“Cut the shit, Gabe. The deal is off. No way in hell are you buying my company. I’ll have my lawyers draw up the paperwork.”
“Whoa, slow down a minute. What’s going on here? Talk to me.”
That was not the reaction I expected. I was prepared for yelling but I got calm and concerned. It took me a second to recalibrate. I took a breath and explained. “You bought Belle’s club.”
Belle French was my college roommate. We didn’t quite travel in the same crowds, not even by a long shot. She was a sorority girl. She came from money, had the latest Fendi bag and was elegant without trying. I was exactly none of those things but she sort of took me under her wing. I have her to thank for helping me get over a lot of my hangups. She was the one who taught me I didn’t have to be the person I was. I could be whoever I wanted.
Anyway, she’s amazing and I love her and she owns, or she owned a very profitable, very exclusive Manhattan kink club. Don’t ask me how I know that, it’s an embarrassing story for both of us. But needless to say, Belle and I saw each other in a whole new light after that night.
If Gabe was interested in a club like that, I could only imagine the plans he had for Prince Charming Inc. I would not have my business turned into a sex club or a bordello or anything he had in mind.
“Doing your homework on me I see.” The smile in his tone rubbed me exactly the wrong way.
“Yes and I’m glad I did. Consider the deal off the table. Have a nice day, Mr. Stevens.”
“Isla, hold on. You haven’t given me a chance to explain. Actually, you haven’t even explained what the issue is at all. How about this. Why don’t we meet somewhere and hash this all out? Sound good?”
I sighed. I owed it to Charlie to at least hear the man out. Even if it was in person. Even if I knew seeing him in person clouded my judgment.
“Fine but I’m booked all day. It’ll have to be later tonight. Say, seven?”
“Perfect. It’s a date.”
I slammed the phone down on his smug tone.
It was most definitely not a date.
4
Gabe
I sat there staring at the phone, certain that Isla had just slammed it on her end. Tonight was my chance to change her mind. I could feel it in my bones.
The day dragged by. Meetings and conference calls and projected profit reports couldn’t keep me from thinking about her which made me acutely aware how different my thoughts of her were. Any other woman and I’d be thinking about bending her over my desk or pinning her to the wall and all the dirty things that came after.
But with Isla, they weren’t only sexual thoughts, though there were plenty of those. I thought about her wide smile and how I loved knowing that I could summon it. I thought about showing her who I really was now, and erasing her judgments about the old me. I thought about taking her on every flat surface in the room as well, but those thoughts were far outweighed by the tender ones.
Isla had done her homework on me and I did the same, ordering a feast from her favorite uptown Italian place. I had it delivered to her office just as I arrived.
“What’s this?” she asked with a smile she tried to hide.
“I’d think it’s pretty obvious,” I said. Isla looked incredible. She’d undone the top few buttons of her blouse, putting her more than ample cleavage on display. But I kept my eyes locked on hers. I wasn’t giving her any more reasons to dislike me.
“Enjoy it,” I said as I settled in across from her. “It’s your favorite.”
Isla eyed the containers of different pastas, varying sauces and the selection of Italian sausages. “I’m off carbs.”
“Huh, is that so? Well, it’s no matter. I like my women in all shapes and sizes.”
Isla looked at me with absolute hatred. “Excuse me?”
I smiled, leaning forward across her desk. “I think you heard me.”
She set her jaw and leaned back in the chair, taking the bowl of Caesar salad with her. She stabbed at the lettuce, shoved it in her mouth and chewed in an act of defiance. “I’m and not, nor have I ever been your woman.”
Not yet at least.
“Now,” she continued. “If we can get on to the matter at hand?” She jammed in another bite of salad.
I nodded. “Of course.”
“I’m uncomfortable selling Prince Charming Inc. to you without first knowing what your intentions are with the company. The offer states making the brand national but exactly does that mean?”
