by Cari Quinn
His smile might as well have been a blade, it was so sharp. “Doesn’t say much for you if you’re so hot to keep me in your bed, now does it?”
She ignored him. “Do you even know how to relax enough to enjoy sex, Spencer? Real sex? The emotional connection that comes when you know who the fuck it is you’re balling?”
“You know all about emotional connections then, I assume? Was it emotion driving you to rank your lovers according to some system? I’m curious. What symbol will I get?”
A shattered heart, she thought vengefully, turning away before she erupted. Well, worse than she already had. Sadly she could get much, much worse.
“We have to work together. I’m not getting in a pissing match with you.”
“You started this.” He grabbed her arm and spun her back to face him. For the briefest instant, his face was alive with heat and fury and passion. She’d never seen anyone so beautiful in all her life. “You’re not getting the PDA back. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Not until I’m done with you.”
She didn’t know whether to rejoice or slap him across the face. “When you’re done with me? Like an old tissue you can toss away? What if I say we’re done right now? Then what?”
“Say it.” She didn’t know if he was daring her or begging her, his eyes were so raw. “Say it, Kelly.”
She wanted to. God, she wanted to throw the words at him to see if that fleeting heat returned or left nothing but ashes. But she couldn’t. She didn’t know why or what made him different, but for the first time, she couldn’t just walk away.
Her chin trembled. She knew he saw it because his expression gentled. He loosened his hold, the pinch of his fingers erased by his pervasive warmth.
Spencer lifted his free hand to stroke her cheek, a brief touch that conveyed all that was unsaid. He didn’t want her to go. She could tell just from the way he was staring into her eyes.
Hard-ass Spencer didn’t really exist. At least not as much as he wanted her to believe. Why he preferred she think he was a bastard, she had no clue.
If this was a game, someone had forgotten to tell her the rules.
A long moment passed before she whispered, “Just take me home.”
Chapter Eight
Kelly didn’t come to Kink the next night. Spencer didn’t know why he’d expected her to or why he couldn’t even look at anyone else without seeing the innocent lust in her eyes when he’d asked her to suck his cock. The memory of her opening herself up to him in front of everyone had blazed itself into his mind. That wasn’t her. He’d known that from the get-go, but she’d trusted him enough to relax and see where it led.
He didn’t deserve her trust. He was a bastard. And tonight, he was alone.
“Looking for some action, stud?”
Nina. Again. “Since when do you hang out here every night?”
“Maybe I thought we’d rekindle some of the flames between us.”
At his silence, she let out a tinkling laugh. “Strike one.”
“Look, Nina—”
“Don’t worry about it. Lots of pricks in the ocean.” Grinning, she slipped her arm through his and picked up his drink, a gin and tonic. She took a sip and made a face. “No whiskey?”
“I have work to do.”
“And one’s never enough.”
Instead of the drink, he thought of Kelly. Once, twice, half a dozen times hadn’t begun to take the edge off his need for her. “No.”
“So where’s your pretty little brunette?”
“Little?” He swallowed a laugh. “She’s almost as tall as me.”
“Yes, but she’s hardly in our league, now is she?” Nina ran her fingertip around the edge of his glass. “She might as well be a virgin.”
“I wasn’t in your league once, if you’ll remember.”
“Oh I do.” Her rich, smoky laugh smoothed some of the hard edges inside him. When he was with her, being the Spencer he’d been before wasn’t like wearing a suit he’d outgrown. “But you were a quick study. That one’s got stars in her eyes, Spence. Mixed in with the stars are hearts.”
First Marcia had called Kelly starry-eyed. Now Nina. Was he that blind? “You misread her.”
Nina cocked one scarlet eyebrow. “You think? Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She pushed off the stool. “Good luck,” she murmured before disappearing into the scantily dressed crowd.
He didn’t leave right away. That would’ve looked pathetic. But then again, staying for another hour only to brush off anyone who even glanced his way didn’t exactly make him seem less desperate. By the time he left the club it was nearly eleven and going home seemed like the least appealing option he’d ever contemplated.
So he went to The Book Nook.
For years, the store had been everything to him. His wife, his most faithful lover, his family. For a man who’d never before found all-consuming passion in work, The Book Nook and what he’d found there had been a revelation.
But for the last couple of months, he’d been fighting itchy feet. Things were changing in the bookstore game. More stores were failing than succeeding. And his pushing for suggestions hadn’t been welcomed from the higher-ups. The owners, Diana’s parents, weren’t interested in fixing something they didn’t see as broken. To their eyes, this new digital craze would pass and they could go on as they always had. The Book Nook had a loyal customer base. Now they could coast.
As far as Spencer was concerned, they were fooling themselves. He only hoped there would still be time to right the ship once they realized their folly.
Kelly saw the handwriting on the wall. Even if he was resistant to admitting what that meant, he had to acknowledge her legwork. She was bright and forward-thinking, exactly the sort of ally a business needed during these challenging times. But a phone call this morning had proved the Sinclairs weren’t interested in her ideas.
And he was too interested in the rest of her.
