Come and Get Me

by Reese Gabriel

  COME AND GET ME

  An Ellora’s Cave Publication, March 2005

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.

  1337 Commerce Drive, #13

  Stow, OH 44224

  ISBN MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-4199-0169-9

  Other available formats (no ISBNs are assigned):

  Adobe (PDF), Rocketbook (RB), Mobipocket (PRC) & HTML

  COME AND GET ME Copyright © 2005 REESE GABRIEL

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. They are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

  Edited by Pamela Campbell.

  Cover art by Syneca.

  Warning:

  The following material contains graphic sexual content meant for mature readers. Come and Get Me has been rated E–rotic by a minimum of three independent reviewers.

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing offers three levels of Romantica™ reading entertainment: S (S-ensuous), E (E-rotic), and X (X-treme).

  S-ensuous love scenes are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination.

  E-rotic love scenes are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high in volume per the overall word count. In addition, some E-rated titles might contain fantasy material that some readers find objectionable, such as bondage, submission, same sex encounters, forced seductions, and so forth. E-rated titles are the most graphic titles we carry; it is common, for instance, for an author to use words such as “fucking”, “cock”, “pussy”, and such within their work of literature.

  X-treme titles differ from E-rated titles only in plot premise and storyline execution. Unlike E-rated titles, stories designated with the letter X tend to contain controversial subject matter not for the faint of heart.

  Come and Get Me

  Reese Gabriel

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  NFL: National Football League Association

  NBA: NBA Properties, Inc.

  Rubik’s Cube: Ideal Toy Corporation

  Chapter One

  Eleesha was already five minutes late when she saw the motorcycle. Sleek, red and futuristic…and parked in her spot! She cursed both her bad luck and the owner’s insensitive, uncaring behavior. How hard could if be to read a reserved parking sign written in plain English? She’d bet anything the culprit was a man.

  Forced to round the corner to the side of the building, Eleesha settled on a place three rows back in the crowded lot. Slapping on an extra layer of nuke-proof lip gloss for insurance and double-checking her precariously ordered auburn curls, she hopped out of her sedan and hightailed it for the weekly department head meeting of Global Tech, Inc, already in progress.

  Her navy blue heels were not cooperating. Neither they nor the slinky suit skirt she’d chosen this particular Monday were intended for a hundred-yard dash across pitted blacktop. Of all days to have to face the visiting corporate efficiency consultant, she thought. Of course this all might have been avoided if Chester, her lovingly annoying Siamese cat, hadn’t chosen to walk all over her alarm in the middle of the night, rendering it silent at wakeup time.

  Chester was a male, too.

  “Good morning, Miss Greene,” nodded Frank, the security man at the front desk.

  “Morning, Frank.” She blurred past the kindly, white-haired guard.

  Invariably, her mind went into free association. Frank. Security. The motorcycle. Justice.

  Eleesha skidded to a halt halfway down the corridor. “Frank, someone’s in my spot,” she called out. “Send for a tow truck, would you please?”

  Frank’s snow-white eyebrows knitted nervously. “Well, um, actually, Miss Greene, I can’t do that.”

  She was back at the reception desk in a flash. Meeting or no meeting, she was going to sort this out. “What do you mean you can’t? Someone’s hijacked my place and I demand satisfaction.”

  “Actually…” corrected a confident, bordering on arrogant, smooth male voice behind her, “you can’t technically hijack a parking place.”

  The ill-timed intrusion managed to snap Eleesha’s last remaining nerve. “Excuse me,” she whirled around to confront him, “but I don’t believe I’m in need of any grammar les—”

  Eleesha’s exclamation fizzled mid-word. Her mouth hung open in blatant disbelief. This was no ordinary interruption she was dealing with. This was an unmitigated disaster. An unwanted, bad trip down memory lane.

  “Hello, Eleesha,” said Ross Maclean, the man who’d taken full and complete possession of her body for one scorching, unforgettable night a decade ago in college. “Long time no see.”

  She fought the flush in her face. The last time he’d seen her she’d been nude, panting on his bed, begging to be allowed to come as he tortured her maddeningly with his huge, pulsing erection, sliding it agonizingly slowly in and out of her slick, gaping sex. He’d won her that night in a game, a bizarre sorority ritual called Come and Get Me, which made the pledges into sexual door prizes for the big-time jocks.

  “Ross,” she acknowledged, trying to keep her tone neutral. Already, she could feel her body responding to him, the dampness between her legs, the quickening of her pulse. How could it be that her pussy still remembered the exact shape of him, the exact length and thickness? How could it be that she remembered his taste, salty-sweet as he let her lick his hardness, ‘til it pulsed with need too great to ignore? The taste of her, too, on his lips as he kissed her after tonguing her swollen sex. One word, she feared, one motion of his fingers and she might be tearing at her clothes, ready to give in to him all over again.

