Until You

by Denise Grover Swank

  “Lanie, it’s late,” he said, following her. “Just come back to bed and I’ll take you home in the morning.” Then he grinned and grabbed her hips, pulling her flush against his chest. She felt his growing erection against her. “If you need help going back to sleep, I have another condom on the nightstand.”

  She laughed. “I never imagined you had so much stamina.”

  “I’m watching you walk around my condo, barely covered in sexy lace. What do you expect?”

  A war waged in her eyes.

  He gave her a gentle kiss, pulling her bottom lip between his teeth while his hand caressed her firm ass.

  She wrapped an arm around the back of his neck and opened her mouth to his probing tongue, releasing a soft moan.

  Damned if he wasn’t ready to take her against the door.

  But she broke the kiss and leaned her forehead against his chest.

  Why was she struggling to stay? Was she thinking about Aiden?

  A fierce jealousy consumed him, and he fought to contain it. What the hell was going on with him? This was a short-term arrangement. Nothing more. A sexy woman who was just as sexually driven as him, who wanted no commitments. It was absolutely the perfect relationship for him. He attributed his feelings to going so long without sex, probably part of the reason he’d been able to have so many repeat performances since they’d come to his condo last night.

  But because this was so perfect, he wanted it for as long as he could have it. Which meant he had to convince her to stay.

  “Do I snore?” he teased. “I can wait until you go to sleep if you want.”

  She laughed again and glanced back up at him. “And how will you know I’m asleep?”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “I’ll watch you like that sparkly vampire in that movie.”

  “FYI, everything about that sentence is wrong.” She pulled free and headed back to his bedroom.

  Had she decided to stay? He followed her, and saw her picking up her purse.

  She was still leaving. The thought of her walking out the door left a vacuum in his chest he didn’t understand. He only knew that some deep part of him needed her to stay.

  She tossed her purse on the bed and searched the contents, sighing in relief when she jiggled her keys. “That would have been a disaster, getting locked out of my apartment at three a.m.”

  “I would never let that happen,” he murmured as he pulled her against him again. “And I would never let you take an Uber. Especially this late.” Her stomach grumbled, and then he had a new plan. “Why, Lanie Rogers. Is the way to your heart through your stomach?”

  A sultry look filled her eyes. “I guess it depends on what you’re feeding me.”

  A wave of lust washed over him as he remembered watching her take him into his mouth. He fought to keep his breathing normal. “We’re both awake, so let me feed you some food before I take you home. And yes, I’ll take you home. No goddamned Uber.”

  She hesitated for the longest three seconds of his life. “Okay.”

  * * *

  This was an epic mistake, and she knew it deep in her gut, yet she found herself powerless to refuse him. Because leaving was the last thing she wanted to do. Which meant she really needed to go.

  But the desire in his eyes as he watched her was magnetic, and the way he possessed her body was addictive. She could see that already. This wasn’t smart. She needed to end this now, but she couldn’t. She’d never had this intense, overpowering need for a man before, and it scared her that she’d never find it again. All the more reason to end it before she got too used to it.

  All the more reason to keep it as long as you can, another part of her countered.

  This was going to hurt like hell when she left.

  She was surprised at the thought. She’d never had a problem walking away from a man before. Usually, she couldn’t leave them quick enough. Maybe she’d be tired of him before the wedding.

  But when she thought of his body over hers, filling her so completely…

  She shivered as electricity ran over her skin.

  “You’re cold.” He walked over to his closet and returned with a pale blue dress shirt, holding it open for her to put on.

  She couldn’t hide her amusement as she slipped her arms into the armholes. “Most guys would offer a girl their T-shirt.” She started to button it, but he brushed her hands away and rested his own on her hips.

  “Then most guys are idiots.” He stared down at her body, and she flushed from his appraisal. “You’re gorgeous, and I couldn’t see the view if you wore a T-shirt.” His hands gently swept up her sides, then over her stomach before returning to her hips. “And I most definitely want to see the view. I barely had seconds to see you in your bra and panties last night. Don’t deprive me of it now.”