They’d passed each other a couple times in the break room that afternoon but she hadn’t said so much as hello. She refrained from sending him any suggestive looks and she definitely didn’t bend over to show him her thong. If she’d ever been cooler to him, he didn’t remember it. They might as well not have been lovers at all.
What you wanted, remember? That’s why you kept her off-limits for so long. Because work comes first. Always.
It was probably for the best. Her teasing last night had rubbed his last nerve raw. As had her insults about his performance. One-minute man? That was low. She’d come every damn time. Not that he blamed her for being pissed at him and striking out.
In the light of day, he realized he’d been transferring—or whatever mumbo jumbo it was called—his own motives onto her playful comments. He’d finally accepted that she hadn’t been behind leaving her PDA on his desk. She wasn’t built to be deceitful and he was pretty damn sure she wasn’t sleeping with him to get ahead. He knew her better than that, his stupid knee-jerk reaction aside. But the snatches of himself he saw in her made him wonder if she’d guessed the truth behind her taunts. Maybe she really did figure he’d be the kind of boss to play fast and loose. Hell, he’d certainly been the sort of employee who used any available avenue to get what he wanted.
Once upon a time, he’d traded whatever commodity he had at hand. His mind, his body. That he’d gotten snared in his own trap had served him right. For a while, he hadn’t been sure he’d make it out of it with his wits intact. Maybe Kelly would be better off if she learned now she shouldn’t play when the cost of winning was too high.
And maybe this late-night philosophy of his sucked ass.
He parked in his usual spot along the side of the building, surprised to see a couple of lights on in the back of the store. Who would be there now? Usually most of the employees couldn’t get out of there fast enough after closing time, except for the stragglers.
He couldn’t say he blamed them. Most of them had social lives to tend to. Families, friends, spouses, kids…
Ever
ything he didn’t have. By his own choice mostly, but still. Normally he didn’t think about what wasn’t a part of his life, because he’d set things up just the way he wanted them. But tonight he could only see the gaping holes work would never fill.
He’d never been good at juggling girlfriends, not when his job took so much of his time. But Kelly got him. She knew how committed he was to the store and she felt the same. In that sense, they couldn’t have been more well-matched.
In every other, they were fucked.
Spencer got out of his car and walked through the insufferable wall of heat to the front door. Once again, the temperature had to be near eighty and the humidity was off the charts. He slipped his fingers into his collar and pulled the fabric away from his skin. An ice-cold shower would feel heavenly but it would have to wait. He had paperwork to get caught up on, after he figured out who the hell was camping out in his store.
Finding the door locked, he pulled out his key and entered to the sounds of blaring hip-hop music. At least he thought it was hip-hop. He never listened to anything other than classical or opera so he couldn’t be sure. He’d heard variations of music like this at the club though he never stayed downstairs long enough to get the point.
“Hello?” he called over the din. He waited a moment and tried again. Nothing.
He pocketed his keys and walked up the center aisle of the store, skirting the large glass tower of new releases and sidestepping the promotional end caps of bookmarks and trinkets. The scent of wildflowers mixed with lemon polish hit him just before he reached the romance section and saw Kelly sitting cross-legged on the floor. His breath caught but luckily she was too engrossed in the novel open on her lap to notice him.
Watching her suck down the book brought him infinite enjoyment. She looked so damn adorable in her cutoff white overalls with her hair twisted into two stubby tails, he didn’t trust himself to speak.
“What’re you reading?” he asked finally, bracing a hand on the shelf beside him. It helped support him when her gaze flew upward and he realized she was wearing glasses, little round frames that made her eyes look absolutely huge.
He hadn’t seen her wear glasses in years. Probably a good thing, because he’d just discovered he was hot for them. Or hot for the woman in them.
“Spencer.” She closed the novel and shoved it on a shelf. “I was just rearranging this section as you asked me to.”
He bent and retrieved the purple-spined book. “Taken?” He cocked an eyebrow and flipped to the first page. The writing was snappy and he’d read three paragraphs before he realized. A quick glance at the back cover copy told him it was about a woman on a sexual discovery with a man she’d never “tame”. He cleared his throat and reshelved the book. “How is it?”
“I only read a page or two.”
He didn’t comment on the scrap of paper she’d shoved in the book a quarter of the way through. Obviously she intended to buy it later. Rather than reply, he glanced around before returning his attention to her.
“Been cleaning?” He pulled a cobweb off one of her pigtails and prayed his voice didn’t betray his nerves. He wouldn’t apologize for last night but not because she didn’t deserve it.
She braced as if expecting a punch. And said nothing.
Nice job, Galvin.
“It smells like a lemon grove in here,” he said, trying again.
And like the damn flowery scent I can’t wash off my sheets…
With a shrug, she scrambled to her feet to put books to rights quicker than he would’ve thought possible. Obviously she wanted to get out of there—and away from him—fast.
To make himself focus elsewhere, he swiveled on his heels to survey what she’d done. The section looked totally different. She’d reorganized the placement of the shelves in a circular pattern around a central reading area and grouped the books alphabetically under new headings. Now inspirational romances were far away from spicy, with a buffer of sweet to help them play nice. The glass tables sparkled, the wood shelves gleamed. The whole area invited a reader to curl up and daydream over a book, the vision he’d always had for the store.
