by Melissa Blue
“Thought you were hungry. You haven’t taken more than a few bites.”
He couldn’t continue to show his weakness for her. At least now he could admit to himself it was one. Sebastian still wanted her as much as he did when they first smiled at each other over shot glasses two months ago.
“Oh. I will.” He picked up his slice of pizza, taking a big bite and considered how to pay her back. Mentioning intimate details of their weekend had started it all, but he needed to up his game now.
They had the Jeremiah challenge sitting between them. That he could win in his sleep. She liked to cajole and primp the clients to get them to do what they needed to do. The problem was most of the clients could fill a stadium of people willing to blow smoke up their ass. There were a rare few clients who had someone that could look behind the facade and see what the person really wanted, what they really craved.
The computer mogul hadn’t shown up to six appointments because the man had spent his puberty in a basement tinkering with gadgets. He had friends to talk tech with. Yet, like any awkward-as-hell-teenage boy, he never got over being shell shocked when a pretty girl not only smiled his way but asked about him, showed an interest in him. Sebastian should damn well know.
Nicole smiled at him, looking smug as hell. His cock tightened with need. He swallowed down more pizza. Eventually, he said, “Since we’re spending the next three weeks in each other’s hip pockets, tell me how you got started in this business.”
Shock widened her eyes. She hadn’t expected the question. He would have laughed, but he had a plan and wasn’t going to ruin it by celebrating just yet.
“We didn’t talk about our jobs, did we?”
“Nope.”
Moments passed by in silence, and then she shrugged. “In college, I was the newspaper geek. I’d worked my way up to editor when a huge story broke on campus: A student and a professor got caught sleeping together.”
She tore a small piece off her pizza, contemplated it and then chewed. After Nicole swallowed she started up again. “Now, Georgia was in her mid-thirties and was coming back to college to get a degree she missed out on in her youth. She didn’t have kids. Never been married. She simply wanted something different in her life. Since I had my finger on the pulse of everything, even then, I found out they were thinking about firing the professor and kicking the student out.”
Sebastian had asked to distract her, but now he was interested. “What did you do?”
“I hunted Georgia down and convinced her to give a little ol’ college student the exclusive. I promised I wouldn’t make the story a smear campaign. I wouldn’t turn what they had into something tawdry.”
“But the professor was in the wrong for sleeping with the student.”
“No question. He should have known better, but Georgia was going to get thrown under the bus for following her heart, maybe for the first time in her life. I went to the college’s radio DJ and told the story there. Made some more calls and did some footwork.” She spread her hands, another smile. “By the end of it all she got to stay, the professor got sacked, and I wanted to do it all over again. And again.”
“What a soft touch,” he said.
She let out a disgusted sigh. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you.”
“Didn’t say there was anything wrong about being a softy. Just stating a fact.”
A shadow passed over her gaze. “You can’t be soft in this business.”
Chapter Four
Sebastian leaned back and took in her face. Most of the war paint had faded, and she looked more natural, approachable. The same way when they first met. A little vulnerable sitting alone at the bar, but she’d fired back a witty response the moment Sebastian asked if he’d seen her before.
Things changed quickly as the heat between them damn near fried the air. They hadn’t asked many questions. They were taking a night off from work. They were single. They wanted each other. That damn simple. For him, press junkets had filled up the moments they weren’t together. Now that he knew she was the Nicole Harrison of Limelight, press junkets had probably filled up her time too.
When he thought of Limelight, he thought of Anna. The woman had made a name for herself and her employees benefited from her reputation. But the past week he’d learned Nicole was Limelight. She’d told him she was a shark by day and that was the truth.
He hadn’t seen the workaholic during their weekend. He’d only witnessed the passion and soft core of a woman who needed to breathe and not think about what someone else needed. He respected the hell out of the Nicole Harrison, but he wanted this soft and vulnerable woman. He craved for Nicole.
“No, you can’t,” he said. “I like the story though.”
She rolled her shoulders. “Your turn.”
Sebastian shook his head. “My story’s sad and depressing and pathetic.”
She leaned closer. “Let me hear it. Every detail.”
His mouth no longer filled with bitterness when he thought about the reason his life had changed. Something hardened in Sebastian’s chest when he thought about how he fell into a business that was never really about the real person but how the person looked to everyone.
He met her gaze and ate another piece of pizza. She didn’t push or look impatient. He liked that about her. Wiping his mouth, he said, “I fell in love.”
Her brows rose. “Like I love my phone?”
“More. Deeper. And stupid in love.”
Her gaze swept over his face. “I’m guessing she broke your heart.”
“Of course she did. Every man has at least one woman who takes his heart and shish kebabs it.”
Wariness thinned her mouth into a line. “And, you’re going to tell me? No strings attached?”
“Did your story come with conditions I’m not aware of?” He shot back.
“No,” she said, offended.
“Then why would mine?”
“Because you’re cagey. A fast talker.” She ticked off her fingers, counting off his offenses. “There’s a strategy behind this whole get to know each other conversation. I can’t figure out what it is, but I’m going with it for now.”
