Insatiable in a Kilt

by Anna Durand

  "Sofa," I mumbled right before I mashed my lips to his again.

  He staggered backward until we tumbled onto the sofa. I wound up underneath him with the full weight of his big body pressing me into the cushions. I lashed a leg around his while I shamelessly groped every part of him I could reach. His kilt had gotten pushed up, leaving nothing at all between my hand and his cock when I closed my fingers around its thickening length. He groaned into my mouth, fumbling for the button on my slacks.

  I pushed on his chest and gained enough space to speak. "We can't do this."

  He was breathing hard, and his cheeks had turned pink. "Your employees are on the other side of two doors and a hallway."

  "Not the point. This is my workplace."

  "You let me feast on you in my office."

  Good point, but I had to stop this before he got the wrong idea. What was the wrong idea again? I'd flung myself at him and initiated this frantic make-out session. So what idea was the right one? The answer had flown out of my brain the second he'd said he missed me in that heartfelt voice.

  He moved to kiss me again.

  I blocked him with my hand. "No, Evan."

  With an annoyed sigh, he slid off my body to lie on his side wedged between me and the sofa's back. "It's not fair to tell me to stop in that bossy tone, the one you know makes me crazed with lust."

  "You'll have to get used to it. I talk that way a lot."

  "I'll need to get used to it?" He perked up. "That sounds like you won't be ordering me to leave."

  Damn. That wasn't what I'd meant to say, but my subconscious seemed to have other ideas.

  "We would never work," I told Evan in my calmest, least schoolteacher-like voice. "Two stubborn, demanding people used to doing things our own way? That's why they say opposites attract. You and I are too much alike."

  "That's nonsense."

  "Face facts, Evan. It would never work out between us."

  He studied me for a moment like he was trying to figure me out. "You're wrong. We're not that much alike."

  "We both got where we are by being stubborn and determined."

  "I got where I am by taking big risks without knowing whether they'd pan out." He bent his head close to mine. "When was the last time you took a risk? You're so afraid of getting hurt again you won't take any chances."

  Once again, he made a good point. All my excuses seemed to be crumbling to dust. The last time I'd taken a risk, Evan had dragged me into an alley for a quick hump and then he ran away. I couldn't blame him for my anxiety, though. My exes had gifted me with all the shit I needed to justify my fears.

  Evan stroked my cheek with one finger. "Do you really want to miss out on something that could be good because you're afraid? Give us a chance. Please."

  I'd gotten lightheaded and realized I'd stopped breathing. Pulling in slow, deep breaths, I considered his request. Take a risk on him? It scared the hell out of me. Evan was nothing like any man I'd ever known, so maybe…

  "I don't know," I said. "You show up out of the blue and ask for things I don't want to give. But I like you, Evan, I do. Give me time to think about this."

  "All right. Take time." He looked and sounded disappointed.

  "Where are you staying?"

  "The Carrefour Motel. It was the only room available."

  "Summer is tourist season." I fingered a button on his shirt, focusing my attention on it. "I'll stop by your motel this evening. We should talk. There are things about me you need to know before we do anything as drastic as dating."

  "Drastic? I've never heard dating described that way." He touched his lips to my forehead. "I can be patient. I'll look forward to seeing you tonight."

  Two knocks rattled my office door.

  "Keely?" Vic said. "You in there?"

  "Yes, I am. Just a minute." I wriggled away from Evan and clambered off the sofa. Straightening my clothes, I approached the door and grasped the knob. My gaze wandered back to Evan lying on the sofa with his kilt lumped around his waist. "Could you try not to look like we just enjoyed heavy petting on the sofa in my office?"

  He winked. "Aye. Anything for you."

  I waited until he'd gotten up and sorted out his clothes before I swung the door inward. "Hi, Vic. What is it?"

  "Heard you've got a 'total hottie from another country' in your office. Those are Paige's words."

  Evan strolled up beside me. "Mr. Bazzoli, it's a pleasure to finally meet you in person. I'm Evan MacTaggart."

