“I’ve had some time to think about this weekend,” he began. He fiddled with papers on his desk. The urge to pull her close and press her soft body into his was too strong. “Of course I realize I complicated the situation with that last…episode, for lack of a better word. But what I initially said still holds true. We can’t cross the line again, and my concern is that because of what happened, working together will be a problem. Therefore, I’ve decided to remove you from the Ovation project. I think it’s best for both of us.” The silence in the room made him look up. Sherry’s lips were pressed together in a tight line.
“So you’re removing me because we had sex?” she asked.
“No.” That was exactly what he was doing.
“Are you sure? You’ve barely looked me in the eye since I walked in. I won’t tell anyone what we did. I won’t jeopardize your precious reputation.”
She appeared upset, which was not his intention. He was giving her a way out. Giving them both a way out of what would certainly be an uncomfortable work environment.
“I don’t care about my reputation. If anyone’s reputation would be tarnished, it’s yours.”
“I’m a big girl, and I can take care of myself. We agreed that what happened between us would never happen again. Why remove me from the project?”
He silently assessed her, the way she seemed emboldened, speaking in firmer tones. He’d never heard her speak in that tone before.
“We’re not animals who lack control. Surely we can keep our hands to ourselves and respect each other’s boundaries.”
Speak for yourself, Alex thought.
“There’s a lot of work to be done, and I want to help. This is the kind of thing I like to sink my teeth into,” Sherry continued.
The same way she’d sunk her teeth into his flesh.
“All right, if you’re sure and this is what you want to do. We can continue to work together if it doesn’t make you uncomfortable.” Alex snapped open his briefcase.
“Working with you doesn’t make me uncomfortable, Alex.”
His gaze flew to hers. She’d said his name in the same soft, breathy voice she’d used when they’d made love. Gooseflesh rose on his skin as he remembered all the ways she’d said his name.
Yes, Alex, yes.
Please, Alex.
Oh god, Alex.
He sat in the chair to hide the erection that started rearing its head. “All right. We finish the project and keep our hands to ourselves.” He hoped he wouldn’t regret this decision.
“Thank you.”
She spun around and walked toward the door. His gaze dropped to her round bottom, which had more than adequately cushioned his thrusts. He’d tasted every inch of her, so it was impossible to forget anything they did. Impossible to forget how tight and wet she’d been, or the perfection of her caramel-tipped breasts. How was he supposed to get any work done with those memories stamped in his brain?
He was doomed.
Sherry dropped a stack of printouts onto Alex’s desk. He wasn’t in the office at the moment, thank goodness.
The last four days had been torture, but she’d brought it on herself. She stayed in a constant state of arousal, which made it hard as hell to concentrate. She shouldn’t have insisted on staying on the project. She still wasn’t sure why she did when Alex had given her a way out of the torment of working with him for hours on end in his office. It was one of the biggest offices in the company, but way too small for the tension that constantly hovered between them.
“Is that everything?” Gina asked, walking up beside her.
Sherry nodded and tapped the pages. “Yep, and just in time for lunch.” She laughed. “Everyone completed the risk assessment modules, and all the analyses are done. Monday we can start setting up meetings to offer advice on products for each employee’s portfolio.”
“That’s great. You guys are moving really fast on this,” Gina said.
“Yeah, we are, aren’t we?”
Sherry didn’t doubt for one second that Alex wanted to complete the Ovation project as quickly as she did. The sexual tension that had always existed between them had only intensified. Two nights this week they had worked late, poring over the data, each at opposite ends of the office so as not to get too close.
Gina propped one hand on her hip. “So, we never got to talk about your date last Friday night. I know you’ve been busy, and I’ve been trying to be polite and not be too nosy. But I can’t wait for you to broach the topic anymore. What happened with Stan?”
Gina had encouraged Sherry to try online dating. She’d had successful relationships over the years and had recently gotten engaged to a man she met online.
“He stood me up.” Sherry grimaced.
“Oh no! That jerk. Have you heard from him since?”
“Not since Friday night, when he texted to say he was getting back together with his ex-girlfriend.”
Gina groaned and sympathetically rubbed a hand up and down Sherry’s arm. “I’m so sorry, girl. I hope you don’t give up on online dating. There are good guys on there, you just have to weed out the bad ones like you would anywhere else—at church, at the club, wherever you meet men.”
Sherry nodded. “I haven’t given up. My account is still active. I just hadn’t paid much attention to matches or messages in a long time because of Stan. Since he and I didn’t work out, I guess I’ll continue exploring my options.”
“If you ladies are finished talking about your dating life, maybe we can get back to work now?” Alex stood in the doorway.
How long had he been standing there? How much had he heard?
“Excuse me. Off to lunch,” Gina murmured. She slid past Alex, who shut the door with a firm flick of the wrist. Agitation rolled off him.
Sherry ignored his foul mood and the way her skin prickled with him in the room. “I printed out the copies of all of the accounts, as you requested.” Her eyes followed him as he came toward her, using the same smooth, confident walk he always did.
