“What was your job in the Army?” Casey asked. But what he was really wondering was how anyone could make the leap from the military life to clothing design.
“I was an MP.” Allen said, grinning when Casey belly laughed. “Now tell me the truth—are you really Alexa Ranger’s boyfriend?’
“The dating campaign is still in progress. The rest I said is truth. I did feed her French toast Sunday. But we’re still fighting. I’m crazy about her—or just plain crazy. It’s hard to tell some days.”
The typical male confession got another genuine laugh out of Allen, and Casey relaxed for real.
“Are you replacing Sydney?” Casey asked Allen.
“No—well, maybe. Sydney is a friend. We met working out at the same gym. As I understand it, Ms. Ranger’s wanting Sydney to scale back and put more time in on his own design work. The SydneyB clothing line has a chance to go international. Whether I replace him or not is still undecided. I hear there’s a couple people here who want the job.” Allen looked at the computer, frowning.
“You get my vote,” Casey said, checking his watch and seeing his waiting time was up. “You didn’t let the cane stop you from challenging me. That’s impressive. I was a Combat Engineer, but did several stints as a Marine Security Guard during my eighteen years. I got busted up during the last one. I’m retired but thinking about doing some sort of security business for a living.”
“If you ever get something going, let me know. I’m not opposed to a little moonlighting now and again. Until you get famous, being a designer is mostly a hobby,” Allen said, rolling his eyes. Then he looked at Casey with a smirk. “If you continue fighting with Ms. Ranger, I still might have to eject you sometime. Then you could see my other skills. I’d probably even enjoy showing you.”
“Warning noted,” Casey acknowledged easily, walking down the hallway.
Casey tapped on Alexa’s office door, opened it enough to enter, and then simply walked on into the room. He didn’t wait for an invitation even though it was rude. He enjoyed irritating Alexa. There definitely was a payoff when Alexa’s eyes sparkled in challenge.
Four attractive women seated at the small conference table near the window turned their full attention to his entrance.
All of them were smiling except Alexa, who was all but laughing. It was hard not to be charmed by the picture they made. Doubly hard not to rush over and kiss Alexa’s laughing mouth.
“Sorry,” Casey said smiling, obviously not meaning it. “Am I interrupting?”
“Always,” Alexa said. “Since when do you care?”
“Well, it’s hard to care about a woman who would lie about the best French toast she ever tasted,” Casey told her, smiling.
Alexa laughed. “Consider it partial payback for all the insults you’ve heaped on me. We’re not even yet, so you’d better start praising me a little more if want to lessen my retaliation.”
Casey came over to the table and stood near Alexa, waiting to be introduced.
“Casey, this is Karen Fortran, my CFO. Next is Ginger Alton, Marketing Director. And then Cindy Reed, Overseas Sales,” Alexa said.
Casey nodded to them all. “Good to meet you.”
With the introductions, he had the humbling and uncomfortable realization Alexa really had been conducting a business meeting, and he really was barging in on her. Again. Casey knew he was going to have to stop surprising her at work, but he didn’t know how else to see her.
He looked at Alexa in apology. “Would you rather I wait with Allen until you’re free? I really don’t mean to interrupt your work.”
“No. We’re done.” Alexa said, surprised at his apology. “Who are you and what have you done with Casey Carter? He’s a rude man, but I kind of like him.”
The women all giggled, but Casey laughed. “He’s still around, just trying to play nice in front of your staff.”
“It’s working. They’re very impressed,” she told him.
Alexa looked at his freshly shaven face and trimmed hair, thinking Casey looked very civilized, except for the glint of something wicked when he looked at her the way he was now.
“How about you?” Casey asked, lifting his hand to Alexa’s cheek simply because he had to touch her beautiful smiling face regardless of the sassy mouth. “Are you impressed yet?”
Alexa couldn’t speak with her heart in her throat, so she turned her face into his palm and kissed it as if she’d done the action a thousand times.
