He launched into a translation of his slide show before any more conversation could start up. Part of his job as a marketing consultant was to effectively present complex statistics to businesspeople who weren’t statistically oriented. Only two of the six people seated around the conference table had a clue what he was talking about.
At least he assumed his new assistant did.
She never took her eyes off him while he presented the numbers. To Rex’s amazement, he found her gaze made his blood pump hard. He was aware of this woman and the way her every breath made her chest rise and fall invitingly.
And the way she shifted around in her chair, giving him prime glimpses of her curves, as though sitting still was testing her patience. And the way she nibbled on her lower lip as he directed everyone’s attention to the Kama Couple and discussed potential target markets for the gaming sheets.
He obviously hadn’t been making enough time for women lately because he was reacting to April Stevens with an intensity he hadn’t experienced before. Keeping to the point of his presentation proved damned near impossible when his thoughts kept snagging on her every reaction to the sexy Kama positions.
Did the way her eyes widened when he presented Her Tip-Top Thrill mean she liked to make love on top? Or did the way she gnawed on that full lower lip when he presented Bound Boy Bliss mean she liked to take charge and bind her lovers?
Had she ever had any lovers?
Something about her fresh-faced looks and that tentative demeanor made him wonder. And her sexual status wasn’t the only thing he was wondering about. Why was he tripping over his words as he addressed the Jackhammer, a sexy position that had the Kama Man pleasuring his Kama Lady standing up? Did her blush extend below her collar, down to the swell of her breasts?
April definitely wasn’t the only one demonstrating a propensity for hot blushes at the moment. Rex was feeling his fair share of heat, only it wasn’t rushing north into his face but south, proving beyond a doubt that he hadn’t been making nearly enough time to date lately.
Something about the way his new assistant was checking him out undermined his usually solid control in a way she shouldn’t have. April hadn’t spoken a dozen sentences yet he found her reactions to his presentation a lot more stimulating than the presentation itself.
Luckily he’d be wrapping up things in corporate headquarters today and leaving for Atlanta first thing in the morning, which meant he would have April Stevens all to himself in less than twenty-four hours. Sharing a hotel suite with this lovely lady suddenly seemed to be the perfect way to kick off his week. He could investigate consumers’ reactions to the sexy sheet sets and perhaps explore this unexpected, yet undeniable chemistry he felt for her.
To: J.P. Mooney (mailto:[email protected])
Date: 7 Mar 2003 05:02:12-0800
Subject: First Contact
Hello my favorite brother-in-law,
I promised to keep you posted about the investigation and I’m happy to report that it’s underway. My security chief has his people working hard running background checks on my employees and he was agreeable to your suggestion that we start looking very closely at the network administrator. In the three months I’ve been here, I’ve found Jacqui competent at her job as long as I keep a tight rein on her. But the same could be said of all my staff. Unfortunately with the launch, everyone is behaving very out of character and as my experience with them is limited, I’m at a disadvantage.
Sex on the brain. You laughed at me, John, but I wasn’t kidding. If you could have been a fly on the wall at our marketing session this morning—half the time I marvel that I’m able to keep a straight face, which leads me to…April.
Paula mentioned how worried you were about forcing her out from behind that computer so I thought I’d let you know how she made out. Fine, so stop worrying. I know she’s a daughter to you and you’re understandably concerned for her welfare. I also know you’d rather keep her hidden away at work with you, where she’ll be comfortable and you can keep away all the bad guys. But, John, April will never be comfortable unless she gets out to meet new people without you hovering over her shoulder.
Paula is right about giving her a little nudge. There, I’ve said it. In thirty-five years, I’ve done my level best never to take sides but April is a smart, beautiful girl who should have a life. If I wasn’t convinced before, I was the minute I saw her with Rex today. I got them together during that meeting I mentioned above and stood outside the door to watch. You should have seen her! She almost swallowed her tongue when he walked in the room. I know she found him attractive because she almost torched him with a cup of hot coffee. Rex took it in stride and behaved very gallantly. I told you he’s perfect for her. I’ve never met a man so gifted with handling people. He’ll have her eating out of his hand in no time.
Which would make me very happy. He’s a wonderful man who works too much and she’s a normal healthy young woman who should have a wonderful man in her life, i.e. sex. There, I’ve said that, too. You’ve got to toss her out of the nest and give her a chance to fly. She’ll soar. And she knows her Auntie Wil is just a phone call away if she needs me. Trust me, John, she’s not going to want anyone but that to-die-for man she’s working for.
I know she technically works for you, but I don’t mean you. Although you know if you weren’t my dear sister’s husband…
Wil
John stared at the computer screen and decided sex on the brain sounded about right. He’d warned Wilhemina she’d have to be crazy to consider taking this job. Turned out he was right. She was damned certifiable.
3
SOMEHOW APRIL had gotten it into her head that a man who commanded as much respect in his field as Rex Holt had to be middle-aged with a serious type A personality.
Wrong-o.
