More Than a Fling?

by Joss Wood

  Ally couldn’t help noticing that he didn’t say anything like There’ll be another time, or We’ll reschedule. Maybe he had cut his losses and was thanking God for his narrow escape. She rapidly blinked away the moisture in her eyes. Stupid to feel upset—it was just sex. Something she kept telling herself that she didn’t need and could live without.

  ‘Why did you tell my family when I specifically asked you not to?’

  Ross was silent for a minute. ‘I have no bloody idea. Maybe I just thought that nobody should be that sick and have to deal with it on their own—especially when they have a family eager and willing to help.’

  What was she supposed to say to that? ‘I don’t need help.’

  ‘That’s stupid. Everyone needs help now and again. Even you, Wonder Woman.’ Ross’s heavy sigh passed over the miles between them. ‘I can’t get back to Geneva, so when can I expect you in Cape Town?’

  ‘For the campaign?’

  ‘I couldn’t give a frig about the campaign. I’m thinking about burning up the sheets with you.’

  Ally hauled in a sharp breath as pleasure spiked through her. She twisted a strand of hair around her finger. ‘You still want to sleep with me?’

  ‘Did you think that me seeing you as Death Girl would put me off?’

  ‘Sort of.’

  ‘I’m not that shallow, Jones.’

  Before Ally’s frazzled brain could formulate a reply, she heard voices in the background and then Ross spoke again.

  ‘I’ve got to get some work done. We’ll talk later, okay?’

  Oh, they’d talk again—he could be very sure of that. And she’d tell him all that she hadn’t managed to say earlier: that she didn’t approve of him interfering in her life and calling her family, that they were about sex and little else and that he couldn’t do it again.

  Her mobile beeped and Ally picked it up, her heart accelerating when she saw a message from Ross on her screen.

  Okay, I know I went against your wishes but I couldn’t stick around and I was worried about you. I don’t particularly like worrying about you and I want it to stop. It’s interfering with the X-rated fantasies I’m having about you. So help me to stop worrying about you. Eat. Sleep. Please?

  Ally, her irritation replaced with confusion, typed a short message back.

  I’ll try.

  Two days later...

  To: AJones@bellechier.com

  From: rossbennett@rbmedia.com

  Subject: Important question...

  I have something important to ask you...

  To: rossbennett@rbmedia.com

  From: AJones@bellechier.com

  Subject: Re: Important question

  That sounds ominous. But okay...

  To: AJones@bellechier.com

  From: rossbennett@rbmedia.com

  Subject: Here it is...

  What colour panties are you wearing today?

  To: rossbennett@rbmedia.com

  From:AJones@bellechier.com

  Subject: RE: Here it is...

  Dammit, Ross, I just spewed coffee over my keyboard!

  Three days after that...

  To: AJones@bellechier.com

  From: rossbennett@rbmedia.com

  Subject: Long conversation

  That was a very long and detailed conversation about the campaign and the contract, Miss Jones. So glad we got so many points cleared up.

  To: rossbennett@rbmedia.com

  From: AJones@bellechier.com

  Subject: Re: Long conversation

  I got the impression that you were distracted. Got a lot on your mind?

  To: AJones@bellechier.com

  From: rossbennett@rbmedia.com

  Subject: Yeah...doing you

  Mostly I was just thinking that I’d prefer to hear different phrases falling from your lips...

  Like... ‘I love having your body on top of mine. It feels amazing.’ Or... ‘Faster! Faster!’

  A week after that message...

  To: rossbennett@rbmedia.com

  From: AJones@bellechier.com

  Subject: Torturing me

  Ross, you’re torturing me with the sexy messages. I don’t know if I can do another week in this state of...

  To: AJones@bellechier.com

  From: rossbennett@rbmedia.com

  Subject: Misery loves company

  Frustration? Horniness? Well, get your ass over here and we can do something about it. Sick of flying solo. Getting RSI in my hand. :)

  EIGHT

  One interminably long week later Ally, dressed in a soft white cotton dress that perfectly suited a balmy spring day in Cape Town, walked into the craziness of RBM’s open-plan office and looked around for Ross. She lifted her eyes to the second floor and the glass-fronted offices and couldn’t see him in his office or in the boardroom.

  Since there wasn’t a receptionist in sight, she grabbed the arm of a young man walking past and asked him where Ross was. He muttered something intelligible and pointed across the room.

  Ross stood bent over the shoulder of the pink-haired woman and the potbellied pig was resting its snout on his foot. Ally stared at his broad back for a long time. She was here finally and she wasn’t quite sure what to say to the man who’d spent the last couple of weeks telling her exactly what he intended doing to her as soon as he got her alone.

  It had been four weeks of sexy, naughty foreplay and she was done with talking...

  The saliva in her mouth dried as he stood up, turned around and noticed her standing there. Could he see that her heart was in her mouth? That her blood was pounding a beat between her thighs? Could he tell that she didn’t want to wait one more day, one more minute, before knowing what he felt like, smelt like, how he tasted?

  He’d kept her on a low simmer for weeks and she was about to go off her head if he didn’t do something about it...immediately.

