The Billionaire Boss's Bride

by Cathy Williams

  He reached out and gently, oh, so gently, began stroking the side of her thumb with his finger.

  For such a small gesture, it was unbearably erotic. She felt the dampness of arousal spread through her and when she finally did manage to breathe, it was laboured and painful.

  ‘Who does? Are you going to tell me?’ he coaxed softly, and she had to blink several times before she remembered what he had been saying in the first place.

  ‘I…I don’t need indulging…’ Her own whisper reached her ears with all the force of her forbidden excitement. For the life of her she couldn’t remove her hand even though her head was telling her to scramble her wits together and run away.

  ‘I don’t believe that…’ Curtis murmured. ‘Not for a minute.’ His finger moved from her thumb to the sensitive flesh of her wrist.

  ‘No boyfriend?’

  Fascinated by the movement of his finger, Tessa shook her head slowly.

  ‘Ever?’

  She shrugged. ‘I’ve had boyfriends, but nothing serious…’ Her lowered eyes flickered and he felt a sharp burst of exultation and an arousal that was so hard that it was almost painful.

  Without removing his hand, he slid out of his chair until he was squatting right in front of her, looking up at her. And still he continued that lazy caress of her arm, just a feathering of sensation that was sending her body into a vortex of sensuous excitement.

  ‘Poor baby,’ he murmured huskily.

  Tessa half opened her mouth to find a reply to this throaty observation, but before any words could emerge he straightened and she gasped as his mouth hit hers with a blinding, urgent passion that stifled every rational thought.

  The force of his kiss pushed her head against the chair and she wrapped her arms around his neck, drawing him closer to her and returning the kiss with all the pent-up craving that had been stalking her for weeks.

  He pushed her hair back so that he could nibble her ear and his warm breath had her squirming on the chair, panting softly with her eyes closed, arching her neck in open invitation for him to do what he was doing now, trailing his tongue against it, feathering it with kisses while his hand smoothed her taut skin above the waistband of her jeans.

  Jeans that felt too tight, too clinging.

  It was bliss when he parted her thighs with one hand so that he could position himself between them. Then he circled her waist with his hands, running them up along her ribcage and finding the restriction of her bra as impeding as she did.

  Lord, Tessa thought on a soundless groan, this is madness. But as he pushed up her shirt and pushed up her stretchy bra, madness and her ability to deal with it were lost in a swirl of intense, aching desire.

  She had never felt like this before. Had never even come close.

  In a daze of wonder, she half opened her eyes as his mouth found one nipple and he began to suck it. Her body slid rapturously down a couple of inches in the chair and she surrendered to the ecstasy of his warm, wet mouth exploring the tight buds of her breasts, loving them with exquisite tenderness.

  She was experiencing a sensation of total meltdown, and it was only the sudden noise of the television that alerted her numb senses to the awful reality of what they were doing and to the even more awful reality of Anna leaving the sitting room.

  With a squeak of horror, Tessa pushed him away, yanked down her top and her bra in one swift movement, over breasts that were still throbbing, and scooted to the furthest corner of the kitchen.

  God, she couldn’t look at him. She just couldn’t. It would be like looking her worst nightmare in the face and knowing that it wasn’t about to go away.

  How could she?

  No point blaming him. She had responded enthusiastically, desperately, and the thought of that was like a flood of icy water rushing over her, straight through her body and right into her veins.

  When she finally did raise her eyes Anna was pushing open the kitchen door and Curtis was back in his chair, outwardly as collected as she was torn apart inside.

  ‘It’s finished,’ Anna said, yawning. She had brought through the remaining pizza in its box on the tray and she deposited it on the kitchen counter, resoundingly unaware of any atmosphere in the kitchen.

  Tessa was deeply and profoundly grateful for the inherent selfishness of most adolescents, who rarely noticed anything that didn’t pertain to them.

  ‘Really?’ Tessa’s mouth ached as she forced herself to smile and appear relaxed. ‘Who won?’