“This is everything?” Alex frowned at the sheets of paper. Using his thumb, he fanned through the pages. Sherry’s eyes focused on his big hands, which had palmed her bottom and squeezed her breasts, and that broad thumb that she’d sucked on Friday night.
She shivered with lust. “Yes, that’s everything,” she said in a low tone.
Alex thumbed the pages again, keeping his gaze downcast. “I thought you’d wait a while before you jumped back into dating again.”
“Why would I do that?”
His gaze lifted to hers, and from the light coming through the window, she saw the flecks of brown and green that fought for dominance in his eyes.
“Don’t.” The word seemed to be torn out of him.
“Don’t what?”
Alex fully faced her, eyes blazing with some emotion. “Don’t do it.”
Energy vibrated in the room. He clearly wanted to say more, but held back.
“You have no right to tell me what to do, Alex.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“You said—”
“I damn well know what I said.” One hand fisted at his side. “Believe me. I think about it every day that we’re together, when we’re not together, when you look at me, when you breathe in my direction. I think about the fact that I can’t touch you. That I created the rules. Rules that I’m finding very difficult to live by.”
Her nipples hardened against her blouse. Every word he spoke was a reminder of what she felt toward him—a powerful attraction that had only grown more intense since they’d slept together. If they hadn’t slept together, being near him would not be so untenable, but every time he moved, she wanted to reach for him. Every time he spoke, she ached to hear his voice, husky and low in her ear, whispering in a seductive mixture of English and Spanish.
He walked by her, and Sherry remained in the same spot, motionless. She pressed a hand to her stomach. The need for him had become a physical pain, and hearing him speak so o
penly about his desire made her want to speak her mind.
“We don’t have to tell anyone. No one has to know.” She was so horny that she wanted to beg him, but instead held her breath and waited in the silence.
She didn’t hear Alex move, but was attuned to him and knew the moment he came to stand behind her.
“I can’t stop thinking about you,” he said in a husky voice. “You’re constantly on my mind. The way you taste, the way you smell. Another man touching you the same way I have...I can’t tolerate the thought.”
His hands rested on her hips and pulled her back into his body. He nudged aside her hair with his nose and pressed his mouth to the side of her neck. Sherry let out a sigh of relief. Closing her eyes, she tilted her head back and gave him access to the length of her throat.
He nibbled on her ear and slid his hands up her abdomen to her breasts. Sherry released an audible breath through her parted lips and reaching back, she caressed his neck and up into his hair. She hadn’t been allowed to touch him for what seemed like an eternity but had only been days. She’d never known need like this. She’d never wanted any man like this.
One hand remained on her left breast, a finger rubbing the hard nipple, while the other hand went up her skirt and pushed aside her lace underwear.
His fingers teased the slick folds, and her knees almost buckled.
“Is this because of me?” he rasped.
She turned in his arms, and they kissed hungrily, their tongues fighting in a sloppy, messy kiss. She caressed his hard chest and the ridges of his abdomen, sliding restlessly over his shirt in a desperate need for more.
Everything about him turned her on. The texture of his skin. The clean, masculine scent of his cologne.
“I want you. I want you now,” he whispered. He slid his hands up and down the curve of her hips and thighs.
Cupping his face in his hands, Sherry looked deeply into his eyes. “Yes.”
Nothing further needed to be said. He backed her against the wall with frantic caresses and frantic kissing, sucking, licking. The sounds they made were toned-down moans so no one could hear.
Sherry reached for his belt. Clumsily, she worked on his pants, releasing the buttons and lowering the zipper as he bared her breasts for his lips and teeth.
Without prompting, she dragged her skirt up past her hips and dropped her panties. When he set her on the credenza, she spread her legs. He entered with a quick thrust, and the satisfaction of being joined to him again brought tears to her eyes.
The truth hit her with the force of a punch. This was why she’d insisted on working with him though he’d tried to give her an out. She’d wanted him to fuck her again.
The sexual frustration from being in such close proximity had reached volcanic levels. Now she was getting exactly what she wanted. Heat. Fire.
They were both so consumed with lust they hadn’t even bothered to lock the door.
“Oh god, Alex,” she whimpered.
He grunted with each powerful advance of his hips. Sherry curled her fingers into his lush hair, biting her bottom lip and tasting the tinny flavor of blood. All to keep from screaming as she succumbed to an explosive climax that made her see stars.
7
Sherry pulled into the driveway of her friend’s house, sandwiched between two other homes on a quiet street. She still glowed from spending the night before with Alex. The sex in his office had simply been an appetizer. After work, he’d followed her home, and they’d ordered in a meal and made love again.
Compared to Alex, her other lovers had simply been adequate. She’d had no idea what she’d been missing. Sex with Alex was sensual and cataclysmic. She couldn’t stop thinking about their passionate coming together and how absolutely uninhibited she became in his arms.
Sherry marched up to the front door of the two-story Neocolonial. Balancing a pink box of Heavenly Doughnuts in one hand, she rang the doorbell. Seconds later, the door opened.
