We finally finished at ten last night.” She was way too shy to actually try out for a part in their school’s many productions. Instead she worked on building the sets, setting the lights—anything to be near Dante Parker. “You were awesome tonight.” She couldn’t meet his eyes as she complimented him on his starring performance.
“Thanks.”
“Hey, Dante, come on, the party’s at Amy’s house tonight.” Becca Hatten, head cheerleader and Dante’s current girlfriend, stood in the auditorium door.
He turned back to Penny. “Hey, I gotta go. Thanks for the help with geometry. Coach says if I keep it up, I’ll be off academic probation.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek before hopping off the stage and joining Becca.
Penny sat there, reliving that small kiss, knowing in her heart she would never love a man the way she loved Dante Parker.
In the here and now, he leaned down and gave her a chaste kiss against her cheek, just as he had over fifteen years ago. He straightened up and smiled. His perfect white teeth were more than she could deal with and she drew back and slapped him across the face.
Stepping quickly around him, she ran from the room.
* * * * *
“What the hell?”
Dante wanted to ignore Andrew’s question and go after Penny but thought better of it. She was entirely too pissed to approach.
He should have planned this better. He was no stranger to Deidre’s parties. His cousin had always been a wild child and she’d grown into an even wilder woman.
“I know her.”
“I figured that out. Who is she?” His buddy was pissed.
Dante winced. “Kale’s assistant.”
Andrew ran his fingers through his thick blond hair. “Tell me you’re fucking joking.”
Dante crossed his arms, not really paying attention to his best friend’s growing anger. His mind was still on Penny. Her total abandon during sex, the way she’d reveled in the rougher side of it. Just the way he liked it.
“Tell me you didn’t plan this ahead of time. Tell me that, Dante, or I swear I’ll break your expensive-ass dental work.”
Dante faced Andrew. “I didn’t know she’d be here, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“But you sure as hell knew who she was when you pointed her out to me and sent me in, didn’t you?”
He shrugged, not bothering to deny it. He hadn’t come to Deirdre’s party tonight thinking he’d see Penny, he’d just needed to unwind a little. Work had been brutal since he’d taken over and he needed to get away from the accounts he was desperately trying to salvage.
It had honestly never occurred to him that she and Deidre were still friends, nor had the prospect of her coming to one of these parties ever entered his mind.
The moment Penny had walked through the wide double doors, she’d taken his breath away. The only thought running through his brain was to get her in a room and have a taste—just a small one. He’d wanted to satisfy a curiosity he’d held on to since high school. What he hadn’t planned on was deciding to turn on the lights and let her know who he was.
He could have kept the damn things off and that would have been the end of it. But one taste of her sweet body had changed everything. It was unexpected, unwanted and he was now unable to forget. Hell, he hadn’t even been inside her.
When he finally took her, it wouldn’t be in an anonymous room. It would be at his home, on his terms.
“What do you think will happen if she tells Kale? Or if she decides to sue your ass?”
Dante sighed. There was more that Andrew didn’t understand concerning Penny and he wasn’t in the mood to explain. It sounded lame when he thought about it; he certainly wasn’t going to vocalize anything. “She won’t tell Kale. Besides, Kale wouldn’t give a damn as long as Penny stayed with her.”
Kale depended on Penny for everything and she was the reason he’d raised Penny’s salary as much as he had. Of course if Penny left the company, the other woman would have his nuts in a jar.
He needed to think and think hard. The truth was, a few stolen moments with Penny weren’t going to be enough. He’d known the teenage girl who carried her crush for him on her sleeve. He wanted to know the woman she was today. The hardworking woman with an easy smile and lush figure made just for him.
Several different emotions passed over his friend’s face.
“If you want her, I’ll back off.” He wished the words back as soon as he’d spoken them.
“How generous of you,” Andrew scoffed. “I don’t play games with a woman or her emotions, pal. Penny is lovely and delicious and feels damn good, but you know me, I’m not a forever kind of man.”
“But do you still want her?” Even as he asked the question he was confident in his friend’s answer.
“I’d love to spend more nights enjoying her body and her company. Why?”
“Because I want her in a more permanent way and while I like to share with you, I don’t want you getting any ideas other than playing.”
Andrew shook his head in disbelief. “Do you really think after this little play of yours she’s going to let either one of us near her?”
