Good Girls Don't

by Rosalie Lario

  “I wondered that, drove myself a little crazy about it actually,” Lyssa admitted, “but I don’t see how. I mean, if you’d seen the look on his face when he walked in and saw me there…”

  Nadia let out a low whistle. “Girl, you must have pissed the universe off somehow.”

  “One-night stand,” Lyssa whispered.

  Her best friend rolled her eyes and stalked back to her, this time taking a seat on the desk directly in front of Lyssa. “You have to get it out of your head that there’s something inherently wrong with one-night stands. It’s not a crime to live a little, you know. You probably jinxed yourself with all the nonsense you let Gloria fill your mind with.”

  At the mention of her mother’s name, Lyssa leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath. “Fact is, James Everly seems like a sure bet. I mean, my proposal was excellent, but Everly Publications already has all the wheels in motion for its expansion.”

  “Oh, Lyssa.” Nadia gave a sad shake of her head. “Maybe you can get the money you need another way.”

  “Yeah, maybe I can sell something.” Lyssa let out an acid laugh and joked, “Heck, how about my body? It’s not so different from—”

  Nadia swung her foot out and kicked Lyssa right below the knee with the pointy toe of her pump.

  “Ouch!” Glaring at her best friend, Lydia bent to rub the area.

  “Don’t you dare say it,” Nadia said with false sweetness. “Those two things are not the same and you know it.”

  She was right, of course.

  Lyssa sighed. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I hope I figure it out soon.”

  “You will.”

  If only Lyssa could have Nadia’s confidence. Still, talking things out with her friend had made her feel marginally better, so that was a good thing.

  They were silent for a long moment before Nadia let out a snort. “The one time you decide to do something crazy, and somehow you manage to do it with a billionaire, huh?”

  Lyssa gave a disbelieving shake of her head. “Yeah, ‘cause that’s how I roll, apparently.”

  “So.” Nadia gave her a wicked grin. “You know I’m going to ask you how it was, right?”

  That made Lyssa laugh. “I’m surprised it took you so long.”

  “Well?”

  “It was good.”

  “Lyssa…”

  “Real good.”

  “Come on, chica,” Nadia urged, nudging Lyssa’s knee with her shoe. “Spill.”

  “Okay, it was amazing,” Lyssa said reluctantly. “Best I ever had. Biggest. Everyone else pales in comparison. Happy now?”

  “You slut,” Nadia whispered in a faux scandalized tone.

  “Shut up.” Lyssa rolled her eyes, but couldn’t stop the smile that crept to her lips. “Now get back to work, lazy ass. Our accounts aren’t going to manage themselves.”

  “Yes, boss.” Nadia sighed and rose, striding for the door. “But next time we hang out, I’m gonna get you drunk and wring all the sordid details from you.”

  “I know.”

  Grinning, Lyssa watched her friend leave.

  ***

  “The look on your face doesn’t make me very optimistic.”

  James’s head sprang up at the sound of his older brother Andrew’s voice. He kicked his feet off his desk and sat upright in his chair. “What?”

  Andrew’s face fell and he strode through the open door of James’s office, clicking it shut behind him. “The meeting with Martin Freeman? It was this morning, wasn’t it?”

  “Oh, yes.” Rubbing the back of his neck, James hastened to dispel Andrew’s worry. “It went fine.”

  By the serious expression on Andrew’s face, he didn’t quite believe him, and James couldn’t blame him.

  “He says he’ll most likely make up his mind by Monday.”

  “Ah.” Andrew’s mouth tightened as he took a seat in one of the black leather chairs directly across from James’s mammoth wooden desk. “Your proposal didn’t go as planned, I take it.”

  “No, it isn’t that at all. Actually, I think it went better than planned. He’d be hard-pressed to turn us down, and from the look on his face, he knew it.”

  Giving him a dubious glance, Andrew crossed one ankle over the opposite knee. “Then why do you look like someone strangled your puppy?”