Casey leaned down and lightly kissed her mouth in return, wishing like hell they didn’t have an audience.
“Hi,” he said to her softly. “Sorry I didn’t come by sooner. You could have called me, you know.”
Alexa rewarded him with a mischievous, happy smile that made the trip to see her suddenly worth every moment he’d spent talking himself into it for the last four days. The fight might not be over, but she seemed to be in a different place about it at last.
“I thought we were having a stubborn contest. I wanted to win for once,” Alexa said to Casey, making the women at the table giggle again.
“You did. That’s why I’m here,” Casey conceded, stepping away from her and walking over to sit in one of the chairs in front of her desk.
Alexa laughed and turned to the others. “I think that’s all for today. I’m sure Mr. Carter and I have given you plenty to discuss behind our backs now.”
All the women laughed at her comment as they got up to leave, and each fervently denied she would gossip about it.
Casey smiled at the women but gave Alexa a wicked look. “No, don’t tell them to be discreet. I want them to talk about it. I need witnesses who can vouch for me with Stedman. He almost threw me out of the office when you lied.”
Alexa laughed and followed the women to close the door behind them. She noticed their heads were already together as they went the down the hall. It had been some time since she’d generated internal gossip, especially over a man. It was kind of fun to have the attention again.
When Alexa looked back, Casey was sitting comfortably in a chair, just waiting for her. Despite his tendency to try to control every situation, Casey was also the least self-absorbed, most patient man she’d ever known.
Even though she was still plenty mad at him for calling her a flirt in the derogatory sense, if Casey hadn’t come to her, Alexa would have gone to him within a day or two. In the internal debate Alexa kept having about her budding relationship with Casey, the physical desire to have sex with him was winning hands down over her irritation at his lack of understanding about her character.
Maybe it was naive to think Casey might eventually accept who she was, but it was the hope she clung to, which made her wonder if at fifty she had learned as much about men about she thought she had. Maybe Regina was right about her being the ultimate optimist about men, though she’d never thought of herself that way.
Instead of arguing about their disagreement, all she really wanted was to hug Casey and show him how happy she truly was to see him. The knowledge had her sighing.
Then there was the fact he’d been nothing but polite in front of her staff, grudgingly winning her admiration again.
Damn the man for making her feel so conflicted.
Alexa sighed and walked the short distance to where Casey sat. “Got room in your lap for me?” she asked.
Casey smiled in welcome and patted his right leg. “Sit on this one. This is the good leg.”
Alexa eased herself into his lap and ended up squealing when Casey lifted both her legs and swung them over his other leg as well as the arm of the chair. Her long legs dangled, but not uncomfortably. Her bottom was snugly tucked high in his lap.
“Certain things are going to get uncomfortable in a couple of minutes, but my legs will be fine,” he told her, making her laugh, and at the same time addressing her worry about hurting him.
Casey put his hand on her thigh but removed it before he gave in to the urge to stroke up the inside. That would lead quickly to doin
g something rash, he knew, but damn—it was tempting. To distract himself, Casey brushed her long hair back behind her shoulders, noticing once again how incredibly beautiful Alexa was.
Her throat tightened when she felt Casey moving and stroking her hair. Alexa was nervous sitting in Casey’s lap, but at the same time it felt completely right as well. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so unsettled with a man in her life.
“I just needed to be close to you for moment,” Alexa explained, putting an arm along the back of his shoulders. “I’m still upset at you, but—.” She stopped, not knowing how to finish to sentence.
Casey laughed, but there was no real humor in it. He stroked from her shoulder down to squeeze her hand, before moving his hand to her stomach.
“Welcome to my world. I feel the same way about you,” Casey told her, toying with the buttons on the light pink shirt she wore. “So are you ever going to sleep with me, Alexa? Or do anything else in a bed with me? I’m dying here, lady.”