  ‘The gigantic one with the straight black hair.’ Another yawn. ‘She had the muscles of a body-builder.’

  ‘You’re tired,’ Tessa said lightly, arms folded, holding herself in and still not daring to look across at Curtis, who was sitting forward with his elbows resting on his thighs. ‘So am I. In fact, I’m really going to have to be very rude and insist you both go home so that I can get some sleep.’

  ‘Dad?’

  ‘Uh. Yes.’ He glanced at his daughter, then seemed to give himself a mental shake before he stood up and stretched, an unconsciously graceful movement that Tessa resentfully thought summed him up. The way he looked, the way he spoke, the way he moved, it was all a work of Art and she had succumbed with shameful alacrity.

  ‘I’ll be out in a minute, Anna. I just want to have a quick word with Tessa about some work stuff she needs to do for me on Monday.’

  There was nothing Tessa could do to prevent Anna from leaving the kitchen and, since she would have to face him, this seemed as good a time as any. At least the experience wouldn’t last longer than a few minutes, not with his daughter waiting outside and twiddling her thumbs.

  ‘That should never have happened,’ was the first thing Curtis said when the kitchen door had closed behind Anna. He stood up and crossed the small distance separating them while Tessa steeled her features into a mask of frozen impassiveness. ‘And I’m sorry.’

  He raked his fingers in angry frustration through his hair. He had wanted and he had just gone right ahead and taken, he thought, sickened by himself. He hadn’t stopped to think that this woman was different, that this woman made him feel as though that whole-relationship-thing, as he cynically referred to it, might just be possible. If he could have turned the clock back, he would have, but he couldn’t.

  And now she was freezing him out. He gently placed his finger under her chin and, with a sharp flick of her head, Tessa backed away and looked at him coldly.

  Hadn’t he called her poor baby? Before he had touched her? Poor little Tessa, all alone on a Saturday night, with nowhere to go. Had he thought that seducing her might have been an act of kindness? He wouldn’t even have had to go down the complete road, just a kiss and a grope, enough to inject a little colour into her drab life and a little amusement into his. The pain of humiliation raced through her, making her giddy.

  She would hate him, she thought, but only after she had hated herself. For closing her eyes and sipping from the poisoned chalice. It was no good telling herself that her body had let her down, that her emotions had been too awesomely powerful for her to withstand.

  ‘I think we should both forget what just happened.’ She was surprised at how composed she sounded. ‘Things got a little out of control, that’s all.’

  ‘That’s all?’

  What more did he want her to say? she wondered savagely. Did he want her to confess how much he had blown her over? Did he want her to massage his already mightily healthy ego by agreeing that she had very nearly become yet another notch on his much-indented bedpost?

  ‘That’s right. I may not be as old as you or as experienced…’ she shuddered at the dreadfully personal confidence she had shared with him in her heady moment of passion ‘…but nor am I a silly little fool.’ She dismissed the unfortunate incident in a casual shrug. At least, she desperately hoped that she gave that impression. ‘These things happen.’ Except not to her. To him, yes. To those women with their short, short skirts and come-to-bed eyes, yes. But she knew herself well and the unfortunate i
ncident went far beyond just being unfortunate. It was something that had opened her eyes to the very real fear that she was falling for her boss. Her wildly exciting, unorthodox and utterly unsuitable boss.

  ‘These things sometimes happen, but—’

  Tessa saw the yawning, hideous chasm open up in front of her and rushed in to cut him off in mid-correct assumption.

  ‘Never again.’ She drew herself up to her full height and mutinously stuck her chin forward. ‘It was a mistake and I have to have your word that it will never happen again or else I shall have no option but to leave your company immediately.’

  ‘Fighting talk,’ Curtis murmured. ‘What makes you think that I would be the perpetrator of any further mistakes?’

  It took a few seconds for the meaning of what he had said to sink in, and then she uttered a little dismayed grunt. He was nothing if not direct. He was reminding her that she hadn’t exactly been an innocent angel, passively having to endure his advances. She thought of her enthusiastic responses and a tidal wave of pure shame washed over her.

