by TJ Michaels
And when he walked her to her car he kissed her again. Sydni wasn’t sure what surprised her more, the fact that he’d kissed her again, or that she hadn’t pushed him away.
“What was that kiss for? Not part of the bet,” she panted.
“That one was for good measure.” With that he tucked her in, closed her door and walked away. Dayum!
Chapter Four
“Sooo, how’d your date go?”
“First, I’ve been meaning to tell you off since that radio station guy called me to set this whole thing up. Second, I can’t believe you set me up with the same man who came to my rescue down at the county detention center knowing I’d have to see him at work. And third, I can’t believe myself for agreeing to have lunch with him again tomorrow.”
“Why lunch rather than dinner?”
“Charli, have you taken a good look at Drew? Being alone with him at night under any level of darkness, including moonlight, lamplight or other would be too much temptation.”
“Something had to happen for you to say that, Syd,” Charli giggled.
“Nothing happened.” Oh lord, she was stammering. No wonder Charli snorted at her answer. Obviously her innocent act was totally not working.
With an impatient huff, Charli prodded, “Syd, I’ve seen you blow off the smoothest pick-up lines from equally handsome men. For you to be this, this…itchy about Drew, something had to go down.”
“I am not itchy.”
“Uh-huh. Tell it to somebody else. Now spill it, woman,” Charli challenged with a grin.
“Well, we had a little movie trivia bet and he won. The prize was a kiss. And boy did we, right there in the café. And after walking me to my car he, uh, kissed me again.”
“Okaaay? Not like you haven’t been kissed before.”
“Yeah, but Charli, that kiss was…hell, I don’t know how to describe it. Nobody’s ever kissed me so…” She faltered, struggling to find words to express the connection she’d felt, the instant heat. The energy that spiked clear through to the ends of her hair. It was absolutely crazy to be this tooty over a man, any man, let alone one so much younger…and white on top of that, though she hadn’t given it a second thought until just now. Good gracious, she was a mixed up something-or-other.
Regardless, there was no lying to Charli. “I mean, it was like I knew, simply knew, we’d be good together. And the man can kiss, I mean, not too much lip, not too much tongue, not too much touching, but just enough to set my damn skin on fire. Girl, I felt like a five-foot-four-inch melting chocolate woman. Too bad.”
Charli laughed. Sydni could hear her sister clapping hilariously. Until she’d slipped in the “too bad” bit.
“Whoa, wait. What do you mean, too bad?”
“Girl, there’s no way Drew and I can be together. But I have to admit the boy’s got too much charm for his own good, and damn if I’m seriously unimmune to it.”
“Boy?”
“Charli, he’s what, thirty maybe?”
“A bit older than that, but so what? You’re only forty-two, Syd.”
“Are you kidding me? Girlfriend, I’m so not the rob-the-cradle type. We can leave that to my ex.”
“Syd, are you still tripping over that? Just because your ex-boyfriend was a dog doesn’t mean you’ll be painted with the same brush simply because Drew is younger than you. Besides, you don’t look a day over thirty-two yourself. And, if you’re not interested in Drew, then why are you going to lunch with him again? He really digs you Charli. Has for a long time.”
“It’s just lunch, Charli, not marriage.”
“Don’t lead him on, Sydni.” Charli’s tone went hard, the words serious. Sydni’s brows rose. She couldn’t recall her sister ever speaking to her so protectively. What Charli was this on the other end of the phone line?
“Lead him on? Girlfriend, please. It’s been so long since I’ve been in the game I don’t even know how to do that to a man. Besides, I’m actually just looking forward to enjoying conversation with someone other than you,” she chuckled.
“Aw, forget you,” Charli quipped, sounding like her old self again.
“Besides, Charli, I’m sure he’d prefer to be serious with someone his own age.”
“Huh? Why? What’s someone his own age have that you don’t have? You’re damn fine, you take good care of yourself when you’re not working yourself to the bone, and…”
Yeah, and her ass was spreading more every week in testament to how much time she spent at the office instead of walking or at the gym. Sydni almost turned to look behind herself and see how much further south her butt cheeks were than the rest of her body. Maybe Charli was right. Maybe she did work too much?