I piled some pasta and bread on a plate and sat back to answer her question. “Well, ideally I’d like to have a Prince Charming Inc. office in every major city. Your ideology is fantastic, especially after you explained it so eloquently yesterday. I wouldn’t change that. I just want to take it to the masses. Every woman needs a Prince Charming encounter once in their life, right?”
Isla’s entire demeanor shifted. Her features softened as she set the salad bowl back on the desk. “I’ll need that in writing. I know you bought Belle French’s club recently and I won’t have my IP turned into something I never intended.”
“Ah. Is that what this is about? You’re afraid I’ll turn your company into a sex club like Red Yellow?”
“The thought had crossed my mind.”
“Well, rest assured that was never my intent. Ms. French needed an outside investor so she could expand her club to both coasts. I own Red Yellow, but in name only. I’m more of a silent investor in that situation.”
Isla nodded and nibbled on a slice of ciabatta bread.
“I can’t say I blame you for thinking that but rest assured, I have faith in your concept. I’m not changing it. Besides, the sex club scene isn’t really my thing.”
Isla tightened again, arms crossing and lips pursing. “Isn’t it though?”
“And that, that right there is why I insisted the offer be made anonymously. I knew you’d think the worst if you knew it was me behind it. Look, I don’t blame you for thinking whatever it is you think about me. I deserve every bit of it. But hear me out, all right? Give me a chance to explain my awful behavior before you write me off, okay?”
Isla sighed but motioned for me to go ahead.
“Three weeks before you started I was getting married, that is, I thought I was getting married to the woman of my dreams. She was sharp and witty, gorgeous, and she kept me on my toes. We met in grad school and I’ll never forget the first time I saw her. I knew. I just knew she was going to be mine. We dated and about a year later I popped the question. I thought I had it all figured out. I had the money and success figured out. I was fairly happy with the kind of work I did and now I had the partner I’d always dreamed of.”
I paused. The last time I told this story was to my shrink. With the words came all the emotions, dulled and deaden with time but rattling around nonetheless.
I pressed on despite the unease gripping my insides. “Then, the morning of our wedding, I walked into my best man’s hotel room to see my wife-to-be, riding him like a fucking cowgirl. It was the hardest thing I ever had to go through and you, unfortunately, were there to witness me trying to work out my shit with anyone who was willing.”
Isla stared at me with a look I’d never seen on her before.
“I don’t want your pity,” I said quickly. “Lots of people get cheated on every day. I handled it the only way I knew how and I don’t blame you for judging me for it. I won’t blame you for not wanting to go through with the acquisition either. But I do want you to know I’m not the same man I was then. After I went through the entire female staff I realized I could never fix myself that way. I got help. I saw a shrink for a few years and I’ve been celibate since then. I haven’t touched a women since I “got clean” so to speak.”
5
Isla
I got up and paced the length of my office. I wanted to believe him. Every part of me wanted to believe that Gabe Stevens wasn’t an awful lothario who’d bang anything with tits anymore. He seemed genuine but something still bugged
me.
“So, you’re a changed man, yes?”
He nodded.
“Then why did you come in here yesterday all fire and brimstone just like the Gabe Stevens I knew before. Why is that still acceptable behavior?”
He smiled, a slow lazy expression that did cruel things to my libido. “The hothead act is just for you, Isla.”
“What? What does that mean?”
Gabe stood and like his smile, it was a slow, measured and painfully sexy action. He stepped toward me just barely into my personal space. I didn’t react, not outwardly at least. My heart pounded being so close to him but I didn’t back down.
He peered down at me, desire and heat and an assortment of other lascivious things swimming behind his deep brown gaze. “It means I like that you don’t get intimidated by me. I like that you have no problem calling me on my shit. I like knowing that I don’t have to hold back with you because you can take it.”
His words clung to me, thick and weighted with double meaning. Every nerve ending sparked to attention at the message beneath his words. My breath grew ragged as I chewed on the inside of my cheek.