  James let out a reluctant laugh. His brother had actually developed a sense of humor in the months he’d been dating their former childhood friend, Hailey. James liked it. “You know I don’t have a dog.”

  “You should get one,” Andrew countered. “They’re great.”

  Well, he supposed his older brother would know, given that he was now the proud owner of a cute little mutt. Another startling change courtesy of Hailey.

  “Martin decided to have all three of the competitors meet together to give our proposals,” James explained. “It was unexpected, and to my surprise, one of the competitors was someone I know.”

  “A business acquaintance?”

  “No. Someone I know.” He made air quotes on the last word. “A woman.”

  Andrew’s eyes widened. “Oh…someone you know. One of your casual hookups?”

  James winced and stared down at the whorls of grain on his desk. “Actually, I only met her last night.”

  Andrew gave a disbelieving laugh. “You mean to tell me you had a one-night stand and the woman turned out to be one of Martin’s prospective investees?”

  Shooting his brother a glare for daring to laugh, he muttered, “Exactly.”

  “Wow.” Andrew sobered, scrubbing his hand across his smooth chin. “What an unexpected turn of events.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  “What did you do when you saw her there?”

  James shrugged. “What was I supposed to do? I pretended not to know her and proceeded with my proposal.”

  “She went along with that? Acting like you didn’t know each other?”

  Absently rapping his knuckles on the desk, James scoffed. “You think she’d acknowledge me and risk having it come to light how we knew each other?”

  Andrew sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Guess not. Did you talk to her afterward?”

  “Yes. She all but cursed me.” The memory of Lyssa’s stricken face when James first swung her around on the street sparked a curious ache in his chest. “She accused me of planning last night so I could catch her off guard at the meeting this morning.”

  “Ouch.” Andrew gave a slow shake of his head. “Good thing it was just a one-night stand. Thankfully, you never have to see her again.”

  “Yeah.”

  So why did the thought of that only make James feel worse?

  “Maybe there’s a lesson to be learned here,” Andrew said. When James glanced at him, he added, “One-night stands are not the brightest of ideas.”

  “I already know that.” Jackass. “It’s not my usual M.O., by any means.”

  Andrew gave a smooth nod of his head. “Seems much more up Sam’s alley.”

  James couldn’t argue there. Their youngest brother seemed to think women were put on the earth for his enjoyment. He went through them like sticks of gum.

  A knock sounded out on James’s door and a moment later it creaked open. Andrew’s girlfriend Hailey poked her head inside. She gave them an impish grin. “Am I interrupting something? You guys look way too serious in here.”

  “Hailey.”

  Andrew rose to cross the room, and the light that came to his brother’s eyes made James smile. It was damn good to see him so happy. He’d seen so little of that after their mother had died of a drug overdose when James had been thirteen and Andrew fifteen.

  “I thought I’d come in and surprise you,” Hailey said as Andrew pulled her in for a tight embrace. “Maybe steal you away for lunch. Dragon-Face told me you were in here.”

  Hailey’s nickname for Andrew’s administrative assistant made James laugh every time. It was very appropriate, and Hailey wou
ld know, given she’d worked as Andrew’s personal assistant under the woman’s chain of command for a short period of time.

  “Lunch sounds good,” Andrew murmured, every ounce of his love for Hailey right there in the tenor of his voice.

  James might not believe in soul-mates or everlasting love, but seeing these two together, he thought they might actually have a chance at it. Compared to his parents, at least.

  Hailey broke away from Andrew’s embrace to shoot James a bright smile. “Hey, are you going to Sam’s art opening on Thursday?”

  Their youngest brother was technically the Art Director for Distinguished Gentleman, but it was a role he accepted with the greatest of reluctance. Whenever he could get away with it, he chose to delegate everything to the assistant director so he could concentrate on his own artistic pursuits. It was something that had driven their father crazy, and Andrew after their father’s death, but Hailey had pretty much changed everything for the better, and Andrew was much more supportive of Sam’s art these days.

