Dedication
To Lillie and Fatin for providing the inspiration, to Vivian Arend for joining me in this venture and being one of the best people I know, and to Anne Scott for living up to all of the wonderful things your authors say about you. Thanks to all.
Chapter One
Thea Marshall’s back hit the wall. Words caught in her throat as strong hands skimmed up her skirt and along the bare skin of her upper thighs. A mix of heat and need pulsed through the office.
The breath rushed out of her and the room went wavy, but she welcomed the rush. She’d craved his touch, dreamed about this moment, since that first day she walked into the executive suite of Campbell Construction four months ago.
Everything about Lincoln Campbell worked for her. From the scruff over his chin to the short, almost military-cut brown hair and intense blue eyes. That simple black-band watch he always wore.
The chest, the face. And the hands. Those long fingers were pure perfection.
“This is a mistake.” He said the words against her neck, but his mouth kept moving. Licking and kissing while he hooked a palm under the back of her knee. With a tug her leg landed high on his hip, leaving her open and vulnerable to his touch.
“I know.” Part of her wanted to relax into him. Let those fingertips travel all over her until every cell screamed for him to push inside. She needed all the intensity he usually focused on the job to switch to her. Surround her.
But she didn’t plan to sit back and watch. She’d strip him, taste him. One by one she opened the buttons of his crisp white dress shirt, placing a kiss on each muscled inch she uncovered. Next went the aqua tie that highlighted his eyes.
No wonder her control had finally cracked tonight. She’d opened the door to say goodnight and let him know everyone, including the cleaning crew, had cleared the floor. Knocked right into him and now their mouths roamed all over each other.
One of his hands slapped against the wall next to her head as the other slipped past the elastic band of her panties. She angled her hips, trapping his fingers between them.
“I can’t stop.” His fingers mirrored his words. One rubbed against her. Slid right into her folds and brushed up and down.
Her head fell back as the room began a lazy spin. “Me either.”
“We should—”
“No.” Her head snapped back up when she heard the brief return of his hesitation.
She spared a second’s thought for the blaring HR warnings and all those mandatory workshops about undue influence at work. They were necessary, but not for them. Linc wasn’t using her. She wanted him and absolutely knew what she was doing.
“Thea.”
He was going to back away and go into emotional-lockdown mode. No way could she let that happen because she would never get him back to this place again. Not after all the months of waiting and hoping, watching him go out with a series of cool blondes in the evening after spending afternoon meetings looking away the second she glanced in his direction.
She put her palms against his cheeks and forced him to meet her gaze now, willing him to listen and believe. “This is my choice. I’m saying yes.”
“You’re my—”
“Kiss me.”
She pressed her lips against his. Before one breath could pass to the next, the kiss turned raw and hot. His mouth explored hers as her ankle snagged the inside of his thigh. This close his taste, his smell, seared her senses. Sensations bombarded her, and she grabbed onto those impressive shoulders to keep from sliding to the floor.
After a minute his mouth broke off. Instead of pulling away, his lips went to that tender place right at the back of her ear as his fingers maintained a steady rhythm, back and forth over her.
“I know better than this,” he said.
The shiver started in her chest and shook to her knees. “Stop talking.”
One of those amazing fingers pushed up inside her. Her internal muscles clung to him, bringing him in deeper. When she tightened her thigh until it locked their bodies together, a groan rumbled from his chest. It sounded as if it had been ripped out of him.
A sudden stillness fell over him. His biceps bunched and tension radiated around them. Slow and steady, he dropped his head until his forehead rested against hers.
No, no, no. “Linc?”
“Walk away.”
She shook her head, letting her hair drift over her shoulders. “No.”
“Please.”
“I want you.” She lifted his head and whispered the words against his lips. “Forget I’m your assistant and you’re the boss. Forget the rules. This isn’t about power and we both know it.”
He barked out a harsh laugh. “I should at least take you to dinner first.”
As if she could choke down a bite right now. “I doubt we’d make it to the elevator.”
He lifted his head. The steady gaze from those ice-blue eyes pinned her to the floor. “Then the wall it is.”
The words barely registered before he slid out of her arms. Frantic, she reached for him, thinking to draw him close again, but he had his suit jacket off and his shirt unbuttoned to his waist. His shoulders blocked her view of the rest of the plush corner office as the heat simmering between them caused her vision to blur.
She blinked to regain her focus. When it cleared, she saw a blank space in front of her. Looking down, she found the top of his head and her heart picked up in a crazy hammering beat.
She watched as his knees hit the floor. He tugged and pulled her skirt until the material bunched at her waist. Fingers danced over the lacey band of her thigh-high stockings. The ones she slipped on when she thought about him.
With his hands locked on the back of her thighs, just below her ass, he lowered his head and pressed a kiss against the damp crotch of her panties. When he did it a second time, her hips lifted away from the wall.
“Linc.” Her hands clawed at his back. “Do it now.”
His finger joined his mouth. “Not yet.”