He meant he didn’t have to hold back in bed.
Still, that didn’t give him license to be a bully. “You can’t just barge in to my office screaming at the top of your lungs because you like being put in your place. You scared Margo so bad I made sure she left before you got here.”
He stepped closer, so close I could smell him, sandalwood and clean skin. My heart beat so fast I was certain he could hear it. I still didn’t back away. “Margo’s a big girl,” he said smoothly, holding my gaze with those deep, dark eyes.
I didn’t have a rebuttal for that. Not a single word came to mind. Instead, I did what I’d wanted to do since I first saw him all those years ago, since he first stepped foot in this office yesterday.
I kissed him. Hard and hot with every bit of desire, frustration and anger he’d caused me. I hooked my arms around his neck and drank him in, tasting him, teasing him, biting lightly on his lower lip. He growled into my mouth and slid his palms down my sides, feeling their way side to side and across my curves as I explored the inside of his mouth. His hands finally came to a stop, resting on my hips for a moment before he pulled away and shook his head.
Before I jumped to conclusions, before I let the old, paranoid me assume he wasn’t interested and that it was somehow my fault, I took a breath and told myself to be calm.
Gabe let out a shuddering sigh and looked down at me with such fierce intensity I almost backed away. “Isla, if we’re going to do this, we need to do it right. I want to get to know you. I want a relationship. I’m done banging bimbos in my office.”
I closed the distance between us, putting my lips right to his ear. “I’m not a bimbo, Gabe. And this is my office,” I whispered.
He hesitated, I felt it in his posture. But it only lasted a moment. He snatched me up by the waist and brought me to his lips, kissing me like I’ve always wanted to be kissed—claiming my lips, tasting me, then pulling my head to the side so he could do the same to my neck. Hand on the back of his head, I pressed him into my neck further, his lips and stubble drawing exquisite thrills from somewhere deep and untapped within me.
We tumbled to the thick carpet and Gabe yanked off my skirt in one smooth motion. “Pencil skirts are sexy but you can’t do much in them,” he rumbled, letting his gaze linger over my thighs and legs. I unbuttoned my shirt and shimmied out of it as Gabe went to work on his own shirt.
“Jesus Christ,” I whispered as his chest and abs came into view. His wasn’t an accidental hard body, it wasn’t one earned through physical labor, his body had been crafted by the gods themselves.
“You’re even more beautiful than I thought,” he said as I laid on my office floor in just a black bra and panties.
I beckoned him closer with a finger but Gabe had other ideas. Lifting my leg, he brought my ankle to his mouth, kissing and tonguing the sensitive spot around the bone. A spot that no one had ever paid attention to until now. He slowly worked his way up my calf, licking and nipping, drawing sighs and coos from me as he did. He circled the inside of my thigh with the flat of his tongue, traveling higher and higher until...
“Oooooooh!” I moaned as he licked me through my panties. He pulled them off slowly, eyes glued to mine as he worked them off me, and then buried his face in me.
I clawed at the carpet as he spread my lips wide, lapping at every bit of my pussy. His tongue danced over every incredible spot I had as if he had a map, circling from one to another to the next in a loop but never quite long enough for me to gain momentum.
He was teasing me.
I grabbed the back of his head again and pushed his face into me. “Don’t fucking tease me,” I heaved and I swear to the gods I heard him laugh.
He zeroed in on my clit, flicking and sucking in the most perfect way and then just as things starting building, he slipped two fingers in me, stroking and massaging my g-spot. That was it. My eyes rolled back and I screamed as Gabe brought me to a crushing orgasm in under a minute.
6
Gabe
I had plenty of tricks. Plenty of experience means lots of opportunities to build up a repertoire. Every woman was different. Every woman needed something different and most women needed something different each time. If something worked one time, rarely did that mean it would work the next time. Women were mysterious like that and I took pleasure in the discovery.