  He looked at her with unadulterated desire, and she felt her knees weaken. How could she already want him so much?

  “Now, let me feed you.”

  She expected him to throw her on his bed and take her again. The large, twitching bulge in his briefs proved he was ready. But he stepped back and grabbed a shirt out of his dresser drawer, then tugged it over his head.

  She nearly complained that it wasn’t fair that she was on display for him while he was hidden from her. But when she saw the way the soft gray fabric clung to the hard muscles of his upper arms and chest, she changed her mind.

  A shiver ran down her back, and a now familiar heat pooled between her legs. Good Lord, how many times had they had sex last night? Four times? But she’d orgasmed many more. Tyler Norris was definitely a generous man. It was no wonder her stomach was grumbling. She’d burned countless calories in his bed.

  He gave her a gentle kiss, then headed down the hall. “What are you hungry for?” he asked.

  “Don’t make anything,” she said, padding into his living room. “Just get some crackers or something.”

  His condo had an open-concept floor plan. It looked like a loft, with its tall ceilings, but had a much more finished appearance. Dark granite counters topped dark wood cabinets along one wall of his kitchen, but his living room called to her. A deep leather sofa faced his stone fireplace, with a large TV over the mantel. It was surrounded by dark wood bookcases filled with books. She fingered the spine of a paperback murder mystery. “So you weren’t kidding when you said you’d been known to read a book or two.”

  He grinned as he opened the fridge. “Nope.” He set a carton of eggs on the counter.

  “Tyler, I’m serious. Crackers or something easy would be fine.”

  “I don’t have any crackers and I’m hungry too. That pizza was hours ago.”

  She moved toward the drapes that covered the wall opposite the kitchen.

  He took several steps into the living room and picked up a remote from an end table. “Check out the view.” He pushed a button, and the drapes parted, revealing a wall of windows that overlooked the Plaza.

  She gasped. “I bet this is gorgeous at Christmas—when the Plaza’s lit up with lights.”

  “I had a lighting party last year on Thanksgiving. We watched the Christmas lights turn on from my living room.”

  “That sounds amazing.” She wanted to see it for herself, but she’d be gone by then. She paused at the spike of regret, then pushed it aside. “Your condo is beautiful…and not what I expected.”

  “What did you expect?” he asked.

  “You know, lots of steel and chrome and modern.”

  “I could never relax in that kind of environment. Give me my leather sofa to sink into and watch a game or a movie.”

  She heard him cracking eggs, and she walked over to the island and sat on a bar stool. “I’m envious of your place.”

  “Your apartment is nice.”

  “But it’s not mine,” she said. “It’s a rental and came fully furnished.”

  He turned around to face her. “Furnished? You don’t have any furniture?”

  “It’s easier that way. And corporate gives me a mont
hly stipend. I usually send my assistant, Stephanie, to the city we’re moving to about a month ahead to pick out a place for each of us.”

  “That sounds so…impersonal.”

  She shrugged. “It is what it is. But that’s about to change.”

  “Because you’re moving in a month?”

  She opened her mouth, about to come clean, but then firmly closed it when she remembered her chat with Randy. He’d been adamant that Tyler not know she’d talked to him about her contract, and it was probably better he not know at all. “I’m not sure what I’ll be doing in a month. I’m turning in my notice tomorrow.”

  He turned around to face her, and she realized how it probably sounded.

  “Don’t worry. It has nothing to do with you. You don’t have to add me to your list of crazy exes. This has been brewing for a month or two and came to a head this week.”

  “Will you get a job here in Kansas City?” he asked, sounding guarded.

