Wish List

by Sylvia Day

  “Actually, I’m not looking for anyone.”

  “I could get serious.” Cupping her face in his hands, he used his thumbs to stroke her cheeks. “There’s no reason I can’t. But we’ll never know if you don’t give me a chance.”

  “Why?” She pushed him away. “Because we have the hots for each other? Being horny isn’t the basis for a relationship and I don’t want to be your experiment in monogamy.”

  “There she is,” he said softly, stepping back so she could slide off the desk. “The exterior woman who doesn’t want me, while the real Steph inside does.”

  She winced. The real Steph had learned to give up some of the things she wanted. It was a sacrifice she’d accepted gladly when she made it. “Are we done here?”

  “No way. Not nearly.” He ran his hand through his thick, glossy hair.

  She regretted that she hadn’t touched it when she had the chance. “You didn’t get off, but I don’t feel too guilty about that. You can have any of the girls in the conference room.”

  “Fuck you, Steph,” he said gruffly. “This isn’t about getting laid and you know it.”

  She snorted. “This is all about getting laid.”

  Suddenly he straightened, his eyes lit with a dangerous glint. “Give me a couple days to go through your wish list. Then, once you’ve lived out your fantasies—all of which happen to be mine as well—we can get back to business as usual. Minus all this sexual tension.”

  “That’s not going to work.” But her stomach did a little flip at the thought.

  “Then you switch offices anyway, like you planned. But at least we got to have wild, sweaty, dirty sex before you go. If this is all about getting laid, let’s do it.”

  Oooh, he was good at arguing a case. He knew he’d had her from the word “wild” too. She could see it in his eyes. “A hotel?” she suggested, resigned. A girl had only so much willpower and faced with a watertight argument, what else could she do?

  At least that’s what her inner devil said.

  “My place,” he said smoothly, having the grace not to gloat. “I’ve got everything I need to cook dinner—” He flashed a dazzling grin. “Naked.”

  “Oh, Lord…” She was blushing, she could feel it. That he knew her secret longings was embarrassing in the extreme. And a major turn-on, which was dangerous. She had to keep the two separate—the lawyer she admired and the playboy she wanted to fuck. “Let’s just keep this simple.”

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded slip of paper. Tucking it in her hand, he brushed his lips across hers. “No. You’ve been a good girl, so you deserve to have your wishes come true.” He kissed her again and it didn’t escape her for a second that he was the star of her sex dreams. “Come on, Steph, play along. It’ll be fun.”

  Fun. Guys like Nick were always having fun.

  “That’s directions to my condo. I’ll be waiting.”

  * * * * *

  By the time Steph got to Nick’s place, she was balls to the wall committed to having a good time. If she was going to binge, she was gorging. Period. So when she rang the doorbell and Nick answered wearing nothing but a Santa hat and an apron that said “Kiss the Cook”, she didn’t hesitate. She dropped her mini-duffle at his feet and jumped him.

  “Shit.” He stumbled backward in surprise but managed to shove the door closed before spinning his way to the nearest couch. They fell into black leather in a puddle of semi-naked gorgeous male and determined female.

  Straddling him, Steph leaned forward and kissed him hard and deep. His scent inundated her senses and her nipples hardened into aching points.

  Nick groaned.

  She sat up atop the hard ridge of his erection, an obvious sign that he was as ready as she. Digging into the pocket of her billowy gauze skirt, she pulled out a condom and tossed it on his chest. “Hurry up and put that on.”

  Blinking up at her, Nick sputtered, “Just like that? Wham, bam, let’s fuck?”

  “You complaining?”

  “Hell, no.” As she lifted to her knees to pull up her skirt, he fumbled for the foil package with comical haste. Then he glanced up and stilled, his gaze riveted between her legs. “Oh man. Steph… You’re not wearing panties.”

  “Ooops. Must have forgotten those.” She tucked the trailing hem into the elastic waistband.

  Dropping the condom, he licked his lips. “Whose wish list are we working on here?”