Isla, however was an open book. I had her squirming in moments, coming in a matter of minutes and with any luck, begging for more in about...
“Is that all you’ve got?” she said breathless and flushed.
I chuckled. “Not by any means, Ms. Connor.”
The things I wanted to do to her. I’d have her right now on the floor if I wasn’t afraid of marring her perfectly golden-brown skin in carpet burns. Instead, I took hold of her wrists and pulled her up so we were both standing.
She wobbled on her feet, thanks to that massive orgasm, as I unhooked her bra.
“Jesus Christ,” I said as she stood before, nude and absolutely glorious. I took a moment, basking in her extraordinary beauty. Her dark wavy hair tumbled over her shoulders, covering her nipples as if trying to protect her modesty. Her rounded hips and thighs were so soft and inviting I was tempted to go down on her a second time. But I resisted. Instead, I picked her up and sat her on the edge of her desk.
“Are you going to fuck me on my own desk?” she asked.
“I am,” I said, dropping my pants.
“Holy fuck,” Isla said when she caught sight of my cock. “You’re going to have to—”
“I know,” I said with a smirk. Being well-endowed was one thing. Being so big that women wondered how it was going to fit was a totally different ballgame. But I knew exactly how to make it work.
And I had the sneaking suspicion that Isla would be able to handle all of me, just like when our clothes were on.
I wrapped my hand up in her hair, tight but close to the scalp, tugging her head up to look at me. “We’ll need some safe words just in case. Red and yellow seems appropriate, wouldn’t you say?”
Isla nodded, half-lidded from the tension on her scalp.
I zeroed in on her neck, pulling moans and cries from her as I found each of her spots. Working my way across her collarbones, I dropped to my knees and paid attention to her incredible tits. I sucked and tongued and gently bit her nipples until she moaned and her hips rocked back and forth on the desk.
I switched to her other breast, lifting her legs up so her feet rested on the desk and slipped a finger down her silky, slick lips. She was absolutely drenched. But drenched was only halfway there.
I needed to make her come again before she’d be ready to take me in.
This time I went for the elusive g-spot-only orgasm. She was so ready she clamped around my fingers as soon as the were in. But I pushed in until I found her spot and caressed it, pressed it, bou
nced against it, I touched it every way I could think of until she groaned and her body arched into the sensation.
“Bingo,” I whispered when I found the kind of touch she liked.
Isla grabbed the edge of the desk as her painted toes curled under. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she whispered while I finger fucked her, applying steady, firm pressure to her g-spot.
Her brow furrowed, her walls clamped even harder around me and Isla wailed at the ceiling as she came all over my hand.
Now she was ready.
I didn’t give her any time to recover. That was the last thing I wanted. She was still hazy-eyed as I ran the head of my cock up and down her drenched pussy.
She sighed as I circled her clit with it. “Mmmm, don’t fucking tease me you jerk. Fuck me already.”
I did as I was told, sliding into her slowly at first until she wrapped her legs around me and pulled me in harder.
God almighty, she was tight and hot and so fucking wet. And she had me in nearly to the hilt. I’d never been able to bury myself so fully before.
It felt incredible.
I was perfectly happy to stay just like that for a moment, relishing how fucking good her pussy was but Isla had other idea. She rocked against me, her hips and ass doing all the work. I could have watched her move, watched myself sliding in and out of her forever but I was no slouch.
I crashed into her, making sure to pay attention to her sweet little clit as I did. I flicked it back and forth with a finger and I drove my full length into her and she screamed and screamed as I brought her to one climax after another.
When I couldn’t take anymore, when my body ached for release and I wasn’t able to hold it back, I looked her right in those gorgeous green eyes and asked her to come one more time for me.
She did. Screaming until she went hoarse, Isla came so hard she shook and shuddered around me. I came with her, growling into her hair as she milked me for everything I had.
Seduction in a Suit: An Office Romance Collection Page 80
