by Alice Bello
My balls throbbed and I almost came in my pants.
Damn her and that lip!
She turned and ran to the doors to her apartment building, pulling them open and then disappearing inside.
“Tomorrow,” I growled.
Chapter 16
Tomorrow
Dante
I’d rushed through my usual morning shower—though I did take extra time to floss and brush and mouthwash—and threw on my clothes. I gulped down the bacon and egg sandwich Marjory had made for me in the elevator. (She always knew when I was in a hurry.)
I stepped out into my private office and stopped. All three of Lucy’s assistants were lined up, tablets in hand, one with my coffee in her free hand. I think it was Jenifer with one N.
“Where’s Lucy?”
I swear they all gulped in unison.
Jenifer said, “She’s running… a little late. She said she’ll meet you at the Tocola meeting.”
Tocola? That meeting was third… no, it was the fourth meeting of the day.
In all the time Lucy had been working here, she had never been late. Not once.
Was something wrong?
Did she not want to see me, and this was her way of prolonging the inevitable…
Maybe she didn’t want to see me as much as I wanted to see her?
Maggie stepped up then. “The first meeting is Shirley Hartley of Zane Group International. They’re already here and waiting in conference room twelve.”
Shirley Hartley… Zane Group Inter—
“What’s wrong with Lucy?”
Maggie looked petrified.
Was I really that awful to work for?
The third of Lucy’s assistants, Sydney, spoke up. “She was detained at home, she said.”
“Detained?” All sorts of scenarios popped into my head.
Was she being held by gunmen?
Was an old boyfriend keeping her from me?
I’d send Taz and Lance to—
“She forgot she’d taken a cab home last night, and is now waiting for Edward to pick her up.”
Lucy’s car!
Oh, I felt like a complete ass.
We’d taken my car and left hers at her mother’s.
I was supposed to have taken care of that for her.
This was why I needed an assistant at all times.
This is why I needed her.
No… I needed Lucy for so much more than that.
I need her…
I took a deep breath and headed for the elevator that would whisk me to my first meeting.
Without Lucy…
Maggie, Jenifer, and Sydney followed, crowding into the elevator with me.
Good god, I missed her.
Chapter 17
Time to Think… Too Much
Lucy
I had to laugh when I realized, standing in front of my empty parking space in the parking garage of my apartment building, that Dante had forgotten to have my car driven back from Aurora.
He really did need a personal assistant at all times.
I pulled out my phone and called Edward to see if he could come get me—ordering a cab this close to rush hour would take forever. Edward said he would be there as soon as he could.
I went to the lobby of my apartment building and called Maggie—she was always the first of my staff to arrive at the office in the mornings. I made up a little white lie about how I got home without my car, told her she and the others needed to run the first three or four meetings of the morning until I could get there.
I think she fell off her chair because I heard a thud and a muttered curse.
“It will be fine,” I said, “You’ll be fine.”
Poor thing…
Not that Dante was a mean boss. He was… well, he was tall and gorgeous and smart and demanding of himself and in extension those around him.
“Just work Dante as a team, okay?” I told her. “Strength in numbers.”
“Strength in numbers…” Maggie sounded like she was about to cry or drop a cyanide capsule.
I suddenly heard Jenifer’s voice on the other side of the phone. “Maggie, are you alright? Why are you sitting on the floor?”
I shook my head and tried not to laugh out loud. “See? Strength in numbers. You’ll be fine.”
And I hung up.
My assistants were highly trained, well educated women. They would rise to the challenge.
I sat back in the rather comfy chair I’d plopped down in and tried to think of the meetings that would be taking place while I waited for Edward. I thought of logging into the bullpen account and checking out the probably prodigious amount of notes the three of my assistants would make while they were filling in for me.
There were at least fifty things I could have been doing as I sat there, waiting for Dante’s driver to come pick me up.
But all I could think about was Dante.
Kissing Dante…
Sitting on his lap in that magnificent car of his, kissing him…
Feeling how huge and hard he got while we were kissing…
I had to pull open my coat, my body heating up from just the thought of…
Dante…
Yesterday had been a blur.
Confusing.
Embarrassing.
Amazing.
I’d never, ever imagined anything like that would ever happen.
Ever.
But it had.
It really, truly had.
I was in love with Dante Saint Sex—I mean, Saint James.
And now he knew it.
And if I hadn’t gotten it all wrong last night, he felt the same way about me.
A little shiver ran through my body.
And then a really big shiver ran through me.
It wasn’t really an enjoyable shiver. It was an I just forgot my purse, keys and cell phone shiver.
Now that he knew, and I knew…
What in the hell was I going to do?
Chapter 18
Where the Hell is She?
Dante
Okay…
I was leaving the Tocola meeting and Lucy still hadn’t showed up.
