by Sabrina York
After that debacle, Katherine had decided to avoid dating—hence her forays onto the internet. And Adam.
She glanced up and found he was awake. His beautiful blue eyes were fixed on her face.
He smiled. “Good morning, you.” He leaned in for a kiss.
“Mmph.” She slapped a hand over her mouth. “Morning breath.”
He resolutely removed her hand and pressed his lips to hers. He nuzzled her mouth. His tongue swept in to explore with tantalizing licks.
“I love the way you taste. Love the way you smell.” He nested his nose in her neck and nibbled there until she started to grunt and groan in pleasure.
“Adam,” she breathed. “Stop it.”
He lifted his head and gazed at her. “Do you really want me to stop?”
She traced his lips with her fingertip. “No. But we need to talk.”
With a groan, he flopped back down onto the bed. “Oh no. Not the we-have-to-talk talk.”
“Well, we do.” This was serious. “Tomorrow we have to go back home.”
“Don’t remind me.” He pulled the covers over his head.
“Adam, we have to talk about this.”
He poked out his head and studied her. “Yes,” he said at last. “But can’t it at least wait until we’ve had breakfast?”
Her stomach rumbled at just that moment and they both laughed. He threw back the covers, revealing his exquisitely muscled form.
“I’ll call room service,” he said, padding naked into the hall.
And she was left with the vision of his defined and dimpled ass burned into her mind’s eye, realizing with wonder that the sudden rising hunger wasn’t for food at all.
In the end, they nearly missed breakfast altogether. After placing the order for room service, Adam joined Katherine in the shower—showing her all kinds of interesting things one can do with a bar of soap. They became so engrossed in this scintillating study, they almost didn’t hear the repeated knocks on the door.
Even then, Adam had to answer the door wearing nothing but a skimpy towel and a rueful grin. As the waiter nodded and rolled the laden cart into the suite, Adam realized what the living room looked like.
Clothes—his and hers—were strewn everywhere. His sweatpants dangled from the back of the sofa, her teddy was in a mangled heap on the floor and her panties—her panties for God’s sake—were crumpled next to the dining room table. He knew how it appeared but he really didn’t care. Still, he made sure to give the waiter a generous tip, because the long-suffering man managed to keep his eyes averted and his knowing smile at bay.
Once they were private once more, Adam called Katherine into the dining room—delighted to see her prance in wearing nothing but a slightly damp towel. Together they uncovered dish after dish—he’d ordered rather generously from the menu, as he didn’t know her tastes.
“Ooh,” she cooed. “Eggs Benedict.”
Adam frowned. He’d ordered that because it was his favorite. Blast. He’d have to share. But then he realized he didn’t mind sharing with Katherine. Perhaps he could convince her to lick hollandaise off his body. Several promising spots came to mind and he grinned like a wolf.
“Negotiations may be necessary,” he purred, stepping closer.
She tipped her head to the side. “What?”
He flicked at the knot holding her towel in place. It fell with dramatic flair, tumbling to her feet in a rumpled mass. She stood before him, naked, exquisite. He dipped a finger into the butter sauce and dabbed it onto a hardened nipple, swirling the warm cream around her areola as well. Holding her gaze, he bent his head and licked her clean.
By the end of this exercise, she was panting.
“I do like my hollandaise,” he growled.
Breakfast, it turned out, could wait.
It wasn’t until several hours later that they, satiated in mind and spirit, returned to the conversation Katherine had suggested when they awoke. They were lying together on a lounger on the balcony, the city splayed before them. They were full and drained, physically replete. It was time to talk.
“There’s something I want to know,” she said by way of introducing the subject. It had been bothering her since last night, since he’d revealed his identity as her secret online lover. But she’d forced it to the back of her mind, refusing to let her doubts ruin the conflagration of their passion.
“Hmm?” He leisurely stroked her hair, massaged her scalp. It felt wonderful. She purred and rubbed against him like a cat.
What was she going to ask again? Oh. Yes. “How long, Adam?”
“Huh?” He tipped his head to stare at her.
She nestled closer, shifting so she rested on his hard chest, her chin poised in her folded hands. She could see his face from this position, see into his soul. “How long have you known about me?”
“Ah.” His brow arched as realization dawned. “About Wildkat?”
“Yes.” Having felt the pain of being mocked by a lover—Dumbshit though he’d been—she was sensitive about certain things. It bothered her that Adam had known who she was while she’d had no clue about his identity until she’d walked into the kitchen and seen him cracking out ice cubes.
He seemed to understand her concern, because he kissed her and resumed the tantalizing torment on her skin, stroking her neck and causing all manner of delusion to swell within her.
“Not long. I only began to suspect when you said something to Sara about a duck on a june bug.”
“I did?” She really didn’t remember saying any such thing.
He nodded. “After the meeting where Tristan gave us this assignment.”
“Oh.” She tapped her lip reflectively. “That was less than a week ago.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “Did you think I was playing you?”
“Maybe. A little.”
