Evan felt a sense of rising anticipation as he rode the elevator up to his Manhattan penthouse. He had received confirmation from Anna during the benefit that she was doing as he asked, and that only made waiting to return home to her even more difficult.
He wasn’t sure when he had enjoyed spending time with a woman more. He remembered the plain little outfit she had worn that morning, and even in that, he had been eager to touch her, to kiss her. Seeing the bold red lipstick on her soft, lush lips had driven him nearly wild. The idea of her being dressed even more provocatively awakened an even deeper hunger within him.
He opened the door and found the penthouse lit with a soft light for evening. He didn’t see her at first, entering the living room and closing the door behind him.
“Anna?”
“Oh, you’re back!”
She appeared in the doorway, and Evan felt his breath catch.
“Too much?” she asked nervously, and he shook his head.
“No...I would say that that’s just enough.”
He had received plenty of compliments on his own suit that afternoon, but he knew that if he had had Anna by his side, no one would have noticed him at all.
Anna was dressed in a long, dark blue dress adorned with a delicate shimmer of crystal beads. A slit that traveled up to her knee revealed a tantalizing hint of leg. Her hair was pulled back from her delicate face, and she peeked up at him through her thick and surprisingly dark eyelashes.
“Too much?” she asked again anxiously, and he shook his head.
“Never. You should have bought yourself jewelry.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but Evan shrugged. “Next time. Come on, let me take you out.”
***
The fun of being out with Anna, Evan decided several hours later, was that she made everything seem new. She might have dressed the wealthy, but she certainly hadn’t lived in their world. There was a real delight in taking her to one of the most exclusive restaurants in Manhattan, where the waiters knew him by name and where she was treated like a princess.
Part of his enjoyment was that she seemed so genuinely surprised whenever he offered her a new treat, some new pleasure she had never imagined before, whether it was caviar or a small ice cream sundae dusted with gold.
After dinner, they ended up at a club owned by one of Evan’s friends. The dance floor was uncomfortably crowded, so even though Evan had been entertaining fantasies of taking her in his arms for a slow dance, they settled into a booth with cocktails in front of them.
“So, how are you liking the high life so far?” he asked, reaching across the table to capture her hand.
Anna laughed in disbelief, looking around her. Her fingers automatically wrapped around his, and he liked that a whole lot. “Honestly? I’m wondering how you people manage to get up for work in the morning. You’ve already worked all day, and been to a benefit, and gone out on the town with me. I already feel like I could tumble into bed, and yet, I’m sure most of these people here are going to be going until dawn.”
Evan smiled. “Well, most of them don’t have to work in the morning.”
“But you do, don’t you?”
“I’m afraid I do.”
“Why?”
The question made Evan look at Anna curiously. “Because I’m rich and I like to stay that way.”
“So, when do you enjoy yourself?” Anna wondered, and Evan grinned.
“Believe me, I find the time. I’m enjoying myself right now.”
He was going to lean across for a kiss, damn whoever might be watching when he saw a familiar face in the crowd. Jones spotted him at the same time and came over to the booth, a grin on his face.
“Out enjoying the town a little, old man?”
“Doing better than you are, Jones,” said Evan unoffended. “I take it you cleared things up with MacArthur?”
“Yeah, I did,” Jones said. “Hey, chickee. Take a walk, yeah? I want to have some words with the man.”
Evan scowled, and his previously good mood evaporated as Anna blushed and started to her feet. “Um, right. I’ll just...take myself off for a bit, yes?”
“No, you’re going to stay right where you are,” Evan growled, squeezing her hand hard before letting it go. He was glad that his words seemed to cut through her embarrassment enough to keep her in her seat.
Jones looked at Anna in irritation. “You can go find another one in a bit, Evan. I just need you for a moment.”
“No, you listen to me,” Evan said with a cold anger that surprised even him. “You do not come up to me and speak to a woman like that. If you do it again, I swear to God, I will kick you to the curb. There is absolutely no excuse for that kind of rudeness.”
Jones stared at him, his jaw dropping. “You can’t mean it.”
“I’m dead serious. Straighten out or find a new job, Jones, and I’ll go to that fiber exhibit opening that Anna wants to go to without a single thought for you at all.”
Jones gave them both a level venomous look, but then he shrugged, as if it was no matter to him at all. “All right then. Don’t mind me. I guess I’ve had a few too many, right? I’ll catch up with you in the office.”
“Yeah, go sleep it off,” Evan growled, only partially appeased as Jones slouched away. Then he turned back to Anna. “I’m sorry about that. He’s my business partner, not my friend. I don’t know much about he interacts with women outside the office…” It felt like a lame excuse even to him.
Anna shook her head, but he could tell that there was something troubling her.
“A lot of men are like that,” she said, looking down. “Especially when you get to the circles that you run in. They...they really do see a lot of women as accessories, disposable toys they can throw away because there will always be another one.”
“I’m not like that,” Evan said firmly, and she smiled at him. He could still see the edges of fear around her expression, and he felt another surge of irritation at his business partner.
