A Bride for the Boss

by Maureen Child

  Another climax hit her, stronger than the last, and she cried out his name as her body trembled and shook beneath his hands. But he wasn’t finished, she realized as she lay there, struggling for air, trying to make her mind clear enough to appreciate just where she was.

  She opened her eyes and saw him slide off the bed, strip off the rest of his clothes. Her eyes went wide as she looked at his amazing body, so lean and strong and sculpted. And for tonight at least...hers.

  He joined her on the bed again, this time covering her body with his, sliding up the length of her. Andi’s hands and nails scraped up and down his back. Her legs parted, lifted, welcoming him to her, and when he entered her, she gasped and arched at the swift invasion. He felt so good. So right. So big. He filled her until it seemed as though they’d joined on much more than a physical level.

  In this moment, they were one unit, and as she moved with him, she stared up into his eyes and lost herself in the wild gleam she saw there. He plunged into her heat, and unbelievably, she responded by tightening into another fiercer ball of tension deep inside. She felt the now familiar buildup and knew that this time, when he pushed her over the edge, it would be shattering. She couldn’t wait.

  So when he pulled away from her, Andi nearly whimpered with the boiling need clawing at her. But he paused only long enough to dig into the bedside table drawer and grab a condom.

  “Damn,” he said, glancing at her. “I was so caught up in you I almost forgot protection.”

  “You’re not alone in that. I can’t believe it, but I wasn’t thinking—”

  “Who needs to think?” he asked, and in a second he was back, buried inside her, and the two of them raced toward the finish line.

  She held him, hooked her legs around his waist even as he reached under her with one hand and lifted her hips. Andi struggled to breathe, gave up any attempt to hang on to sanity and threw herself into the moment with an abandon she’d never experienced before.

  Here was the difference, she thought wildly, between sparklers and skyrockets. Pleasure slammed into her with a crash, making it hard to breathe and harder to care. As the first incredible eruptions exploded inside her, she cupped his face between her hands and looked deeply into the green of his eyes as she jumped into the void.

  She was still holding him when his eyes glazed over, his hips pumped against her and he tumbled into the same starlit darkness with her.

  * * *

  Minutes, hours, heck, maybe weeks later, Andi’s brain started working again. She simply lay there, completely spent. She loved the feel of Mac lying on top of her and would have been perfectly content to stay in just that position from now until whenever. But even as that thought slipped through her mind, he was rolling to one side of her. He kept one arm wrapped around her, though, and pulled her in close, nestling her head on his chest. She heard the frantic pounding of his heart and knew her own was racing, as well.

  God, she’d never been through anything like that before. Every other sexual experience she’d had in her life paled alongside what she’d just lived through. The man was...gifted.

  “That was,” he whispered into the darkness, “well, I don’t think I can find a word for it.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed. “Me, either.”

  He rolled her over onto her back and levered himself up until he was looking down into her eyes. “Can’t believe it took us six years to do that.”

  “It was worth the wait,” she told him.

  “And then some,” he agreed, pushing her hair off her shoulder, dipping his head to kiss that warm curve at the base of her throat.

  Andi shivered again. Oh, she was in so much trouble. When she’d first decided that going to bed with Mac was a good idea, there’d been a small part of her convinced that if she did, it might help her get over him. Get past the feelings she had for him so she could move on with her own life. Instead, she was in even deeper trouble than she had been before.

  He hadn’t made love only to her body, but to her heart, too. Love welled up and spilled over. She wasn’t going to get over him. Ever. And that was a thought designed for misery. Because he didn’t love her back. And there was just no lonelier feeling in the world than loving someone who didn’t love you.

  He lifted his head, smiled down at her and said, “Hope you’re up for a repeat performance, because I don’t think I’m done with you yet.”

  She loved hearing that, and there was nothing she’d like more. The idea of staying right there in that big bed with Mac was more appealing than she could admit. She wanted to watch the sunrise with him. Wanted to be here again in the evening and spend her nights wrapped around him.

  But none of that was going to happen.

  Andi had already indulged herself; now it was time to start protecting herself. For her own good.

  “That’s probably not a good idea,” she said.

  “Why the hell not?” he demanded, tightening his hold on her as if she might try to get out of bed.

  Which she really should.

  “Because this—between us—it’s not going anywhere, Mac, so what’s the point?”

  He laughed. “You can ask me that after what we just shared? Andi, that was incredible.”

  “It was,” she said, starting to feel the chill of the room on her skin. “And now we’re done.”

  “Don’t have to be,” he told her, bending down to kiss her once, twice, just a brush of her lips with his. “Andi, this just proves what I’ve been saying all along. We make a great team.”

  “A team?” The chill she felt deepened as she waited for him to continue.

  “Yeah.” Idly, he ran one hand over her skin until he finally cupped one of her breasts. As he talked, his fingertips caressed her.

  A new wash of heat swept over her, but was lost in the chill when he continued.