  The heat banked in his heavy-lidded eyes made her shiver. His Santa hat was askew, his dark hair pushed over his forehead. Adding in the apron, he should have looked silly. Instead, he looked edible. His arms were sexy as hell, the skin still bearing the remnants of a dark summer tan, the muscles beneath beautifully defined.

  “Come here.” The command was issued in a seductively husky voice that made goose bumps cover her skin despite the fire crackling in the fireplace.

  “Come where?” she teased softly.

  “Come in my mouth, sweetheart. I want to lap you up.”

  Oh. My. God!

  Forcing herself to crawl over him slowly so she didn’t look desperate, Steph kneeled astride his head. With one knee on the sofa armrest and the other on the very edge of the couch, she was spread wide, affording him an unhindered view. His warm hands slid up her thighs, his breath gusted over her sex. He squeezed her ass. She whimpered her excitement…

  And then he licked her cunt in a long deliberate lap.

  She clutched the back of the sofa like a lifeline and moaned.

  Kneading the backs of her thighs, he settled in to feast, gliding his tongue through her slit. Dipping inside her. Finding all the places that made her cry out and concentrating there before drifting away to find somewhere else. And then returning to stroke back and forth across her clit.

  “Don’t come too soon,” he murmured as her legs began to shake.

  “Are you kidding?” she gasped, her hips rocking into his busy mouth. “Don’t be so good at this.”

  His chuckle was filled with pure masculine satisfaction. “I want to be fucking you when you come.”

  She shuddered violently. “You better hurry up with that condom then.”

  “I’m ready whenever you are.”

  “Huh?”

  Nick’s grin was pure wickedness. “I guess you were a little distracted.”

  Glancing down the couch, her eyes widened. He’d flipped up the apron and sheathed the object of her day and night dreams. Long, thick and arching up to his stomach, his cock made her mouth water. No wonder the man had that air about him that screamed I know how to fuck your brains out. The picture hadn’t done him justice.

  She swallowed hard and moved to straddle his hips. He angled his cock upward solicitously. Her chest tight and heart racing, Steph paused just above him. It was the point of no return. Nothing would ever be the same between them once they had sex. Could she handle that? Could she keep the distance she needed?

  “Steph.”

  Her gaze shot up to meet his.

  “Remember your list?” Nick’s handsome face was flushed and his lips were slick with her cream, but despite the blatantly sexual look about him, his blue eyes shimmered with just as much compassion as lust. “It’s okay to take what you want,” he said softly. “Especially when it’s given to you.”

  She took a deep breath. Suddenly, she registered the holiday music playing softly and the smell of pine from the small, undecorated tree in the corner. If she went home, she’d be alone right now. Or she could spend the night with Nicholas James.

  She’d wanted this, wanted him. It was Christmas, damn it!

  Slick with desire, she sank onto him slowly, taking the only thing she’d asked for this year. The only thing she’d asked for in many years. To be touched and held. To be wanted.

  “Oh yeah,” he groaned, his hands stroking along her thighs, his back arching. “God, you feel good.”

  Steph bit her lower lip as the languorous glide continued. His cock filled her too full. The heat and hard
ness of it stole her breath. The wonderful length and width… As her buttocks hit his muscular thighs and the head of his cock struck deep, the sound that was torn from her was raw and needy.

  “I’ve got you,” he soothed gruffly as she leaned over him, shaking. He stroked the length of her spine, murmuring, “Lift up a little… Shush, I’ll give it to you… Right there. Now don’t move.”

  His hips lifted, stroking her cunt with a breathless thrust.

  “Nick. Oh my God!” She buried her face in his neck, her pussy spasming around him.

  He lowered and lifted again, fucking upward into her greedy depths. “How’s that feel?” he panted.

  “Like I’m losing my mind.” She lifted her head and looked at him. His chest rose and fell harshly against her breasts, making her wish she’d taken the time to get naked so she could feel him skin to skin.