  He held out his hand.

  Vic shook it and smiled warmly. "Great to finally meet you too. Keely, why didn't you tell me Evan was coming for a visit?"

  "Well, I—"

  "It was a surprise," Evan said as he retrieved his glasses from his pocket and slipped them on. "Keely didn't know. I had an opening in my schedule and decided to pay a visit to my newest business partners."

  "That's terrific," Vic said, beaming. "Let me show you around. Unless Keely wanted to do that."

  "No," I said, grateful for an excuse to get some time away from Evan. Time to think clearly. I had trouble doing that when he was nearby. "You two go ahead. I have paperwork to catch up on."

  Vic stepped backward, away from the door, waiting for Evan to follow.

  Evan commandeered my hand and kissed it. "Looking forward to seeing you again later."

  My boss slapped Evan on the back and led him out onto the sales floor.

  I had agreed to meet Evan later. At his motel. Alone. Just me and a bed and the sexiest man I'd ever known. Maybe I wanted to be tempted. Maybe I longed to take a risk.

  Maybe I liked Evan a lot more than I wanted to admit.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Evan

  After a long and fruitful conversation with Vic Bazzoli, I took him up on his offer to let me wander around the store and talk with any of his employees I bumped into along the way. Everyone who worked here seemed happy, and everyone raved about their assistant manager. Keely was, according to her employees, tough but fair and always available for a chat whenever one of her people needed it—a chat about anything, from their jobs to their personal lives. I wasn't surprised to learn Keely cared about her employees as more than workers, but as human beings too. She had a nurturing nature.

  I couldn't understand why she didn't have any children.

  For the entire morning, I pretended to explore the store while in reality I was observing Keely. She bustled around like a mother hen, making sure her people did what they were meant to be doing and sorting out any problems that arose. She also seemed to have a minor obsession with straightening the shelves. I watched her move from aisle to aisle, display to display, reorganizing things that must've gotten disorganized by customers. Twice, she retreated into her office for a short period. The woman seemed incapable of leaving the floor for more than fifteen minutes at a time. No wonder she worked late every day to get her managerial tasks done.

  No one I'd ever met deserved a holiday more than Keely O'Shea. How could I convince her of that?

  Setting aside that question, for the time being, I considered how to tell her about the plan Vic and I had come up with earlier. Keely wouldn't like it, I was sure, not at first. She would recognize my ulterior motive for suggesting it. The woman had left me no other options.

  At noon, I resolved to take her away from the store for lunch whether she wanted to go or not. She needed a break, though Paige had assured me Keely never left the premises for lunch. She ate in her office. Not today, Miss O'Shea. I gave up the pleasure of watching her trousers stretch taut over her bonnie erse every time she knelt down or reached for something further down a shelf, and I walked up beside her.

  She paused in sorting a rack of DVDs. "I thought you'd be gone by now."

  "Not leaving the country until we're sorted."

  "I meant I thought you would've gotten bored with exploring the store and left to find something better to do."

  "There is nothing I
'd rather be doing than watching you bend over repeatedly." I gave her rump a pat. "The view from behind is spectacular."

  "Please do not fondle me in front of my employees."

  Despite her firm tone, I knew she wasn't annoyed. The way her lips twitched gave it away.

  "It's the lunch hour, Miss O'Shea."

  Keely sighed and gave me her standard reprimanding look, softened with what I hoped was a hint of affection. "I eat in my office. But feel free to toddle off and entertain yourself somewhere else for the rest of the day."

  She flapped her fingers in a go-away gesture.

  "Afraid I can't." I leaned against the shelves next to the DVD rack. "Your newest employee needs your personal attention."

  Her brows cinched together, and she glanced around the store. "I haven't hired anyone new. What are you talking about?"

  I clapped a hand on my chest. "Your new hire is right here."

  She blinked once slowly. "Excuse me?"