  If only he’d gotten ugly, old or fat. As it was, the intervening time had done absolutely nothing to diminish the raw masculine beauty of the former quarterback. His hair was thick and brown, brushed neatly back and trimmed around his ears. His face was ruggedly handsome, featuring cerulean blue eyes, a dimpled chin and a firm, decisive jawline. He was wearing well-worn blue jeans, which he filled out to perfection, along with a green T-shirt under a brown flight jacket.

  She nearly swooned at the scent of him. So familiar…musk, mixed with pure testosterone. It was like being back in college, all those times she’d followed him around her freshman year. She’d been barely eighteen. He’d been a twenty-two-year-old senior—tall, dark and heroic—bound for the NFL. She’d have done anything to get his attention, and one day she’d finally gotten her chance.

  Though not quite as she’d imagined.

  As a pledge to the Tri Zeta sorority, she was required to play their secret sex game, Come and Get Me. An entry was filled out for each of them by their pledge sisters, depicting some specific sex act to be done to one of the boys in their partner fraternity, Delta Omicron. Eleesha had made the mistake of telling one of the sisters about her feelings for Ross, who was a member of this particular jock fraternity.

  Ross was chosen among the males, having been able to chug a beer the fastest, to go first. Barbara, after making sure that everything went as planned, held a hat toward Ross. He then pulled a slip of paper from the hat. It was Eleesha’s entry he drew. Barbara read the words they’d written for her on the paper, and with each one, Eleesha’s face had turned redder and redder.

  “Most people know me as a quiet little frosh with brown hair who’s always carrying a load of books, but underneath, I’m a tigress, needing to be tamed. There’s only one tiger for me… I want him inside me, I want him to tie me down and use me all night long… Ross Maclean…Come and Get Me… I’m Eleesha Greene and I
want to be your love slave.”

  Hoots and hollers went up across the busy frat house. The guys had given Ross resounding thumps on the back, teasing him about what he’d do with his luscious prize. Eleesha wanted to crawl under a rock, but the pledge sisters had been right there to drag her forward. She had been terrified, but excited, too. Questions had danced in her mind. What would it be like? What if he rejected her? He could have any girl on campus in his bed. Oh, why oh why had she dared show her feelings?

  He must have read her doubts. “Don’t worry,” he’d whispered in her ear as the crowd pushed them together. “I think you’re cute, too.”

  Eleesha had melted into his arms. He’d kissed her hard and deep and then lifted her high, cradling her small, trembling body. They’d had a room all prepared. The crowd had cheered as he’d carried her up the stairs. She was about to have the best sex of her life before or after.

  Who could have guessed that this kind, gentle but passionate lover would betray her so terribly the next morning? To the rest of the campus he’d remained the star athlete, but to Eleesha he would forever be ranked as the World’s Greatest Asshole.

  “For the record,” Ross said now, filling the awkward silence that had risen between them. “I wasn’t really giving you a grammar lesson. I’d call it more a matter of correcting your vocabulary. As for the bike, it’s mine.”

  Eleesha blinked. “Excuse me?”

  “It’s my motorcycle that’s parked in your spot.”

  She waited for some act of contrition. When it did not seem to be forthcoming she said, “How interesting. One would think a man so well-versed in vocabulary could manage to read a simple reserved parking sign.”

  The man pursed his lips. He had tiny lines now, around his mouth. They only made him look sexier, damn him.

  “I hadn’t noticed it,” he said. “I’ll move it.”

  “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble,” she said, her voice dripping sarcasm. “Although, perhaps you won’t be staying long?”

  She made little attempt to hide the hope in her voice that he would vanish quickly from the building, as well as from her life. It felt good, she thought, being the one to reject him this time. The fact that her body was responding to him all over again—her belly quivering, her nipples peaking under her silk bra just like it used to whenever he would pass her in the hall—was beside the point.

  He smiled slantedly. “As a matter of fact, I’m going to be hanging out here for some time. Your board has asked me to come in and look things over.”

  Eleesha felt her knees buckling. Ross Maclean was the consultant hired by the company? Oh Mother of all Mondays, when will it all end…

  “You? But how— You’re a…” She stopped short of reducing the man to his football position. Still, she had her doubts how the likes of Ross Maclean could have the expertise to advise a multimillion-dollar information services company.

  “Just a dumb jock? Is that what you were going to say?”

  Eleesha frowned. Now she was going to have to apologize. As if this man deserved the time of day after what he’d done to her all those years ago. “I didn’t mean anything by that. I just didn’t realize you had…qualifications.”

  His smile betrayed subtle amusement. How dare he—the patronizing son of a bitch!

  “My NFL career, as you may have followed, turned out pretty short and unspectacular, but I managed to save up enough to start a restaurant or two. One thing led to another.”

  “Oh, were you in the pros?”

  As if she didn’t have a box of clippings her girlfriends had sent telling the tale of his meteoric start for the Blazers, complete with a conference record for completed passes his first and second seasons. A shoulder injury had sidelined him the third season, however, and then he’d gotten married and dropped out of football entirely. A year later he was divorced. Probably screwed that woman over, too. The prick.

  “Restaurants?”

