She stared at him. “You’re sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
A soft smile touched his determined lips. “Yes.”
She shook her head. When they had been doling out arrogance, he had been first in line, she was sure. There was nothing wrong with being confident, but this man was as conceited as they came. “Sorry to disappoint you, but you’re wrong.”
“Then prove it.”
Famous last words, she thought. But he was beginning to annoy her. “I don’t have to prove anything. I told you how I feel. It would be so much easier on the both of us if you respected that.”
“And I will once you answer my question. Just what type of man does interest you, since I don’t? Based on what you said last night, you have no problem with a man who’s not into long-term relationships, so just what turns you on, Sam Di Meglio?”
She glared at him. “A man who respects my wishes, for one.”
He took a step closer to her and put both hands on her desk, effectively pinning her in between. He smiled faintly. He smelled heavenly. And her heart was beating like crazy in her chest.
His mouth was inches from hers. “And I will respect your wishes,” he said in a silky voice that sent all kinds of erotic sensations through her body. “But first, since you won’t answer my question, let me give you my opinion and tell you what I think.”
She breathed slowly and deeply, inhaling his scent through her nostrils. “You really don’t need to bother.”
His smile widened a bit as he leaned closer to her. “Humor me.”
His breath was hot on her lips and she fought back the urge to do more than just humor him, to do something crazy like stick her tongue out and lick his lips from corner to corner. So she did something probably even worse; she concentrated on those lips. They were beautiful, firm and full, curved and clearly defined and shaped in a perfect bow.
She would be the first to admit she was one of those women who were drawn to a man’s lips. Even though he’d ended up being a deceitful ass, Guy’s lips hadn’t been all bad. But no one’s lips could compare to the ones she was staring at now, the ones sending shivers through her body, making her feel hot all over, so much so that she wanted to remove her jacket, take off her blouse, slip out of her skirt, take off her bra and panties and…
She blinked. What in the world was happening to her? What could she be thinking? What was he thinking? She opened her mouth to ask Blade that very thing, when, too late, she realized he’d been waiting for her to do just that.
Before she could draw in her next breath his mouth captured hers and began eating away at it like she was his breakfast and he intended to devour her right up until lunch. The moment his tongue touched hers, stroked it in such a way that blatantly reminded her how long it had been since she’d engaged in foreplay with a man, he conjured up all those deep-seated, wild fantasies no other soul knew about, not even Mac and Peyton.
Any thoughts of what Mac and Peyton didn’t know fled Sam’s mind when Blade deepened the kiss. She knew she had to do something before he went any further or before she succumbed any more to his passion. If that happened, considering the last time she’d been intimate with someone, he could drag her to the floor and she wouldn’t put up much of a fuss. In fact she might be the one dragging him first.
She had no idea just how long they’d been kissing or how long they would have continued had the intercom on her desk not buzzed, and if their secretary, Priscilla Gaines, hadn’t chosen that moment to say, “Ms. Madaris wanted me to remind you of the meeting this morning, Ms. Di Meglio.”
Sam drew in a deep breath as Blade reluctantly let go of her lips. “Bad timing, wouldn’t you say?” he whispered, straightening his physique and taking a step backward.
She exhaled, still wondering what the hell had happened. She shook her head, sending a mass of curly locks flying around her shoulders as if that would help screw her head back on, not only right but tight. She knew at that moment that this man was dangerous to any woman. He was smooth and lethal all rolled into one. She wondered how many hearts he’d already broken and how many more he would be breaking. Maybe not intentionally, but with total disregard for the fact that although he might not fall in love with a woman, some would ultimately fall in love with him and painfully watch as he swaggered out of their life without even a backward glance.
“I’d better leave and let you get back to work now,” he said, smiling as if coming to her office and kissing her senseless first thing in the morning was an everyday occurrence. “I’ll be returning to Houston later today, but I plan to come back to Oklahoma City in about three weeks.”