“You have a real knack for this.”
She didn’t respond. When he turned back and saw she was still shelving, he realized she probably hadn’t heard him. The music was deafening. He tapped her shoulder and she jumped a foot, the movement sliding her glasses down her nose.
He smothered a smile. At least he wasn’t the only jumpy one.
“What is this?” he asked, waving a hand as she adjusted her glasses. “The music?”
“Oh. The Fugees. Lauryn Hill’s amazing.”
He didn’t argue with her assessment but he did link his fingers around one wrist weighed down with a chunky gold bracelet. “We’re alone?”
“Yes.” She gave him a small smile he couldn’t quite decipher. “No witnesses.”
Kelly’s mouth was soft and pink, an irresistible lure. He leaned down to nibble her lower lip, transfixed by the trepidation in her expression. Did he really affect her that much? She never seemed nervous about anything. He knew he should back away but he sank in deeper instead.
He tugged on one of her ponytails and drew her closer. Sliding his tongue between her lips, simulating what he wanted to do with his cock, made his balls draw tight to his body. Their tongues coiled in a sensual glide and their bodies lined up perfectly, her breasts mashing against his chest, the vee of her thighs cradling his growing erection. She kissed him the way he felt—as if she were drowning and his air fed the last breath she’d take.
With effort, he smoothed his palm down her hip and eased away, just far enough to see her dazed eyes. His heart gave a hard bump but he didn’t kiss her again. It wasn’t fair to her. Hell, it wasn’t fair to him, not when he knew he couldn’t follow through on anything but orgasms.
You could, if you didn’t think so damn much.
“Was that a kiss hello or goodbye?”
“Hello.” His fingertips whisked over the smear of dust on her temple. “I missed you at the club.”
If she had any clue how much that admission cost him, she didn’t let on. Her gaze sharpened. “Did you find someone else to…entertain you in my absence?”
The smartest answer would be none at all. But he couldn’t let her believe the worst. “No.”
“Not even Nina?”
“Most definitely not Nina. My only company was a gin and tonic.”
“I tasted the gin.” She whipped her tongue over her lips and made him ache anew. “And the lime.”
He rubbed her cheekbone. Why couldn’t he stop touching her? Other than the very real possibility he’d considered that she wouldn’t ever allow him to touch her again. Not after the spectacular mess he’d made of last night. “So dusty books enticed you more than my body, hmm?”
“I wasn’t sure you’d be there. After last night, I wasn’t sure of anything.”
“I overreacted. You were just making jokes, teasing me like you always do and I took it too seriously.”
She slitted her eyes. “So you left me in bed because you didn’t think I was funny?”
“More like you picked a very sore subject.”
“Which one? Your age or the sleeping with the boss thing?”
He cleared his throat. “Let’s just say I’ve been involved in that sort of setup and I didn’t appreciate your take on it. How’s that?”
“Typically evasive, but I’d expect no more from you.” She took a definite step back, the loss of her warmth as abrupt as a slap.
“Look, Kelly, haven’t you ever done something you regretted and want to forget?”
“No.” Her straightforward answer was vintage Kelly. “I don’t have regrets. I do what I want and deal with the fallout later. With one exception.” Her lips twitched. “I wish I’d password-protected my sex list.”
Much to his shock, he laughed. “I don’t. It was very…illuminating.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Other women might’ve waited for him to
apologize but she continued before he had a chance to, even if he’d been so inclined. “So anyway, I decided to spend my night working rather than playing.” She swept her arm out. “Easier to reorganize without interruptions.”
“You punched in, right? You’re getting paid for this.”
“I figured it was therapy as much as work. Just consider it another benefit to you of my employment here.”
“I’ll sign you in and out. You’ll get paid.”
“Oh yeah? And make people wonder why we were here alone together in the middle of the night?”
He almost changed his mind. She was right. His computer would record being connected to the server and Marcia checked the log and timecards against employees’ schedules. She’d probably realize they’d been here together, just as Kelly had said. Though he trusted his sister not to blab, the last thing he wanted to deal with were her questions. Then there was the list on the PDA stashed in his antique cigar chest at home. Plenty of supposition was floating around about them already. Regardless, Kelly deserved compensation.
“Let them wonder,” he said, shocked to hear those words come out of his own mouth.
Ever since Diana, he’d toed the line. But now that line seemed a lot more shaky.
Kelly’s priceless reaction—wide eyes, parted lips—made any risk worth it. “Really?”
“Really.” He wanted to keep that look on her face, especially when it morphed into a glow of pleasure. “It’s only a problem if we let it be.” More precisely, he couldn’t give her up, so he’d have to make this work. Somehow. “We’re mature adults.”
“Very mature, especially in your case.” She laughed when he swatted her behind and hauled her against him for another kiss.
So much for self-restraint.
“I’m thirty-five,” he said into her mouth. “Not forty. Not forty-five.”