  Ross moved across the room towards her and when he was close enough, grabbed her hand and pulled her back through the front doors of RBM.

  He lifted his hands and held her face. ‘You’re here.’

  Ally nodded her head. ‘Yep.’

  ‘I thought you were coming in on Monday.’ Ross ran his thumb over her bottom lip.

  ‘Changed my flight. Is that a problem?’

  ‘Not from where I’m standing.’ Ross’s eyes were as golden as the hot sunshine falling on her bare shoulders. ‘I want to kiss you, but if I start I won’t stop.’

  He dropped his hands to her shoulders and ran his hands up and down her arms. Ally placed her hands on his chest, felt his rapid heartbeat under her fingers.

  ‘You look great. Not zombie-like at all.’ Ross linked his hands in hers and looked at her intensely.

  She was surprised to see his Adam’s apple bob, as if he were nervous.

  ‘If I asked you to come with me, would you? Right now?’

  ‘That depends. If you’re taking me to bed, yes. If you’re taking me away to make me eat, then no.’

  Ross smiled and pulled her towards the parking lot. ‘Bed first. Food later.’

  ‘Deal,’ Ally replied, taking the helmet he held out to her. She cradled it against her chest and moved to stand next to Ross, who’d already straddled his bike. She linked her hands around his neck and stared at his mouth. ‘I really don’t think I can wait for that kiss, Bennett.’

  Ross took her helmet back, hung it over the handlebar and placed his helmet next to hers. Swinging his leg off the bi
ke, he placed his hands on her hips and pulled her up and into him. Her stomach brushed his huge erection and her rock-hard nipples dug into his chest. The friction of cloth and heat and male hardness sent a rush of moisture between her legs.

  Yet Ross still didn’t kiss her. His mouth hovered above hers, waiting, teasing, delaying...

  She couldn’t take this any more, Ally thought, and launched herself upwards, slamming her mouth against his, desperate to taste him, inhale him. Her tongue slid over his lips, brushed his teeth and found his, and they indulged in a long, hot, sexy slide. She felt Ross’s hands clench on her hips, the tips of his fingers kneading her skin. His body was filled with tension, bottled-up frustration, and she wanted to feel it shatter around her—because of her. Ally tipped her head so that Ross could plunder her mouth, lose himself in her as she wanted to do with him.

  Instead he pulled back and closed his eyes.

  ‘Why did you stop?’ she whispered, confused.

  ‘As I said, if I start I won’t stop. And that would give that lot more than they bargained for.’

  ‘Who? What?’ Ally asked, dimly aware of a lot of whistles and cat-calling coming from a distance.

  Ross shuffled her around, lifted his hand and gestured behind him with his outstretched thumb. ‘Them.’

  Ally looked over Ross’s shoulder to the first floor of RBM, where a clump of Ross’s staff, led by the pink-haired woman, were watching them with avid interest.

  ‘Go, boss!’ shouted Kate of the Pink Hair, and let out a loud whistle, pumping her fist in the air.

  ‘Dear God...’ Ally muttered.

  ‘Find a room, kids!’ she shouted.

  Ally bit her lip and met Ross’s laughing eyes. ‘Why don’t we do exactly that?’

  Ross stepped away from her, picked up her helmet and lobbed it at her. ‘I like the way you think, Jones.’

  * * *

  Ally had barely stepped through his front door when Ross grabbed her, wrapped one arm around her waist and used his other hand to tip her head up so that her mouth was at the perfect angle to receive his kiss.

  He finally had her alone and he could loosen his grip on his self-control. From the moment he’d seen her standing in RBM—hell, for the past five weeks—he’d wanted this, needed her like this. He wasn’t holding back now and his hard, possessive kiss would tell her that he was a frustrated man who had the woman of his latest dreams in his arms and that he intended making damn sure that by the end of their lovemaking she would have forgotten her own name.

  Ross kicked the door shut with his foot, turned her and walked her backwards so that her back was against the door, his chest flat against hers. Wanting to slow them down a bit—he was about to come in his pants as it was—he placed his hands on either side of her head and gentled his kiss, dialling down hot and wild to slow and sexy.

  Ally whimpered in his mouth as she brushed her breasts against his chest, reminding him of exactly how turned on she really was. He lifted his head for a minute and stared down at her. Her cheeks were flushed with passion, her lips wet from his tongue, her eyes unfocused and wild.

  He’d never felt this on edge, this crazy before. This woman was dangerous, he realised. She could slip under his skin, make him feel things he didn’t intend to feel... He had to remind himself that this was only about sex.

  She wasn’t his type anyway. Obsessed, driven, vulnerable...

  Ross couldn’t help licking her lip before he forced himself to speak. ‘Remember our deal, Jones?’

  Ally’s hands snuck under his T-shirt and he sucked in his breath as her hands danced across his stomach.

  ‘Which one?’

  ‘This is still only a hook-up, right? No emotions, no expectations.’

  ‘Hell, yes. I don’t have time for a man or a relationship,’ Ally said, pushing his shirt up his chest, urging him to take it off.