  I couldn't help the self-satisfied smile that stretched my lips. "Vic and I came up with a dead brilliant plan to help me get to know the company I've just signed to a distribution deal. I'll work here for two weeks."

  "You—Huh?" She blinked furiously, her delicious lips parted in an accidental invitation. "I hope you're joking."

  "Haven't you seen the television series where managers and CEOs go undercover in their own companies?"

  "You are not the CEO of me or my company." She started as if she'd realized too late what she had said. "I meant you're not the CEO of this company. Vic's business. His company."

  She gave up floundering for a way to cover her original misstatement, shaking her head and pressing her thumb and forefinger to her forehead.

  "Relax," I said, stroking her arm with my hand. "This will be a perfect opportunity for us to get to know each other better and for you to boss me around. We both enjoy that."

  "You're impossible."

  "To quote my cousin Rory, the lawyer, I'll stipulate the fact."

  "I'm still not going out to lunch with you."

  "Not even to welcome your newest employee?" I slid my hand up to her shoulder. "It would be the professional thing to do."

  She puckered her lips, but it seemed less like annoyance than an attempt not to smile. "Fine. Your boss will buy you lunch as part of your orientation. It's not standard procedure, but then you are no average employee."

  "True."

  "Luckily, nobody around here knows who you are."

  "Vic and I decided I should be called Evan Fraser while I'm undercover."

  "Sure, whatever." She sounded dubious, but she took a deep breath and exhaled it in a rush. "I'll get my purse and meet you by the main doors in five minutes."

  "Two minutes."

  "Honestly, Evan. Is everything a negotiation with you?"

  I pretended to consider her question for two seconds. "Not everything. Only the things involving a stubborn, beautiful woman who drives me mad with lust."

  "Better learn to keep that in check while you're working here. There will be no hanky-panky in the workplace."

  "Give me all the rules you want, leannan. I'll have fun breaking them just to make you chastise me."

  Keely sighed again, more heavily, her shoulders slumping. "You are going to be a handful, aren't you?"

  "No more than you are." I slanted in so I could gaze into her beautiful eyes. "For the record, I know I'm not the CEO of you. Wouldn't want to be. Breaking the spirit of a wild mustang is nowhere near as satisfying as taming her with tenderness."

  She didn't move for several seconds, and neither did I, our gazes bound to each other.

  "I'll wait for you by the doors," I said and headed in that direction.

  Only I knew the full extent of my plan. Working here gave me an excuse to be around Keely every day. I needed time, lots of it, to complete the rest of my plan.

  Taming Keely O'Shea.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Keely

  Evan hadn't been kidding when he said he wanted to have lunch with his new boss. We talked about work the whole time. While the waitresses and other customers gawked at the man in a kilt, I explained our rules and procedures and made him promise to read the employee orientation manual once we got back to the store. When I escorted him into my office and handed him the manual, he smirked.

  "Will there be a test later?"

  "No, but you still have to read it." I wagged my finger at him. "Actually read it. No pretending to pay attention to the manual while you're ogling my ass."

  "You'll be here while I'm reading the manual?"

  "Of course. Do you think I'd leave you alone in my office? Who knows what you'd get up to."

  His smirk slanted downward into a frown. "You think I'll steal from you."

  My thoughts rewound to when I'd met Evan at the main doors and we had walked out into the parking lot. I'd suggested we each drive our own cars, and he could follow me to the restaurant I'd chosen. When I'd waved toward my car, a fifteen-year-old Ford Taurus, he had made a mildly disgusted face.

  "No, Keely," he'd said in a patient tone. "We will take my car, and I will choose the restaurant."

  "Have you forgotten? I'm the boss of you now."

  "Only while we're in the store." He'd pulled a key fob out of his shirt pocket. "Besides, my car is nicer."

  "Fine, have it your way." I raised a finger. "This one time."

  Evan's car turned out to be a red Lexus that looked like a sports car masquerading as a sedan. While he swung the passenger door open for me, I admired the vehicle.

