Her gaze narrowed suspiciously. “Are you hoping this weekend will purge me from your system? Because if that’s the case, let’s call the whole thing off. We can forget about the trip, the phony engagement, all of it. I’ll return all this stuff and take all the blame with Destiny.”
The possibility that she could turn her back on him so easily grated. Richard looked directly into her eyes. “I appreciate the offer, but that’s not how it’s going to happen.”
She bristled visibly at his tone. “Oh?” she asked, as if daring him to utter another order.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to the cottage. We’re going to put all of this other nonsense aside for the next few days. We’re going to make love until we’re exhausted, then maybe do it a few more times just to be sure we’re getting it right.”
“Were you an activities director at one of those singles resorts in another life?”
Richard chuckled at the totally incongruous suggestion. “I seriously doubt it. Are we clear about the plans?”
For a minute he seriously thought she might balk, but she finally met his gaze.
“Okay,” she said quietly but firmly. There was no apparent doubt in her eyes or in her tone.
His heart soared. So did his libido. He was wise enough not to let her know about either reaction. “Good, then. I’ll pick you up in an hour.”
“We’re going tonight?”
“No time like the present. My desk is clear. Yours?”
“Clear enough,” she admitted. “I have plans with Destiny day after tomorrow.”
“I’ll take care of that. I’ll tell her we’re going on a romantic getaway before all the wedding frenzy takes over our lives. She’ll be delighted.”
“Maybe you can convince her not to do anything precipitous without us,” Melanie suggested hopefully. “Tell her we want to be a part of every decision. That way there’s a slight chance we won’t come back and find that every detail has been hammered out and nailed down with ironclad contracts.”
Richard nodded at the sensible suggestion. “Good idea. I’ll call now. You’d better get moving if you intend to be ready in an hour.”
She gave him a long, measuring look, then scooped up the negligee that made his mouth go dry, let it dangle sexily from a finger, and said, “How much packing will I need to do, if this is all you expect me to wear?”
Richard was still trying to form a coherent thought when she sashayed past him. Given that remark, he wondered if it was possible they could be on the road in thirty minutes. Of course, with his body in a state of complete and total arousal, it might be very wise not to leave his office for a while.
Melanie arrived back at her house to find Becky sitting at her desk, staring glumly at her computer screen.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came in because I needed to talk to a friend. Where were you?” she asked accusingly. “You told me you’d be working today.”
“Long story,” Melanie said, regarding Becky with concern, her own plans forgotten for the moment. “What’s wrong? They were all out of your size at Nordstrom’s?”
“I didn’t go shopping.”
That was so startling Melanie sank down in her own chair. “Why not?”
“I broke up with Jason.”
“Again? Why?”
“He’s been cheating on me.”
All of Melanie’s good feelings toward the man vanished at once. “How did you find out? Are you sure?” she asked, sharing Becky’s indignation.
“I spotted him with a woman in the men’s department,” Becky said. “Trust me, I recognized all the signs. She was practically drooling over him.” She regarded Melanie with obvious misery. “And that was after he’d told me he’d rather be carved up into itty-bitty pieces than go shopping right after Christmas. He knew where I was going. He wanted me to see them together. The coward. It was easier than being honest with me.”
“You’re right. It was a cowardly thing to do,” Melanie agreed. “But, Becky, wouldn’t you rather know the truth?”
“No,” Becky said at once, then sighed. “Okay, yes, but it’s the holiday season. Who will I be with on New Year’s Eve?” She regarded Melanie hopefully. “We could do something. There’s still time to plan a party.”
Melanie debated telling Richard they would have to be back for New Year’s Eve, then decided against it. They had their own problems to sort through.
“I can’t.”
“You have a date?”
“In a way. Richard and I are going away.”
Becky’s mouth dropped open, her own sad plight momentarily forgotten. “You’re kidding! Where? When?”
“We’re going back to the cottage at the beach.” She glanced at her watch. “In about twenty minutes. I need to pack.”
“Then go. Don’t worry about me.”
Melanie hesitated. It didn’t seem right to abandon her friend now. “Will you be all right?”
Becky gave her a brave smile. “Aren’t I always? It’s not like this will be the first New Year’s Eve I’ve ever spent alone.”
“Don’t spend it alone,” Melanie urged her. “Promise me you’ll call someone, go out to dinner, go to a movie, something. Do not stay at home and cry over Jason the jerk.”
Becky squared her shoulders. “Don’t worry. I’ve shed my last tears over him.” Her expression brightened. “In fact, I think I’ll go home right now and take a pair of scissors to all those expensive designer shirts of his.”
“There you go,” Melanie said. “He deserves that and more.”
Becky’s good mood promptly deflated. “Of course, that’s probably just what he expects me to do. That’s probably one more reason he was buying shirts on sale today.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Melanie said. “You’ll still feel better once you’ve savored a little revenge. Just remember how he loves his wardrobe. I always thought there was something a little weird about that. The man spent more on clothes than we do.”