  James fished his phone out and took another glance at the text Sam had sent him a few days ago.

  You’d better not forget my art opening on Thursday night, or you’ll be one of these.

  Right above the text was a picture of Sam with his back to the camera. His jeans were lowered to show his bare ass, and his head turned so James could see he was sticking his tongue out.

  That fucker. He always knew how to make James laugh.

  “I’ll be there,” he told Hailey.

  “Good.” She brought her hands up to Andrew’s shoulders and started to rub them. “You’ve both been working too hard lately. You could take a page from Sam’s book.”

  Hailey would think so, given she and Sam were cut from the same cloth. They were both carefree, impulsive, and loads of fun to be around. Just what his formerly stick-in-the-mud big brother needed.

  “Point taken.” James grinned at her. “Now get out of here, you sex-crazed animals. I know what ‘lunch’ is code for.”

  Laughing at Andrew’s answering scowl and Hailey’s exaggerated wink, he watched them go. They really were an amazing couple. Even though James had decided years ago he wasn’t cut out for marriage, when he saw Andrew and Hailey together, he had to admit to feeling the occasional hint of envy.

  All too soon, his thoughts returned to Lyssa. Despite knowing he’d done what he had to, he still felt like shit about it. He closed his eyes with a sigh, trying to clear his mind. Instead, images of last night began to replay in his head. The look of hunger in her eyes back on the Dubliner’s roof. Her sighs when he drove his tongue inside her, drinking in her delicious flavor that would haunt him for the rest of his days. The feel of her luscious, wet heat closing around him, sucking him deeper inside and urging him to pound into her harder, faster, until he knew nothing but the feel of their joined bodies. It had felt so fucking right.

  He groaned when he realized he’d grown hard as a rock and shifted in his seat. It wouldn’t do to be thinking about her all day. He’d never get any work done.

  Maybe if he went to see her. Forced her to understand that everything that’d happened between them had been totally unexpected. That, despite the fact they’d been forced to compete against each other, he wished her nothing but the best.

  Perhaps then he’d be able to get her out of his mind once and for all.

  Before he could even begin to question his motives, James turned to his computer and looked up the location for the North Star Digital offices.

  Chapter Six

  After letting Nadia talk her into a long, leisurely lunch, Lyssa headed back to the office alone. Nadia had an afternoon appointment with one of her clients, so Lyssa planned to take advantage of the relative silence her absence afforded and work on a few new accounts. She needed to keep busy so she wouldn’t think about Martin and the fact that he held her fate in his hands.

  Or worse, think about James and his hands. The ones that had effectively driven her to the heights of ecstasy.

  She had to stop this train of thought. It was going to drive her crazy. But that was easier said than done, when every movement triggered soreness between her thighs that reminded her of what she’d done last night. Somehow, it only served to turn her on more.

  When she slid behind her desk and sat down, the slight answering twinge made her hold back a groan. She crossed, then uncrossed her legs. Damn it, she had to stop thinking about sex. Gripping her keyboard tight, she forced herself to concentrate on her work. It took awhile, but eventually she was able to focus.

  Lyssa lost track of time as she sat there. Finally, the doors to the front part of the office squeaked open and then closed.

  “How’d it go?” she yelled through the open door of her private office.

  The rough stride of footsteps sounded out along the wooden floor, and then a voice that was unmistakably not Nadia’s said, “How did what go?”

  Lyssa gasped and shot out of her chair so fast she thought she might have given herself a case of whiplash.

  “James!” No, she wasn’t just imagining his voice. He was here, in the flesh. The deliciously male flesh. “Wha-what are you doing here?”

  He leaned against the doorway, somehow managing to suck up all the air in the room. His bright blue gaze took in the details of her small office. “Just thought I should check out the competition.”

  His words made her cheeks grow hot. She knew her place was tiny, the location less than ideal, but it was cute and decorated with whatever accessories she’d been able to afford. And it was hers.