She frowned. “Why?”
His smile widened. “The Mosley Building, or have you forgotten?”
She had forgotten, sort of. “Why do you need to come back? I thought your construction crew would be taking over now that things have been finalized.”
He chuckled as he smooth out his jacket. “Not yet. As chief engineer, I’m hands-on from start to finish. That means you’ll be seeing a lot of me for at least the next six months or more.”
Her entire body stiffened when she remembered his spiel at dinner last night. For Pete’s sake, she didn’t want to see any more of him. Less of him would serve her nicely. She had let her guard down with him today, and judging from the smirk on his face, he evidently assumed he’d gotten the upper hand. “I don’t want to see more of you, Blade.”
The smile that appeared on his face at that moment would have been priceless to any other woman. “You need to stop doing that, you know,” he said as he headed toward the door.
She crossed her arms over her chest again. “Doing what?”
He glanced back over his shoulder and paused long enough to reply, “Saying one thing when you mean another.”
She glared at him. “I mean what I say, Blade. You just can’t seem to get the message.”
He put his hand on the doorknob and angled his head to the side to look at her, a pose she found unnerving. “No, Sam. I read you loud and clear, and if you do mean what you say then you need to stop sending mixed signals. I’ll see you in three weeks.”
He opened the door and was gone.
Chapter 3
“So there you have it,” Peyton Mahoney said, as she threw her pencil in the middle of the conference table. “According to the photo lab, those pictures were doctored.”
A disgusted look appeared on Mac’s face. “So Clarissa Penton lied to us. Those are not pictures of her and Sidney Gresham in bed together.”
“Nope. So what do we do now?” Peyton asked.
“There’s only one thing left to do,” Mac replied, as she rubbed the back of her neck. “Get her on the phone and ask her to meet with us. We’ll let her know what we’ve found out and advise her to get someone else to represent her. We should also suggest that she drop the charges, and let her know what can happen if she doesn’t.”
Mac glanced over at Sam. “What do you think?”
Sam had been staring into space, but now looked across the table at her two friends. “The way I feel right now, I want to call her in and kick her you-know-what for wasting our time.”
Mac couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face. She saw that Peyton was doing a better job than she was at holding back. Both of them were well aware that Sam was in a lousy mood and had been since Blade left. They were also aware that Sam and Blade had spent almost twenty minutes together in her office before he’d finally departed, and that was only after Priscilla had reminded Sam of their meeting. They had both noticed that although Sam had reapplied her lipstick, her lips were kiss-swollen nonetheless.
“I think,” Mac said, “that we go with option one—call her in and let her know we won’t be representing her in her sexual harassment case against Sidney Gresham.” She glanced at Sam again. “You might want to take a chill pill before she arrives, Di Meglio.”
Muttering something under her breath, Sam stood and walked over to the coffeepot to pour a cup.
“I don’t need a chill pill. What I need is my head examined.”
“Um, Blade Madaris was that bad, Sam?” Peyton asked, grinning.
She turned around and stared at her friends for a long, steady moment before rolling her eyes to the ceiling. “No, he was that good,” she said in a disgusted tone. “Damn it.”
From the stares and arched eyebrows, she immediately knew what Mac and Peyton assumed. “For crying out loud, stop staring at me like I don’t have any panties on. We didn’t go that far. Jeez. He was only in my office for twenty minutes. It was only a kiss.”
Peyton stood as she gathered her folders. “Hey, a woman and her man can do a lot in twenty minutes. And please don’t ask me how I know.”
Since Peyton was the argumentative type and no one was in the mood for a debate this early in the morning, they didn’t say anything as she left the room. As soon as the door closed behind her Sam felt Mac’s eyes shift to her.
“Sam, if Blade is making a nuisance of himself and is harassing you, I can have Luke talk to him.”
Sam waved off her words as she returned to her seat. “It’s not that serious, Mac. He’s not harassing me. There’s a difference between a man openly pursuing a woman and when he’s harassing her.”