  “No. You don’t have to worry about your no-strings fling turning into a cling-on woman. The chances of me finding something here aren’t that great.” She paused, wondering how much to tell him, but not wanting to share too much. Short-term relationships came with an unofficial set of rules, and while rule number one was don’t be clingy, rule number two was don’t overshare. Nothing screamed “desperate for a real relationship” more loudly than someone spilling all their secrets, quickly followed by their hopes and dreams. “That’s part of the reason Aiden came to see me,” she said. “To convince me to move to Atlanta and work with him.”

  Tyler kept his back to her and remained strangely silent. She quickly scanned what she’d said, worried that it fell into the TMI category, but it all seemed fairly innocuous. Slightly above cocktail party chat.

  He grabbed two plates out of his cabinet and set them on the counter. “Would you do time management work for Aiden?”

  Why did he sound so weird? She’d said something that had bugged him, but damned if she knew what it was.

  “No. I’d be a consultant, working with businesses that are either looking to expand or open their doors. Kind of like a small-business admin consulting.”

  “So you’d be moving to Atlanta after the wedding?” He kept his gaze down as he scraped scrambled eggs onto two plates and set them on the counter.

  “I told Aiden I’d think about it, but I’m still considering my options.”

  “Have you looked at other options?” His gaze held hers, but his eyes were guarded.

  She picked up the fork he’d set on the counter then set it down, even though the smell of the scrambled eggs was making her stomach rumble even more. But she’d already freaked him out. Maybe she should chalk this up to middle-of-the-night craziness, and hopefully pick this back up with him again tomorrow night after Britt and Randy’s barbecue or, if he needed more time, on Thursday when she met him at the next photo shoot. “Maybe I should just go home.”

  “What?” he asked in shock. “Why?”

  “Obviously, I’ve said or done something wrong. You started acting weird when I told you about quitting my job and looking for another one. I know you don’t want to share personal information, but that seemed benign enough.”

  He held up his hands. “Whoa, whoa. Back up. When did I say I didn’t want to share personal information?”

  “In the car, you didn’t want to talk about your brothers.”

  The corners of his mouth twitched. “In my defense, no man wants to talk about his brothers when the gorgeous woman next to him is giving him a hand job over his pants.”

  She grinned and nodded, feeling slightly better. “Fair enough.”

  “What other evidence do you have to present?” he asked, with a twinkle in his eyes.

  “Oh,” she cooed. “You’re sexy when you talk all lawyerly.”

  “I’ve got plenty more legal talk where that came from,” he teased, then turned more serious. “But I still want to know why you think something’s wrong.”

  “You got weird when I talked about quitting my job. This isn’t some pathetic attempt to trap you,” she said. “I swear to you that this is all coincidental. The week after the wedding, you don’t have to worry about me showing up on your doorstep telling you I have no place to live and no job to support myself. Then the next thing you know, I’m mooching all your food and Internet and giving you lazy sex.” She chuckled when she saw his stunned face. “Sorry. That was me back when I was twenty-six and stupid. I mean, I didn’t do it. It happened to me.” She lifted a shoulder into a half-shrug. “He sucked up all my Internet for his video games.”

  He started to say something, then stopped. She was surprised at the seriousness in his eyes. “Lanie, I know we haven’t set any rules here. We just started this. But here’s the thing—I’ve really liked being with you the last few days.”

  “You mean the amazing sex.”

  A wicked gleam filled his eyes. “I won’t deny that sex with you is mind-blowing and probably the best I’ve ever had, but it’s more than that.” He paused. “Look, I know you’re leaving after the wedding, and I think you’ve figured out that I’m not a long-term kind of guy. So this is perfect for both of us. So—if you’re willing—I’d like to spend more time with you before you go. And I don’t want you to worry about oversharing. I just want you to be yourself and tell me as much or as little as you want.” He leaned closer and placed a gentle kiss on her mouth. “Because I want to hear everything you’re willing to tell me.”