  Ross gripped the fabric behind his neck and pulled it over his head, dropping it to the floor. She immediately buried her face in his sternum, her tongue darting out to touch his skin. Ross groaned and shoved his fingers into her hair.

  ‘You’re not going mushy on me, are you?’ Ally suddenly demanded, lifting her head.

  ‘God, no!’

  Ally licked one of his flat nipples and he shuddered. ‘Why would you think I’m getting mushy?’ he asked.

  Ally lifted her head and looked him dead in the eye with passion-filled eyes. ‘Oh, just all the concern about me eating and sleeping. I wondered...’

  He had to watch that. ‘I was just making sure that you had enough energy to keep up with me.’

  ‘Ooh, I’m so scared.’

  ‘You should be,’ Ross told her, finding the zip at the back of her dress and sliding it down. He pulled the dress off her shoulders and it landed in a white puddle on his slate floor, and there she stood, in pure white lacy underwear. The fabric was so sheer that he could see her pink nipples, the strip of blonde hair between her legs.

  Ross pulled her bra cup aside and dipped his head, taking her peaked nipple into his mouth. Ally arched her back, slapped her hand on the back of his head to keep him there as he stroked and laved her.

  ‘Take it off...’ Ally muttered, trying to put her hands behind her back to take her bra off.

  Ross reached behind her, flicked open the clasp, and Ally pulled the material off and tossed it away. She wiggled out of her panties and stood in front of him, one leg slightly bent so that he could see the moisture on her feminine lips.

  ‘Please touch me,’ she whimpered. ‘I need you to.’

  Ross slid his finger between her legs, sighing at her wet heat. His thumb found her clitoris and she bucked as he touched her intimately, knowingly.

  ‘I need you to touch me too,’ he muttered against her mouth, before sliding his tongue into her mouth and his finger into her passage.

  Ally yelped into his mouth. Down below she clenched around his finger, and he smiled at her reaction. Oh, yeah, there was passion underneath. So much wild passion. ‘Now you touch me, Alyssa.’

  He helped her, one-handed, to undo the button on his cargo shorts, waited impatiently as she slowly slid the zipper down. One small push had his pants around his ankles, but his erection was still constrained by his underwear, threatening to jump out. Ross flicked her clit with his thumb and another finger entered her.

  Ally moaned.

  ‘Just think how good it’s going to feel when I am inside you.’ Ross spoke in her ear. ‘Dammit, Jones, stop playing around and get me in your hand.’

  Ally ran a finger up his length and Ross was certain that he’d never been this hard, this crazy for a woman’s touch. Her thumb brushed over that pulsing vein and the sensitive spot just below the head. He felt her wipe away drops of moisture and wished he was in her mouth and inside her channel, both at the same time.

  He couldn’t wait much longer to have one or the other happen.

  Ross pulled out of her, stepped back and whirled away to reach for the wallet that he’d tossed onto the hall table earlier. He pulled out a condom and ripped the foil packet open with his teeth. He quickly sheathed himself and, keeping his distance from Ally, lifted his eyebrows.

  ‘Door or bed?’

  ‘Door, then bed,’ Ally replied, her eyes on his erection.

  She licked her lips and, seeing that pink tongue, he felt the last vestiges of his control fly out of the window. Grabbing both her wrists with one hand, he lifted her arms and held them above he
r head, which lifted her breasts up to his mouth. He pulled one peak into his mouth and then the other, shoving his hand between her legs. As Ally whimpered, moaned, begged above his head, he licked his way over her navel, bit her hipbone and finally settled on the honeypot between her legs. As his mouth took the place of his hand Ally bucked and yelled. One stab of his tongue, then another, and he tasted her excitement on his tongue.

  ‘Oh, no, you don’t. You’re gonna come with me, Jones.’ Ross pulled himself up, jammed his hands under her thighs and in one fast movement buried himself in her.

  She felt so wondrous, so damned perfect, that he stopped pumping, just wanting to capture the perfection of feeling her for the first time. Awed at being allowed to share the wild, primal side of this fascinating woman.

  Ally’s head whipped from side to side. ‘Nooooo. Don’t stop.’ She pumped her hips, half pulled herself off him and then slammed down on him again.

  Ross, entranced with seeing his Miss Uptight totally unhinged—for him—allowed her to ride him. He could feel her tension, hear her words begging for release, and he took control. Holding her against the wall, he pushed as far into her as he could and bucked his hips. Ally buried her face in his neck and took what he gave her, begging for more. When he was certain that he no longer had a smidgeon of control left he felt her shudder, felt her reach up to touch his penis, and he lost it, pumping wildly into her, desperate to follow her over that beautiful edge.

  His orgasm exploded from him, rocketed up his spine and blew off his head. He groaned and cursed and shuddered as he tumbled over, Ally’s hair in his mouth, her scent in his nostrils.

  Eventually his heart slowed, his vision cleared and he realised that his arms and legs were straining under Ally’s dead weight. She was slumped against him, her breath uneven. Ross pulled a strand of her hair out of his mouth and ran his hand over her bottom.