The Rex Holt she’d been sent to baby-sit was about the last man on earth to need a baby-sitter. He was laid-back, very charming and positively drop-dead gorgeous, which meant that every time he turned that dark chocolate gaze on her, she went straight to pieces. Every time he spoke with that rich silk voice, her insides fluttered and her memory echoed with the sound of his voice as he’d calmly discussed sexual positions from the Kama Sutra Sports Set.
Ladies’ Luxury Laptop and the Sexy Slam-Dunk.
She was in so much trouble here.
To add insult to injury, Rex Holt had to be a gentleman, too. He hadn’t said a word when she’d arrived at the airport late this morning, even though he’d been specific about the time to meet. He hadn’t asked for an explanation either, which was good because April hadn’t wanted to explain how she’d accidentally packed her purse in the frenzy to get out the door, which had meant searching through all her suitcases while the taxi waited….
As they moved through the line toward the ticketing counter in the airport, he kept eyeing her rolling luggage.
“Can I help you with all those bags?” he asked.
“I’ve got them, thanks,” she said again. Granted, he’d packed light by comparison. But he was a man. A garment bag, suitcase and laptop case might outfit him for their Atlanta stint but she wasn’t so lucky. Glancing up, she met his gaze. Mistake. One glimpse into those eyes made her breath catch.
“You’ll check them?”
“Except the ones I need on the flight,” she said around that trapped breath. “I want to use the downtime to review the product line.”
Learn the product line was a more like it, but April couldn’t tell Rex Holt that. She’d spent the entire weekend immersed in Market Analysis 101 to learn what acronyms like ESOMAR, ANOVA and CAPI meant so she could play a convincing marketing research assistant.
There’d been so much to learn that she hadn’t had a chance to even glance at the Sensuous Collection, an oversight that was bound to blow her cover if she didn’t get a grip on the product line PDQ.
The product line wasn’t the only thing she had to get a grip on. She chanced another glance at Rex, who was still fro
wning down at her luggage, an expression that didn’t minimize his good looks one tiny bit.
And he looked so good with his deep russet hair and olive skin. Too good. Even though she wasn’t conducting an investigation, this man was technically a suspect until cleared of complicity by in-house security. She cautioned herself that suspects were suspects no matter what they looked like, but Rex’s mouth kept doing her in. He grinned wickedly. He frowned intensely. He made a woman who’d sworn off relationships that involved disastrous sex think about what she might be missing.
That mouth could make her imagine the soul-deep sort of ache that would build and build toward a mind-blowing climax, an explosion of the senses that could eradicate reason and make a woman swoon—or so April had heard. She’d never actually experienced the phenomenon firsthand, had never been able to relax long enough to reach the finishing line.
Oh, she wasn’t incapable or anything like that. She had absolutely no problem satisfying herself when she was alone. Being alone with a man was the problem. She got so nerved out that the experience always ended up in disaster long before she or her partner ever reached fulfillment.
Exactly what had happened with poor Jeff.
Then there’d been Vic. He’d wound up with a dislocated shoulder and a sprained ankle when a foray into light bondage had ended with a broken bed frame, a mattress on the floor and a trip to the emergency room still locked in the handcuffs that had done him in.
He’d been convinced she could relax if she was in control.
Wrong.
Kenny had wound up in surgery to repair torn ligaments after an unexpected make-out session in the front seat of his classic Firebird. He’d totally wiped out his knee wrenching it between the gearshift and the steering wheel.
He’d been convinced spontaneous had been the way to go.
Wrong again.
The memories only reaffirmed that she’d made a logical decision to give up sex, which also reestablished that she was in way over her head on this case. That fact had been obvious the instant Rex Holt had stepped foot in the conference room at Luxurious Bedding Company’s corporate headquarters yesterday.
It wasn’t bad enough that the man was too good-looking to be allowed. No, he had to be charming, too. And so tall that she felt like a china doll standing beside him, those broad, broad shoulders taking up more than his fair share of space.
Inhaling deeply, April reined in her thoughts, only to find Rex still eyeing her bags, as if it was killing him to let her carry them unassisted. Which was just so gentlemanly, darn it.
Finally, the line shuffled ahead and they reached the ticketing agent, where all her plans to work on the flight were almost waylaid before they got off the ground. She had to fight to keep her carry-on bags and only won the battle after the ticketing agent made a big show of measuring the large one to ensure it would fit in the overhead compartment.
By the time she fell into step beside Rex for the walk to the gate, April wished she’d just checked the bags in the interest of time.
When airport security personnel swarmed the monitoring station while their carry-ons were undergoing inspection, April knew she should have checked the bags.
Whatever the problem was, it had to do with her luggage.
“What do you have in there?” Rex asked her.
“Just some work.” She didn’t volunteer any more information. She didn’t need to because two security workers were currently opening the bags to begin a search. Rex was about to find out exactly what she’d packed, along with everyone else within ten feet of the monitoring station.
A man standing in the line behind them complained loudly enough for them to overhear. “Now what’s wrong?”
Rex shot the man a frown, then glanced at her, brow raised in question. “The Fetish Collection?”
She only nodded, unable to do anything more than stare as the security people pulled out items from her bags, painstakingly examining each one before laying it on the immobile conveyor belt in full view of the crowd.