“I know you’re not,” Anna said softly, and she leaned across to plant a gentle kiss on his cheek. For some reason, that simple and sweet gesture touched him in a way that their kisses from before simply hadn’t.
“Thank you for standing up for me.”
“Don’t thank me for being a decent human being,” Evan said. “But I will say that my taste for being out and about has gone. Will you come back home with me?”
She leaned back for a moment, looking at him, and Evan wondered what it was she saw in the dim light of the club. Whatever it was, though, she smiled, and nodded.
“Yes. I want to go home with you.
CHAPTER SIX
Anna
Anna knew exactly what was going to happen as they rode the elevator up to the penthouse, the tension between them growing thicker by the minute. And she wanted it. She’d wanted it since the moment Evan walked into Monteray’s. She wanted it more than ever now, after spending an incredible evening in his company, culminating with him dispatching his boorish partner. Evan was the complete package—brains, manners, kindness, and looks. God. His looks.
“When I get you in those doors, you are going to be mine,” Evan murmured, leaning in and cutting into Anna’s thoughts. “You can say no, you can leave if you want, but otherwise...you are going to belong to me.”
“Evan...” she whispered, unable to tear her eyes from his gaze.
“As I said. you can leave if you want. Otherwise though, I am going to take you. I’m going to make you feel everything I’ve been thinking about all damn day. All damn month. You should know what it means if you stay with me tonight, Anna.”
There was no part of her that wanted to run at all. Instead, all that mattered was getting closer to him—exploring the hunger that he had woken in her.
“I am not going anywhere,” she said, and the look he gave her was pure victory.
When he locked the door behind them, there was something final about it. There was no going back, and if Anna
were honest with herself, she didn’t even want to. What she wanted was Evan, and when he swept her up in his arms, she whimpered because all she wanted was more.
“God, you looked so damn beautiful tonight,” he growled, sweeping her up in his arms and carrying her through his huge apartment to the bedroom before Anna even had a chance to look around. “Do you know what I want to do to you?”
“No.” She twined her arms around his neck and smiled. “But maybe you’ll show me?”
He grinned at her response and dropped her on the bed. She felt like a mess, her hair falling down, her skirts rucked up to her thighs, but it was glorious as well.
“Sometime I’m going to rip your clothes off of you, but I have a feeling if I do that tonight, you’re going to be upset.”
He laughed at her shocked sound of distress. As much as Anna wanted Evan, to ruin such an incredible garment would be painful, and she nodded.
“All right, then, Anna. Have it your way. Get up on your hands and knees, facing the head of the bed.”
The tone of command in his voice was beyond sexy; with somebody else—anybody else—it would have been off-putting. She did so, and she immediately realized how vulnerable this position left her. She could hear him moving around behind her, but she couldn’t see what he was doing unless she looked over her shoulder. She didn’t want to. She wanted to be vulnerable to Evan—to be open to him.
“So beautiful,” Evan marveled.
Anna shivered as she felt him slide his hand into the slit of her skirt, curling around her bare leg as he did so. She made a soft sound of need, and then she gasped when she felt him push her skirt up to her waist. The sudden touch of cold air against her sensitive skin made her whimper. She was completely exposed to him from the panties she wore down to the shining black heels that she had been afraid of toppling out of all night.
“My God, look at you,” Evan crooned, running his hand over her rear. “All that black lace and creamy white skin. Straight out of my wildest fantasies, Anna.”
She groaned at his words, but couldn’t help rocking back against his hand. His words awakened a hungry rush of desire in her she had never known she possessed, and when he slid his hand down between her legs, she parted her thighs for him.
Then his fingers were sliding along her covered slit, arousing her even as she squirmed.
His touch was so gentle at first that she didn’t expect him to seize the gusset of her flimsy panties, pulling the thin strip of fabric up against her sex.
“Evan!” she cried out at the pang of need that shot through her.
“I can feel you getting wet for me, darling...”
Oh God, she was. With just a twitch of his fingers, he tugged the fabric against her clit, making her rock against the fabric with a soft cry. Just as she was sinking into the pleasure he was giving her, he pulled his hand away and laughed softly at her desperate little mewl.
“Don’t worry, beautiful girl, I just need to get to more of you.”
He unzipped her slowly, kissing every inch of bared skin as he went. She could feel his erection through his trousers as he pressed against her, and when he finally tugged her dress free, she felt utterly stripped.
“Stand up.”
There was no question of her obeying. She stood up and realized that she was in the brand-new undergarments she had bought, bra and panties all in lacy black, as well as black heels. When her arms came up to cross over her chest, a word from Evan made her drop them again.
“God, that’s gorgeous,” he murmured, almost to himself. “You’re beautiful, but what makes this so amazing, my dear, is that you did it for me.”
Yes, yes, Anna wanted to say. She had done this for him, and she wondered if somewhere in the back of her mind, she had always known that she would stand in front of him in the sexy little garments the way she was doing right now.
“It’s beautiful, but I want more. Take it off.”