  ‘Because I never make the same mistake twice,’ she said forcefully. She had never even been in a situation like this before but even so she knew that she couldn’t afford to let her emotions overtake her sanity as she had just done.

  ‘I’ll be taking next week off,’ Curtis said, moving towards the kitchen door and opening it. ‘Having some quality time with Anna as I haven’t seen as much of her this week as I wanted to.’

  Tessa breathed a sigh of profound relief. She managed to unglue her feet and follow him out of the kitchen, and even managed a smile when they were standing at the front door.

  ‘It’s been brilliant working for you,’ Anna enthused, making it difficult for Tessa not to be moved by the sincerity. ‘Guess I’ll see you next time I’m home? Which would be Christmas?’

  ‘I hope so,’ Tessa said, directing her attention to Anna but reserving the significance of her words for Curtis.

  ‘I’m sure Tessa will have no reason to leave the company before then,’ Curtis murmured to his daughter, conversing with Tessa just below the surface, as she had done with him.

  Because, Tessa thought, closing the door on them and then leaning heavily against it to stop herself from subsiding to the floor, he certainly would give her no reason to go. Those twenty ruinous minutes would be history for him because they had meant nothing, hence he could assure her, truthfully, that they would not be repeated.

  For her, however…

  She let her legs do what they wanted to do and sat down, back to the front door.

  Thank goodness he wouldn’t be around for a week. She could put everything in perspective and, really, she was not a silly, emotional girl. It was a calming thought. She simply wouldn’t allow Curtis Diaz to get under her skin and the fact that he had played her for a fool was mortifying…but helpful.

  After all, who, in the end, could be attracted to a man who had had no qualms in making a pass at a woman out of pity?

  CHAPTER SIX

  ‘YOU’RE not still here!’ Curtis stopped in the middle of the office and frowned. He, himself, wouldn’t be here but for the fact that he had forgotten his mother’s Christmas present in his desk drawer.

  Tessa looked up guiltily and flushed.

  Yes, here she was. Still. At four-thirty in the afternoon when the office was deserted because everyone had either gone home already or else had joined the group who had chosen to have a last lunch and drink at the pub down the road before the company closed for the Christmas break.

  ‘I was just about to leave,’ she said, switching off her computer and shoving things into her drawers, tidying up her desk. ‘I wanted to finish all my work before the break.’

  ‘How industrious,’ Curtis said dryly, strolling over to where she was doing her best to ignore him by concentrating hard on flicking through the remnants of her filing tray. ‘I think what’s left can wait, don’t you?’ He reached out and circled her wrist with his fingers, stopping her in mid-tidy.

  Tessa’s heart did that familiar, lurching thing and she could feel every nerve in her body tense as she stilled and looked at him, at the lazy, perceptive eyes boring into her.

  The past seven weeks had been a trial by ordeal. Her ordeal. After that incident in the kitchen, he had stuck rigidly to her request that they forget about what had happened. She had not seen him for the week after, when he had been out of the office, taking his daughter on various excursions, although they had spoken on the telephone regularly, at least twice a day, purely on work matters. When he had come back, things had returned to normal, the only difference between them that she could see was that he was slightly more aloof than he had been.

  They settled back into a familiar routine, although he no longer pried into her private life. She was left to assume that the ease with which he had forgotten what had taken place told its own telling story about how much the misplaced episode had affected him. Not much.

  ‘Why didn’t you come to the pub with us?’ he was asking her now. ‘Don’t tell me you preferred to stay here and make sure all your pencils were neatly arranged in your drawer before you left? I thought your excuse was that you had to go and do some last-minute Christmas shopping?’

  He had released her hand and Tessa made good the opportunity to skirt round her desk and head towards the coat stand in the corner of the room. She could feel his eyes following her every movement.

  ‘I do have a bit of shopping to do, actually,’ she flung lightly over her shoulder as she put on her coat.

  ‘Oh, yes. What?’