“Syd are you listening to me?”
“Huh? What?”
“Damn it, woman, you tuned me out. Fine, I’ll just have to repeat myself. I said you need to spend time enjoying your life. You’ve got a great career with the corner office and a floor full of people who report directly to you. Not to mention a huge mini-mansion in which nobody totters around but you.”
“I do not totter!”
“Oh sure, miss the point, why dontcha!”
“Point taken, Charli.” Sydni felt her cheeks heat. They’d covered this subject way too many times in the past few years and she hated how right Charli was. Hated to admit that she was indeed beginning to feel lonely. But she wouldn’t admit it to God himself. She cut across Charli’s fussing. “Look, Charli, I know you care about me, but my choice in men has not been stellar. I don’t plan on jumping into anything with anyone, including Drew. It’s just a meal in broad daylight. And I meant it when I said I doubt he’d be serious about me anyway, so we’d have something in common.”
“How can you say that about a man you don’t know?”
Silence.
“You’re right. That’s really not fair is it?”
“Damn straight, Sydni. If you taught me anything, big sis, it’s to give people a chance until they give you a reason not to.”
Obviously she’d taught her sister well. And now it was coming back to bite her in the ass. But Sydni couldn’t complain. Charli had indeed turned out to be quite a level headed young lady.
“Just enjoy the attention, Syd. You never know where it might lead. Could turn out to be the ride of your life.”
Ride? As in hot, sweaty pounding-between-her-legs, ride? No, no, no. She shouldn’t be thinking like that. She had work to do. Drew was simply a welcome distraction for lunch in between meetings. Nothing more, right?
Yeah, right.
* * * * *
The purchase order on Sydni’s desk still didn’t reconcile with the invoices charged against it. The number of shipments from Japan for that particular customer was well above the amount shown in the accounting documents, yet she was sure payments had already come in to cover the agreements. It was like the money had sunk into a black hole.
The intercom buzzed.
Sydni answered in perfect Japanese, “This is Sydni.”
“Mr. Drew Caruth from S.A. division is here to see you, ma’am.”
“Thank you, Tsubaki-san. Send him in.”
Sydni ruthlessly squashed down the instant pounding of her heart. Looking at the man did funny things to her stomach so she kept her gaze plastered to the pages in front of her. Grrrr. It was so frustrating not to be able to spot the anomaly in the figures dancing across the page. Oh wait. The numbers weren’t dancing, her eyes were crossing from staring at the damn things for so long.
She knew the second he entered. Not because she expected him, but because his presence filled the large space, seemed to reach for her. He moved closer and his subtle scent floated across the short distance between them, wafting toward her like welcoming fingers of a lover’s hand.
“What’s wrong?” Drew’s voice floated to her from a few feet away.
“Hmm?” she asked distractedly.
“Your forehead is all scrunched up.”
“Scrunched up?” Not t
he type of thing a lady liked to hear, damn it.
“Yes, scrunched, like you’re thinking extraordinarily hard about something.”
“It’s nothing. Just work stuff.”
“Looks like a contract,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Uh huh…”
There was that niggling in the back of her mind again. And the longer she sat there, the more she knew what she needed to do. God, Sydni had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but it looked like she was going to have to get personally involved with this account. And that meant dealing directly with The Bitch—Alex Voltier.
Shit.
Drew’s smooth, heat-inducing voice cut through her thoughts.
“Sydni, contracts are my specialty, remember? Want me to take a look at it?”
She regarded him for a moment, then decided she’d rather be somewhere relaxing with him instead of talking about work stuff. Now that was a first in a long time.
“Skip it. Let’s get out of here.”
“You sure?”
“Absolutely.”