Becky yanked open a drawer in her desk and pulled out a pair of lethal-looking scissors. “These are sharper than the ones I have at home,” she said gleefully as she tucked them into her purse.
“Have fun,” Melanie called after her.
Becky was barely out the door when Richard came in.
“You’re not ready,” he guessed after surveying the room for any evidence of a suitcase.
“Sorry. We had a crisis around here.”
“I assume that’s why Becky went charging past me with a somewhat maniacal glint in her eyes.”
Melanie grinned. “She’s on the warpath.”
“Boyfriend?”
“Ex-boyfriend.”
“His life’s not in danger, is it?”
“Nope. Just his wardrobe.”
Richard chuckled. “Remind me never to make you angry.”
Melanie patted his cheek. “You make me furious all the time,” she reminded him. “So far, though, your clothes are safe.”
“Too bad. I was rather looking forward to having you rip them off of me.”
Melanie gave him a considering look. “An interesting idea. I’ll give it some thought on the way to the cottage.”
“Don’t think out loud,” he warned. “I’d hate to have to stop at one of those less-than-stellar motels on the way down.”
“No chance of that. I’m going to be enjoying testing your patience too much.”
Richard’s patience was hanging by a thread by the time they finally got to the cottage. If there was any clothes ripping to be done, he was likely to be the one doing it. He was still a bit surprised that his restraint was as strong as it evidently was.
“Do you want me to make a fire?” he asked when they’d carried everything inside, including several bags of gourmet food he’d brought from home and their luggage. For the first time in recent memory, his laptop computer wasn’t among the possessions he’d brought along. A rather impressive, unopened box of condoms was.
; Melanie met his gaze. “A fire would be romantic,” she said, then grinned. “But it would take too long. Maybe later.”
“Dinner?” he asked, his voice oddly choked.
She took a step closer, letting her coat fall from her shoulders into a heap on the floor. “Later.”
“Wine?”
She shook her head, her gaze locked with his. “Uh-uh. I’m already a little giddy.” She reached for the top button on his shirt. “You’re a little too prim and proper for the setting.”
His gaze narrowed. “Are you really sure you want to start this right here, right now?”
“Oh, yeah,” she said fervently.
“I haven’t even turned the heat up.”
“We won’t need it,” she said confidently.
He grinned finally. “Well, then, I guess one of us has her priorities all sorted out.”
“For the short term,” she agreed.
The phrase hit Richard like a slap, reminding him that he was treading on very thin ice. Neither of them had said a thing about permanency. This was an experiment, at least in her eyes. He’d done nothing to suggest otherwise.
“Then let’s make it memorable,” he said, pulling her into his arms and settling his mouth on hers.
This time there was no holding back. There was nothing tentative or uncertain or exploratory about the kiss. They both already knew that a kiss had the power to stir them.
Melanie was restless in his embrace when he scooped her up and headed for the stairs.
“Where are we going?” she murmured against his lips.
“To bed,” he told her. “I can forget about the fire, the food and the wine, but I am not going to make love to you for the first time in the middle of the living room floor.”
She grinned. “Afraid of a little rug burn?”
He heard the laughing challenge in her voice. “No, just determined to treat you the way you deserve to be treated.”
Her eyes turned dreamy. “Sometimes you say the sweetest things.”
“Sometimes you inspire me,” he admitted as he strode into his bedroom. It was like an icebox, making him regret his decision not to bother just yet with turning up the heat. “I really think I should run back downstairs and kick up the furnace.”
Melanie slid her hand inside his shirt, then slipped lower till her fingers were grazing the bare skin just below his waist. “Still cold?” she inquired.
“As a matter of fact,” he began, only to moan as her deft fingers slipped a little lower. “Okay, now I’m hot.”
“Told you,” she said gleefully.
He met her gaze, his expression suddenly serious. “Do you have any idea how much I’ve thought about this?”
“You think too much,” she responded, still exploring his body in a way she had to know was likely to drive him mad.
Richard swallowed hard, trying to maintain some control. “In other words, you’d prefer action?”
“At the moment, most definitely.”
He nodded. “Okay, then. I was taught to always defer to a lady’s wishes, at least in a situation like this.”
“Who taught you that? Destiny?”
“No, Mack. He has a very successful track record.”
“What did Destiny tell you when she taught you about the birds and the bees?”
“That sex is always better when you’re in love,” he said quietly, his gaze on her face.
Melanie’s eyes filled with an emotion he couldn’t quite fathom. He was getting better at reading her, but this was something new. Something tender. It gave him hope.
He wasn’t certain enough of his footing here, though, to say the rest of what was in his heart, that this was the very first time he’d put that theory about sex and love to the test.
The game had just taken a serious turn. Melanie felt the shift somewhere deep inside and it terrified her. She’d come down here because she’d lost the last shred of willpower and sense she possessed. She wanted whatever this trip would bring. She wanted memories to savor and cling to on the lonely nights in the future when Richard was out of her life again.