“Hey!” Shawna greeted Sherry with a bright smile and pulled her into a warm embrace. They’d become good friends as a result of the volunteer work they did with Sunshine Volunteers.
“I come bearing gifts.” Sherry handed over the box to her friend.
Shawna glided it under her somewhat pointy nose. “You’re too good to me.”
They laughed, and Sherry followed Shawna’s long ponytail down the hall into a large kitchen with pine cabinets and marble countertops.
“Hey there.” Talia, Shawna’s best friend, hopped down from a barstool at the island. She was petite, dark-skinned, with a regal bearing and thick, long hair braided and styled in a cute updo. She’d come across as cool and aloof when they originally met, but now that she knew her better, Sherry suspected that had simply been shyness.
“Are the kids already gone?” Sherry asked, pouting her disappointment.
Both Shawna and Talia were in their thirties and married with five children between them. Shawna had two boys and a girl, and Talia had one boy and one girl. Their husbands had agreed to take the kids for the afternoon, which allowed the three of them to indulge in doughnuts and girl talk for a few hours.
“You just missed them. Stay for dinner, and you’ll get to see them,” Shawna said.
“I might do that,” Sherry replied.
Shawna set small plates on the counter for each of them. “Catch us up on everything that’s been going on. Was Stan even better in person than on the phone?”
Sherry sat on a stool next to Talia. “Um, not so much. The date was good and bad.”
“Uh-oh,” Talia murmured.
“Stan never showed.”
Her friends gasped.
“He stood you up?” Shawna asked.
Sherry nodded, sliding a plate of Oreo-covered doughnut to her side of the counter and picking up a fork. “Yes, but that wasn’t necessarily all bad. Don’t get me wrong, it was awful to get stood up. I was embarrassed but fully intended on having dinner alone. Then I ran into someone from my office and we ended up eating together.”
“Okay, this sounds very interesting.” Talia ate her Nutella-covered doughnut with her fingers, watching Sherry closely.
“You know who he is. I’ve talked about him ad nauseam,” Sherry said.
Talia frowned at first, then her eyes lit up. “Wait a minute, the Colombian? Your boss, Alex?”
“Hmm. This sounds like it might get interesting,” Shawna said.
Both she and Talia knew about Sherry’s attraction to Alex, and they knew how guilty she felt about being in a relationship while longing for another man.
“Yes, I had dinner with my boss, Alex.”
“How did that go? What happened?” Talia forgot all about her food and focused her attention on Sherry.
“We talked for hours. We shut the restaurant down, and then…”
“And then…” Shawna leaned closer, over the counter.
“We spent the night in a hotel.” Sherry hid her face as squeals erupted in the kitchen. “That wasn’t the only time,” she went on. “We hooked up at work—which I never, ever thought I’d do. And last night he came to my house. We had dinner and hooked up again.”
“You finally snagged him after crushing on him and wondering if he was interested or not,” Talia said.
“Sounds like he was very interested,” Shawna said.
The three of them laughed again, but then Sherry fell silent.
“What’s wrong? What’s that look about?” Shawna asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t want to overthink this.”
“I’m the queen of overthinking. What’s going through your mind?”
Sherry set down her fork. “I like him a lot, and I’m not sorry about any of the times we slept together. I just…I don’t know, wonder if he actually likes me or if it was just sex for him.”
For Sherry, each time they’d had sex hadn’t only been a physical connection. The emotional connection had been equally consuming. How often did that kind of thing happen? Not often, sh
e was certain.
Shawna sipped lemon-infused water, a frown lining her brow. “How did you leave it between the two of you after last night?”
“It’s hard to say. Open-ended, I guess. We didn’t make any promises to each other or even discuss what we were doing. We were just going with the flow.” But Sherry had woken up this morning and recognized that her feelings were much deeper than mere physical attraction. She wanted Alex in her life in a permanent way but didn’t have a clue what his expectations were.
“Listen, there’s no point in tossing this around in your head. If nothing else happens, you had a couple of great nights with a man you’re attracted to and like a lot.” Shawna shrugged.
“Will work be awkward?” Talia asked.
“It was after last week,” Sherry said. “There was so much tension between us.”
“There’s always been tension between you,” Talia said dryly.
Sherry laughed. “True, but it was worse. And after yesterday, I’m not sure what to expect from him, and we just started working on a big project together.”
Sherry’s phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number and almost didn’t answer, but then she thought that it might not be a telemarketer or some random phone call. What if it was Alex?
She hit the answer button right before the call went to voicemail. “Hello?”
“Hi, Sherry.”
It was Alex!
“Hi.” His voice immediately dropped low. “I don’t know what’s happening to me. I haven’t stopped thinking about you. For the second weekend in a row, I wasn’t a very good visitor at the hospital.”
“You weren’t?” She mouthed, It’s him, to her friends.
Their eyes widened.
“No, I wasn’t,” Alex replied. “I need to see you again.”
In his low, accented voice, those words went straight to her core. Her fingers clenched the phone. “You need to see me again?” she repeated for the benefit of her friends, who hung on every word. “When?”
A Powerful Attraction (Quicksand Book 1) Page 4