On the way out, Sydni stopped and gave her personal assistant a warm smile. “Tsubaki-san, I’m going to lunch. While I’m out please schedule a meeting between me and Alexandra Voltier.” A meeting Sydni didn’t look forward to. Alex was the project manager for the Sony small electronics contract. Dealing with the woman always felt as if she were setting herself up to be shot in the ass…or bitten by a snake. A venomous, slimy one.
* * * * *
Alex rose and closed the door to her office with a quiet snap. The picturesque view of the distant soaring mountains set against a backdrop of a jewel blue sky did nothing to improve her mood as she paced. With a deep breath, she turned away from the window and plopped down in her chair with a huff. Out of habit, the top of her pen was set in motion by her thumb with a click-click-click cadence.
Sigh. Nothing to be done for it. She had to call Viktor. Alex tapped her wireless earpiece, spoke into the voice dial. Self preservation kicked in and she prayed fervently that the man wouldn’t answer.
“This is Viktor.”
Damn. So much for prayer. Quickly she pushed the news past her lips and braced herself for his reaction, which never seemed to be what she expected. “I just received a meeting request from Sydni Cannes’ personal secretary. I’m sure it’ll be about the small electronics contracts.”
“What are you going to tell her?”
“The same thing the pawn did when she asked him about it in passing, that it’s simply a lag in accounting paperwork. By the time they figure it all out, we’ll be long gone.”
Silence.
Alex’s lungs burned. Still, she was reluctant to release the breath frozen in her lungs. Viktor was so damn unpredictable. What was he going to say? Or do? Ruthless son of a bitch.
After a long pause, Viktor’s deceptively soft and sexy voice drifted over the phone line.
“You play a dangerous game here, Alexandra.” She opened her mouth to defend herself, but he brought her up short. “You know how turned on danger makes a man like me. In fact, just the thought of the possibility of getting caught has my dick so hard I could pound a hole in that sweet cunt of yours. So, get it over here. Now.”
God, she was already in heat and practically panting. Closing her eyes, she thought on the last time he’d fucked her into oblivion. The thickness of his cock had stretched her, pistoned into her body until her own cream frothed at the tight opening of her pussy.
“I’d planned to go to lunch at Gervais-On-Vine. Meet me there instead? It’s closer for a quickie…”
“No. Meet me at my office in twenty minutes. I’ll tell my receptionist to expect you.”
“Your place? I only have an hour, Viktor. Besides, why should I just jump when you say jump?” As if they hadn’t covered this ground before.
“Darlin’, you’ll not only jump when I say, you’ll pull out a trampoline to do so. Understand?”
Silence once again filled the line but his words set her pulse pounding. Alex closed her eyes again and Viktor’s face appeared with such clarity if was as if she’d conjured him. The memory of his hands on her body, delivering such wicked pleasure…yeah, she’d do whatever he wanted, whenever and wherever he wanted it.
“And,” he continued. “I don’t care for that hoity-toity lunch spot you seem to enjoy. But if I send you there for the sole purpose of stripping naked and yodeling on the table, whether I’m there or not, you’ll drop your drawers, get up on the bar and shake your ass for all you’re worth. Then come to me, give me a report, and suck my cock until I tell you to stop. And you’ll do it for two reasons—you’re addicted to the fucking only I can give you. And you appreciate the seven million dollars you’ll get in addition. Clear?”
“I’ll see you in twenty minutes.” The words came out all breath and need, but she didn’t give a damn.
“Thought so,” he said flatly.
Sigh. No wonder both her and the pawn were hooked on Viktor. The man played them so well.
Chapter Five
“Sydni, you’re mumbling.”
“Huh? Oh. Sorry. Something about the numbers on the purchase order report I was looking at earlier just don’t make sense.” She looked up from her chicken salad. Her heart skipped at least a couple of beats when Drew flashed a smile that totally reached his eyes. Sydni’s concern about work leached right out of her bones and disappeared.
“Uh, I think I’ll worry about it later,” she said, staring at Drew so long she almost forgot to chew.
“Damn straight. Besides, you have a bet to fulfill and a hungry man to feed.”