She was sharp. He grinned. “Have I lied to you yet?”
“I don’t know.” She crossed her arms. “Have you?”
“I don’t have to.”
“And if you did need to?”
He pointed to the phone that hadn’t left her sight. “Out of all of the contacts you have, how many are real friends?”
“My grandmother told me if you have more than five friends then you’re just lying to yourself.”
“Name one then.”
She lifted her chin. “You were telling me how some woman shish kebabbed your heart.”
“And I’m the cagey one?” He finished off the last slice of pizza. Wiped his mouth again but this time stood. “We’ll walk and talk. It’s going to be a long story.”
She tapped the screen on her phone. “We can’t. We have to—”
“Take a break from work for a few hours or you’ll be useless once we start calling more people on Chelsea’s behalf. She’s laid low like we told her to. The initial spin is out. We’ve got time. Also, I hate talking work after I eat.”
“Could be because you eat like a horse.”
“So do you, and that’s a compliment. Hate to eat with a woman who picks at her plate when I know damn well she wants to lick the damn thing.” She stood too. All supple and tempting curves. Damn. “And I like my woman with curves anyway. Gives me something to hold on to.” He didn’t give her time to hit him back with something. “Which way is the park?”
“At night?”
“It’s unseasonably warm tonight. They’ve got a handle on the seedier side of life and it’s well lit. Since I’m still not planning to maul you, you’ll be safe.”
Sebastian used the same tactic as before and began to walk out of the pizza place before she decided to go with him or not. Leaving first left little room for her to deba
te the reasons not to. If she waited too long, she’d have to run to catch up. She needed to get in a gripe or two and if he wasn’t there to hear it…
By the time he got to the door, Nicole was at his side. He bit back the smile.
“You do that on purpose,” she said, annoyance clear in her tone.
“Do I? Huh.”
“If I had my purse, I’d hit you with it.”
“Work place violence is not what I expected when I burned some bridges to come work with you.”
“Nuh-huh. We’re talking about the heartbreak first, and then you can extoll why you came to work with me. I’m flattered by the way, if I hadn’t said it before.”
“Bet you are.”
They stepped out into the night. San Francisco, lit up, had lost most of its bustle, but he could smell the ocean with each light breeze. That alone would beckon to the city goers. Offices surrounded them and since not everyone respected the nine to five rule, even this late, if you looked up, you could see people moving around through the windows.
This city had become his home, and he loved it. Sebastian took it in and then glanced at the woman beside him. It shouldn’t have felt like a punch to the gut when he looked at her. Outside of going home to sleep, they’d spent every moment together. She should have long since lost her appeal for him. Except she hadn’t.
They paused at the stoplight, and he placed a hand on the middle of her back when she stepped off the curb. Her back arched and she tried to hide the sigh.
“Do you want me to tell you the whole story or get to the heart-ripping-out part?”
“A little bit of both,” she said.
“Back in college, since this is where both of our stories start, I was a debate geek. As a side job I cold called people and sold them stuff.”
“Oh, my God.” She shook her head and made a sound of disgust. “It all makes sense now.”
When they reached the other side, he placed his hand on her back again. Another sigh, softer this time. Sebastian fought a smile and stepped into shoes he wore long ago. He deepened his voice and smoothed it out. “Hello, may I speak to Nicole Harrison? I’m calling on behalf of Life Insurance Company. We want to offer you—”
“Ok. Ok. I give.” She laughed. “You sold stuff. Now what happened?”
It pleased him more than it should have that she wanted to know. He shrugged at the weight of the feeling. “I had a job mainly for a beer budget and so I could date.”
“Let me guess, full scholarship for being a geek.”
“Wow. How did you ever guess?”
She waved her hand. “The girl. Get to the girl.”
“Former cheerleader. Got turned on by philosophy and left popularity behind. We had the same class. We had an assignment and then one night, during a study session, one thing led to another. We were together for two years.”
The path curved, and again just to have an excuse to touch her, he put the tips of his fingers on her back and led her in the direction he wanted. She’d moved closer to him. With every stride some part of them touched. He wanted more of them to touch. Skin to skin. Hot and achy. He sighed when they reached a break in the trees where nothing but grass and the open sky filled the park.
Sebastian glared at the moist ground for messing up his plan. “I should have brought my jacket so you could sit down.”
“I’m not scared of a little wet grass.” She placed a hand on his shoulder and kicked off her heels.
The heat of her hand stole through him. He almost reached up to keep it there or enclose his fingers around her palm.
“Come on then,” he said. “I’m sure you want to hear the rest.”
He slowed his pace when she stepped tentatively through the grass. Only lights from the walkway lit the park, leaving them mostly in the dark. It felt right to tell the rest without having her intense gaze on his face. The retelling wouldn’t twist his gut any less, but he could let her know why he’d win, why she was screwed from the gate with him.
He sat down. Nicole settled next to him on the grass, raised her hands up to her hair and started to pull out pins. He wanted to watch. Fuck, he wanted to help just to feel the soft strands between his fingers again.