He shrugged. “I kind of did. I was trying to figure out if it was really you or not. I kept thinking it had to be a coincidence. But once you wore that red vest, hell, all I could think of was getting you somewhere far away from the office and fucking you silly.”
“Which, I might add, you did.”
He shot her a self-satisfied smile. “I still can’t believe we found each other online.”
“I’m glad we did.”
“Mmm. Me too. What made you pick that chat site? Of all the chat sites on the internet?”
Katherine smiled. “Sara told me about it.”
Adam barked a laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“I went there, just to check it out, because I heard Sara talking to Shannon about it.”
“Really? Just think. If things had turned out differently, you could be cuddling one of them right now.”
He tightened his arms around her. “I don’t want Sara or Shannon. I want you.”
“Oh Adam.” She sighed. “What are we going to do when we get back?”
“What do you mean?”
She tried to push away but he wouldn’t let her. “We can’t do this in the office.” She gestured to their twined, very naked bodies.
He shrugged and slipped a hand deftly between her legs. “Technically, we probably shouldn’t be doing this on a balcony.”
She smacked his muscled arm with an impotent fist. “Cut it out. I’m serious. My job means a lot to me. When this ends, it’ll be impossible for us to work together. To see each other every day. All day. My office faces yours, for heaven’s sake.”
“It’s not gonna end.” He nibbled on her neck.
“Everything ends,” she said. “Besides, in the meantime, I don’t want to get fired because I’m screwing the boss.”
“That won’t happen.”
She sent him a dark look. “It’s happened before.”
He stilled. “What are you talking about?”
“Remember Dumbshit?”
“The pathetic one-timer? Yeah.”
Katherine shrugged. “We worked together. After our brief affair—”
<
br /> “Very brief affair.”
“After our very brief affair, he told everyone. It was awful. I was the one who got hauled onto the carpet. I was the one who had to deal with the snide comments and the innuendos. Getting routinely passed over for prime projects. I was the one who had to eventually quit. I’m not letting that happen again. I’m not.”
“Nothing like that is going to happen.” A fierce frown crossed his face. “If anyone would get in trouble over this, it’s me. Tristan and I have one steadfast rule and it’s—”
“Don’t fish in the company pond.”
He blinked. “How did you know about that?”
“Everyone knows.” She sighed. “There’s only one thing we can do.”
“What?” His frown grew darker. Clearly he didn’t like where she was going with this. But it was true. There was only one logical end to this.
An end to this.
“We stop.” Her voice was soft but resolute.
“The hell!” He untangled himself and shot to his feet—magnificent and hard and…angry—and sat on the lounger next to hers. She shivered a little at the loss of his warmth. His presence. “Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting? After what we’ve shared? After all this? We just stop? Just walk away? Is that what you want?”
She shook her head. “No.” Of course not. “I just don’t see any other way to balance our jobs with…” She waved her hand, unable to come up with words to describe what they had. “This.”
“I do.” He growled, coming to his knees before her and yanking her into his arms. “This isn’t over. Not by a long shot.”
“But…”
“We can still see each other. We will still see each other.”
“But…”
“No one at work needs to know. Well, Tristan has to know but no one else. It’s a private relationship. Between us. We’ll just keep it between us.”
“Tristan?” A pain pinged in her chest. Her breath hitched. Panic swirled in her gut. “We can’t tell Tristan.” They couldn’t tell anyone. The specter of her last affair, her last disaster loomed.
“We have to tell him, hon, he’s my brother. I can’t keep something like this a secret.” He snorted a laugh. “Hell, even if I wanted to keep it a secret from him, I wouldn’t be able to. He’d figure it out. And then there’d really be hell to pay.”
She couldn’t look at him. She just couldn’t. She turned her head and stared out at the city but she didn’t see anything. Dark memories blinded her.
“Kat?”
She didn’t answer.
“Kat? Sweetheart. Talk to me.”
She sniffed. Swiped at her cheeks.
“What is it?”
“I’m just…”
“What?”
“I’m scared, Adam.” There. It was out. “So scared that it’ll happen again.”
“It won’t happen again.” He frowned. “It won’t. I promise. Only Tristan will know.”
“And it won’t interfere with my work? My position at the company?”
“No.”
“Because I don’t think I could take that again. It was awful. People were mean.”
“It won’t happen again. I promise.”
She eyed him warily. “You won’t send me emails trying to get me to play with myself in the office?”
His smile was ingenuous. “Only at lunchtime.”
“Oh, Adam.” She had to laugh. She had to. He was so adorable.
“Oh, Kat.” He kissed her gently. “So… Do we have a deal?”
“We keep playing as long as no one in the office—”
“Except Tristan.”
“As long as no one except Tristan knows about it.”
“Perfect.”
“Perfect.”
But was it perfect? An old worry gnawed at the back of her brain.
She leaned back on the lounger, giving him access to all sorts of delectable treats. And as he nibbled and licked them both to heaven, she thrust away her suspicion that the deal they’d struck wasn’t really perfect at all. In fact, it had some rather fatal flaws.
Because this was what she wanted now. For once in her life she’d let tomorrow worry about itself.
