“Is this part of your relaxation therapy?” she’d asked.
He’d caressed her with his dark gaze and said, “Regular exercise will help, but I just don’t want to go without you.”
Okay. She could appreciate his honesty, even when it emphasized her own dishonesty, but her internal alarm, which had been curiously silent for so long, started blaring until Rex had dragged her into an empty office during a full slate of supervised shopping experiments.
“Did you know that kissing burns approximately two calories per minute compared to making love, which burns an average of six? I think we need to start warming up.”
No, she hadn’t known that and she hadn’t been able to resist kissing him either. He’d just sort of grabbed her and kissed her, not really giving her a chance to do anything but kiss him back.
But her real worries began when they’d returned to the hotel, where Rex had prepared a scrumptious chicken marsala while she’d edited the day’s data. They’d chatted about the shopping experiments, dined over the coffee table before Rex casually asked her, “Do you have a preference where we sleep tonight? My bedroom is larger than yours, but we could always spend the night out here with the Fetish Collection again. What do you think?”
What did she think?
She thought her head was going to split wide-open because her internal alarm was shrieking so loudly.
She wouldn’t tell him that.
The man had jumped feetfirst into a fling. She’d suspected that the moral of his story had something to do with her and she’d been right. He was planning to make time to have fun and he intended to have fun with her.
The question was: What was she going to do about it?
Nothing brilliant sprang to mind except a desperate image of standing in John’s office explaining, “I did what I had to do to get the job done, boss.”
A melodramatic thought that only undermined her confidence, which didn’t need any undermining, thank you very much. She’d been reminding herself constantly of her accomplishments on this job so far—small though they were—to pump up her confidence and balance out the mishaps. She wasn’t sure what category a fling with Rex would fall under.
I enjoy being with you.
Until he found out that she’d been sent here to spy on him. He’d most likely appreciate Wilhemina’s confidence and foresight in ensuring his name was kept clear of any suspicion, but finding out that she’d slept with him under false pretenses was bound to be an unpleasant surprise. Discovering that she’d been so desperate to experience passion that she’d sacrificed the honesty he deserved would hurt.
Because he cared. Not any love-at-first-sight, long-term kind of caring, but simply because he wanted to be with her right now, to enjoy their chemistry. He’d been up-front. He’d been kind. He’d seen past her nervousness, a quality that drove most people to distraction.
But instead of complaining that he’d gotten stuck with an inept assistant, Rex had taken action. He’d tried to help her relax. These were the actions of a caring man, a man who deserved honesty when she couldn’t be honest.
The situation sucked, plain and simple, and with that thought riding her, April did what she always did when life got out of control. She worked.
Loading her e-mail program, she logged on to the J.P. Mooney Investigators’ server through a dummy account set up as her fake West Coast Luxurious Bedding Company office. She found a reply from Wilhemina.
To: April Stevens (mailto:[email protected])
Date: 10 Mar 2003 02:12:18-0000
Subject: Unfounded Accusations
My dear girl,
I would never presume to play God and set you up. Or Rex either, for that matter. However, if you two just happen to be together and things click…Auntie Wil says: Go for it! You know I love you and I’m tremendously fond of Rex. He’s the type of high-caliber man I know Paula and John would approve. Unfortunately, just like you, Rex works entirely too much and doesn’t make time for a life. You’re two peas in a pod.
I won’t deny that the idea you might enjoy meeting Rex did cross my mind when I was brainstorming how to tackle my current dilemma. Paula has been very worried about you since your breakup with that hot tub salesman. She mentioned her concerns several times in our phone conversations. Naturally, I’m concerned, too.
But please understand that my current situation at work is particularly difficult. I explained at Christmas that the future of the Luxurious Bedding Company is riding on my actions. Frankly, my dear, I’m very disturbed by recent events and the possibility of a threat to the launch. I’m new to this company and haven’t yet established my own regime. At this point I want to surround myself with as many trustworthy people as possible. You’re trustworthy and so is Rex, which translates into one problem off my desk. I appreciate this because it frees up more of my energy to deal with the madness of these suggestive posts and their effect on my staff.
But I have every faith that with Rex to advise me and you to protect us both from false allegations, things will work out as I plan and this launch will be a success. So, to answer your question about whether or not I set you up…the answer, my dear, is: Not exactly. ;-)
Auntie Wil
April scowled at her computer monitor. According to Wilhemina, she should just ignore the fact that she couldn’t tell Rex he was under surveillance. She should overlook that becoming involved with him would be considered a conflict of interest if she wound up testifying in court. Not to mention the awkward position she’d be in with John. Sleeping with the suspect? He’d consider that dicey business, no questions asked.
But apparently Wilhemina thought all those problems were secondary to April’s love life, which left April wondering how she’d missed that Paula’s sister was such a romantic. Or a raving lunatic. April wasn’t sure which.
Or maybe dear Auntie Wil was suffering the same sex on the brain as her staff.