  "Where on earth did you find a luxury rental car?"

  "I didn't rent it. I bought it."

  My legs refused to move one more inch. "You bought a car? I thought this was a two-week vacation in America, not a long-term stay."

  "That has yet to be determined." He placed a hand on the small of my back and gently urged me to get into the car. "How long I stay depends on you."

  I had decided to save that discussion for later when I would set him straight about a lot of things. However, he blindsided me again once he got behind the wheel.

  Starting up the vehicle, he'd said, "I plan to give you this car once I'm done with it."

  "That's not necessary." I'd wanted to tell him no way, no how would I accept a luxury car as a gift from anyone, but especially him. That was another discussion we would have later, once I figured out how to pound the facts into his steel-reinforced skull.

  "I want to give you the car," he'd said.

  "No, Evan."

  Our conversation about the car had ended then.

  Here in the present, I sat down at my desk. "I'm not worried you'll steal from me. But if I leave you alone in here with a phone and a computer…" I made a sweeping gesture to indicate both of those things on my desk. "I'll probably come back to find you've bought me a house. Or maybe the whole town. You have an inappropriate need to give me extravagant things."

  He dropped onto the sofa and propped his feet on the table that separated it from the two chairs opposite it. The employee manual lay on his lap. "Buying you a car is not extravagant. You won't let me do it, anyway."

  "I don't want to be beholden to anyone."

  "Getting fair sick of hearing that word. Beholden." He linked his hands over his belly. "I don't want to own you, Keely. I want to take care of you."

  "I don't need a man to take care of me."

  "Don't want to control you. Let me help, that's all."

  My mouth opened, determined to announce I didn't need help, but I clapped it shut. Evan meant well. I believed that. He went overboard, though, and I needed him to understand it wasn't necessary. Even if I dared to date him, I wouldn't want extravagant gifts.

  "I appreciate your generosity," I said, "but I'd rather you be yourself and stop trying to impress me. I realize you haven't dated much, so please take some advice from a battle-scarred veteran. Flashy gifts and grand gestures are n
ot the way to forge a genuine, lasting relationship."

  Not that I had a clue about how to do that, but I did know grand gestures wouldn't do the trick. All I had to do was convince Evan of this.

  He absently toyed with the corner of the employee manual, though his attention stayed on me. "Battle-scarred? Christ, Keely, what did your exes do to you?"

  "That's not the point. I'm saying you need to stop going overboard."

  "I understand that, but you haven't answered my question."

  When I'd suggested this morning that we should meet at his motel this evening, I had intended to tell him about my exes. Not this afternoon. Not here in my office. Maybe I was being a coward, delaying and delaying in the hopes he might give up wanting to know. I couldn't help it. No one knew the whole story. Sharing it with Evan would make whatever this was between us real.

  "Tonight," I said. "I'll tell you all about that tonight."

  "When you come to my motel room." He imbued those words with a sensuality that made a delicious warmth rush through me. He caressed the employee manual with his long fingers. "I'll be dreaming about this evening for the rest of the day."

  I leaned back in my executive chair with its cracked leather upholstery. "For the rest of the day, and every workday for the next two weeks, you are my employee. That means no daydreaming. Focus on your job, young man, and do as I say."

  His fingers massaged the manual in slow, sensuous strokes. "I will obey my beautiful, desirable boss during the workday. But after hours, you'll be begging for the chance to take orders from me."

  "Are you sure you don't have a BDSM fetish?"

  "I've told you before, I have no fetishes. But we both know you like it when I tell you what to do—while we're having sex."

  Earlier, he'd compared me to a wild mustang and implied I needed taming. Tender taming. I would've loved to be able to honestly tell him I didn't want that, but part of me liked the idea.

  He watched me for a moment, though I couldn't see past the glare on his glasses from the overhead light. He flipped open the employee manual and turned his attention to it. "You can tell me everything later, in my motel room."

  "And you will tell me everything too."