Taming the Tycoon

by Amy Andrews

  And then agreeing to more.

  She liked to think she’d made a slick business negotiation. Taken it to Nate on terms he understood. Traded him something he wanted, for something she wanted. Kept her end game in sight.

  Kept her foot in the door.

  And she had.

  But in truth, her hormones had done the talking.

  Penny sighed. “I knew going away with him would be a bad idea. That man is just too damned handsome for his own good.”

  Addie thought “handsome” was too genteel a word for Nathaniel’s blistering sexuality, but she wasn’t going to quibble over adjectives. “Are you mad at me?”

  “No. I’m just worried that he may be using you to undermine the St. Aggie protest.”

  Addie was pretty sure the rose garden was the furthest thing from Nathaniel’s mind when she’d been riding him like New York’s naked cowgirl.

  “And…” Penny hesitated. “I don’t exactly think he’s relationship material.”

  Addie smiled at her friend. Although she was only two years older, Penny had mothered her since they’d met and even more so since they’d both been devastated by the loss of Alice. And to a degree, Addie had let her. Survivor guilt, she supposed.

  “I’m not after a relationship with him, Pen. He’s the last man I’d want to be with—all work, work, work. No thanks.” She shuddered. That was a life she gave up and had no intention of going back to. “I’m just trying to get him to loosen up a bit, then I’m out of there. And don’t worry—I won’t let him undermine the protest. If anything, I have the perfect opportunity to work away at him from the inside.”

  “You’ll do that?”

  “I’m going to try,” Addie said. “I just have to tread carefully.”

  “Yes,” Penny said, squeezing Addie’s hand. “Be careful. I don’t trust him.”

  Addie wished she could say the same, but she couldn’t. It was herself and the strange stirring in her gut whenever she thought of Nate she didn’t trust. “What’s the latest? Where are we up to with the protest?”

  “Dave’s decided a religious vision might put a spanner in the works. Create a little more publicity and a hell of a lot of heat.”

  Addie laughed. Dave was a gray-bearded biker, built like a lorry, and had raised a ton of money for kids’ cancer charities after his granddaughter had succumbed to a brain tumor at St. Aggie’s almost a decade ago.

  Despite his appearance, he was a real pussycat, but it was safe to say he did not have a good relationship with God.

  “That ought to be interesting,” she mused.

  Penny grinned. “Oh, it’s going to be fabulous.”

  …

  Addie arrived promptly at Nathaniel’s office at one. “Afternoon, Margaret,” she said. “Can you let Nate know I’m here?”

  Margaret’s eyes blinked owl-like at Addie through her wire-rimmed glasses. “Oh…he’s expecting you?”

  Addie shook her head. “I doubt it.”

  She had to give Margaret her due. Apart from the slightest twitch of her lips, she didn’t bat an eyelid as she pushed an intercom button and announced Addie.

  “I’m in the middle of something,” the terse squawk replied. “Tell her I’ll call her.”

  The PA gave her a look that seemed to say Ball’s in your court. Addie smiled at her. “Margaret, I’m about to barge in now. You’re not going to try and stop me, are you?”

  The other woman shook her head. “Absolutely not.”

  “Thank you.”

  Addie made her way around Margaret’s desk and was at Nathaniel’s closed office door in three strides. He looked up when she pushed it open. His gaze snagged hers and Addie’s pulse tripped.

  Nathaniel pushed his intercom, his eyes never leaving hers. “Margaret, you’re fired.”

  Addie heard Margaret’s “Yes, sir,” as the door swung shut.

  Neither of them said anything for a moment or two. Then Nathaniel said, “I can’t believe you’re wearing that dress. That’s just playing dirty.”

  Addie, anticipating his resistance, had deliberately chosen the same dress from his grandmother’s party. She figured a visual reminder of what was beneath might tip the balance. Playing dirty, maybe? She preferred to think of it as playing smart.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.

  He stood, his hands on his hips, as Addie walked toward him and she was reminded how he’d stolen her breath that day of the protest looking so bloody magnificent in his suit.