The utter command in his voice made her melt. Her hands trembled as she unfastened the bra and then eased the panties down over her hips to fall away to the floor. Stepping out of the high heels left her feeling small and oddly demure, and only when she was completely naked from the top of her head to the soles of her feet did she look at Evan again.
The moment her eyes met his, it was as if Evan had lost control. He swept her up for a passionate kiss that took her breath away, and then he pushed her back on the bed.
“God, I can’t resist you,” he murmured thickly, and she didn’t want him to even try any more.
His hand worked its way down between their two bodies even as his knee spread her thighs. He found her opening and reached down to slide two fingers into her. The fit was tight, but so, so good, and then he drew some of the wetness there back to her clit, anointing it and rubbing it in a hard circle.
Anna cried out at the sudden shock of pleasure, but she didn’t push him away. Instead, she clung to him, spreading her legs even farther apart. She could feel his suit getting rumpled beyond easy fixing, and somehow, she didn’t care. She was not the one in charge any longer. She wasn’t a dresser or a tailor. She was simply Evan’s, and that meant that she took the pleasure he gave her, willingly, ecstatically.
“I need you, I need you,” she murmured over and over again. He worked his fingers in her until she was taking three fingers easily, his hand wet with her desire. It was only then that he stood away from the bed to strip, leaving his clothes scattered on the floor.
Then he was back in the bed with her, kneeling between her legs before coming down over her. She willingly wrapped her arms around his shoulders, dragging him close. She couldn’t stand for him to be away from her. She wanted nothing between them at all. She relished how very different their bodies were, he was hard where she was soft, rough where she was smooth.
“Take me,” she whimpered, and the growl she felt more than heard told her he was going to do just that.
He plunged unto her with a single stroke, and she groaned. It was so full, so good. She needed to be that close to him; nothing else mattered.
He drew almost all the way back to her entrance before sliding deep inside her again. Then he began to thrust in earnest, and with every full slide into her body, Anna felt her pleasure get pushed higher and higher. She couldn’t believe how good it felt. She had no words for it, no words at all. She let it overcome her, invade her. She was moving and crying out without any will of her own. Nothing mattered except the tension that was building up in her, and that she could feel building up in Evan as well.
“My girl. My perfect, beautiful girl...”
Somehow, it was the words that pushed her over the edge. It was the fact that Evan was laying claim to her. One moment she was straining for her climax, and the next, she was spilling over the top—suns and stars exploding behind her eyes.
“Oh, oh Evan...!”
She clung to him as the pleasure rolled in waves over her, completely relentless and powerful. A moment later, he spilled into her, and she knew that she had never, ever felt anything as profoundly beautiful as what they had together.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Evan
Weeks later
“So, I’ll see you tonight?” Evan asked, toggling between his computer and the call with Anna.
“Well, that order on the charcoal suit I wanted for you hasn’t gone through. I really do need to spend some time tracking it down...”
He cut her off, not about to stand for the notion of not seeing her. “Well, if the suit’s for me, I’d say it’s not as important as spending the evening with you.”
“Really?” she teased, the soft lilt to her voice arousing him right there in his office, “Well, it’s not going to be my fault if you end up going around naked.”
He smirked. “Well, if I’m going around naked, then I’ll have to stick to the penthouse, and of course, you’d have to be there to keep me company...”
Anna laughed at him, and Evan realized all over again how delighted he was to he
ar Anna’s joy. Making her happy had quickly become his main reason for living. Hearing her laugh, seeing her smile, watching the mischief light up her eyes left him feeling complete, even though he’d never once before ever thought of his life as anything but full.
But for the last few weeks, when they were making love, when they were seeing the opera, when they were simply sitting and eating, the words I love you trembled on his tongue. The only thing that had stopped him from saying them was the fact that surely that was ridiculous. He was too old to fall in love; they were too different, and she was too young.
None of that had stopped that feeling from being true, however, and he knew that sooner or later, he would say it. It would simply be inevitable.
His thoughts were full of Anna, and he nearly called her again. It didn’t matter if it was the middle of the day. He wanted to see her. However, just as he was reaching for his phone, there was a brisk knock at his door.
Mary, his personal assistant and solid friend of ten years came in, and he frowned at the expression on her face.
“That doesn’t look good.”
“I’m afraid it’s not, boss. We lost the Islington account.”
“What?” Thoughts of Anna vanished from his mind. “How the hell did we lose it?”
“It was investors from Morocco,” Mary said grimly. “They outbid us.”
“Morocco?” Evan scoffed. “That’s impossible. They don’t have that kind of buying power.”
“They do if they go in with foreign investors.”
Evan’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not something they have ever done before.”
“Don’t give me your famous angry look, boss,” Mary warned. “This isn’t my fault. I know exactly what you mean though. They don’t really go in for that kind of deal. They don’t like sharing ownership, so someone must have made a very, very good case.”
She let the sentence dangle meaningfully, and Evan scowled. “Unless someone could tell them that we wouldn’t go any higher. Yes.”
“I’ve wondered if there was a leak for some time,” Mary admitted. “These last few years, for want of a better term, have been weird.”
The Virgin’s Dance_Older Man Younger Woman Romance Page 28