  ‘This and that.’ She shrugged and then, wondering whether he was going to stay on, hovered for a while. ‘Are you going to be working now?’

  ‘Yes,’ Curtis informed her gravely. ‘I thought I might just get in a couple of hours’ work. You know, tidy my desk and get all my pens and pencils in some kind of order for when I return after the Christmas break.’

  Tessa lowered her eyes, but her mouth was twitching. However much she knew that she should keep her distance from him, there were times, as now, when he made her want to grin. And it had been for ever since he had adopted that teasing tone with her, the one that made her toes curl and the hair on the nape of her neck stand on end.

  ‘That’s very important,’ she returned with equal gravity. ‘There’s nothing worse than getting back to your desk after a little break to find that all your stationery’s in a muddle.’

  ‘Actually, I just came to get my mother’s Christmas present from the drawer. Hang on a minute and I’ll come down with you.’ He disappeared into his office, fetched a box without bothering to turn the light on, and reappeared, still in his coat, which he hadn’t removed.

  Tessa picked the first neutral subject she could think of as they walked towards the lift, and asked him what he had bought for his mother.

  ‘An antique brooch and some matching earrings,’ he said. ‘For some reason she’s into things like that.’ He was tossing the box lightly from one hand to the other. Tessa caught it in mid-air and handed it to him.

  ‘I don’t think you should be doing that,’ she said sternly. ‘What if it drops and breaks?’

  ‘The shop has very carefully wrapped the contents in tissue paper,’ Curtis said, pocketing the box, ‘so I don’t think there’s much chance of that happening.’ He looked at her sideways, amused and irritated to see the way she huddled against the side of the lift as though to stand any closer to him might bring her into contact with an infectious disease.

  ‘What last-minute things have you got to buy?’ he asked, stepping aside when the lift shuddered to a stop so that she could brush past him. In a minute she would be gone, eaten up by the black wintry evening outside. ‘What are your plans for Christmas?’

  ‘A stocking filler for my sister and not much, to answer your questions.’ Tessa turned to him and forced herself to smile. What was he going to be doing for Christmas? He wouldn’t be seeing Susie. She knew that for a fact. He and Su
sie were no longer an item. The company grapevine, with its usual irreverent efficiency, had long ago gleaned that Curtis and his Barbie doll had run their course. For the past four weeks, bets had been on as to what the replacement would look like and Curtis, fully aware of the furious speculation, had responded by informing them that he would be trying out celibacy for the foreseeable future. This in itself was sufficient to raise the tempo of the guessing games.

  ‘Not much…hmm…sounds a little dull…’

  Tessa had an instant replay in her head of him kissing her in the kitchen, caressing her, pushing up her shirt and bra so that he could attend to her breasts. All because he had felt sorry for her because she was dull. A spurt of anger made her turn to him.

  ‘And what are you going to be doing?’ she enquired with barbed sarcasm. ‘Have you got a thrilling few days lined up? I mean, you never said…Susie the Barbie doll is no longer around, so who’s the replacement? Have you decided to go for a different model this time or stick to what you know? Someone blonde and busty with a vocabulary that just boils down to the one word yes?’

  She could have kicked herself when he smiled a long, slow smile at her.

  She turned away abruptly and headed towards the exit, aware that he was following her, his footsteps as stealthy as a cat’s.

  ‘I didn’t realise you’d been following the progress of my love life with as much gusto as everyone else,’ Curtis murmured alongside her as they stepped out into the freezing embrace of a winter in full throttle. ‘I don’t recall ever seeing you adding any contributions to the board in the corridor.’

  The board in the corridor had been the bright idea of one of the computer whizkids. It charted each and every speculation from anyone who cared to have input and entries ranged from petite brunette with Hollywood aspirations to older woman with a yen for toy boys. Curtis eyed it with amusement every time he walked past and occasionally wrote his own cryptic message on it himself.

  ‘That’s because I haven’t,’ Tessa said tartly. ‘I’m about to head to the underground, so have a good Christmas.’