“We do.”
Even though he wanted to pick her up in his arms, and bring her to the bed in his room, he didn’t. It took all his fortitude to take a step back and put distance between them.
“I guess we’d better get to bed.”
The steam in the bathroom had cleared, as had the fog of desire that surrounded them. Lila turned away from him and picked up her towel and wrapped it around her chest. Without saying anything, she left the bathroom. Reid wasn’t sure how he would survive the next couple of days, but he knew it wouldn’t be easy.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
WHEN LILA EXITED her room the next morning, Reid had taken over the large table and had turned it into a makeshift office. “I thought you weren’t going to be working on this trip.”
“I don’t remember making that deal. You may have kidnapped me, but that doesn’t mean I still don’t have a company to run. I need to stay up-to-date on what’s going on in production and distribution.” He looked up at her. “I should be there, not here messing around with any of this.”
Lila bent over and buckled her espadrille sandals, intentionally giving Reid a more than generous look at her ass. When she righted, she caught him staring. “Feel free to leave anytime, Reid. It’s not like the door’s locked and you’re tied to a chair.” Although... The idea of that held a certain appeal for her. She shook herself free of the image when Reid stood, and she noticed he’d changed into a pair of pants and button-down shirt, like something he would wear to work. He looked like a man who was heading to the office, and not a man who was about to hit the town in New Orleans.
“I’m here to get you to sign on as our brand ambassador.”
“And that’s all you’re here for?”
He didn’t answer but closed his laptop and placed it in the hotel safe on top of her own, and she noticed they used the same brand. “You’d better watch out. I might grab yours by mistake.”
“You need a fingerprint and three different passwords to access anything on mine,” he explained. “So, there’s no chance of that happening.”
“What? No retinal scan?”
“That comes on the next model.”
“What industry secrets do you have on that thing?” she asked with a laugh.
She caught the way he stiffened at her question. “It’s confidential.”
“Fine,” she said, putting her hands up in surrender, moving on, and she wondered what nerve she’d accidentally touched. “Let’s get going.”
“What’s first on the agenda?” he asked, as they left their room and headed for the elevator. “Espresso and beignets at Café du Monde?”
“How’d you know?”
“We’re in New Orleans. It’s what people do, isn’t it?”
Lila snorted, and rolled her eyes. “It’s what everyone does. A city is best observed through the eyes of a local, not through the touristy areas.”
“Why are we going there, then?”
“Because I’m a travel blogger. Of course, I’m going to do the touristy things. I have to get those out of the way. Then I do the things I want to do.”
“We all have to do things we don’t want to do for work, don’t we?”
“That’s the nature of work,”
They arrived in the lobby. “Okay what now?” he asked.
“We’ve got a tour of the French Quarter. Plus, there are some museums, a haunted hike. And whatever other stops strike our fancy. Anything you want to see?”
It surprised Lila when he nodded. “Actually, yeah. There are some spots I wouldn’t mind checking out. There are records of Joseph Rexford bootlegging in New Orleans. I’d love to see some of the landmarks he wrote about. There are some prohibition-era speakeasys that are still operating today. If you’d like to go.”
“Yeah, and that would be an excellent tie-in to your new rum.” She started mentally writing the blog in her head. “Look at us, collaborating already. I’m proud of you, getting into the vacation spirit—even if it is directly related to work.”
Reid laughed. “I think we’ve collaborated before,” he said, his eyebrows waggling suggestively. Slowly but surely, Reid was loosening up, turning into the funny, charming man she’d met at Arlo’s in Miami.
“Yeah, we have, but that’s nothing I can blog about.”
* * *
Several hours later, they were strolling side by side in an already crowded French Quarter. They’d stopped at a couple of museums, and the spots that Reid wanted to see, and had enjoyed more food than she would care to admit. But what stood out during the day was how loose Reid had become. Get him away from the distillery, and he was quite a fun guy, and with every touch, smile and glance, she could feel herself falling for him more and more.
With every step, the back of Lila’s hand grazed against his, and she felt the sizzle of electricity zap from his skin to hers. It frustrated her that he pretended not to notice, because if he did, he didn’t show it.
“What now?” he asked.
“I was thinking about hitting a few food trucks but with how much we’ve already eaten today, I think that can wait.”
They’d already stopped at several food spots, and he rubbed his flat stomach. “So, we eat all day, and your fans eat it up?”
“I’m not posting everything today. I’ll spread it out. Swap spots with other bloggers. It’s all about creating content. And you never stop creating it.”
“That’s what your life is? Content?”
“Digital lifespans are short. I’ve got to plug as much as I can, for as long as I can. The same goes for your rum. If you don’t capitalize on the number of people talking about you now—” she shrugged “—you’ll lose all interest in your product.”
“Well, I guess that means corporate sponsorship is important to you, right? Seeing as how you’re hot right now, who’s to say how long that’ll last? You might as well say yes to us, while you’re a hot commodity. If you wait, you might not be any good to us.”