The black sheet set with pockets built into the sides to hold sexy goodies like…
The dual-temperature vibrator with a clear plastic casing that could be filled with ice water for a sensual experience guaranteed to earn a shiver…
The pair of Pleasure Pearls Ben-Wa balls that clicked together noisily in their clear plastic box….
“An impromptu consumer study. I wouldn’t have thought of it,” Rex said conversationally. “Got a notebook? You can start documenting peoples’ reactions.”
April didn’t bother answering what she assumed had been a rhetorical question. She didn’t bother looking at Rex either. She didn’t need to see his face to recognize his amusement.
But she couldn’t figure out what he found funny about the looks the security personnel kept shooting their way. Or their suggestive sniggers. Or the nearby passengers’ barely muffled comments about where they were planning to use those sheets.
“We’ll have to confiscate the handcuffs, sir,” a security worker said.
“Think we’ll be able to manage without them?” Rex asked.
Another rhetorical question she didn’t bother answering, not when his question was drowned out by the amused voices all around them and the sound of blood pounding hard in her ears. She just glared up at Rex, scowling her displeasure that he had all these people thinking the Fetish Collection belonged to them for personal use.
“We’re marketing consultants working on the launch of a new product line,” April explained.
Maybe it was her squeaky-voiced delivery. Or maybe it was the blush. But her explanation only drew more attention. The crowd inched closer to the monitoring station, every pair of eyes within ten feet darting down to assess the neatly packaged leather restraints, stainless steel nipple clamps and the—what on earth was that? Oh, that must be a cock ring.
The expressions ranged from shock to amusement and strongly suggested no one was buying her explanation. Rex only snorted when the impatient man behind them didn’t bother lowering his voice to make a crack about perverts sleeping with women young enough to be their daughters. A gross exaggeration as Rex was only thirty-two.
To Rex’s credit he didn’t seem bothered by the stares and lewd comments, although he would have been well within his rights to blame her for this whole embarrassing delay. He remained good-natured in the face of adversity, which showed a great deal of restraint under the circumstances.
She, on the other hand, demonstrated no such restraint. The security personnel took their sweet time cramming all the items back inside her bag and the attached case. By the time they’d made room for the Naughty Nipple Cream and the Kegel Balls and snapped the latch on the case shut, April was barely containing the urge to run back in the direction of the terminal.
What on earth had John been thinking? What had Wilhemina been thinking? They both knew better than anyone that she simply wasn’t cut out for fieldwork. Not even inside surveillance. And especially not to surveil a man who was so darned handsome that her tongue tangled in a knot every time he looked her way.
She was screwing up already and she wasn’t even out of Dallas. Not good. But she didn’t get a chance to dwell on how she’d just cost them another ten minutes before Rex touched her. One brush of his warm fingers on her hand, and she felt a jolt that zapped every thought out of her head.
“It’s okay, April,” he said. “There’s no law against sex toys in Texas. We won’t wind up in prison.”
And now he was on to her. She couldn’t decide if she was annoyed that he’d noticed her anxiety or touched that he’d made an effort to reassure her. Not that she could be reassured with everyone in a ten-foot radius thinking they liked kinky sex.
“I had no idea those gizmos would cause a problem,” she said as soon as she’d caught her breath and they were on their way again.
Several flights appeared to have arrived, slowing their progress by forcing them to pick their way through the crowds. “I even rememb
ered to take my pepper spray off my key ring.”
He only shrugged. “It’s the tightened security measures. Slows down the travel process.”
“Well, we’re almost at the gate, hopefully with no more—”
April cut off abruptly when the luggage handle was ripped forcibly from her grasp. Spinning around, she realized that someone’s garment bag had snagged the wheel of her roll-on, sending it thumping along the floor and nearly tripping an inattentive passenger, who hop-skipped over it at the last possible second.
But not before he kicked the smaller case—which security obviously hadn’t reattached properly—and knocked it away. The latch burst open as soon as it hit the floor. There was a loud crack and the items spilled out.
Here we go again. April winced as the plastic casing on the vibrator shattered. The box holding the Pleasure Pearls exploded in a burst of clear plastic shards. The balls shot away in different directions.
“Another impromptu consumer study?” Rex asked.
April didn’t dignify that question with an answer, but leaped into motion, deciding damage control was the better part of valor. Diving for the case, she missed the ball she’d been reaching for when an errant foot kicked it away.
Suddenly Rex appeared at her side, shielding her from the crowd with his big body.
“Hey, lady, you lost your dildo.” Some jokester handed her the vibrator with the cracked casing.
April issued a weak, “Thanks.”
Rex plucked the vibrator from her hand and said, “Grab the rest of these things. I’ll get your bags back together.”
He sounded positively jolly and she glanced around to find him reattaching the case to her roll-on with a wicked grin.
April didn’t need to be asked twice. Lunging forward, she grabbed the leather restraints, which were still bundled inconspicuously in their packaging, handed the bundle to Rex and took off for a Pleasure Pearl Ben Wa ball that had landed under a newspaper dispenser.
Between The Sheets Page 4