Hmm.
April did know that she didn’t need another reason to second-guess herself. She was already worried about falling flat on her face and disappointing everyone…then again, like Rex had said, if it wasn’t for her, he wouldn’t have spotted the trouble with the pockets.
That was a good thing, she reminded herself, and clinging to that thought, she took a deep breath, deleted Wilhemina’s post from her hard drive and got down to business. She had a job to do and the least she could do was keep Rex cleared of any suspicion.
When he went to change his clothes, she printed a journal report from the fax machine, which showed the last twenty transmissions he’d sent.
While he cooked dinner, she slipped into his bedroom to find his cell phone and copy down all his auto-dial numbers. She pressed redial to discover the last person he’d called had been her crazy Auntie Wil.
Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing unusual. Corroborating what Wilhemina and John both believed—Rex wasn’t guilty. And this was a good thing because April wouldn’t wind up in court to testify on his behalf and no one would ever be the wiser about her conflict of interest.
Especially Rex.
Making her way back into the dining room, she slipped the fax journal report and the paper with the telephone numbers between the stacks of respondent surveys she had to edit and surreptitiously copied them into a post to John.
As Rex pulled their meal together, she sent the post and deleted all remnants of the transmission from her hard drive. Under the pretense of washing up for dinner, she went to the bathroom where she mutilated the pages with soap and water until they were illegible and she could discard them in the trash.
They ate and Rex accomplished what he’d intended last night by impressing her with his cooking skills. When she finally returned to her laptop after helping him get the kitchen back together, she was feeling full from his delicious meal, relaxed from the wine and amused by his stories of his younger sisters harassing him about his single status on his last trip home.
The man was simply too charming to be
allowed and she might have talked herself into Wilhemina’s take on a fling until she got slapped in the face with a blatant reminder of why she was here….
To: April Stevens (mailto:[email protected])
Date: 10 Mar 2003 19:18:22-0500
Subject: Employee Incentive
Provide sex toys in the employees’ break room as an incentive to increase productivity!
Studies prove that the opportunity to release sexual tension can provide a successful incentive to increase job performance. Condom dispensers and approved sanitizers located inside the break rooms will adequately meet all OSHA standards and state health requirements.
April read the post again and couldn’t suppress a shudder. After last night with Rex and the Fetish Collection, she certainly couldn’t deny that sex toys had provided the incentive to increase her productivity.
“Oh my,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this before.”
“What?”
“I’ve just been stalked by the company stalker.”
Rex shoved his chair away from the table and got up, radiating an intensity she’d not seen before. He braced his arms on either side of her and leaned in to view the screen.
“Damn. You’ve got nearly two hundred posts here. We’ll need to forward all these to Wilhemina. I hadn’t counted on this problem following us out on the road, but I shouldn’t be surprised since we’re still connected to the network. Wishful thinking, I guess.”
“The subject of sex toys seems awfully coincidental, don’t you think?”
Rex scowled harder. “How much did Wilhemina tell you about what’s been happening at corporate?”
“Not much,” she lied. “Just that there’s some sort of stalker loose on the company server.”
“That sums it up. The place has been a nightmare. These posts just keep showing up, each one raunchier than previous. Otherwise totally normal people have gotten so preoccupied with sex they can’t seem to talk about anything else.” He gave a wry laugh. “Wilhemina calls it sex on the brain. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Did you get sex on the brain, too?”
Arching a dark brow, he took a step back and April turned to face him, needed to see as well as hear his response. This was a business question, an opportunity to surveil that she’d be negligent to pass up.
His answer shouldn’t be personal, but it was. Did sex on the brain explain why he was interested in her?
“I was distracted. Not that I’d admit that to Wilhemina,” he said. “And relieved to get out of there. It was funny. I never gave the product line a second thought when I contracted this project. Launching the Sensuous Collection was a challenge and I looked forward to the chance to work with Wilhemina again. I had no idea this project would test my concentration.”
“Why wouldn’t you want Wilhemina to know?”
“I’m a consultant, April. My clients’ confidence in my abilities is all I have to recommend me. Getting personal clouds the issue so I don’t get personal on the job.”
April was intimately acquainted with nervousness and Rex showed no signs whatsoever—no excessive sweating or fidgeting. He didn’t avoid making eye contact and his Adam’s apple wasn’t doing any weird stuff that might suggest he wasn’t comfortable.
He seemed very comfortable in fact, standing with his legs spread, a stance that suggested he was being open and honest.
More proof of his innocence.
“We’ve gotten personal,” she reminded him, curious to hear how he rationalized their involvement.
“We’re not in the office together so it’s not the same thing. What I do out on the road is my business. The research companies I deal with are my associates and the respondents I interview have no idea who my client is. There’s no risk to the Luxurious Bedding Company.”