Alexa sighed heavily, finally giving in to wanting to know what those strong, capable fingers would feel like on her. She knew her voice would give it all away when she spoke but no longer cared if Casey knew how much she wanted him. She watched his fingers plucking at the buttons. He was waiting on her now, just like he’d been waiting since Sunday.
“As far as I’m concerned, you could rip those buttons off and we could take this to the floor right now in the office,” she whispered, teasing him. Or at least she was pretty sure she was teasing.
“No, not here,” Casey answered quickly. But in contrast to his answer, he swiftly unbuttoned the first three buttons of her shirt and slipped his hand in to cup a breast covered in soft cotton. Lace one day and plain white cotton the next, Casey thought, dizzily betting himself Alexa would make the simple bra look sensational.
Alexa groaned as Casey stroked a sensitive nipple to attention with his thumb. She let her head fall to his shoulder and sighed brokenly, feeling his body hardening under hers. If Casey decided to take it to the floor, she was definitely going.
For Casey, Alexa’s broken sighs were like winning the lottery—and he badly wanted to cash in the winning ticket. Casey pulled her closer, holding Alexa as if she were already his, because she was in ways he couldn’t have explained to anyone—not even to her. What he wanted today was a hell of lot more than a quickie on her office floor.
“Take me home with you, Alexa. Let me show you how good we can be together,” he demanded.
Casey pulled his hand from her breast and used it to cup her face while he kissed her with all the longing he felt. And her kiss gave him back the answer he sought before he was able to hear the words.
“Okay,” Alexa said against his mouth when he broke the kiss. “Let’s go. I’m done for the day now.”
She started to move away, but Casey stopped her.
“Wait,” Casey said, buttoning her shirt back up with a regretful sigh. “If you go out of here with so much as a hair out of place, Stedman will turn me into a human pretzel.”
“Don’t worry,” Alexa said, leaning back into him, nipping his bottom lip as she kissed him again before swinging her feet to the floor. “I’ll protect you from my assistant. Besides, Allen’s a big teddy bear or I never would have considered dating him.”
When Alexa started to walk away, Casey grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her backwards.
“Say what?” he asked.
Alexa laughed and reached behind her trying to smack his wrist. “Let go of me, heathen,” she said laughing.
“Explain the dating comment,” Casey demanded, grabbing her hand and pulling her back onto his lap.
“Sydney offered to fix us up, but I turned down the chance,” Alexa said laughing and shrugging. “I don’t let people set me up with dates.”
“Stedman’s what? Twenty-five? Twenty-six? He’s probably not even as old as Jenna,” Casey said. “Are you freaking kidding me?”
Alexa bit her lip as she studied Casey’s set jaw. She was going to have to develop better filters when she talked to him about her life. He had no sense of humor about the men who passed through it.
“Okay, so Sydney thought I needed to date a younger man. But by the time he mentioned Allen as a possibility, I had already had dinner with you.”
Alexa poked Casey in the chest, but got only a grunt in reply.
“Look, I’m trying my best to be honest with you. I would never date someone half my age. Thirty-eight is the absolute threshold of youth for me. I’m still trying to deal with how young you are.”
Casey sighed heavily. It seemed to be a side effect of his association and constant frustration with Alexa Ranger. “I’ve got to get a handle on this jealousy thing before it drives me crazy. Maybe when I’ve been inside you a few hundred times, my confidence level will let me hear you talk about other men without wanting to kill them or you.”
Alexa bounded off his lap to stand in front of him. “You are some piece of work, Casey Carter. I may not be perfect, but I’m at least a serial monogamist. I don’t cheat when I’m dating someone.”
“I didn’t say you would cheat. It’s just you’re really beautiful, and obviously desirable to any number of men of any age.” Casey sighed again. It shouldn’t be that hard for her to understand his point of view. “Hell. It’s bad enough I’m going to need a large quantity of alcohol for our sex talk,” Casey said.
When Alexa huffed and looked at him blankly, Casey looked back sternly.