Sebastian forced himself to look straight ahead. “The big twist to the story is that she wanted a family. In order to start one, I needed a better paying job, something with a bigger take at the end of the day. My sales commission was nothing to sneeze at, but I loved her so I talked myself into an internship for a sport’s agent. They make bank, right? I started to earn big money, but they needed me to travel. A lot.”
“Oh, hell.”
He nodded in the dark. “Nothing makes the college girlfriend’s heart grow less fonder than a long distance relationship.”
“Wait. You didn’t finish college?”
“Geek, remember? Took college courses starting my junior year in high school. Finished with a year and a half to spare. Now, hush. You’re ruining the buildup.”
“I know how this ends. Plenty of my friends back then got themselves tangled up in a long-distance thing.”
“You don’t know the second and unexpected twist.” He lost the battle and let his gaze take in its fill of her. Loose waves of sable strands framed her face, fell a bit over her shoulders. If he couldn’t kill his own urge to want more with her, Sebastian could do his best to kill hers. It wouldn’t be that hard. She already believed him to be heartless and the weekend some sort of fluke. All he had to do was put the final nail in that coffin.
“The main office sent me back home to scout a player at my alma mater,” he said. “They’d tried before, but he wanted to finish college first then think about going pro. If anyone could talk him into considering signing to an agency, it was me. I also wanted to surprise my girlfriend.”
He paused, and she held his gaze. She saw the truth on his face even in the dark. “Who was she screwing?”
“The football player I was sent to sign,” he said. “My girl hadn’t quite been telling the truth all those times we talked about deep stuff. She still wanted to be a cheerleader. In high school she was the best. In college, she couldn’t cut it. She told him the same shtick about wanting a family. He signed with the agency to give her that dream.”
Her brows knit in confusion. “But a publicist?”
“Since I hated his ever loving guts, I couldn’t represent him. A publicity firm had heard about me and I let them woo me away. Within the first six months the football player decided to sign with a major team. One of our clients wanted the spot. I made sure he got it.”
And because she knew the business, Nicole would know what he’d done. Sebastian had dug up every single piece of dirt he could find to make sure no one would touch the man. Too much bad press. The owners had become skittish to sign someone who looked like too much of a risk.
She gasped, scandalized. “You didn’t?”
“I did.”
“I didn’t take you for methodical and cold.” She made a noncommittal noise.
“I do what needs to be done for the client.”
“That wasn’t the client. It was revenge for the girl who kebabbed your heart. Different scenario.”
She wasn’t reacting as he hoped. No look of horror, only understanding. This was not good. This was Sebastian’s ace in the hole to get her to stop looking at him as though he should ignore all the rules he put in place when it came to sleeping with women. A little more time and she’d be out of his system. They could banter and quip until the sun came up, but what would be left between them would be remembered chemistry. Not something that hadn’t burnt itself out.
“And?”
“What?” he said.
“The story doesn’t end there. What happened to them?”
He didn’t want to tell her that part. “End of story as far as how I got into this business.”
She pursed her lips and then nodded slowly. “I won’t lie. Your story’s fascinating and puts the younger you in a different light than I imag
ined, but what happened to the kebabber and the football player?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Now I know it does.”
“Moral of the story is I can be ruthless.”
“So can I.” She tilted her head back, let out a soft laugh. “I see. This was really a boogey-man story. I’m shaking in my boots. Maybe if you ask nicely I’ll tell you about the time I pretty much debased myself—showed way too much cleavage to get one of my client’s into an exclusive night club for a sentence in a popular magazine.”
Stunned, Sebastian could only stare at her for a moment, and then he could only laugh. The smirk curved her lips, lush and kissable. The spark in her eyes defied the low light. She couldn’t be conned. There was no bridge he could sell her.
It felt like that first night when she shot down the charm and asked him to join her anyway for giving it a good old college try. He fucking loved it. He was so goddamned screwed. From beginning to end.
Sebastian stopped fighting the urge and reached out to clasp his fingers around the front of her shirt. Her breasts were soft and heavy against his knuckles. He waited to see if she’d protest, anything other than to sigh softly. Nothing but that damn sigh. He dragged her close, and then, finally, he slanted his mouth over hers.
*****
Nicole knew she should have been more worried he’d maul her in the park. He had a look since the elevator doors closed. A kind of a look a man had for a woman he wanted. For the past week his restraint had held in place, and that’s why hers had too. She refused to be the one to give, but now…
His mouth slanted across hers, sending all sorts of naughty memories rushing back. Her body went on autopilot. It knew this mouth, hands and groan. Her nipples hardened, and she moaned. The sensations of his lips against hers shut down all thought. It had never felt this good to be mauled.
One arm gripped her waist, held her close to the heat of him, the hard length of him. The other hand was buried in her hair. Suddenly, he rolled, pinning her beneath him on the grass. Sebastian didn’t miss a beat. His mouth kept up the assault until she let out a breathless sigh. A sound of surrender.