Raising his hand to her face, he thumbed her lower lip, his touch sending a shiver through her that he couldn’t miss. “And I’m very grateful we’re not in-house together. This chemistry between us—” he traced her top lip now, invoked another shiver “—would be a tragedy to waste.”
And darned if she didn’t dissolve into a puddle. One touch and he scattered her thoughts, filled her head with the memory of how he’d felt on top of her, inside her.
And Rex knew. His expression softened, a combination of pleasure and satisfaction that made his features even more striking, made her press her lips to his thumb before she’d thought to stop herself. His skin was rough silk to the touch and she couldn’t suppress the anticipation at the thought of the night ahead.
She was so in trouble with this man.
When he lowered his mouth to hers, a voice of sanity cried out, “You can explain away one night as a lapse in judgment and Rex won’t be hurt when he finds out you slept with him under false pretenses.” But the voice of need countered with, “If he finds out. He only wants to have fun. Have some fun, then kiss him goodbye and he’ll never be the wiser.”
Then Rex’s lips captured hers and drowned out both voices.
Her arms came around his neck, her fingers slipping into that thick hair. He kissed her as though he’d been waiting forever. Tongues met and breaths clashed. He ground his thickening erection against her and she ached in reply, remnants of the passion she’d discovered last night. She wanted to experience the kind of freedom she’d felt while naked in his arms, when she’d felt aroused, and so right.
Rex seemed to be waging his own war with restraint because he couldn’t settle on what he wanted to touch. His hands trailed down her neck and over her shoulders, skimmed their way down her back. He kneaded his fingers into her backside and pulled her closer, as if he might forge them together by will alone.
And when they finally broke apart, panting, Rex stared down at her with a devilish grin. “Let’s wrap this up and go to bed.”
April looked into his dark eyes, knew she’d avoid so many potential problems if she could just say no.
But she couldn’t. This time she’d slip between the sheets with him by conscious choice, a decision made while wide-awake and cognizant of the potential consequences. This would be her one and only chance to experience feeling right. Rex’s magic hands gifted her with the ability to relax and to know pleasure. And she wouldn’t miss this chance.
“Yes.”
A simple word for a situation that wasn’t simple at all.
REX WAITED until he was certain April had fallen asleep before slipping out of bed. Not that he wanted to leave when her warm body had been wrapped around his. No way. Leaving her satin-smooth curves had been the last thing he’d wanted to do when his legs were still weak from an awesome orgasm. But right now was the only time he could work on his computer unobserved.
In the aftermath of tonight’s post from corporate headquarters and his subsequent crush to get April in bed, he’d forgotten to post Wilhemina about having Research and Development reevaluate the way they’d packaged the lotions in the Fetish Collection.
As long as the sheet set was undergoing a second look, the packaging should be modified so some unsuspecting male consumer didn’t wind up wearing Pleasure and Sizzle when he was expecting a happy penis. He was surprised they hadn’t thought to shape the containers differently already. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that sheets were frequently used in the dark.
Good thing April had a knack for spotting the oddball sorts of problems that could land manufacturers in liability. The Luxurious Bedding Company didn’t need any more negative press and he didn’t need any more challenges with this project. The adventure and game sheets were providing enough.
And April.
She’d seemed more wired than usual today and he wondered if the change in their relationship status was to blame. She’d gone from a marketing assistant who’d been concerned about her job performance to the marketing consultant’s lover in one day.
But Rex wanted April to smile the way she’d smiled at him in bed tonight. He wanted her warm and willing and mak
ing him feel as if he was the only man who’d ever made her feel good. For that to happen, she had to stay relaxed.
Grabbing a robe from the back of the door, Rex slipped it on and quietly left the bedroom. He decided against turning on a light in the suite. The glow from the computer monitor would be all he needed.
After booting his system, he waited for the programs to load, thinking about the exquisite woman he’d left asleep in his bed. She’d taken his breath away tonight with her unique brand of bold innocence, as arousing without nipple clamps as she’d been comfortable with them.
After he’d massaged her into bonelessness, they’d made love without any of the Fetish Collection’s apparatus. He’d wanted to experience her with nothing between them but their mouths and hands, to gauge how much their of explosive lovemaking of the previous night had been influenced by the sexy paraphernalia.
The answer was not much.
Nipple clamps and sexy lotions might have enhanced his attraction to April, but his response was all about her. Only she could turn him on with a glance.
She was an intelligent, beautiful woman with a rather glib outlook on life that he found charming. He wasn’t exactly sure what that meant yet, but he intended to find out.
Making love to April had impacted him in a way he’d never been impacted before. He laughed with her, felt challenged by her, which had driven home the fact that he hadn’t been smiling or feeling challenged enough lately—crimes his sisters had convicted him of a long time ago.
Wouldn’t his sisters just love for him to admit they’d been right? Smiling at the thought, he posted Wilhemina about addressing this latest problem and then composed another post. This one to the supervisor of the research foundation he’d contracted with several years ago.
Between The Sheets Page 13