“And usually the difference is the attitude of the woman,” Mac pointed out. “Do you or don’t you want to be involved with Blade?”
“No, I don’t and I’ve told him that. But of course he thinks he can change my mind. I think he sees me as some kind of conquest. I’m the one woman not falling at his feet, not eagerly crawling between his sheets. He wouldn’t be a true-blue player if he didn’t get the woman who rejects his advances, namely me.”
She leaned back in her chair, stared into her coffee and then added, “He thinks I’m being defensive, whatever that means. And I didn’t help matters this morning by letting him kiss me.”
“Mmm, sounds interesting.”
Sam looked at her friend. “Damn it, Mac, it was better than interesting. I’ve never been kissed like that before. The man makes using his lips and tongue some sort of art form.”
Mac chuckled as she stood up. “Must be a Madaris trait. And I hope you know that unless you put your foot down and give him a reason not to, Blade will be back, and he won’t give up until he gets what he wants.” She shook her head. “Neither of you are acting rational. I’ve known Blade for more than seven years, and I’ve never known him to pursue a woman the way he’s chasing you for any reason, conquest or otherwise. I’ve known you even longer, and I’ve never known you to let a bona fide player get under your skin.”
Sam didn’t say anything for a moment and then said, “He claims I’m sending mixed signals.”
“Are you?”
She paused, then admitted, “Possibly. You and Peyton of all people know how I handle players.”
“Yes. Which has me wondering why you’re handling him differently?”
“He’s Luke cousin. Besides, my parents are beginning to act crazy again by playing matchmaker. There’s this new guy who’s working at the law firm. My folks are all but shoving him down my throat. My mother sent me pictures of him over the Internet, but I’ve refused to open the file.”
Mac shook her head. “Will your parents ever learn?”
“Apparently not. I see now that I made a mistake after law school when I let them talk me into coming home and working in the family firm. Those years I spent at Di Meglios were the worst. My parents were determined that I not have a life, at least not one they couldn’t control.”
Sam couldn’t help but remember those years. Her parents were highly respected attorneys who’d earned a name for themselves in New York circles. The firm included her mother and father, her father’s two brothers, Federico and Leandro, and their sons, Maddox and Damon, as well as her brother. They were all Di Meglios and they made their name representing the rich and famous.
Besides her mother, Sam had been the only Di Meglio woman in the family practice. All her female cousins had been smart enough to choose some other profession, since they’d known they would have been expected to work at the family-run law firm.
She cringed each time she remembered her parents’ angry words when she’d told them of her decision to move to Oklahoma and form a law practice with Mac and Peyton. She knew they were still holding out, hoping that eventually she would come to her senses and return home to Manhattan to the plush, prestigious office overlooking the Hudson River, which was still empty and waiting for her. Angelo was the only one who knew for certain that she wouldn’t be coming back, and she had left with his blessings.
“You’re a big girl and I know you can take care of yourself,” Mac said, interrupting her thoughts. “And as far as Luke is concerned, he knows that Blade is capable of handling himself, as well. Just so you know, Luke and I talked about it last night, when Blade walked you to your car. We’ve made a decision to stay out of it. Whatever happens is between you and Blade. Like I said, you’re a big girl.”
Sam didn’t say anything for a moment and then, smiling, she stated, “Well, the first thing this big girl needs to do is clear her calendar for a week and fly to New York to pay her parents a visit. I need to settle a few things and get them to understand my life is my life, and I won’t have them interfering. And as for Blade, if he continues to be a nuisance, I will settle a few things with him, as well.”
Later that evening Blade entered his condo. In a way he was glad to be back home in Houston. His meeting with J. W. Mosley had gone well and the man was looking forward to working with Madaris Construction Company. The building would be a magnificent addition to downtown Oklahoma City’s skyline.