“Don’t give me the look, Alexa. I do believe you take intimacy seriously or you wouldn’t have stopped or let me stop when I asked you to the other day. And I need to tell you a little about my physical limitations, or at least what I think are my limitations. I never really got to do many test runs after my surgery. Susan got really sick really fast.”
Her heart immediately contracted with sympathy for him and his wife, for what they lost, and what they had missed. Alexa leaned down again, took Casey’s face in her hands, and touched her forehead to his in understanding. One minute she was livid at him; the next she was aching to soothe him.
“Damn it, Casey. Try to stop insulting me, okay? You are a good man. Part of the problem is I’m jaded, cynical, and way too used to being alone. I’m probably not a good enough woman for you, but I want you in my bed anyway.”
Casey scooted forward in the chair, ran his hands possessively around her hips, over her backside, and then rested them at her waist.
“Not good enough for me?” Casey protested hoarsely. “How in the hell can you say that when you could be going home with the weight lifter out there? I’m not even sure what I can do in bed anymore. The only thing I can guarantee is my enthusiasm. I want a chance to try.”
Alexa sighed against the top of his head when he leaned forward to lay his head against her stomach. She felt the warmth of him through her shirt. The inevitability and rightness of their intimacy hit her full force. If there was heartache afterwards, she’d just have to deal with it.
“You make me crazy,” Alexa told Casey, all teasing gone from her voice. “Trusting the attraction between us is not easy for me, Casey. You’re the first man I’ve wanted in years. I hope like hell you can truly believe I’m not a bad person before we have sex. I don’t want to sleep with a man who thinks so poorly of me.”
Casey groaned against her belly, and then laughed when she pulled out of his arms.
“Just hold my hand when we walk out, okay? I want Stedman to know you’re taken so he can give up any fantasies he may have about dating you,” Casey told her.
“In case you haven’t noticed, this is not high school,” Alexa said snidely, retrieving her purse from the desk, but also walking around to take his hand when she saw the earnest look on his face. She felt silly doing it, but then felt righteous when Casey smiled at her and tightened his grip.
What was it about him that made her feel so full of possibilities? And he seemed to be able to talk her into things more than anyone, even Sydney.<
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As they were leaving, Allen smiled at Alexa and smirked at Casey when he saw them holding hands.
“Did you blackmail Ms. Ranger into holding hands, Gunny?”
“You’re so mistrustful, Stedman,” Casey told him with a grin. “I like that about you. Stay that way.”
“Hey,” Alexa said, smacking Casey in the chest with her purse. “Allen is my employee. If anyone gets to harass him, it’s me.”
“You can have a turn next Tuesday,” Allen told her lightly. “Sydney will be out again.”
“Fine,” Alexa said, pretending to pout. “Put an appointment on my calendar.”
“Yes, Ms. Ranger,” Allen said, dipping his head to hide a smile.
In the elevator riding down, Casey played with her fingers. “So which vehicle did you drive today?”
Alexa ignored Casey’s question.
“Why won’t Allen call me Alexa? I hate it when he calls me Ms. Ranger. I feel like I’m his mother,” she said instead.
Casey pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. “Good. I want you to feel like his mother. That way I’ll look like a better deal to you.” Casey kissed Alexa hard, his tongue hinting at what was going to happen soon, before turning her loose.
Alexa narrowed her eyes and brought a hand to the back of his head.
“You know, you use a lot of caveman tactics on me. I’m not sure I like it. But in the interest of being fair, I want to try it myself. Back up,” she ordered.
Casey took one step backward and felt the elevator wall.
“What are you—?” The rest of what he’d been going to ask disappeared in the heat of Alexa’s mouth, the slide of her tongue, and then got completely lost as her sexy moan of desire vibrated against his lips.
Her hands moved over him and around him with the sure intent of arousing him as much as possible. He felt it in her touch. When Casey felt her skim the front of his jeans with an open palm, he thought he’d go mad.
Before the elevator could travel two floors, Casey was shaking with desire and once again hard as a stone for her.
Dating A Cougar Page 14