  “I’m sure it’s nothing like your Manhattan empire,” Lyssa snapped.

  When he nodded, her jaw tightened, but then he said, “No, it’s warm and inviting, not cold and clinical. My father always preferred steel and glass and contemporary designs, but that’s not exactly my taste. I much prefer the homier feel of your office.”

  Oh. Her anger deflated.

  She slowly sat back on her chair, grateful for the distance the desk put between her body and James’s hawkish gaze. “You seriously came all the way to Brooklyn just to check my office out? Why? You must know you’re going to win Martin’s investment.”

  James let out a soft tsk and crossed the threshold. “You won’t get far with that attitude.”

  Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to look him in the eye. “Come on, James, stop playing games with me.”

  He shrugged and sat on the overstuffed mauve chair across from her desk. “What I said earlier was true. Martin generally invests in smaller local companies. It’s a matter of pride for him. When he started out, he was a one-man company and found it almost impossible to get others to invest in his dream. Now he searches out local talent with potential for growth.”

  “Oh.” His words gave her hope. “Really?”

  James eyed her appraisingly. “You should be very proud. If he’s taken an interest in you, it means you’re doing something right.”

  His words sent an unexpected wave of pleasure through her. But then she thought of the other competition. “If that’s true, then Steve Peterson is a worthy adversary.”

  He stared at her, nonplussed, and they both burst out laughing at the same time.

  “Can’t expect him to get it right every time,” James quipped, but then he sobered. “In all seriousness, Steve’s company has seen a lot of growth over the past years, so I can understand why Martin would hear him out.”

  Lyssa cocked a brow. “You’ve been doing your research.”

  He gave her a slow nod. “That’s how I know your company is poised to explode sometime in the next few years, even without a cash influx from an investor.”

  If only she could afford to wait that long.

  “Martin is unnecessary,” James continued. “Especially considering he’ll take a percentage of ownership in exchange for his funds.”

  Since confessing her family troubles to him was the last thing she planned to do, she forced a pleasant expression onto her face and rose
to stalk toward the door. “I certainly appreciate the business advice, but you’ll understand if I rely on my own instincts when deciding what to do with my firm.”

  When she motioned toward the exit, James took her not so subtle hint. He stood and adjusted the lapels on his jacket and, with a polite smile, headed toward the door. But he veered before crossing the threshold, heading instead toward her.

  Whoa.

  She backpedaled at the look of serious intent on his face. Her back hit a hard surface, and an instant later, his hands braced the wall on either side of her, effectively trapping her in.

  “What are you—”

  His head lowered to her ear. “I can’t stop thinking about last night.”

  A rush of heat flooded her body.

  “The feel of your skin,” he murmured, his hot breath kissing her ear. “Your mouthwatering taste.”

  Her chest heaved at the imagery his words elicited. His arousing, masculine scent enveloped her, all but hijacking her senses. That must be why she just stood there, resting her head back against the wall, when she should be pushing him away.

  “You can’t stop thinking about it either, can you?”

  She summoned the courage to lift her hands to his chest. But instead of pushing him away, they just rested there, drinking in his heat. Traitorous hands.

  “Stop,” she whispered.

  Instead of obeying, he pressed a soft kiss to the pulse beating in her neck. His right hand moved off the wall and slid down the side of her body. She might as well have been naked. His molten touch seared through the thin fabric of her suit.

  “James,” she pleaded. Her body refused to obey her commands. Instead of shoving him back, her fingers dug into his chest through his shirt.

  “When I was inside you, all I could think about was how amazing you felt.” His hand trailed down to the hem of her skirt and then he was sliding the tight fabric upward, stopping only when it was high enough to reveal her black satin panties. “Like liquid fire, burning me up from the inside.”

  Lyssa whimpered when his fingers stroked her through her underwear.

  “Remember that, baby?” He nipped at her ear. “How it felt to have me inside you?”