  Alarm bells went off in her head. Her brain wasn’t totally on board with that suggestion, but it wasn’t volunteering a reason why. But her heart was all in, and that was the part she chose to listen to. There was no denying he turned her on like no man ever had, and that she loved his sense of humor. And she just liked him. He wasn’t anything like she’d expected. “Does that mean you’ll share with me too?”

  “I’m an open book,” he said, picking up her fork and handing it to her. “The eggs are getting cold.”

  She took a bite and watched him, wondering how open he would really be. “Not only can we still not tell Britt, but we have to be much more careful. We were careless today. If Britt even sniffs a hint that we’re seeing each other, on top of me looking for another job, she’ll blow this thing between us out of proportion in an attempt to keep me here.”

  “And you won’t consider staying here?”

  “Would it make you feel better if I promised not to look?” Then she grinned.

  He didn’t laugh. “Lanie, I want you to do what’s best for you. If that’s here…” His voice trailed off and she wasn’t totally convinced.

  “The eggs are really good,” she said after another bite.

  He had to know she was attempting to change the subject, but went along with it anyway. “You must really be hungry, because they’re just scrambled eggs,” he teased as he turned her stool just enough to face him. He parted the opening of her shirt to expose her black bra and panties. “Ah…that’s better. And my offer still stands to help you go to sleep.”

  “That’s one of the perks of this arrangement,” she teased. “I plan on taking advantage of it while I can.”

  * * *

  Lanie woke up the next morning, warm and cocooned with Tyler’s bare chest pressed against her back and his arm draped over her stomach. She stirred, and he snuggled her closer.

  “No. Don’t go,” he mumbled.

  “Okay.”

  He rolled her on her back to face him, and he smiled down at her. “Good morning.”

  She smiled back, surprised by this feeling of happiness. Usually she couldn’t wait to leave a man’s bed and get back to her own space, but she actually wanted to be here. “Good morning to you too.”

  He smoothed the hair from her face, his fingertips brushing her cheek. “How soon do you need to get home? Any pressing plans?”

  Her smiled dimmed. “It might be Labor Day, but I need to get some paperwork done before heading to Britt and Randy’s barbecue.”<
br />
  He searched her eyes. “And write your letter of resignation?”

  “Yeah.” Admitting it hurt more than she expected. “Are you going to the barbecue?”

  His gaze softened, and he stroked her cheekbone with his thumb. “Yeah.” Something shifted in his eyes. “You have to work on Labor Day? No wonder you’re considering looking for a new job.”

  “What about you?” she asked. “Happy with your job?”

  “Yeah.” He shifted his weight and rested his hand on her bare shoulder. “I like what I do and, for the most part, I like the people I work with.” He paused. “I specialize in contract law, usually corporate stuff. I work with Randy. I don’t know if you knew that.”

  She was definitely on shaky ground, but she was genuinely curious about him. “Actually, he just told me last night.”

  His brows rose. “When?”

  Oh, crap. “After the shoot. When we were talking about Britt’s present. He mentioned it then.”

  “Where I work came up in a conversation about Brittany’s wedding gift?”

  She tried not to show any reaction. “Yeah, something about the shower, I think. I’ve forgotten.”

  The tension around his eyes softened. “So he didn’t put it together that we’ve…”

  She raised her eyebrows and laughed. “Become friends?”

  He leaned over and kissed her shoulder. “Very good friends.”

  She expected him to continue seducing her, but he leaned back up and stared into her face again. “So tell me about the places you’ve worked.”

  “You mean the cities?”

  “That too.”

  Her heart sank, but she stuck to her cover story. “Actually, it’s mostly confidential.”

  He looked shocked. “Time management consultation?”

  She had a stock answer for that too. “Proprietary formulas, you know.”

  A grin lit up his eyes. “Actually I don’t know, which sounds like a good thing. I’d hate to discover your secrets and force you to kill me.”

  His easygoing nature made her relax. How many guys had she told her cover story? And what percentage had gotten pissed she wouldn’t divulge more?