She arched an eyebrow, but still it stung. She knew he was right, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “You trying to neg me into submission?”
“Is it working?”
“Not a chance. Would you be satisfied if it did?”
He shook his head. “No. But I think we can negotiate mutually beneficial terms.”
“I think we’ve already been mutually beneficial,” she said, poking into his ribs with her elbow.
He was quiet for a moment. “You know, though, that if we agree to this, and we work together, our relationship has to be strictly business. We have to stop whatever it is we have going on, and we’ll be just two people who work together.”
“I know. I meant what I said to you at the party. It is best if we do that—stay away from each other, but staying away is harder than it should be, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” she admitted.
“And seeing as how sex is all we have in common, why do you think I’d agree to anything you guys propose?”
“I’m hoping you’ll see reason, and what we can do for each other.”
“You’re only working so hard on this because your brother and sister are mad at you, right?”
“Well, I agreed to come with you because they were mad at me, but I’m still here because I like a challenge. I want you. And I always get what I want.”
“You want me?”
“I want you to rep my rum.”
“Is that all you want?”
He stopped walking and they turned to face each other. “That’s all we can have. That’s all I’m offering.” Reid wasn’t a good liar, and Lila wasn’t convinced. His eyes bored into hers, and she felt the same passion from him that she’d seen when he’d come to her the night before. Even though his body was rigid, and his body language kept him off limits, his eyes, they showed fire, passion. And they were trained so
lely on her.
He looked down the street at the passing crowds, and when he looked back, it was as if the spell had been broken. He was all business again. “Okay, where to next?” “I think we’re done for the day. We can go back to the hotel if you want. I have to write about today and catch up on my interactions.”
“Sounds good to me,” he said as he started walking.
Lila narrowed her eyes on his back as he remained several steps ahead of her. Maybe this trip would also be a chance for Reid to loosen up. She’d never been one to chase a guy who didn’t want her, but she knew Reid wanted her. She’d show him. A little hard work didn’t scare her.
CHAPTER TWELVE
IT WAS LATER that evening, and Reid sat at the makeshift desk he’d made at the table, and poured some of the dark Rexford Rum from the bottle he’d bought earlier into a short glass. Already tense and tight from his day with Lila, he’d gone to the hotel minibar for some refreshment, but found only Cain rum—their biggest competitor—and Reid would rather drink used mouthwash than imagine Carolina and her new family seeing one cent of profit from him. So he’d left the room again and hit the nearest liquor store to get himself a bottle of Rexford’s finest rum.
He grimaced at the bar fridge. He had no idea that Cain had secured a deal with the hotel chain. Quin and Gemma were right, they needed Lila’s help to branch out. And he turned back to the laptop in front of him as he scanned the projections the distribution team had sent him. Rexford Rum had gone viral, and they hadn’t counted on that. They’d aimed for slow growth and had become a well-known name in high-end circles. Rexford may have been the drink of choice of the elite, but overnight mainstream success was not something they’d planned for. Now they were now scrambling to keep up with demand. Things had never been better for the company but now he was struggling to keep afloat.
If the projections were to be trusted, expanded operations, and a larger facility would be the only way they would be able to keep up in the long-term. But he thought about his office back home, the one where he’d spent his summers working with his grandfather, who’d sneaked teenage Reid cigars and glasses of fine rum. But he was sitting in a hotel suite in New Orleans, and he felt a pang of sadness. He missed the office, the comfort the four walls of the distillery provided him. But there was no time for sentimentality. He had to get some work done, before Lila pulled him off on some other adventure.
He turned back to his open spreadsheets, but his attention kept being drawn to her closed bedroom door, behind which she’d sequestered herself in her room to do her own work.
His eyes blurred under the blue light of his laptop, as his gaze again drifted to Lila’s closed door. She’d managed to turn his life completely upside down, as he missed his first day of work in years.
He heard her laugh again, and he pictured her on that king bed that matched the one in his own room. Her underneath him, bringing them both to the heights they’d reached in the shower that morning. He let go a deep sigh and took another large mouthful of rum, in an attempt to get his body under control, and numb the desire that ate at his gut, before he did something else stupid.
He stared at his laptop, but the numbers on the screen blurred, and his eyes landed on the closed door once more. When it opened, he quickly averted his gaze, so as to not look like he was staring. Lila emerged from the room. She was wearing a flesh-colored tank top—no bra, he noted—and shorts that he had no doubt would ride up over the curve of her ass if she bent over even at the slightest angle. She’d scrubbed off the makeup she didn’t need, and her red hair was piled high in a messy knot at the top of her head. She looked incredible, like a bare-bones version of the woman who’d posted vibrant pictures and videos of herself online all day.
He stood up from his desk, the notes, diagrams, charts, reports all but forgotten. “Lila.”
Lila smiled at Reid’s dumbfounded expression, and she laughed lightly. “Did you forget I was here, or something?”