  “Good. I’d hate to be the only one.” Holding her hips steady, he quickened his pace, surging upward in a relentless rhythm, withdrawing until only the thick head breeched her and then plunging balls deep with primal grunts.

  Keening softly, she clutched his shoulders and braced herself for the slap of his hips against hers. He felt so good… He smelled delicious…

  Nick spoke through gritted teeth, “Don’t wait for me.” He punctuated his order with a brutally hard thrust that caught her clit in just the right spot.

  Her orgasm was stunning. She was paralyzed, unable to move, every cell in her body focused on the rippling of her cunt along his endless length of hard cock. He jerked beneath her then crushed her to his chest, growling in her ear as he came.

  Holding him, she listened to the violent beating of his heart and the soft sounds of music, and she felt cared for.

  For the first time in a long time it felt like Christmas.

  Chapter Three

  Nick held Stephanie close and tried to focus his eyesight on the cobweb that hung in the corner. It was almost impossible. His brain and body felt like mush, which was really saying something considering how energized he’d been while waiting for her to arrive. He’d been worried she might not show and if that happened, there would be no way he could track her down until the office was open again. He had no idea how to reach her outside of work.

  Then she’d rang the bell and he’d run to the door, feeling like a kid on his first date. And when she’d tackled him, he felt like a king.

  He’d always known she would be like that, warm and open and sexy as hell. No shyness about her when it came to getting down and dirty. Just like when she argued a case, she gave one hundred percent to everything she did. Lucky for him, he got to be on the receiving end of that attention to detail.

  And he wanted it to stay that way.

  Steph wiggled just a tiny bit and it was enough to remind them both that his cock was still buried inside her. His balls gave a last weary twitch and his eyes slid closed in contentment. It’d been a long time since he’d come that hard and even longer since he’d cared this deeply about the woman he did it with.

  “Nick?”

  “Hmm?” He nuzzled against her neck.

  “You didn’t have anything on the stove, did you?”

  Groaning, he said, “Nah, but the oven’s on for the breadsticks.”

  She sighed. “We should probably go check on that.”

  It was the “we” that got to him. He’d wanted to be a “we” with Stephanie Martin for the last several months. Looking back now, he thought he knew when it’d hit him. She’d been standing in the break room talking to Charles from Entertainment and while laughing at something said to her, she’d met Nick’s gaze and winked.

  In that little blink of an eye, he’d fallen hard.

  That tiny wink had said so much. It was playful and affectionate, and it had warmed him on the inside enough to know that out of all the women in his world, she was the one he wanted to spend his down time with.

  Sliding off him carefully, Steph rose to her feet and wobbled a bit. When he stood, the same thing happened. His legs felt like jelly.

  “Jeez, Steph,” he said, laughing and clutching her close. “You wrung me out.”

  Her blush was lovely and he hated to let her go, but he had dinner to cook. He needed to charm her with more than his bedroom skills. So after a quick kiss on the nose, he moved toward the kitchen. Catching up her duffle on the way, he set it on a dining chair and took note of the luggage tag.

  “Stephanie Donovan?” he asked as he pulled off the condom and tossed it.

  She was righting her skirt and didn’t look up. “My maiden name.”

  “I didn’t know you were divorced.” He turned on the faucet and studied her as he washed his hands.

  “It’s not something that comes up and I don’t like to talk about it.”

  “That bad, huh?”

  Nick dried his hands then turned to light the burner beneath the waiting pot of water. “Want some wine? A beer?”

  “A beer would be nice, thanks.” Steph took a seat on a barstool at the breakfast bar. “It wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t good.”

  He grabbed a couple longnecks out of the fridge, twisted off the tops and set one in front of her. “How long ago did you break up?”

  “A couple years. Should have been sooner, but we were both too stubborn to admit it wasn’t working.”

  Catching up her hand, he gave it a squeeze. “You hate to give up. It’s what makes you such a damn good lawyer.”

  “Thanks.” Her dark eyes sparkled with warmth at his compliment. “Tom and I never should have gotten married. We were friends in law school, nothing more. He was such a player, I never took him seriously. Then somehow we ended up together and I still can’t figure out how or why.”

