She locked her ankles behind him, her legs around his waist, and she threaded her fingers through his hair, fisting her hands and pulling him down to her mouth, where she could devour him. One of John’s hands landed on the back of her neck, tilting her head in a way that allowed him to take over control, and Adrianna felt a flood burst inside her as he made love to her mouth.
She wanted to feel the same thing lower on her body.
She reached for his pants, working the fly until it opened so she could push the pants and his jockeys down. As he sprang loose into her waiting palm, she curled her fingers around his significant girth, and he moaned into her mouth. He was rock hard, and from the way his erection twitched as she caressed the length of him, he was more than eager.
He lifted her and yanked her pants down, surprising her, since Arianna hadn’t even noticed they were undone, and as he sat her back down, his mouth fell on one taut nipple, making her swollen breasts throb and grow even heavier on her chest. He pushed her legs wider apart, forcing her to release her hold on his waist, but before she could protest, his fingers teased at her folds, over her cleft, and tickled just inside her core. A thin sheen of sweat covered her skin from head to toe as she fought to hold on, but the explosion rolled over her body like a wave, and she pressed her mouth against John’s shoulder to mute her cry of pleasure.
As Adrianna’s body came down from that high, she was on the brink of another, John’s length replacing his fingers as he rubbed himself along the moist folds of her body. She shivered, waiting, and he drew it out, the anticipation building so high she was on the verge of begging by the time his head pierced her. Instinctively, she shoved her hips forward, taking more of him in, and it made John thrust again with enough force to bury himself to the hilt.
He stood there for a long moment, and Adrianna watched his face as he squeezed his eyes shut and grit his teeth. His jaw still clenched, he spoke for the first time, his words barely a whisper. “God, you feel good.”
Before she could respond in kind, he started pumping into her, fierce and determined, and a nonstop onslaught of ecstasy coursed through her veins. She wrapped an arm around his neck for leverage and met every thrust with a roll of her hips, so she felt every single nerve ending he touched as they all screamed in delight, making her heart race and her blood boil.
John lost his rhythm, and she could feel him convulsing inside her, her own inner walls throbbing and milking him for his release, and when he came, he drove into her as deep as he could go, throwing his head back and clenching his jaw so tight she thought his teeth might shatter as he grunted and attempted not to scream with the sensation.
Slowly, their pulses returned to normal, and as John moved away from her, he grabbed his clothes and pulled a handkerchief out of his pants pocket, offering it to Adrianna. She shook her head; she had a couple of towels in her desk drawer for emergency spills she could use. So, he took the cloth to his face first, wiping off the sweat, then to his privates to clean off.
Adrianna cleaned up as well, though making her movements a little less obvious, and began to dress. “Your hair’s a bit of a mess,” she told him quietly, but she couldn’t keep the satisfaction out of her voice. She intended to enjoy this afterglow. “I have a couple of products that may work for you, if you want to try them.”
He cleared his throat. “Do you happen to have a mirror?”
She nodded and pulled out the compact mirror she kept in her purse, as well as the bottle of product in her desk drawer. When her hair wasn’t braided, it sometimes got out of control on a humid day, and the mousse allowed her to tame it without destroying her style or needing to wash it any sooner.
John made a face in the mirror and took the mousse gratefully, planting a small pile of it in his hair and mussing it around until it looked purposefully out of place. He nodded to his reflection and offered Adrianna a wink and a smile. “I don’t think anyone saw me come in, so that should do. What do you think?”
Adrianna wanted to respond with, after all that, what do you think I think? Instead, she nodded and smiled. “It looks good. You always look good, John.”
His smile was boyish, and Adrianna couldn’t believe he could possibly be shy. Nonetheless, she’d seen multiple sides of him today she didn’t know existed, and she couldn’t say she minded. Oh, yes, that little escapade was worth every minute, even if it was against her moral standards. Chances were, they would never even speak of it again, so she said a quiet goodbye to John, and he left, promising they would set up a time to talk about the promotion and what it entailed more formally. Giddy for more reasons than one, Adrianna sat in her chair and closed her eyes, basking in the fresh memory of the man naked, and as soon as she could think about moving again, she called Terra. Boy, did she have something to talk about!
CHAPTER 8
“You should do it again,” Terra suggested casually as she played with a map of tables in the banquet hall and little flags with names, creating her seating chart.
Adrianna wanted to sweep her arm across the table, flipping all of it into a mess on the floor, just to see how much of a Bridezilla her best friend could be. “It’s not something I can just do again, Terra. It shouldn’t have happened the first time. I don’t even know exactly what happened.”
“Oh, you know what happened. Your body is the most relaxed it’s been in months, and your face is positively glowing.” She frowned as she switched two flags, as if something suddenly didn’t make sense. “Are you telling me, with the way you were dying for some extreme sex, that you’re going to stop everything before it starts? I mean, you told me this was the mind-blowing experience you’ve been looking for. Why not keep it going?”
“He’s my boss, Terra!”