The steady friction of silk against her sensitive skin had her insides clenching. The scrape against her thighs as he drew the panties down her legs to her ankles had her body shaking in anticipation. And when he traced his fingertip over the thin strip of hair that covered her, she almost shoved him to the floor and climbed on top of him.
“I want you inside me.” There, after weeks of thinking it and all those time she’d practiced telling him, she finally went with blurting it out.
“Soon.” He slid a finger just inside her.
“Now.”
“You’re so wet.”
Her hands went to his head as her palms smoothed over his hair. “For you.”
He glanced up at her then. The corner of his mouth kicked up in a smile that promised nothing but pleasure. “I’m going to lick you until you scream.”
“Yes.” The word escaped her lips more as a breath than a word.
“After you come—and you are going to come, Thea, over and over—I’m going to drag you to my desk.”
The words ricocheted through her, setting a fire in their path. “Now.”
“With you riding my dick and these soft thighs tight against my sides, I’m going to enter you. Deep, in one long stroke, like I’ve been dying to do since that first day you walked in wearing that prim navy business suit and I spent all afternoon mentally stripping it off you.”
Her mind cleared for a second. “Wait, you’ve been dying to…”
“Later.”
Her fingers tightened in his hair and words jumbled together again when his tongue licked inside her. Her heartbeat hiccupped as she struggled to bring in enough air to breathe. “I think I’m
going to fall down.”
“I’ll catch you.” He mumbled the words against her and the vibration had her gasping.
“Do it now.”
Linc brushed his hands up and down the armrests of his desk chair. Forget the dragging August humidity and the steady stream of cars backing up and honking their way through downtown Washington, DC, ten floors below. All he could see was Thea straddling him with her shirt open and his hands cupped over her firm breasts.
She rode him last night while her long brown hair streamed down her back as her nails dug into the leather behind his head. Walking in with his coffee this morning, he’d spied the half-moon indentations on the usually smooth surface. And damn if that didn’t bring the memories of being inside her rushing back. Going down on her against the wall. Feeling her slide over him as he rocked back in this very chair.
Hours later they’d made it to his house. He had no idea how that happened without crashing the car. A few turns and up the elevator. Then sex in the bedroom hallway…and later in the shower and then the kitchen.
After twelve hours he’d imprinted every inch of her body on his brain.
Too bad he couldn’t drum up any interest in work. He shoved the file he’d been trying to read for a half hour away from him. The words ran together and his mind stayed out of the game.
Who the hell was he kidding when it came to her? Thea had occupied his thoughts from the beginning. He’d dated other women, fucked other women since he’d met her, and none of them had pushed her face or that smile out of his head.
On a professional level, he’d been thrilled to steal her away from a law firm a few blocks down on K Street. At twenty-six, she was young but dedicated. She charmed clients, made the staff happy and put her body in front of his as an endless parade of employees tried to see him over petty crap he didn’t want to deal with. Basically, the perfect assistant.
She favored monochrome suits. Appropriate ones with a flash of skin showing on her chest and short enough to treat him to miles of toned legs. Not prim, not with the way the suits skimmed her curves, but not overtly sexy either. Just, like everything else about her, the clothes grabbed attention and teased about what she hid underneath.
And now he knew what she wore under those body-highlighting suits. Thigh-high stockings and tiny black underwear so thin he could smell her through the material.
He shifted as his pants tightened against his fly. “Son of a bitch.”
So much for thinking he’d put his playboy, reckless days behind him. Attraction, sure. That was normal and he felt a kick of it with women at parties and at the gym. But full-scale, ignore-everything-for-fun lust? He’d thought he’d given up that crap years ago after he crashed his third car and sent his sister to the hospital.
Maybe his father was right. The uselessness was in the blood.
After two knocks the office door pushed open. Linc’s chest pounded at the possibility of seeing Thea after an agreed-to morning of ignoring each other. And didn’t it piss him off that the mere anticipation of being near her had him smiling like a simpleton. He needed meds or something.
But the person standing in the doorway was too hairy, too tall and way too male to be Thea. No, Linc knew all about this visitor, including the fact his usual relaxed smile had taken a vacation. “What is it?”
Nick Talbott, friend since college and the Vice President of Campbell Construction, stormed in. Gone was his lazy walk and easy joking. With his head down and his shoulders straight, he stalked across the office, his focus never wavering from the thick folder in his hands. “We have a problem.”
They were balancing multiple projects, including the biggest one of their careers. The same one on the verge of falling apart thanks to an information leak. Then there was the part where Linc had broken every HR rule on the books by sleeping with his assistant and probably a few more by mentally planning when he could do it again.
That sort of shit tended to throw a guy off his stride. “Only one?”
“The report came back.” Nick stopped on the opposite side of the desk and dropped a thick file. It landed with a thwap against the wood top.
Linc’s gaze went from the closed folder to Nick’s face. The tic in his friend’s cheek couldn’t be good. “What’s with the dramatics?” Linc asked.
“It’s about Thea.”