Oooh, and there went another twinkle in his crystalline gray gaze. The man was so good at double entendre. If they hung out long enough perhaps… Whoa. Back the hell up, Sydni. Keep it together girl.
But Drew was stroking the back of her hand, looking her dead in the eye with a hunger so blatant it set her pulse racing. Woo, just breathe, girl. Breathe.
“You have no shame, do you?” she asked him baldly, pulling her hand away. He wouldn’t let go.
“None. Not an ounce. I told you yesterday that I intended to see you again. And again, and again.”
“But why me? I mean, there are a ton of other women out there you could see, again and again.” Just the thought made her sick but she squashed it down.
“If that was what I wanted, I’d be there. Now how about another bet?”
“Puh! I don’t know. You made out like a bandit last time.”
“I did, didn’t I?” he chided. God, he was such a handsome man, built like a damn tank, yet so stylish he could grace the cover of the nearest billboard. In a word, he was a stunner. She still couldn’t figure out what the hell he wanted with her. Self esteem was not an issue for Sydni…except when it came to dating. Former lovers had really pulled a few on her that left her jaded and a bit on the frosty side. Yet, something about Drew made her melt.
“So, since I made out like a bandit last time, you come up with the trivia question. I win, I get dinner and a chance to get to know you. Oh and endless kisses.” He dipped his head and kissed her wrist. “You win, you get what you want.”
“But I don’t want anything.” God, that sounded petulant. She rolled her eyes at herself. Drew must have thought she was rolling them at him.
“I’m sure you can think of something. But leaving you alone isn’t an option. Not unless I really repulse you, Syd.”
Crap. Why’d he have to go and say that? Drew didn’t repulse her at all. In fact, the man intrigued her, attracted her. She’d just formed the thought in her head to say that if she won he’d find someone else to pester when he’d added that little caveat. Sydni’d always played by her own rules, set her own stage, yet something compelled her to let Drew define the pace of this game. Perhaps it was the fact that he’d just neatly plucked her only strategy right out of her hands.
“So what do you say, Syd?”
“Fine,” she agreed, her brain hastily scrambling for the t
oughest movie trivia question she could think of. And just as hastily, she lost the bet. Again.
So why wasn’t she more upset that she’d just, in essence, landed herself a boyfriend? One who was really looking forward to getting to know her.
In the biblical sense. “Oh shut up,” she half-grinned, half-snarled to herself as the image of a off-balanced washing machine with her name plastered across the front of it popped into her mind. The man really did make her dizzy.
After lunch, Drew insisted on returning her to the exact spot he’d picked her up—her office. They strolled into Expedex, Inc. corporate headquarters, through the huge stainless steel and glass lobby and to the bank of shiny, silver elevators. The second the doors snicked closed, Drew hit the button for the eighteenth floor. And Sydni found herself backed against a mirrored wall, effectively caged between Drew’s thick, cashmere-clad arms.
“Now,” he growled. God, she loved the growly thing he did when he held her close. “I believe you owe me a kiss or five, Syd.”
“What? Surely you weren’t serious about that whole endless kiss thing?”
“Wrong. Serious doesn’t begin to describe how I feel about you, woman.”
“But you don’t really know me,” she protested breathily. Hell, it sounded pitiful even to her ears.
“But that’s going to change, remember? Besides, I know plenty about you,” he whispered, lowering his head until they were practically nose to nose. “You’ve taken care of your sister and put her through college. You’re a successful woman with exquisite taste and style. You’re strong, giving, smart, funny.”
A light brush of soft lips over the skin just shy of her jaw sent a shiver vibrating across her collarbone.
“How can you know? I mean…”
“Just the fact that your sister thinks you’re second only to God says plenty about the kind of person you are. I’ve been asking her to formally introduce us for a year. She moves a bit slow, that one.”
Sydni laughed, then sucked in a breath as she got a whiff of not just his cologne, but the man’s natural scent, just there at the crook of his neck. And when had he pulled her completely into his arms? More importantly, when had her feet moved to accommodate him?