How could he have forgotten about temptation incarnate in the other room?
“No.”
“You’re just embarrassed that I caught you staring at my bedroom door?” She took a step closer.
“Absolutely not.” He busied himself with straightening the papers.
She looked over her shoulder at the room she’d just vacated, and when she turned back, a wicked smile and mischievous gleam masked the innocent facade he’d just seen. “Were you wondering what I was doing in there?” she asked.
“I wasn’t thinking about you at all,” he responded, trying to maintain his stiff, serious composure. “I’m busy working out here.”
“Is that right? Why don’t I believe you? I think you were out here, trying to work, but instead, you were thinking about what I was doing. Were you wondering if I was naked, wrapped up in my sheets...” She stepped closer and dropped her voice to a whisper. “Were you imagining me touching myself?”
He didn’t want to admit how accurate she’d been. “No, I was working. And I thought you were doing the same. I was live-chatting with fans. What were you doing?”
But for fantasizing about what was going on behind her closed door. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work.”
He felt her eyes travel down his body until her gaze settled on his middle, his stiffening cock, emboldened by her stare, growing, tenting out his pants. Fucking traitor.
She laughed. “You sure?” She took a step closer, and it brought her to the table. She sat on it and crossed her legs. And he pictured himself licking a trail up those smooth, delicious thighs.
He frowned at her. “We’ve discussed this.”
“You discussed it.” She shrugged. “But I don’t follow directions that well. There’s no reason we can’t have some fun in the meantime.”
“If you’re going to represent our company—”
“I haven’t signed anything yet, Reid,” she reminded him.
“I have work to do, if I could just get some peace to do it.”
“Nothing that can wait?”
“It shouldn’t.”
“Sounds important.”
“It is.”
“Take a break,” she said, shoving his chest so he fell into his chair.
“I’m not going to win here, am I?” He found himself lost in the depths of her cleavage as she bent over him, her hands going to his middle.
Lila unbuckled his belt. “Oh, I think you’re going to win pretty soon.”
* * *
With Reid in his chair, Lila put a hand on each of his firm thighs and dropped to the floor. He didn’t try to stop her as she loosened the button and zipper of his pants. He was already hard for her. Perfect.
She lowered the elastic of his boxer briefs, and he lifted his hips so she could pull them lower. His cock sprang forth, standing tall and proud. Keeping her eyes on his, she took him in her hand, swirling her palm over the head of his dick, spreading moisture around. His eyes stayed on her, unblinking, but his nostrils flared and a muscle in his jaw ticked. Her touch had the desired effect. She did that to him.
Leaning in, she swept her tongue from the base of his dick to the head and took him into her mouth. She sucked lightly on the head and heard a low growl and a rumble roll through him and into her. She grasped his base in a fist, and dipped her head, taking more of him, not stopping until her lips met her hand.
His breath was heavy, and his hands were on her head. He loosened the bun she’d used to restrain her hair and gripped the loose tendrils in his fist. She increased her speed and pressure as she raised and lowered her head, as his own hold on her hair tightened.
Lila could feel the moisture between her own legs, and she needed to alleviate the pressure, so she squeezed her thighs together and continued her work.
“Lila,” he said. “Stop.” His voice was low. With a groan, and a firm grip on her hair, he pulled her head bac
k. “I said stop,” he told her. He stood and pulled her so she was as well. She thought he would push her away, but instead he turned her around, and with a dramatic movement, he swept the table clear of everything, including his laptop, which crashed to the floor. He didn’t even seem to notice, as he bent her over the table.
Now breathless at this turn of events, him completely taking over, she watched out of the corner of her eye when he reached for his wallet and took out a condom. He pulled down her shorts and smacked a hand across her bare ass. She cried out, mostly from the shock, and not the pleasant sting that lingered.
He ran his hand over her ass. His skilled fingers went lower and skirted along the outer lips of her core. Then he delved deeper—pressing the pad of one finger on her clit, and she urged him to go close, to give her the relief she sought. His touch was magical. If he didn’t take her soon, she might explode.
Finally, he obliged, and circled her clit with his fingers. She panted under his touch, and he stroked her until she came. When she settled, catching her breath with her cheek against the cool marble of the tabletop, he grabbed her hips and pushed inside her. He was fast, intense, as he pounded his hips against her ass, taking her, fucking her hard.
Reid’s fingers dug into her hip and her shoulder. Holding her in place as he took what he wanted from her. She’d come on to him, looking to play with him a little, but he’d quickly turned the tables—and she couldn’t have been happier about it.
Feeling another orgasm rise in her, she allowed herself to be completely taken over by him and how he was making her feel. Lila cried out, and as if he’d been waiting for her, he stiffened and hollered out his own release.
They stayed together for a moment, catching their breaths, but then he pushed away. Without speaking, they both straightened their clothes. He picked up his laptop, and she saw that the lid was bent at an unnatural angle and the screen was shattered.
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