How long did it take to—
I shook that off. Lucy being late had been all my fault.
But I still wanted her here with me…
Here with me now…
And hadn’t her trio of assistants said she’d be here by the Tocola meeting?
Maybe I just needed to go get in my Jaguar and find her?
Find her in midmorning traffic?
That would be next to impossible.
But I really didn’t think I could walk into another meeting with my mind roaming around, worrying and wondering where Lucy was.
Hell, I could end up screwing up a deal and selling my company to the opposition for pennies on the dollar instead.
I was headed for the elevator, about to tell the three women behind me to cancel my morning—I’d either go work off some nervous energy in the gym, in the pool or running on the track on the seventeenth floor—when the elevator doors dinged, slid open and revealed Lucy standing there, her hand on her hip, her thick, straight hair lashed back in her usual ponytail, and her glasses perched perfectly on her adorable little nose.
I stopped, felt my nervous system calm and my heart beat harder—not faster, just harder—and my mouth open just a bit, as if I were a wolf scenting the air.
Lucy…
My Lucy…
“Mr. Saint…” she let it float in the air for a moment—I knew she wouldn’t, but I loved the thought that she would be naughty enough to say it. “James.”
I moved into the elevator and stood right beside her. Close enough I could practically feel the heat coming off her.
“Thank you for your time, ladies. Send your notes to Lucy and then take a long lunch—my treat—at Fuego. They’re expecting you in twenty minutes.”
“Thank you Mr. Saint James,” Maggie said, the other two nodding along with her.<
br />
I knew from the grapevine that Fuego was the newest, hottest lunch destination, and that it would give them all a real thrill.
The elevator doors closed and I was finally alone with Lucy.
“Fuego?” Lucy said. “They must have done well.”
I played it cool. “Yes, very well. I’m thinking of making them the A team instead of just the back up.”
I could tell by how still she was that I’d pushed a button.
And then she bit her lip…
Oh, she was ruthless.
“I’ll arrange for my things to be moved during lunch, and they’ll be in place for you when they get back from Fuego.”
I turned, picked her up in my arms and had her pressed against the wall of the elevator in an instant.
I reached over and pushed the stop button on the elevator, staring into her beautiful blue eyes.
“I was going mad waiting for you to get here.”
Lucy swallowed and looked around the elevator—just not at me.
I wanted her to look at me.
I needed her to be looking at me.
Hell…
I leaned in and took her lips, tasting, nipping, and full on kissing her until she was breathing heavily, and making the most beautiful noises.
I was hard… so damned hard.
“I need to cancel the rest of my day,” I said, taking her earlobe in between my teeth.
She shivered, and then she pushed me away, straightening her glasses and hitting the stop button again to release the elevator.
“You can’t cancel your meetings. We have a lot to get done today.”
I stood there, my mouth open, wondering how I was ever going to get through the day when the only thing on my mind was…
Her.
Not to mention that I was hard as a brick. Hard enough I would never be able to hide it during the next meeting.
So I reached over and hit the stop button again.
Lucy smiled, but kept her eyes forward. “If you don’t stop that, security will think something’s wrong and will send a team to investigate.”
She reached over and hit the button again, putting the elevator in motion again.
Didn’t she know how much I needed to be alone with her?
Didn’t she feel the same way?
Just as I was going to hit that damn button again, the elevator dinged and the doors slid open…
To reveal my private office.
I blinked.
Lucy walked off the elevator and set her iPad on the chair where I usually slung my suit jacket.
I followed her off the elevator, feeling completely thrown off. “We’re not going to another meeting?”
Lucy took off her glasses, setting them on the antique desk I had in the corner of the room, and then started unbuttoning her blouse.
Oh my…
“I cancelled all your meetings for the rest of the day.” She sat down, her shirt open, revealing a lovely bit of creamy flesh, décolletage and her intoxicating navel, and made a real show of taking off her shoes.
“You did?” I moved toward her, mesmerized by how utterly beautiful she was.
She stood up and pushed her blouse off her shoulders, letting it flutter to the floor. “We have business of our own to take care of.”
“We do?” I moved closer as she reached back and started unzipping the back of her skirt. My heart was now beating recklessly fast, and my cock was harder than it had ever been.
Lucy shot me a haughty little glare as she pushed her skirt down over her hips, and stood there staring me down, wearing nothing but her bra and panties.
She was magnificent.
“We do.” Lucy turned and started toward the bathroom, reaching back to unhook her lacy bra. She stopped just as it came apart and looked back at me. “This is where you ditch the suit and give me a tour of your personal shower.”
Oh god…
I tore the tie from around my neck, pulled open my shirt, sending buttons tumbling to the carpet—hell, I was trying to take off my suit jacket and my shirt at the same time.
