Persuasion Skills

by Laurel Cremant

  She shook her head at the lengths he had obviously gone through to get her to Colorado and keep her there. At least now, she had her answer as to why he had been so elusive and evasive lately.

  He knew how important the Lubtech deal was to her and that she wouldn’t let the contract fall through. The determination she found so attractive and sexy only a few weeks ago had quickly turned into his worst trait.

  She marched over to the closet door next to the bed and threw it open. Its contents confirmed her suspicions. Along one side of the deep walk-in closet hung men’s clothing and men’s sized boots along the floor.

  She recognized a few of Jax’s favorite sweaters and shirts. It was what hung opposite his clothing that had her eyes rolling in derision.

  Hanging neatly along the other wall were jeans and sweaters in different shades of pink and green. Her two favorite colors.

  A tall dresser took up the back wall of the closet, and when she pulled open the top drawer, she found it filled with frilly lingerie.

  He’s gone off the deep end.

  She hurried from the closet and checked the bathroom. Two toothbrushes were nestled together on the vanity, as well as jars of her favorite lotions and creams on the surface. Turning to the shower, bottles of her favorite shampoo and conditioner sat primly on the ledge.

  The sneaky loon had thought of everything.

  She stared at the bottles for several seconds, before the sound of the front door slamming open snapped her back to attention.

  Marching into the main room, she confronted her friend-cum-raving-lunatic.

  “Forget Misery. You’re in definite Psycho territory here!”

  A tint of red darkened his cheeks. At least he had the decency to blush. His show of embarrassment gave her hope that there was still a chance to reason with him.

  “I know it looks bad—”

  “Looks bad? Looks bad? Jesus, Jax, you bought a closet full of clothes!”

  “I didn’t want you to get cold. You’re such a Miami girl.”

  “And my shampoo?”

  “I wanted you to feel at home.”

  “And the drawer filled with lingerie?”

  He grinned at her. Stupid, sexy dimples.

  “Okay, that one was more for me than you, but you can’t blame a guy for being hopeful.”

  She stared at him and tried to take deep, calming breaths.

  Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

  “What exactly is your grand plan here? What are we supposed to accomplish trapped up on this mountain?”

  He planted his arms across his chest and gave her a long, unreadable look.

  “We live here for one week, like a real married couple,” he said finally.

  She opened her mouth to retort, but he cut her off.

  “Consider this a trial run. If at the end of the seven days, you’re not convinced we’ll be amazing together, I’ll let you walk away, and I’ll drop the whole thing.”

  “I can’t just not go back to Miami, I have work—”

  “I called your assistant this morning. She’s cleared your schedule for the next week.”

  “My family—”

  “All think you’re on a much-needed and overdue vacation. They say ‘Hi,’ by the way.”

  Her left eyelid trembled. Was it possible to develop a chronic tick in a matter of minutes?

  Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

  “And how exactly is a real couple supposed to live?”

  “We do the things any other vacationing couple would do. We spend time with each other, go on walks, have romantic dinners.” He sent her a heavy lidded gaze. “We sleep together,” he said huskily.

  Her body heated at his words, and her mouth went dry at the thought of being in a bed with him again. She let her gaze drift to his crotch and bit back a moan. He was most definitely aroused.

  As if sensing her gaze, she could swear she saw his cock thump against his zipper.

  She drew her gaze away from the hypnotic view as he made his way towards her with long, smooth steps.

  “I’m not having sex with you again,” she said shakily. “That’s what got us into this mess to begin with. If we hadn’t slept together in the first place, you wouldn’t be proposing marriage right now.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.” He placed a hand on her lower back and drew her into his warmth.

  The look in his eyes had her catching her breath. Crazy Jax she could handle. Aroused Jax was a whole other story.

  He leaned down and nuzzled her throat with his nose before whispering in her ear.

  “The sex only helps prove my point, but I’ll make you a deal.”

  Her stomach quivered at the feel of his lips at the flesh of her ear. She cleared her throat before responding.

  “Does it involve you coming to your senses?”

  The rumble of his chuckle vibrated up his chest and against her sensitive nipples as one of his hands smoothed down her back and squeezed her ass.

  “No, but it should put you at ease.”

  His meandering hand was making it hard for her to concentrate. All she could do was snort in reply, silently begging her hips not to give in and rub against him.

  “For the next seven days, we get to pet each other as much as we want, fondle and taste to our heart’s content, but I won’t fuck you, Pep,” he said while nibbling at the soft skin of her throat.

  It took a minute for her lust-addled brain to process his statement.

  “But you said—”

  He lifted his head and placed a soft, too-short kiss on her lips before stepping away.

  “I said we’ll sleep together. Before we have sex again, I want you fully willing to be my wife and nothing less,” he said, a serious expression flattening his lips.

  She searched his eyes, but his gaze didn’t waver. She grasped at the last life-line she could find.

  “I don’t think I can be what you need, Jax.”

  “And what exactly do you think I need?”

  “I’m not exactly a submissive kind of woman,” she said.

  She frowned as he snorted at her statement.

  “No shit.”