  “Love?”

  “I thought so, but really I think we did it just because it was ‘time’, you know? Tom felt like he was at the age where he should get married. All of his colleagues were married and I think he started to feel a little out of place.”

  “I can see that,” he admitted, resting his elbows on the granite countertop.

  She wrinkled her nose and it hit him suddenly that he’d just been inside her, holding her, touching her however he wanted. It was the first time he could remember where he didn’t forget the sex as soon as it was done. Fucking Steph was an addition to an already established relationship and not the entire reason for it.

  Now if he could only change their professional relationship into a personal one. He had to admit, he was usually actively working to do just the opposite so he was out of his depth.

  “Do guys have a marriage clock?”

  He laughed. “Like a biological clock?”

  “Yes.”

  “I guess there is some peer pressure after awhile. If you’re thirty-something and single, even women start to think there must be something wrong with you or else some chick would’ve snapped you up.” Turning away, he opened the fridge and pulled out the produce he’d chosen to make a salad with. He was a simple guy. Spaghetti, salad and breadsticks were about as much as he could do with confidence in a tasty outcome. “I personally don’t care what people think.”

  “I would say that’s pretty obvious.”

  The humor in her tone had him looking over his shoulder at her.

  Steph was grinning. “This whole wish list thing is really a bad idea, but I have to admit, it’s worth it to see you dressed like that.”

  “You’re not laughing at me, are you?” He’d been a little nervous. Like anyone, he didn’t want to look stupid in front of someone he wanted to sleep with. Bent over like he was, he knew she was getting an eyeful of every damn thing he had to offer.

  “No.” Her gaze was mischievous and warm. “I’m actually really impressed with you. You have enough confidence to wear that. I know I wouldn’t be able to do it.”

  “Personally…” He turned with an armful of vegetables, which he dumped on the counter. “I’d like you in just the hat. That’s my Christmas wish.”

  “You know—�
� Her fingers toyed with her beer.

  “I know what?”

  She sighed. “I really thought getting the sex out of the way would make me more comfortable.”

  “The sex isn’t ‘out of the way’,” he retorted, pulling a knife out of the wooden block next to him. “Just say what you’re thinking. I’m the one wearing nothing but a Santa hat, apron and a smile, so you’ve got no business being shy about anything.”

  “Thank you,” she blurted, her gaze focused on the beer label she was removing from the bottle. “I don’t care why you did it. I don’t care if you just want to get laid. I’m flattered you went to all this trouble.”

  Nick paused with his knife halfway through a cucumber and stared at her. “It wasn’t any trouble, Steph. I like giving you what you want, I like seeing you smile.”

  She blew out her breath and fiddled with her collar. “Do you need my help with anything?”

  It wasn’t like her to be so nervous or to switch subjects because she was uncomfortable, which told him she wasn’t dealing too well with tonight’s events. He knew it was a lot to throw at her—the photo, the wish list, the sex. Before the Secret Santa exchange they’d been nothing but distant co-workers. Now they were lovers. He’d had a couple months to adapt to his changing feelings for her. She’s had a couple hours. She was asking for a little space and he had no problem giving it to her.

  “No, I’ve got it covered. Go watch TV or something. It won’t be too much longer.”

  “Okay. I’m going to wash up then.”

  He gestured toward the hallway with a toss of his chin. “First door on the right.”

  Steph locked gazes with Nick for a long moment and knew she was in trouble. He didn’t have that air about him that said, Thanks for the fuck, you can go now. No, his vibe was very homey and relaxed. And she was falling for it like a ton of bricks.

  Somehow she made it down the short hallway to the bathroom, where she leaned against the vanity and stared in the mirror. The glazed look in her eyes and the flush on her cheeks made her wince.

  Damn it, she didn’t need this right now! A relationship was completely out of the question on a good day, but to fall for a guy who had “temporary” written all over him was just plain stupid. Hadn’t she learned anything at all from her years with Tom?