“Not for long, apparently.” She looked up for the first time with a sly smile on her face. “This couldn’t have happened at a better time. He’s moving into a new position where he won’t be the man who tells you what to do anymore. You’ll be distant coworkers. And with the type of travel you’ll both have to put up with for the new jobs, you won’t have to worry about permanent emotional connections.”
But that was the problem; this was exactly the wrong time to hook up with her boss. If anyone found out…
She shook her head. “I’m going to go home and bury myself in a book. I can’t handle the pressure.”
She stood to leave, and Terra laughed. “That’s what she said.” Rolling her eyes, Adrianna moved toward the door. “Seriously, Adrianna, consider it. You look healthy and happy today instead of overworked and frustrated. At least think about getting it on one more time before you pull the plug.”
Adrianna didn’t respond, instead heading to the cab that was waiting. There was no plug to pull. John had been out of town the next day, and he hadn’t spoken another word about it. Besides spilling her guts to Terra, she hadn’t told a soul, and she intended to keep it that way. How many people would think she slept her way up the ladder if it came out that she’d had a romp with the boss just before getting a prestigious promotion? She had far too much visibility in her career to ever get away with that.
She hated to admit it, but she’d already been attracted to John. Now that she’d seen him sans the clothes, she couldn’t get him out of her head. Her physical attraction to him at this point literally frightened her, and she almost didn’t want to see him again at all, even on a professional level.
And how did you act professional around someone when you’ve held his cock in your hand? And in even more intimate places?
This was a disaster! Adrianna cursed under her breath. She needed to make it perfectly clear to John that their little rendezvous was a one-time-only encounter and there would be no repeats. Their relationship was strictly of a business nature.
But as the cabbie pulled up in front of her building and she paid the fare, another, terrifying thought occurred to her. What if the thing she feared others would think actually turned out to be true? What if John expected her to sleep with him in
order to grant her the promotion? It didn’t make a lot of sense, considering he’d offered her the job before they’d gotten naked and sweaty, but maybe that was to make it less of an ultimatum. Maybe that had been the plan all along.
Racing to her apartment, she started to dial Lindsey. The girl had gone through some issues at her first internship with the women’s magazine she worked for, filing a sexual harassment lawsuit against one of the men there. Maybe she would have an inkling about what Adrianna had gotten herself into. But then she thought better of it, hanging up before it could actually call out. She refused to bring all of her friends into her drama right now.
Trying to calm her own nerves, Adrianna turned on some music, ran herself a bubble bath with candles around the edges of the tub, and grabbed a random Sherrilyn Kenyon book from her stash. What she needed now was big, tall, sexy vampires and were-people to satisfy her urge to get out of reality. And if she happened across a great sex scene while she was at it, that just might be a bonus.
She had stripped and was raising her foot to put it in the tub when her cell phone rang, and she whimpered to herself. Who on earth could possibly have such terrible timing? Tiptoeing over to it and trying not to freeze to death, she actually did freeze in place when she looked at the caller ID. Her body quaking from more than the crisp air on her skin, she answered, “Hello?”
John’s voice rolled in smooth over the phone. “Hey, Adrianna. I just wanted to check in with you, and I was so busy all day I didn’t have a chance to call sooner. I won’t keep you long. I’m sure you want your evening to yourself.”
She shook her head before she realized he couldn’t see her. “No, it’s fine. Everything is good. I’ve got the new hire starting tomorrow, so we’ll see how that goes.” Was it strange for him to call and check in with her? She couldn’t remember a time when he’d called her afterhours unless there was a hotel emergency. “Where are you tonight?”
Static, and then, “Philadelphia. I hate this city. I don’t feel any of that so-called brotherly love here. I’m ready to come home.” He grew quiet, and Adrianna frowned down at her phone before placing it back to her ear. Was John Merritt making idle chit-chat with her over the phone? “I won’t be back in town till Wednesday, unfortunately,” he continued. “But that should give your new hire time to learn the ropes and be impressive.”
“Considering his background, I think it will be.” Adrianna wasn’t sure what else to say.
“Good. My plane is supposed to get into LaGuardia around ten, but it’s LaGuardia, so it’ll probably be closer to noon. Can I get that rain check on lunch?”
“Sure,” she answered, then winced. Maybe she should verify that it was a business lunch. After all, she still didn’t know what John thought about their momentary lack of self-control the other day, and while it seemed ludicrous, there was always a possibility he was trying to engineer a situation where it could happen again. At the same time, she didn’t want him to laugh at her, so she kept silent, simply saying, “I’ll talk to you later, then.”
He said goodbye, and she hung up before she noticed that her body was no longer shaking from the cold air. In fact, there was a distinct warmth coursing through her veins that seemed to be radiating from her center, just below her navel and just above the juncture of her legs. John’s voice really shouldn’t do this to her, but it reminded her of the way he felt inside her. Oh, man, how was she ever going to look him in the face without the word sex whispering through her mind?
Determined not to dwell on any of this, Adrianna climbed in the tub and yanked her book off the counter. Come on, Dark Hunter, she thought as she flipped it open, give me something else luscious to focus on!