  “We’re a team, Andi. At the office. Clearly, in bed.” He dropped his head, kissed her briefly, then looked at her, satisfaction shining in his eyes. “You’ve got to come back to work now. Can’t you see what a mistake it would be to walk away from everything we have together?”

  Okay. The chill was now icy. Her heart was full of love and all he could think about was using sex to get her back to the office? She brushed his hand aside and scooted back from him. Her own nudity didn’t bother her; she was much too consumed by a temper that bubbled and frothed in the pit of her stomach to worry about being naked.

  She knew he’d felt what she had when they came together. He couldn’t have been immune to the incredible sense of “rightness” that had lit up between them. Could he? Could he have experienced just what she had and explain it all away as teamwork?

  Sad, that’s what it was. Just sad. But anger was better than sorrow, so she gave herself over to it.

  “Seriously?” she asked, shaking her hair back from her face. “You think promising me more sex will keep me as your assistant?”

  “Why not?” He grinned again, clearly not picking up on the ice in her tone. “Honey, we just made the world tremble. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never experienced anything even remotely like it before. Why the hell wouldn’t we do that again? As often as possible?”

  He couldn’t see why and she couldn’t tell him. So they were at an impasse. One that wasn’t going to be maneuvered around. Before she could say anything, he started talking again, clearly enthused with his idea.

  “As long as no one at the office knows what’s going on between us, we can go on being lovers and work together just like we did before.”

  He reached for her, but she shook her head. “Just like before.”

  “Yeah.” His smile slipped a little as if he were beginning to pick up on the fact that she wasn’t all that enthused with his “plan.” But still, he kept going. “We work together, each have our own homes and we share amazing sex.�
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  “So we’re boss and assistant at the office and bed buddies once that door’s closed.”

  He frowned. “Bed buddies seems a little—”

  “Accurate?”

  “Okay, something’s bothering you.”

  She laughed shortly and the sound of it scraped across her throat. “Yeah. Something.”

  God, she was an idiot. Yes, she had the memory of this night to cling to, but now, she’d also have the memory of this conversation to color it. How could he be so smart and so stupid all at once? And how could she have walked right into this situation, a smile on her face and eagerness in her heart?

  “It’s the best of all possible worlds, Andi,” he said, voice deep, low. “What could be better?”

  So many things, she thought. Love. Commitment. Marriage. Family. The offer he’d just made her paled in comparison. She couldn’t say any of that, of course. For him, love had never entered the picture and damned if she’d shove it through the door now.

  “No.” Shaking her head, she scooted off the bed and grabbed her dress off the floor.

  “No?” he echoed, sitting up to stare at her. “That’s all you’ve got to say? Just...no?”

  “Just no.” Stepping into the dress, she pulled it up, then fought with the zipper. Andi was so done. She needed to get out of there. Fast. Before she said too much of what she was thinking. Problem? She didn’t have her car. She’d be trapped in his all the way back to town. Nearly groaning in frustration now, she tugged again at the stupid zipper, which remained stuck.

  Still, psychologically, she felt much more able to have a fight if she at least wasn’t naked.

  “Why no, Andi?” He came off the bed, too, and went to grab her shoulders before she slipped away. His eyes fired. “Is there someone else? Some guy I don’t know about? Is that what this is?”

  She looked at him in disbelief. “Are you kidding? When could I possibly have found a guy, Mac?” She whipped her hair behind her shoulders, tugged at the damned zipper again and knew she’d snagged it in the fabric. Letting her arms fall to her sides, she glared at him as if even the zipper was his fault. “Until several days ago I was pretty much an indentured servant. I had no life outside that office.”

  “Servant?” His eyes flashed and this time it was anger pumping from him, not sexual energy. “A damn well-paid servant if you’re asking me.”

  “I’m not,” she countered.

  “Well, you should.” He shoved one hand through his hair and gritted his teeth.

  “Sure, I made a great salary—and had zero chance to spend any of it.” Andi met his anger with her own and stood her ground, just as she always had. “How do you think I can afford to quit? I’ve got everything you ever paid me sitting in a bank account.”

  “That’s great.” He threw his hands up and let them fall again. “So I’m paying you to leave me.”

  “In a nutshell.” She looked around wildly, searching for her shoes. He’d carried her in here, and right now that little romantic moment felt light-years away. Had she kicked them off? Had he pulled them off? Did it matter?

  “There!” She spotted one of her heels under a chair near the fireplace. Surely the other one would be close.

  “What’re you doing?”

  “It should be obvious.” She picked up one shoe and continued the search for the other. “I’m getting dressed. I need to go home.”

  “You can’t leave in the middle of a fight.”

  She saw the other shoe and snatched it. “Watch me.”

  “How?”

  God, she was so done. Andi couldn’t believe that what had started out as an amazing evening had devolved into a battle. And what was she fighting for? He didn’t want to be won. He wanted his assistant back—with fringe benefits. How humiliating was that?

  “How what?” She pulled her shoes on, straightened up and glanced at Mac.