“I didn’t come here with the intention of any of this happening, but now that it has, I don’t know if I can let go.”
“Fine, but I won’t be a part of you deceiving h
er. You better be upfront on this deal or I’m out of here.”
Dante nodded. He wouldn’t force Penny into anything nor would he make her feel as if her job depended on it.
“So how the hell do you intend to even get the woman to look at you again?”
Andrew didn’t answer because at the moment he had no fucking clue.
Chapter Two
Penny curled up in her big fluffy terrycloth robe, a cup of hot cocoa and a box of tissues nearby. Wendy sat next to her, her fingers wrapped around a glass of merlot.
“I can’t believe what an asshole he is.” Her friend had caught her as she ran from the private area straight to coat check. Instead of trying to convince Penny not to leave, Wendy had left the party with her. She truly was her best friend.
“No, I’m the stupid one. I went willingly and I agreed to have sex with both of them.” Even the memory made her shiver all over.
“Stop. It wasn’t like you knew who was with Andrew.”
Wendy was trying to make her feel better but Penny had given her consent to Andrew and Dante. She’d wanted to experience the touch of two men and that was exactly what she’d gotten—one of the most erotic experiences of her life. Her nipples still ached from the attention Dante had given them. She was angrier with herself than the men.
“It doesn’t matter. It happened. How in the hell am I supposed to go into work on Monday and face him? How will I face Kale?” How she would ever look the woman in the eye again, she didn’t know. Kale was the utmost professional and didn’t condone office romances. She’d lectured Penny on more than one occasion about how women had it hard enough in the business world without introducing an affair that might ruin their careers.
“Kale doesn’t have to know anything happened. I doubt he’ll walk in there and announce it from the rooftop. If he did, you’d have cause to sue for harassment.”
Leave it to Wendy to remind her of her rights. Wendy was a staunch feminist and was more than willing to put a male through the wringer if he wronged a woman in the workplace.
“He won’t harass me. He barely acknowledges me when I’m at the office. He didn’t remember me from school.”
“You knew him from before?”
Penny was mortified, thinking about high school and Dante Parker. Long-forgotten humiliations and embarrassments rose to the surface. “I imagined myself in love with him.”
Wendy grabbed her hand. “What happened?”
“Nothing. That’s the point. For three years, I made a fool of myself over him. Everyone knew about my crush, including him. Every time he dated a new girl it was like a knife in my heart. I was the dumpy fat girl. He was the hot jock, and the only times we ever crossed paths were in classes we shared and in the theater club. A few girls even made comments in my yearbook about him.”
“Was he a jerk to you?”
She wanted to laugh. Wendy had her “killer” face on, ready to pounce as soon as Penny gave the word. “No, he was never cruel, but he knew. He would wink at me and say things that made me blush. I even deluded myself into thinking he was going to kiss me at one point during a school field trip.”
“Did you bring the CD?” her friend Amy asked.
“Right here.” Penny inserted the disc into the CD player she’d brought. The hotel had let some of the kids into a conference room while the chaperones worked out the details with the check-in desk.
The music kicked on and she started dancing with a couple of her friends. Not paying attention, she bumped into a six-foot-tall Dante.
He turned on her and grasped her wrists. “Watch out or I’ll have to pin you.”
“Like you could ever get me down. You forget, I have weight on my side.” Penny couldn’t believe Dante was touching her in such an easy way.
He smiled and she welcomed the butterflies that were always present in her tummy whenever he was around.
“You can’t win,” he announced, grabbing her knee and bringing her to the carpeted floor. She feigned fighting him, mostly because all she wanted to do was grab him and kiss his lips. The more she fought, the tighter his grip on her wrists became until he’d pinned her to the floor. He stared down at her and she swallowed, unable to move. The rest of the students in the room faded away and there was only her and Dante.
His face loomed and her eyes widened, her lips parting as anticipation grew.
“Hey, you two, time to go.”
They jerked their heads toward Amy. Damn. She’d interrupted what Penny thought of as the perfect moment and then it was lost…
Wendy was looking at her with a lazy grin. “Oh my God. You had one of those scenes like out of some teen movie. The dream that could have been.”
Penny rolled her eyes. Wendy may have appeared to be a hard-ass but she was a die-hard romantic at heart. “I think it was more wishful thinking on my part than anything. Reality is never so breathtaking, and I was only sixteen at the time.”