  She’d stopped reading about him after the marriage. It was always touch and go where Ross’ legacy was concerned. Several times she’d actually threatened to burn the clippings. Once she’d watched him on television. She’d sworn at him up and down but then he’d gotten tackled and she’d broken into hysterical tears.

  “You probably wouldn’t have heard of them,” he demurred. “It’s a chain of kids’ pizza places. Miss Soogy Skunk’s Place?”

  “I don’t have children,” she informed him pointedly. “I wouldn’t know.”

  Wow, she thought. That sure sounded catty, if not downright bitchy. Where had that come from?

  “I’ll just go and move the motorcycle,” he said, obviously a man in search of a quick exit if ever she’d seen one.

  “Don’t bother,” she said curtly. “I’ve already parked elsewhere.”

  “It’s the principle of the thing,” Ross said. “Will I see you later?”

  Her eyes flashed. Of all people to be talking about principles. “I don’t know, Ross,” she replied, showing the proper mixture of indifference, contempt and pure disdain. “That’s up to our superiors. Good day.”

  He inclined his head. “Good day, Eleesha.”

  She could feel his eyes burning into her from behind. Ten years and he was still doing this to her, making her all flustered, confused and…wet.

  Eleesha squirmed in the elevator. She had nearly been overcome, just by the man’s voice, by his mere proximity for a couple of minutes. And her traitorous body wanted more. Just now, walking away from him there’d been the tiniest sway to her hips, the smallest of motions in her backfield.

  Once upon a time this man had awakened her body, made her a woman. His woman, by virtue of just a few hours of seduction. And yet the instinct to please him, to turn him on was clearly still there. No matter that she was literally flirting with disaster. Her flesh, lonely as it was, had its own logic. It wanted to submit, to be played with, loved, no matter what the emotional fallout.

  This would not do. Not at all. As the company’s new consultant he could be here for weeks. And at close range, too. Lyle, the senior vice president and acting CEO had indicated that the man would have plenty of hands-on time with each department head and that he would be picking all their brains at length.

  The very thought of Ross’ hands anywhere near her was enough to make her cringe. The way he’d touched her all those years ago, like he’d been born to make love to her, like he had nothing else he’d ever want to do with those hands. The same hands with which he’d thrown his famous sixty-yard touchdowns. She couldn’t afford to make herself that vulnerable. She was going to have to go to Lyle, she decided, and deal with the situation.

  Nip it in the bud. Use her good graces with the Executive VP to get Ross Maclean tossed out on his smug ear—out onto the street where he belonged. Then she could deal with a replacement and get on with the business of doing her own job. She barely listened at the meeting, which was already half over when she’d slunk in through the back door of the conference room. Her mind was focused on Ross, and all the things she would like to do to get even. Then again, she’d better be careful about hating the man. For all too easily, it was said, that emotion could change to its opposite.

  Once she had put her heart into those hands, a trusting naïve woman. He’d shattered it and she was wiser for it. Never again, she vowed, wrapping her brain around the quarter’s overseas sales figures. Never again.

  * * * * *

  Ross not only moved his motorcycle, he took it back out on the street, and from there to the freeway, up three exits and back down. He’d had no idea that Eleesha Greene worked for this company. How the hell was he supposed to conduct his investigation with her around? It was tricky enough poking his nose into everyone’s business, requiring them to unwittingly provide the very information about their jobs that could allow them to be downsized in a potential restructuring.

  And now he was going to have to number among those people a woman who, after a decade, still obviously blamed him for his hasty de
parture from her life. Technically, he’d owed her nothing. They’d gone to bed with no expectations. It was a game they’d played. So what if he hadn’t wanted anything more to do with her? She was a big girl. Eighteen to his twenty-two.

  And yet there was no denying the shame he felt, the pain, then and now when he thought of his words to her that fateful morning. He was getting dressed, trying to make a clean getaway. The sex had been incredible, maybe too incredible. All he could think about was his pro career. He hadn’t wanted to be tied down by anything, especially not a college freshman. Hell, he was going off to the land of pro cheerleaders and movie starlets. A different woman in his bed every night. He’d done Eleesha. It would all be downhill after the first time.

  “Ross?” He’d heard her soft voice, half-plea, half-question. “Where are you going?”

  Ross’ mouth had gone dry as cotton. His heart had slammed in his chest. Big, strong football player that he was, he hadn’t had the courage to face the tousled-haired, pale-skinned beauty under the sheets.

  “I’ve got physics at nine,” he’d said.

  Like he’d been there all semester.

  “Will I…see you later?” she’d wanted to know.

  It was at that point that he’d whirled on her, despising the emotion she was showing, the weakness. He’d thought of his old man, the surly way he’d dealt with everything out of the bottom of a bottle.

  “Grow up,” he’d told her. “What makes you think you’ll see me later? We screwed…that’s all.”

  Her eyes moistened. She’d been too young to know how to hide her disappointment behind a veil of cynicism. Either that or she really had loved him.

  “Stop looking at me that way,” he’d demanded, unable to bear the burden.