Blade had slept through most of the flight. But right now, he was wide-awake and Sam Di Meglio was on his mind. He was convinced that the only reason he was still thinking about her was because he hadn’t met anyone quite like her. Besides her beauty, he knew there was a passion in her just waiting to be unleashed. He saw it in her walk, was moved by it whenever their eyes met, and had felt it in their kiss that morning. He was definitely looking forward to returning to Oklahoma City, and would make it his business to see her again.
He had talked to Luke on his cell phone on the way to the airport. His cousin had given him fair warning and tried to convince him Sam wasn’t a woman a man wanted to toy with. Blade didn’t want to toy with her. He wanted to spend an entire night in bed with her. He wanted to get her out of his system. He was convinced the kiss they’d shared that morning had definitely been the reason she was still on his mind.
He had put his overnight tote and garment bag on the bed when his cell phone rang. He quickly pulled it out of his pants pocket. “This is Blade.”
“I know who you are.”
He couldn’t help but chuckle upon hearing his great-grandmother’s matter-of-fact voice. “Yes, ma’am, Mama Laverne, I’m sure you do. And how are you doing today?”
“As well as can be expected. And how was your trip to Oklahoma?”
Blade lifted a brow. “How did you know I went to Oklahoma?”
“Slade told me when I called to check on Skye. She’s been a little under the weather.”
“Oh,” Blade said, leaving his bedroom and heading for the kitchen to get a beer out of the refrigerator. He hadn’t known his sister-in-law was sick. “How is she doing?”
“She’s doing fine for someone who’s having a baby.”
Blade blinked. “Excuse me? Skye’s pregnant?”
“I dreamed about fish last night, so you know what that means.”
He nodded as put his great-grandmother on speakerphone, placing his cell phone on the table while he unscrewed the beer cap. Yes, he most certainly knew what that meant. Everybody in the entire Madaris family did. If Skye wasn’t pregnant, someone else was. It seemed whenever his grandmother dreamed of fish someone ended up pregnant.
“Yes, I know,” he said, before tipping the beer bottle to his mouth to take a huge swallow.
“I’m guess
ing it’s Skye, which would be my first great-great-grand. So I’m tickled pink at the thought of that. But who knows. It might not be Skye. It just as well could be one of your girlfriends.”
Blade nearly choked on the beer he’d been drinking.
“Blade? You okay?”
He coughed to keep from choking. “Yes, I’m fine. You don’t have to worry about it being one of my girlfriends. I don’t do babies.”
“But you do women and all it takes to make a baby is a man and a woman who—”
“Excuse me, Mama Laverne, but I think I hear someone at the door,” he said, quickly deciding the last thing he needed was to hear his great-grandmother’s version of how babies were made. “I need to go answer it.”
“Oh, okay. Will you be at church Sunday?”
He rolled his eyes. He hadn’t planned to go. “Why? Is there something happening there this Sunday?”
“Something happens at church every Sunday, Blade.”
He rolled his eyes again. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll see if I can make it.”
“Elsie Fowler’s niece is back in town and she’ll be there.”
Blade shook his head. Now he knew for certain that he wouldn’t make it. Elsie Fowler’s niece, Sharon what’s-her-name, was not his type. She was the clingy kind who hadn’t been all that great in bed. “Okay, Mama Laverne, I’ll talk to you later.”
He hung up, glad to end the call. His great-grandmother meant well, but they had different opinions about things, namely his marital status and his social life. The old gal was a die-hard matchmaker. And from what he’d heard, she used to be good at it back in the day. Five of her seven daughters-in-laws had been handpicked. And now she was trying to step back into that role. All of her great-grandchildren were well aware that she was trying to marry them off. Blade even suspected she had something to do with Luke and Mac getting together. It was a good thing she didn’t know of his interest in Sam or she would have taken it the wrong way. The only thing he was interested in was getting her in his bed, nothing more.
Sensual Confessions Page 4