CHAPTER 9
Adrianna was impressed with how quickly Sean picked up not only his own duties but the responsibilities of others, as well as most of the names of the people he worked with. He definitely belonged in the hospitality industry, and he would make a good manager one day soon. The training process kept her busy, but it was the easiest the task had ever been for her.
Wednesday came sooner than she wanted, between running around the hotel and making final preparations for the convention, helping Terra choose a dress for her wedding, training Sean, and she spent the morning fretting over what John may or may not expect from her. Maybe it was just pride, but she’d worn her favorite Dolce & Gabbana suit with a pair of reasonable Calvin Klein pumps. She wanted to look sexy and respectable at the same time, and her girls had told her before this was the perfect combination.
She left the office door open so she could keep watch for John’s approach, and she wasn’t disappointed. Her stomach clenched at the sight of him, and she thought about dousing herself with the bottle of cold water on her desk to put out the fire building in her loins. This was a crazy reaction, and she had to get over it. She smiled as he came straight to her office, clad in jeans that fit him like they were custom-made for his slim hips and long legs and a navy polo shirt that set off his eyes.
He leaned in the door jamb and smiled, a dimple she’d never noticed before appearing in his left cheek. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes!” he greeted, and Adrianna felt her cheeks flush. It felt very personal, until he added, “I wish I could leave all my hotels in such capable hands and not stress over the kind of shape they’re in when I return.”
Feeling sheepish for her unfound concerns, Adrianna smiled back. “You know, there may come a day when something I can’t handle comes up.”
This time, the salacious look he gave her, assessing her from head to toe with a raised eyebrow, was completely personal, and she felt more than her cheeks flushing. “I sincerely doubt there’s anything you can’t handle, Addy.”
A tingle went down her spine. No one had called her that in years, and with good reason. Still, she couldn’t quite bring herself to correct him, the name sounding smooth and sensuous rolling off his tongue. “Well, I certainly try,” she commented, her voice a bit shaky.
“Are you able to break away for lunch? I’m starving. We sat on the tarmac waiting for a wheel repair for an hour before we ever took off. I’m just glad LaGuardia was running unusually on time.” He hadn’t moved from his pose in the door, and Adrianna nodded, swallowing hard and grabbing at her purse. It took three tries for her fingers to actually close around the handle.
She followed him out of the hotel, wondering where they would go, and she couldn’t help looking around the lobby for any employees who might be watching them with too much interest. It may be the 21st century in Manhattan, but a white man with a black woman still tended to raise eyebrows with many. No one seemed to be watching them, and she slipped out the door he held for her as quickly and inconspicuously as possible.
Outside, the world bustled even more quickly than inside her hotel. They stepped into the throngs of people who walked from place to place on the New York sidewalks. Most of them were alone, but some walked in pairs, much like she and John. It almost didn’t surprise her when he reached out and took her hand, as if afraid to lose her among the crowd. His pace quickened, as did her pulse, with the feel of his fingers wrapped around hers and the curiosity of what conversations might be had. She really didn’t want to talk about things, but Adrianna really couldn’t stop thinking about it as she watched his long legs cover the pavement with his confident swagger.
He stopped in front of a small Asian bistro and turned, leading her inside. The din of the streets – horns, footsteps, tires on pavement – that she loved so much about New York died down, replaced with quiet chatter of several other diners. She could smell the curry and other Thai spices, and her mouth watered. “You must have read my mind. Some chicken Phad Thai sounds delicious right now.”
John smiled down at her, still not releasing her hand. “Then I’m glad I was craving it, too.” They stepped up to the register, and he ordered and paid, despite Adrianna’s protests. It felt too familiar, like a date, and to help offset the discomfort she felt, she gently withdrew her hand from John’s. H
e glanced at her but said nothing as he shoved his card back in his wallet and led the way toward an empty table toward the back corner.
“I’d like you to join me at a couple of the hotels over the next two or three weeks, so you can start to get a feel for what I do and how those hotels are run. We have very similar standards for all our hotels, but they are slightly different, depending on the area. For example, the hotel in Albany is very quaint compared to this one.”
Adrianna blinked. This was not the conversation she’d expected, and with John, she was also used to leading up to a subject, not just slamming the idea down right away. There was no preamble here. “I can do that.”
“Good. I’ll get you on the plane to DC with me, then back up to Albany, and we can just rent a car and drive back from there.” The food arrived, and John smiled and nodded at the waitress. Everything was moving so fast, and Adrianna almost wished they had started by talking about what had happened between them now. It would at least have given her some ground to stand on. She felt as if the carpet was being pulled out from under her feet and she was losing her balance. “We’ll head out a week from Friday, and the whole trip will probably last six days. Are you good with your new guy backing up the assistant manager?”
“Actually, I am. I think he’s going to fast track to the top.” She at least felt confident saying that. But something was bugging her, and she wondered if it had something to do with spending that much time alone with John. Her nerves firing on high, she asked, “Should I call ahead and make sure to book a room?”
The Boss's Baby (Interracial with Baby) (BWWM) Page 4