That day would come eventually. She had no doubts about that. He was obviously attracted to her, but chemistry was a transitory thing. Eventually he’d remember that she drove him nuts and they would stage their breakup. That would be that. It was what they’d agreed to, and Richard was known for not going back on his word. It was one of his most admirable qualities. Even her own preliminary press releases said so.
At least the certainty of a breakup was what she’d been counting on until about five seconds ago, when the look in Richard’s eyes had been so filled with heat and emotion that it had shaken her. Until now she’d had very little at stake. In fact, she’d believed the only real thing she could lose was an important consulting contract, which was why she’d tossed that aside earlier. It no longer complicated matters, and recent weeks had proved to her that her professional ideas and strategies had real worth. She would find other clients. She’d felt relieved the minute she’d quit the consulting job.
Now it was all personal. It all mattered. This heat between them, the growing respect they had for each other, her delight in Destiny and the rest of Richard’s family—all that had caught her off guard. She was flat out in love with Richard, but she’d learned once before that she couldn’t trust herself to accurately assess what a man was feeling. She’d been burned too badly last time.
Play it light. Pretend none of it matters. Those were the lessons she’d learned in her last disastrous relationship. She had to remember that now. She had to protect her heart at all costs. Until and unless Richard said something about calling off their fake engagement, until he suggested making it real instead, she had to operate under the belief that nothing had changed beyond their admission that the attraction between them was too hot to ignore.
“Why so serious?” he asked, his voice low, his gaze intense.
“I just got lost in thought for a minute,” she said. She forced an impish grin. “Where were we?”
He took her hand, kissed the palm, then placed it low on his belly. “Right about here, as I recall.” He gazed deep into her eyes. “And wandering.”
“Ah, yes,” she said, giving herself up to sensation again, thrilling to each touch she initiated, loving that he seemed willing to let her be in charge.
Richard’s gasp was audible when she ventured further, discovering his body in all its masculine splendor. A glint in his eyes, he suddenly flipped her on her back and began deftly undoing buttons and snaps, until she was naked beneath him. The shift in power left her breathless and wanting more.
“Let me see if I understand the agenda you have in mind,” he said, slowly working his way down her body.
Slow, exploratory caresses were followed by long, lingering kisses until she was writhing restlessly. There was definitely no need for external heat now. She was on fire from the inside out, a demanding, relentless fire that only he could quench. She could lose herself in flames like this.
“How long do you plan on tormenting me?” she asked, wanting him buried inside her, needing that connection, that fullness as his body stretched hers.
“A bit longer,” he said with another teasing stroke that was almost her undoing. “Let it go, Melanie.”
She shook her head, stubborn even at a moment like this. “Not without you.”
His gaze stayed on her face. “Please,” he said quietly, touching her intimately, tormenting her until control was out of question.
It was the quiet plea that did it. Spasms rocked through her, delicious, unexpected sensations that should have satisfied, but made her crave more.
His look was smug, too smug. It drove her to drastic measures.
“You don’t get to control everything,” she said, fighting a grin as she executed a move she’d learned in a self-defense class that had Richard under her, shock in his eyes. The move wasn’t quite as smooth as it had been in class, but it got the job done.
“W
here the devil did you learn to do that?” he asked.
“Doesn’t matter. It’s just important that you know that I can do it.” She tried to fight a satisfied grin of her own and lost. She’d never expected those time-consuming lessons to pay off in quite this way. “Now, then, tell me what you’d like me to do.”
He reached up and captured her face with his hands, then drew her mouth down to his. “This,” he murmured against her lips. “Just this.”
“That’s all?”
“And this.”
He lifted her hips, then settled her again, filling her just the way she’d imagined. He held her steady, back in control, his gaze locked with hers. Melanie felt as if they were at war, but if this went the way she expected, they’d both win.
At last, he moved, thrusting up slowly, surely, then withdrawing until she had to bite her lip to keep from pleading with him.
Then there was no more question of control. They were both lost to sensation, slick and hot, hard and demanding, spiraling closer and closer to that elusive release.
When it came at last, it was shattering, leaving her weak and spent and filled with so much emotion she was scared to look into his eyes for fear he would see the truth—that she loved him beyond measure. She wasn’t sure it was a truth either of them could live with.
Chapter Fourteen
It was nearly midnight when Richard crept out of bed and went downstairs to turn up the heat. Even with Melanie snuggled close, the frigid air in the room was beginning to penetrate all the way through to his bones.
Tonight had been a revelation. He’d never had a woman give to him so completely, so unselfishly, so enthusiastically. There was no question in his mind that Melanie was after his money or his power. She’d had access to both and had turned them down, seemingly without a backward glance. He believed with all his heart that her feelings were personal, and that was what he’d waited a lifetime to find without even realizing how desperately he wanted it.
Isn't It Rich? Page 17