  As he did today.

  “Look,” he said. “Do you think we could do this tomorrow?”

  She shook her head as she pushed him back into his chair with a hard poke of her index finger. “Not if you want to do this tonight,” she murmured, climbing onto his lap, straddling him as she’d done in the limo, and plundering his very cooperative mouth for long, dizzying seconds.

  She pulled herself away as his hand snaked under her dress up her thigh. Much more of this and she’d be throwing her plans out the window in favor of doing him at his desk.

  Which would be playing right into his hands.

  “We agreed,” she said, standing on wobbly legs and taking two steps back, crossing her arms.

  She could see his hands tighten on the arms of his chairs as a battle raged in his head. One that she could tell he was trying to fight logically, but was being hijacked by the bulge beneath his fly.

  “Fine,” he said shrugging into his jacket as he stood. “Let’s go.”

  “Just a minute,” she said, opening her bag and bringing out a partially opened bud she’d taken from Penny’s flowers. She snapped off the stem as she advanced toward him.

  “Let me guess. That’s not from the ones I sent you?”

  “Nope.” Addie placed it in his breast pocket and ran the flat of her palm over a well-formed pec below. “Freshly picked from St. Aggie’s this morning.”

  She smiled at him as she turned on her heel and led the way.

  The look on Margaret’s face as Nathaniel told her he was going out was priceless. Addie looked back at the dumbfounded PA over her shoulder and winked. For once, Margaret’s Mona Lisa smile stretched to a broad grin.

  …

  By the time they emerged into the streaming sunlight from the Westminster Tube station fifteen minutes later, Nathaniel was already twitchy. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the work he knew was waiting for him, the rose in his pocket, or Addie in that damn dress. Either way, he was not in the mood for her raving about the pure genius of the Underground or the beauty of the Houses of Parliament.

  “Let me guess,” he said as he looked across the river at the glass capsules of the London Eye. “That’s where we’re heading.”

  Addie nodded as she tugged on his hand. “You’ll love it.”

  He doubted it. It was just a fancy Ferris wheel, after all. He resisted her pull. “Don’t you have to queue for hours to get into that thing?”

  She shook her head. “I booked us a private capsule.”

  And ten minutes later, he was standing in a glass bubble, a sumptuous feast laid out on the central bench that was covered in a thick white tablecloth.

  “You sit on this side. It’ll give you the better view,” Addie said. “I’ve been up heaps so I’ll sit with my back to it.”

  Nathaniel was speechless as the capsule slowly moved off the platform, his work forgotten. He frowned. “This must have cost you a fortune, Addie. You shouldn’t throw your money away like this.”

  Addie laughed. “This isn’t throwing it away. It’s enjoying it.” She shrugged. “What’s the point of having it if you don’t enjoy it?”

  Nathaniel shook his head. He’d never met anyone like her before. People in his circle cared about their money—a lot. Her attitude made him uneasy.

  “C’mon,” she urged. “Sit and eat. We’ve only got thirty minutes.”

  He sat. The food smelled wonderful and his coffee and muffin seemed a long time ago. He piled some lasa
gna on his plate, helped himself to the feta salad, and another dish that appeared to be a curry.

  They ate in silence for a while as he took in the view. His gaze was constantly drawn to the Houses of Parliament. He had to admit the honey-colored gothic exterior did indeed look grand and important.

  “Who did the meal?” he asked as he finished off his curry and reached for some more. It was truly excellent, melting in his mouth with just the right balance of heat and spice.

  Just like Addie.

  “The Grasserie,” Addie said.

  Nathaniel frowned at the familiar name. “The vegetarian place?” It was one of London’s top five-star restaurants.

  Addie smiled. “You’re eating Thai red curry with tofu.”

  Nathaniel nearly choked as he swallowed his mouthful. “I don’t eat tofu.”

  Addie laughed. “You do now.”

  He looked at his meal suspiciously. “This is tofu? Where are the rubbery white lumps?”

  Addie sighed. “Nowhere if you cook it properly.”