Chapter Ten
They returned to the office like conquering heroes because that one presentation nearly doubled their business—and promised to do much more. No one questioned why they’d missed the reception or a number of the breakout sessions on the second day of the conference they’d been keen to attend. Or the banquet. Or the closing session. Or the exhibit hall.
Everyone simply assumed they’d been celebrating. Which they had been. After a fashion.
Every time he thought about it, Adam couldn’t stop a goofy grin from blossoming on his face. He’d start remembering something she’d said or done. Or something he’d said or done. Or he’d start thinking about something he’d like to say. Or do—mostly do—and he would be possessed of the urge to smirk.
Everyone else was so delighted with the outcome of the conference they assumed that was the source of his inappropriate chortles. They all assumed he was gloating.
Everyone, that was, but Tristan.
Tristan knew something more was up. Tristan knew it immediately.
It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. Tristan and his brother had been in business together for years. They’d started this company with Jack Maris straight out of college and been through countless ups and downs since then. Tristan had seen his brother elated over a number of triumphs as the company grew by leaps and bounds. Granted, this was one of the greatest bounds but Adam’s patent delight augured something beyond the boundaries of business.
Oh. And his gaze kept slipping over to Katherine and lingering there. That kind of gave the game away as well.
And, oddly enough, hers kept slipping toward his—and a similar radiance would light her expression—whether they were in a meeting, or in the lunchroom, or in the parking lot or working in their offices. She did her best to hide it, as did Adam. But Tristan noticed.
Tristan Trillo noticed everything.
He knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, something had happened between his brother and his trusted financial analyst, something that had changed the tenor of their relationship. Tristan was bound and determined to make sure that something didn’t get in the way of his profit margin.
He poked his head into Adam’s office the afternoon following the triumphant return. “Can I see you for a minute?”
“Sure.” Adam motioned to the chairs in the corner. “Have a seat. I’ve been meaning to talk to you too.”
“Yeah.” Tristan glanced across the hall. Katherine was working away, rather diligently. Her brow furrowed and her bun was all mussed up with pens and pencils thrust haphazardly into it. She looked like a porcupine.
And Adam was mooning over her.
“I was thinking maybe the conference room.”
“The conference room?” Adam lifted a brow. “So this is a serious chat?”
Tristan narrowed his eyes. “I think so.”
“Okay.” With one last languishing glance at the object of his obsession, Adam closed his laptop and followed his brother down the hall.
Once in the conference room with the door quietly closed, Tristan didn’t waste any time. “So?” It was really all he needed to say. Adam caught on immediately.
“Yeah.” He nodded. You know, with a goofy grin and all.
Tristan’s mood darkened, his gut roiled a bit. Why on earth did he feel…betrayed? “But we had a rule.”
Adam’s smile widened. “Yeah,” he agreed. “We had a rule.”
Tristan glared at his brother. He muttered the only sentiment appropriate to the occasion. “Shit.”
Tossing himself into one of the conference room chairs, Adam shrugged unrepentantly. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, you know.”
“I don’t care.” Tristan dragged his fingers through his hair. He stared out the floor-to-ceiling windows into th
e hall. Didn’t Adam see the danger here? Didn’t he care? When they’d started this company—on a shoestring and a prayer—they’d studied models of success and failure. They knew protecting valuable assets was essential to their success. And they had agreed. “We can’t afford to lose Katherine. She’s critical to our business plan.”
“We aren’t going to lose Katherine.”
Tristan spun to face his brother. “You don’t know that. Hell. Remember what happened to Levin?”
“That ain’t gonna happen.”
“How can you know?” Their friend had indulged an ill-conceived affair with his secretary. It had blown up in his face when she’d filed a discrimination suit after the relationship ended. By the time it was all over it had cost Levin his job. The firm had barely recovered from the losses.
Adam crossed his arms over his chest. “Kat isn’t like that.”
Kat?
Oh fuck.
“She isn’t like that…now. When everything is hunky-frickin’-dory. But when things go bad?”
“Things aren’t gonna go bad.”
Tristan threw up his hands. “I can’t believe those words are coming out of your mouth. After what you went through with Betsy?”
“Kat isn’t anything like Betsy. Besides, this isn’t marriage. We’re just having fun.”
“God. I can’t believe you would do this. You, of all people.” He paced the room. “Damn it, Adam. All these years, I’ve kept myself under strict control because we had an agreement. We had a rule.”
“It was your rule.”
“You agreed.”
“Of course I agreed. I was married. I didn’t have any intention of fooling around at the office. I was all about work. If you remember correctly, it was my commitment to this company that ash-canned my marriage.”
Tristan knew that. Betsy hadn’t been shy about sharing her resentment over the amount of time Adam had dedicated to work. Eventually, she’d resented her way right into someone else’s bed. Several someone else’s, in fact.
It was a pity Adam’s marriage had failed. But to be honest, knowing Betsy it would probably have happened sooner or later.
Besides, this wasn’t about Betsy. It was about Adam. And Kat.