  “How are you going to leave?” He was still blissfully naked and it was a struggle to keep her hormones from jumping up and down just from looking at him. His arms were folded across his chest, his green eyes were narrowed. “It’s a hell of a long hike from the ranch to town. Especially in those heels.”

  Here was the problem she’d noted earlier. “Damn it, you have to drive me.”

  “When we’re done talking,” Mac said.

  “Oh,” Andi told him, nodding, “trust me, we’re done.”

  “You can’t tell me that what just happened between us didn’t change something.”

  “It changed everything,” she said, wishing she’d suddenly sprout wings so she could just jump off his balcony and get herself home. Now. “That’s the point.”

  “And my point is, that change doesn’t have to be a bad one.”

  If he only knew. “Mac...”

  He pulled her in close and though she was still pretty angry, she didn’t fight him on it. Tipping her head back, she looked into his eyes and wished things were different. Wished she didn’t love him so damn much. Wished he felt even a touch of what she felt.

  “Don’t say no so fast, Andi,” he whispered, tucking a stray lock of her hair behind her ear. She shivered at the gentle touch and knew that something inside her was melting in spite of everything. What kind of fool did that make her?

  “Wait,” he said. “See.” He winked. “I’ve still got most of the two weeks I took off left to help you set up your house. Get it in order. Let’s see where we are at the end of it. Okay?”

  At the end of the two weeks, they would be in the same damn place, only she’d be even more twisted up and torn over it. There was no way to win in this particular battle. When it was over they would both lose something, and she couldn’t prevent that, even if it ended tonight.

  So did she take the rest of those two weeks, torment herself with dreams that had no basis in reality? Or did she end it now, while she was cold and empty and sad?

  “Give us the time, Andi,” he urged, and caressed her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “Let’s find out together where we are at the end of it.”

  “I know where we’ll be,” she said, shaking her head.

  “You can’t, because I don’t.” His gaze moved over her face and Andi felt it as she would have a touch.

  “Give it a chance,” he said. “Don’t end it now.”

  Fool, she told herself. Don’t be an idiot, her brain warned. Step back now and make it a clean break, her heart shouted.

  But she looked up into his eyes and didn’t listen to any of it.

  “Okay.”

  Eight

  Mac didn’t have his phone on him and realized that it was the first time in years he’d been completely disconnected from the rest of the world. He owed Andi for that. For making him see just how attached he’d gotten to the damn thing. Now, he could go hours without even thinking about his phone, and wasn’t that amazing?

  As thoughts of Andi rose up in his mind, though, he forgot about his phone and wondered what she was doing. Where she was. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her since he dropped her off at her place the night before. Who could blame him? He never would have guessed at the woman behind the cool, professional demeanor. She’d hidden that from him so well, it had to make him wonder what other secrets she had. For the first time in his life, he wanted to know more about a woman, not less. And for the first time in his life, the woman wasn’t interested.

  “How the hell can she not be?” he muttered, scrawling his signature across the bottom of a contract. He tossed the papers to one side and reached for the next stack.

  Last night with Andi had been a revelation. He’d been with his share of women over the years, but nothing he’d ever experienced had come close to what had happened between them. Being locked inside her body had taken him higher than ever before. Her every breath, ever
y sigh had somehow drifted within him, taking root and blossoming so richly he’d hardly been able to breathe. Touching her had awakened a tenderness in him he hadn’t been aware of. Need hadn’t been satisfied. If anything, it had grown, until now he felt as if he were choking with it.

  He’d wanted her to stay with him last night. Another first. He didn’t usually take women to his home, and on the rare occasions he had, he’d hustled them back out again as quickly as possible. But this time, it had been Andi who’d drawn a line in the sand.

  Mac could admit, at least to himself, that when she’d jumped out of bed with the idea of closing things off between them, he’d felt—not panic, he assured himself—more like a sense of being rattled. He’d thought that after what they’d shared, she’d turn cuddly and, damn it, agreeable. Instead, she’d refused to see reason and had almost cut him off.

  That had never happened before.

  He didn’t like it.

  Pausing in his work, he tightened his grip on the sterling silver pen and stared blindly at the wall opposite, not seeing his office but the woman currently driving him around the bend.

  When he dropped her off at her place, they’d agreed to take the next day apart, to catch up on things that had to be done—but more than that, they’d both needed some time to come to grips with what had happened between them. So Mac was here, signing off on the contracts his lawyers had approved and Andi was...where?

  Damn it.

  He grabbed his desk phone, punched in a number and waited while it rang. When a familiar voice answered, Mac said, “Rafe. You open for lunch today?”

  Mac needed to talk to another guy. A man would understand. Women were just too damned confusing.

  “Yes,” Rafe said. “I’m free. Is there something wrong?”

  “Damned if I know,” Mac muttered. “I was sort of hoping you could help me figure that out.”

  “Well, now I wouldn’t miss lunch for anything. The diner then? About one?”

  “That’ll work.” Mac hung up and got back to the business at hand.