  “I’m serious, Jax. I don’t think I can be the type of woman you seem to want. Our night together was good—”

  “Amazing,” he said firmly. “It was amazing.”

  “Whatever, fine amazing,” she said, not wanting to go down that road at the moment. “But I’m not wired to be bossed around and told what to do. You want a submissive woman, and I’m just not that.”

  He shook his head sadly at her. It hurt to see his look of disappointment, but it was what she expected. She wouldn’t take her words back because they were the truth. As much as she enjoyed him dominating her in bed she knew that the bedroom was as far as she would allow it.

  “Pep, if I wanted a submissive woman, we wouldn’t even be here right now.”

  “But—”

  “Do I want to tie you down and fuck you senseless? Hell yeah. I can’t wait to see you bound and spread-eagled for me again.”

  He reached up and cupped her heated cheeks, tilting her face up to meet his gaze.

  “And I can’t wait to see your nipples in pretty little clamps, tight and hard just begging to be sucked.”

  Her breathing was way past erratic, but she couldn’t look away from his heated gaze.

  “But that’s where it ends. It stays with sex. I like your kick-ass attitude, Pep. I don’t want a woman who isn’t willing to argue and fight. What I prefer in the bedroom doesn’t extend to the rest of our relationship.”

  Her heart sank as she saw her chances of surviving the next week with her heart unscathed deteriorate in a pile of ash.

  “I don’t want to change who you are, Pep. I just want to prove that we work together. Give this week a chance,” he said.

  A heavy sigh worked its way past the lump in her throat.

  “You’ve got yourself a deal, Mr. Grey,” she told him.

  It almost hurt
to see his answering smile of relief.

  “Well, Mrs. Grey, I think it’s time for lunch. How ’bout I fix you a grilled cheese sandwich and then we head out for a walk?” He pulled her back in for a hug.

  She laid her head on his chest and breathed in his scent. She had a fleeting thought that traipsing around in the woods with him sounded like fun. Apparently, insanity was contagious.

  “Yeah, sure. Why the hell not?”

  Chapter Seven

  An hour later, Pepper strolled along a narrow trail trying to remind herself that she was only playing a game.

  Her hand lay clasped firmly in Jax’s warm grip as they walked in companionable silence through the surprisingly beautiful wooded area surrounding the cabin. This is not real; it’s only make-believe.

  She stole a glance at him as they walked along and bit back a sigh.

  It wasn’t as if they were doing anything particularly out of the ordinary. The events were quite mundane. It was the actions involved that had her heart thumping wildly in her chest.

  Their lunch had consisted of a simple bowl of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, but it was the way he behaved that had her emotions twisting.

  He was very ... touchy.

  Jax’s affectionate nature wasn’t a surprise. She’d seen him through the years with his family, and even with the women he dated, how he was always quick to give a hug, a kiss, or a slap on the back. But despite their close friendship, they had only shared a few hugs and platonic kisses on the cheeks.

  In hindsight, she recognized that her attraction to him had always caused her to behave a little more stiffly towards him than she would have otherwise. Perhaps he picked up on those signals and consciously toned down his touchy nature. But not anymore. During lunch, he had kicked down whatever barrier he had been respecting since she’d known him.

  If she were honest with herself, she’d started the process with a bulldozer the night she slept with him.

  He’d sat close to her, never going more than a few moments without touching her in some way. His touches weren’t overtly sexual, they were sweet. Soft fingertips rubbing at her neck as she ate, a hold of her hand as they talked about work, a squeeze of her shoulder as he got up from his chair—it was all so disconcerting.

  What disturbed her more than his touches was the fact that they were able to have lunch and she actually became comfortable.

  It was almost as if nothing had changed. They hadn’t just spoken about work, either. He’d asked her about the book fair she’d attended a few weeks prior, and they’d had a lengthy discussion involving her current obsession with the True Crime genre.

  If it weren’t for the sultry glances and lingering caresses, she would have breathed a sigh of relief thinking that Jax had dropped his silly proposal. But it all felt too right to her.

  Her heart and body were feeling too at ease by his affectionate demeanor, and it was chipping away at her already thin defenses.

  Love is so stupid.

  She gave a mental snort and focused her attention back on the snow-trimmed trees and glistening rocks surrounding her. There were actual woodland creatures hopping around the shrubbery. Downright beautiful and romantic, almost as if Jax had hired a team of Disney and Pixar creators to set the scene for him.

  She threw him a suspicious look. At this point, she wasn’t putting anything past him. His mind truly did work in mysterious ways.

  She’d told him on more than one occasion how much she loved to explore different terrains. As a Miami girl born and bred, she loved seeing how Mother Nature could completely alter a landscape. South Florida was almost unwaveringly flat, and in her city, the only major weather changes she witnessed went from hot and humid to hot and barely livable heat in the long summer months. Her only qualm with the scene around her was the damn cold. It was freezing. She didn’t know how northerners survived the cold.

  “It’s beautiful here, isn’t it?”

  His softly-spoken question pulled her away from her thoughts.

  “Yeah, I can kind of see the appeal,” she said blandly. “I only wish it weren’t so cold.”