His stomach hollowed out. There was no fucking way the news got out this fast. They’d been careful. He’d dropped her around the corner this morning, and she came in with coffee alone, as if she’d gone out for a beverage run after parking her car in the downstairs garage early. He’d sauntered in, forcing his gaze away from her as he slipped by her desk fifteen minutes later.
“Linc, do you hear what I’m saying?”
“Not really.”
Nick’s expression had what’s wrong with you written all over it. “How can you be this calm?”
“What are we even talking about?” Linc asked, trying to sound cool even as he wondered if he should call his business attorney for a reality check.
“Thea.”
“You said her name already.” And it looked as if that cheek tic Nick had picked up wasn’t going away, which meant Linc couldn’t outmaneuver this one. Leaning back in his chair, he forced his shoulders to relax. Going in defensive was not the right strategy with Nick. They’d known each other too long. “I can explain last night.”
Nick frowned. “Okay.”
“I take full responsibility. Not that I regret a damn thing, but there are rules and I ignored them. There was probably a smarter way to go about it, with a contract or something.”
“A contract?”
“But, really, who wants to plan these things.” And since Linc intended to keep on ignoring the rules and contracts and everything else that sucked the life out of mattress time, he needed to speak with HR about easing up on the no-office-dating rule. Seemed a bit strict and unbending now anyway. If coworkers wanted to date, the office could figure out a way to separate that out from harassment and coercion.
Nick dropped into the closest chair. Silence fell over the room as he continued to stare.
Fine with Linc. He’d grown up with a feisty baby sister who liked to torment him by playing games like this. She’d been engaging in them since she was two and he turned nine. Twenty-five years later he could win trophies for knowing when to stay silent versus spilling his guts to fill the quiet.
The chair creaked as Nick leaned forward with his elbows balanced on his knees. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Huh?”
“The last three minutes. You rambled on about something. I’ll be damned if I know what.”
No way was Linc biting. “It’s nothing.”
“Feels like something. What the fuck is going on?”
So this is what happened when grown-ups acted like naughty teenagers. They made up excuses and got caught in their own fumbling. Linc had no idea how the businessmen he knew conducted their clandestine affairs. Remembering the stories, juggling routines. Even ignoring how stupid fooling around was, who the hell had time for this shit?
“You go first.” As the boss, Linc figured he was entitled to make that demand.
Nick steepled his hands together. “The trail leads back to Thea.”
That didn’t clear the confusion up one bit. Linc blew out a long breath, grabbing on to the last of his control. “Now it’s your turn. What are we talking about?”
Nick opened the cover of the file and tapped his finger against the memo on the top page. “The fact your assistant stole the draft bid proposal for the university job and gave it to our competition.”
The thundering in Linc’s head made it hard for him to hear. He leaned forward as he tried to shake the rattle loose. “Excuse me?”
“She’s the mole.”
Now and then Linc had heard guys at the gym talk about how something would happen and their minds went blank. How they received news and the world slowed to a crawl. Linc always thought the i
dea sounded ridiculous, like something a dramatic preteen girl might say, but now he got it. Voices muffled and the air slowed until he thought he could see it move.
As soon as he snapped back to life, denial rushed up and clobbered him. “No way.”
“Maybe she needed the money. Who the fuck knows.” Nick shook his head. “She could have a sick dog or a hospitalized aunt without insurance. I’m sure there’s a sob story, unless this was the plan all along. Get in close with you, earn your trust then rob you.”
The words wouldn’t go in. It was as if Linc’s brain got stuck on permanent misfire. He just hoped the feeling would soon return to his fingers. Every muscle had gone numb. “I said no.”
“I know you handpicked her, but—”
“No.” Linc stood up fast enough to send his chair shooting back against the bookcases behind him. In three steps he was in front of the oversized window staring at the stoplight at the intersection below. “The investigator is wrong.”
He heard the chair squeak and the soft thud of footsteps against the carpet. A piece of paper flashed in front of him as Nick held it then joined in the man-versus-traffic staring contest. “She used her key card to the management suite two nights in a row. The cameras we set up show her in your office and at your computer. Then going to your safe, all after-hours. The confidential bid proposal was leaked the next day. Thank God we were tipped off to the draft being stolen so we could replace the final version with a fake.”
Linc didn’t touch the paper. Didn’t glance at it.
“Look, man.” Nick leaned against the window and faced Linc. “I didn’t want it to be her either.”
This was so much worse than Nick could imagine. This was about betrayal. About being sucked in by a pretty face and long pair of legs. About being so into her, he’d ignored the rules.
Years ago when he’d cleaned up his life, Linc had made a vow never to be that guy again. But here he was, stepping right back into the crap. Being led by his dick.
“It can’t be.” He said it, but each time he repeated the words he believed them less.
The pieces fell together in his head. Thea happened to be available when he needed an assistant. He gave her access to every damn thing. She was one of the few people with the information on their preliminary bid for the project at the University of Maryland, the lucrative project every firm in town had been prepping for since the announcement last year. The same bid information Linc knew had been leaked to his main competition.
Baby, It's Cold Outside: Men at Work, Book 1 Page 1