  Nathaniel had to admit it tasted damn good as the slow burn of the curry intensified. “Whoa, it’s got a bite.”

  “There’s water in the ice bucket,” Addie said around a mouthful of food. “Beer also.”

  “I don’t drink during the day. And especially not by myself.”

  He watched as Addie licked some sauce from her lips and the heat in his mouth traveled south.

  He felt her gaze on his mouth as she looked at him. “I’ll have one if you do,” she said, reaching into the bucket and passing him a bottle.

  He raised an eyebrow. “Are you trying to get me drunk, Addie?”

  She grinned. “I prefer the term ‘loose.’”

  He smiled as he took it and twisted the lid, handing it back to her before opening the second one. He tapped his bottleneck against hers. “I prefer loose, too.”

  Nathaniel watched as Addie took a swig, her gray eyes never leaving his face. He had an insane urge to sweep the banquet off the bench and drink his beer off her naked body.

  He stood abruptly. Time for some distance.

  He wandered to the railing, beer in hand. The capsule was right at the top now and the view up and down the river really was spectacular. He felt that calmness he’d experienced lying in bed at Hill Top all over again.

  “It’s an amazing view, isn’t it?” Addie murmured as her arm brushed his. “You don’t realize how big it all is, do you? How small a cog you really are in the giant wheel of life. I like how it puts things in perspective. It’s pretty grounding, considering we’re over a hundred meters in the air.”

  Nathaniel nodded. The world looked a lot slower up here, too, and for a crazy second, he wanted to just stay here looking down at everything, seeing it through Addie’s eyes. Then she took a gulp of her beer, her head tipping back slightly, and a surge of lust slammed into him, evaporating the strange nostalgia.

  Thank God.

  Lust he knew what to do with, nostalgia not so much.

  He moved behind her, trapping her body between the railing and him. He nuzzled behind her ear and was gratified to feel her arm snake up around his neck as she pushed back into him.

  He groaned at the pressure against his groin. “God, you smell incredible,” he whispered, his eyes closing as the sweet fresh scent of her and roses intoxicated him. His hand left the railing and traveled up from her belly to her breasts and he could feel the tight points of her nipples rub his palm.

  She moaned softly and shifted against him. His hand with the beer held her hips steady as he licked down her neck, and bit gently into the angle where her shoulder began. She gasped and her hand tightened around his neck.

  “I want to be inside you,” he groaned into her ear.

  Addie gave a husky laugh. “Sure, if you want to be on YouTube tonight.”

  Nathaniel opened his eyes to find a bunch of uniformed school kids who looked no older than ten in the capsule down from them pointing their cameras and camcorders in their direction. He dropped his hand and moved back from her, his heart pounding.

  He took a deep pull of his beer.

  What in the hell was wrong with him? They were in a freaking glass bubble for all the world to see. Hell, he’d been just about to hike her dress up and take her from behind. In front of a group of schoolchildren!

  Anger and confusion at his lack of control simmered in his veins as she turned to look at him. He didn’t like that he seemed to lose his mind around her. That he felt calm when he should be pumped for his afternoon meeting.

  He didn’t like to need anyone as much as he seemed to need her.

  “I want to see you tonight,” he said, tight-lipped. He hated how it came out, all Cro-Magnon man, but God help him, her cheeks were flushed and her nipples were still erect and with the sun shining in through the glass behind her, he could practically see straight through her sexy white dress.

  Addie nodded. “Sure.”

  Her easy acquiescence made him feel even lousier. “It’ll be late,” he warned. “I have some catching up to do and an overseas conference call that will probably go for a couple of hours.”

  She moved then, and he tensed, knowing if she came anywhere near him right now, he’d clear that table and be damned who was watching. She moved to her bag instead and he breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Come anytime,” she said, producing a key after delving around for a bit. She held it out to him. “Mi casa es su casa.”

  Nathaniel took another shot of his beer before taking the key from her fingers, being careful not to touch her at all.