Lucy stood there, holding her unhooked bra in place over herself, a distracting little grin on her face as she watched me pull my clothes off. She even snickered when I tripped trying to take my pants off without first removing my shoes.
Damn it… I’m better at this!
And then we were standing in the doorway of the bathroom, staring at each other. All that separated us was our underwear.
The air smelled of her.
My eyes were filled by her.
There was only her.
Lucy…
She padded her bare feet over the short distance between us.
She looked up at me, her eyes full and drowning deep.
“How about that tour?”
Tour?
Oh… yes. Lucy had never been in my private shower before.
Well…
I opened the clear glass door that led into the five by seven shower area. “Well, there isn’t much to show…”
She followed me in, looking around and then at me, licking those lovely, pink lips of hers.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her. “The tile is Italian. The glass is Bavarian and hand blown.”
She moved slowly closer and closer.
My heart was bashing at me from inside my chest. It wanted to be closer to her—I couldn’t blame it.
I reached over and hit the water. I had it set at the heat I preferred, and it poured from above like a waterfall.
Lucy looked down at my underwear. “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours.”
My heart stopped, the world froze, and I about fell over.
The next moment I was pushing and pulling my underwear off and tossing them out the still open door of the shower.
And then I stood there, nude and painfully hard, before the woman I wanted—and had wanted—more than anything in the world.
And she was smiling.
Not a naughty smile.
It was slightly unhinged, and it was followed up by a ridiculous little snort.
She pointed down at my equipment and shook her head, a breathy little laugh fluttering out of her still smiling lips.
I placed a hand over myself—but when she started to laugh even harder, I put the other hand down there as well.
“What’s so funny?” I’d never had anyone laugh while looking at my cock before. Hard or soft.
“Well,” she said, walking over too me, her eyes trained on my crotch. “That… that thing is ridiculously too big.”
What?
“I’ve never had any complaints.” Did I sound a bit defensive there?
She looked up at me incredulously, and then back down at my penis. She reached out and brushed my hands away to get a better look again.
“Women actually like having that… that thing…”
I felt myself blushing.
This was too much.
I was feeling self-conscious about how big my cock was?
Talk about ridiculous…
Lucy had her tongue between her teeth as she visually examined me. “I read once that the average penis in America was a little under seven inches long… I think your…” She glanced up at me and was trying not to laugh. “That sucker is abnormal.”
Like all men, in my youth I had indeed measured my prick—yes, we all do it. Nine and a half inches fully erect is by no means abnormally large.
Yes, it’s thick as well, but nowhere near “beer can” thick.
Wait…
Lucy was talking about male anatomy in the abstract, in the scientific realm.
“You’re a virgin…”
It wasn’t a question.
I should have known.
Well, I couldn’t have known, but somehow I should have known.
Lucy looked up at me, her eyes shiny as if tears were eminent.
I pulled her to me and held her in my arms.
“I was going to tell you…” she sobbed so adorabl
y. “I just got caught up in the moment. I’ve wanted to come in here… with you… since my first day.”
Oh…
Isn’t that sweet.
And naughty…
I was so hard, and every muscle in my body, every inch of my flesh wanted to be touching every inch of Lucy.
I wanted to be inside Lucy. More than I’d ever wanted anything in my life.
But a shower was no place to take a woman’s virginity.
No… the logistics were all wrong. And not only would it be too rough a position to start her out with, but I didn’t have any protection in my private office lavatory.
I could—
That’s when Lucy kissed me. Even though a moment ago she was in tears, and the moment before that she’d been balking at the sight of me hard (and abnormally large), she had both hands lightly wrapped around my cock.
My mind melted into a puddle of yearning and want. No real thought was possible at this point.
I wanted Lucy to keep slowly stroking me, just like she was.
At the same time I wanted to push the part of me she was stroking up inside her, all the way.
I wanted to be pushing up into her over and over and over again.
I kissed her back, and heard her whimper as I pressed my body against hers, my hardness sliding up between her legs, rubbing upward against her warm, very slick opening.
No.
No, no nonono…
I was not going to fuck Lucy for the first time in my shower.
It would be…
It would be glorious.
But it would also be like throwing her to the sexual lions…
She wrapped her arms around my neck, pushing her hips forward so that her subtle folds caressed themselves against my cock again.
Every thought that was in my head was smothered in a haze of desire, or pure, simple want.
To my credit, my testosterone overdosed mind found a beautiful, completely perverted solution to not fucking Lucy right here, right now—and yet still being able to have Lucy, right here, right now.
Gently, I grasped her wrists and raised them up so they were pressed to the tiles just above her shoulders.
“Don’t move,” I told her, my voice rough and cracked. I sounded like a beast, a ravening monster.
I captured her mouth with my own, thrusting my tongue through her lips to taste her.