“The question is, now what are you going to do?”
Penny didn’t want to think about it but she didn’t have a choice. “I’m going to do what any smart woman would and pretend it didn’t happen. I’ll tuck it away as a night to remember and leave it at that.” A night of mind-blowing sex with two hot men, a little champagne and the right dress.
* * * * *
What did they say about famous last words? She crumpled the small Post-it attached to her computer screen. Dante wanted to see her the minute she came in.
She decided to ignore the edict and went about her day. Kale had enough work that Penny spent very little time at her own desk and instead ran to various other offices the company did business with to pick up priority paperwork. She ate lunch out and by the time she’d come back, she was knee-deep in responding to emails and other loose ends that needed to be tied up.
Half an hour before the end of the day, Kale came to her cubicle. The tall, slim blonde sat on the edge of Penny’s desk. “I’m going away for a month.”
Penny frowned; her boss never took time off. “Is everything okay?”
Kale’s face was paler than usual. “I have some urgent personal business to take care of. You’re going to have to report directly to Dante.”
Penny felt as though she’d been punched in the gut. She’d spent the day avoiding him and now she was going to have to work with him on a daily basis for an entire month?
“Penny. Penny, you look like you’ve swallowed a lemon. Is this going to be a problem for you?”
She adored her boss. Kale was such a smart, bright and ambitious woman. Penny also knew Kale wouldn’t leave unless it was extremely important. She wasn’t going to let down the woman who’d taught her so much. Kale had hired her with only a high school diploma and allowed Penny to work her way up. She owed the woman a debt she could never repay. Kale had loaned her the money to get her college degree in the evenings.
She needed to let what happened at Deirdre’s party go and be the professional she was.
“No, Kale. I’d be happy to help you out in any way possible.”
Kale stood and smiled for the first time during their exchange. “Dante can be very demanding but I’ve told him you’re an excellent employee. I also insisted you be given an extra week’s paid vacation upon my return. It’s only fair since you’ll essentially be doing two jobs.”
Maybe she’d get lucky and Dante would never mention what had occurred between them. Whatever happened, she’d just have to put on her big girl panties and deal with it.
“Thanks. I appreciate it, and an extra week of vacation sounds heavenly.”
Kale bent down and gave her a quick hug. Public affection was something Kale never partook in so Penny was shocked.
“I won’t ever forget this, Penny.” She left Penny wondering what in the world was going on in Kale’s life that had her so obviously rattled. Her boss was always professional. Never a hair out of place, never a misspoken word and she commanded attention wherever she went. Penny looked up to her, admired her work ethic and
the way she treated her employees.
She was confident that whatever Kale needed to take care of, she would do so with aplomb and dressed in her black power suit and matching pumps.
Kale popped her head back in. “I almost forgot. Dante needs to see you right away. I’m leaving now. You have my private number should you need me.”
* * * * *
“I can do this…I can do this…” she whispered to herself while walking down the carpeted hallway to Dante’s office. She knocked quickly before she changed her mind and ran like hell. A clipped “come” beckoned her in.
She closed the door behind her, took a deep breath and exhaled. Straightening her back, she approached his imposing mahogany desk and sat in one of the leather chairs in front of it.
He sat there staring straight at her. He wore no jacket, the top two buttons of his crisp white shirt were unbuttoned and his tie was loosened. She could read nothing in his hooded eyes to indicate he was thinking about the other evening.
“I assume Kale informed you she would be leaving for a while.”
“Yes.” God, he was as beautiful in the light of day as he’d been on the night of the ball. She crossed her legs to keep from trembling at the memory of his mouth between them.
“You’re going to be carrying quite a load for the next month. She assures me you are more than capable of doing the job.”
“I can handle it.”
“That’s what I was hoping you’d say.” He sat back, his posture more relaxed. “I think we need to discuss what happened. I don’t want you to feel awkward.”
“Too late.” She slapped a hand over her mouth as soon as the words left it.
He laughed at her, actually laughed. “Well said, but we have to deal with this, Penny.”
Why? She certainly didn’t want to recap Saturday night. She wanted to pretend it had only been a dream. That’s how she’d worked it out in her head.
“I’m not going to lie and say it was a mistake.”
She remained as still as possible, waiting for the inevitable but…
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