  He tugged on her hand, pulling her to a stop.

  “You’re such a city girl,” he said.

  She loved how his lips were always so quick to twitch up into a teasing smile.

  “Oh, please. Like you’re Mr. Wilderness,” she said, smirking up at him.

  “I used to come up to Colorado a lot with my family when I was a kid. We would rent a one-room cabin with no electricity and spend our days sledding, walking the trails, or just reading by the fire, Ms. Know-It-All,” he said tweaking her nose.

  She looked around her and shook her head. Jax loved his creature comforts, so the image of him as a carefree child romping around the woods with no electronics to tinker with was difficult to process.

  “Somehow, I just don’t see you as the type of kid who liked to commune with nature. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t come with a twelve volt outlet.”

  The corners of his eyes crinkled in mirth. “True, but my dad always thought there was just something unnatural about palm trees and bougainvilleas in winter. So he used to drag us up here every year for Christmas.” He scanned the woods around them. “The quiet kind of grows on you. It taught me focus. Besides, this is where I fell in love with all things electronic.”

  “Was it withdrawal?”

  “Oh, ye of little faith, Poindexter. I found an old broken battery-operated radio at the bottom of a storage trunk one day and started tinkering with it. I spent the majority of that trip just trying to figure out how to make it work.” He shook his head at her, chuckling softly.

  “I think my interest was ninety percent desperation and ten percent genuine interest, but by the time we made it back home, I couldn’t wait to hit the library and solve the puzzle. I’ve been addicted ever since.”

  “Unfortunately for me.” She didn’t bother to hide the sarcasm in her voice. His addiction to and knowledge of all things electronic were what kept her trapped on a mountain top.

  A pinpoint of ice hit her nose, and she looked up to see snowflakes falling down towards them in an intricate pattern of lace across the sky.

  As if waiting for the celestial cue, a slow shiver worked its way up her spine.

  “I think it might be time to head back.”

  He chuckled and began to back her slowly across the path. She stumbled back warily, warning bells going off at the devilish look in his eyes as he crowded her against the cold trunk of a tree.

  “What are you doing?”

  At the press of his hips against hers, a flush of heat began to work its way through her body. He ignored her as he removed her gloves and tucked them into his back pocket. She watched in confusion as he unzipped his coat.

  “You know, all this man-handling is so not attractive.”

  “I’m just trying to do what any good husband would do,” he said, grinning at her as he began chaffing her hands between his own. “I’m warming up my wife.”

  “Oh.”

  She couldn’t think of much more to say as she stared down at his big hands enveloping hers and bit back a sigh. His strong hands were fast becoming an obsession for her. She was definitely heating, and it had very little to do with his rubbing motions.

  “Um, I think I’m warm enough,” she finally said, trying to pull her hands away from his grasp.

  “Hmm, I don’t think so.” His smile deepened as he dragged her hands down the front of his sweater. “I mean, it’s really cold out here.”

  Oh no, I know that smile.

  Wicked. Just plain wicked.

  She wasn’t sure how it had happened, but somehow he’d worked her hands under his sweater and she was touching the warm flesh of his hard abdomen.

  His really firm, hot, and fantastically hard abdomen.

  She didn’t have the will to fight back her groan as he leaned down and gave her a scorching kiss.

  Absently, she was glad that she hadn’t known how grea
t a kisser he was all the years of their friendship. She would have never been able to concentrate through all of their barbeques and business meetings if she had known how sexily his tongue could curl into her mouth, how he kissed with his whole body, making her want to beg him to kiss her all over.

  She would have spent even more time fantasizing about crawling into his lap, which was saying a lot since that fantasy played through her mind at least once during every encounter with him, and that had been before she’d slept with him.

  He began to withdraw from the kiss, but she quickly wrapped her arms around to his back and pulled him closer.

  When he lifted his head slightly away from her lips, she stood on tiptoe reaching for him.

  “Still cold,” she murmured huskily before pressing her mouth hungrily against his.

  Make-believe has its merits, she thought fleetingly before she was engulfed in the heat that was all Jaxon Grey and his fairy-tale marriage.

  Chapter Eight

  Jax tugged at Pepper’s hand, pulling her up the cabin porch steps and hoping she wouldn’t notice the satisfied expression he was struggling hard to contain. She had a bemused look on her face. Her eyes seemed unfocused, and her lips were swollen from the kisses they’d shared on their walk. It was a good look for her.

  He helped her out of her heavy coat before shrugging off his own and hanging them both on hooks beside the door.

  The cabin was filled with the burning swirl of purple and orange haze of colors as the sun set beyond the massive windows. He hoped the whole scene helped set a romantic mood.

  He guided her to the large comfortable couch in front of the fireplace.

  “I’ll start the fire to warm up the room, and then we can get started on dinner,” he said, maneuvering her to sit on the couch before turning to the fireplace.

  “How much food do you actually have up here?” She settled down into the plush cushions of the couch.

  “I hired a catering company. They stocked the fridge and pantry as well with containers of full meals.”

  Her soft snicker filled the room. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw her face and eyes lit with laughter.