  …

  Addie waited up until ten o’clock, then went to bed, telling herself she wasn’t disappointed he hadn’t shown. She thought he’d had a good time at lunch even if he did rush off the second his foot stepped out of the capsule, quickly hailing a cab, but again, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

  She wasn’t sure exactly what she was doing with him. She was just winging it. She sure as hell hadn’t planned to give a bunch of schoolchildren an early sex education lesson. But as she lay in bed staring at the ceiling, cocooned in her boat, she realized that she was giving him moments—memories—to connect him with his city. So that when her job was done, he’d look at the places they’d been differently. Not just as another anonymous landmark in this big tourist playground but a trigger for a memory.

  And if that meant a sexy memory, a moment where they forgot the world around them and went a little crazy or drinking a beer to help loosen him up a bit, then so be it.

  She didn’t know how long she’d been asleep when an arm snaked around her waist and Nathaniel’s warm, spicy male aroma wrapped around her. He pulled her into his big, hard, naked body.

  “Hmm,” she murmured squirming against his heat and hardness. “I didn’t think you were going to show.”

  His lips were near her ear and his, “Wild horses couldn’t have kept me away,” caused everything to tighten inside her. The flat of his palm running from her belly to her breasts even more so.

  She half turned to the urgent demand of his hands and the seeking of his mouth.

  “What’s the time?” she murmured against his mouth.

  “Time to come,” he said, and then she couldn’t talk any more as his lips plundered her mouth and then moved lower as his hands trailed downward, stroking her belly and her thighs. Heat and moisture pooled at her center as a delicious pressure built and built until she was clinging to him and begging him for release.

  …

  Nathaniel admired the view of Addie in a T-shirt and her underwear the next morning as she stood at the kitchen bench, beating some organic eggs. He felt overdressed by comparison in his trousers and shirt from last night, his jacket slung over his arm.

  He sauntered over to her, smoothing his hands around her waist and kissing her neck. She turned in his arms, stood on tippy toe, and placed her lips on his, all in one movement. She moaned her appreciation against his mouth as she pulled away.

  “Hm
m,” she said, one set of fingers playing with his open collar, the other rubbing along his stubbly jawline. “I like this whole casual look you’ve got going on. I especially like it when you don’t shave.”

  Nathaniel gave her a quick, hard kiss, only pulling back when he felt his body stirring. He had to get to work.

  He also needed a shave.

  “Please tell me coffee isn’t one of the things you gave up.”

  “I’m afraid so,” Addie said, turning back to her job. “But I still keep some instant for visitors. Jug is boiled, coffee in the pantry, milk in the fridge.” She pulled open the cupboard near her head and handed him a mug. “You want an omelet?”

  “Only if you have bacon,” he said with a grin as he located the coffee jar.

  Addie groaned. “Please don’t talk about bacon. It’s been three years but I still miss it. A tofu omelet just isn’t the same.”

  Nathaniel pulled a face. “Not by a long shot.”

  “Hey,” Addie protested as she chopped up some chives. “You liked it in the curry yesterday.”

  “Sure,” he said as he opened the fridge. “But I still prefer bacon.”

  He reached for the milk and shut the door. His gaze fell on the items she had clipped with magnetic flowers to the outside. A couple of receipts, a Thames tide table, some magnetic poetry words, and a photo.

  He pulled it off to look more closely. A very pale, very skinny, bald woman stared back at him with dark smudges under her big gray eyes. She had a tube in her nose, her lips were dry and cracked, her shirt had slipped off her bony shoulder, and he could see she had some kind of drip line running in under the skin just below her coat-hanger collarbone.

  She wasn’t smiling. She was just looking at the camera as if even breathing took a monumental effort.

  His gut felt like someone had shoved a red, hot poker right into the middle of it. “This is you?”

  Addie looked up from her chopping. She went very still as she nodded. “It was the day after I came out of intensive care.”

  Nathaniel felt ill just looking at it. The woman in the picture was Addie. Not the vibrant, infuriating pain in the butt who stood before him right now, but a ravaged ghost.