by Erika Wilde
Teddy listened to the conversation with some amusement as she glanced around the cluttered office, trying not to think about Austin performing his share of fantasies for countless women. In her attempt to keep her mind occupied, her gaze was inevitably drawn to his wide, muscled shoulders stretching the cotton of his T-shirt, then moved to his profile, and eventually stopped on those incredible lips of his.
He grinned at something the caller said. “Hey, you’re the one who thought up the Zorro costume, and it’s become a favorite. Just be careful with that sword of yours.” Austin chuckled at the other man’s response, which Teddy didn’t doubt was a dirty one.
Excusing himself from the conversation for a moment, Austin covered the mouthpiece with his hand, his gaze on her. “C’mere and sit down, Teddy.” With his bare foot, he pushed the rolling high-backed chair out a few inches from where he sat. “I’ll be done in a minute.”
To refuse would make her look uptight, so she sat down and waited while Austin gave his employee directions to each performance. He hung up the phone, then turned those sexy, intense green eyes on her.
“So, what can I do for you, Ms. Spencer?” Picking up his root beer, he took a long swallow while he waited for her to answer.
She crossed one leg over the other, taking a second to gather her courage. “I need to ask a favor.”
The faintest hint of a smile tipped his mouth. “Another fantasy?”
Seeing the spark of insolence in his eyes, she knew he wasn’t going to make this conversation easy on her, not that she blamed him after the way they’d parted Saturday night. There was no way to sugarcoat her request, so she just came out with it. “No, I was hoping you would come with me to my parents’ house Christmas Eve.”
Surprise crossed his gorgeous features. “Now, why would I want to do that?”
Yes, why? her conscience taunted. “Because you promised my sister-in-law that you would, and she told the rest of the family you’d be there.”
He finished his root beer, appearing unconcerned. “Your sister-in-law made assumptions, and you were supposed to clear them up.”
Frustration nipped at her. “I did.” At least she’d tried to, not that it had worked.
“Another charade?” he guessed, his mouth thinning in disdain.
Her entire life was beginning to feel like one big scheme—at work, with her family. Everything was a carefully orchestrated plan…except for her feelings for Austin, which were too real, and becoming more complicated than she’d ever expected. “No, not another charade,” she told him. “I explained that you were just a friend.”
He tensed, the muscles across his chest flexing with the movement. “How convenient.”
She closed her eyes, hating his contempt, but taking full responsibility for his resentment since she’d been the one to cause it. Lifting her lashes, she met his dark, penetrating gaze, inwardly admitting defeat. “You know what, I think coming here was a big mistake.”
She stood to leave, but he was faster, moving like a lithe panther. Propping his bare feet on either side of her thighs, he reeled the chair in closer to him with the strength of his legs, jarring her back into her seat. He leaned forward, looming over her. His strong, powerful thighs were close enough to touch…and so was that solid chest of his. Trapped between the chair and two hundred pounds of pure male essence and heat, her heart fluttered uncontrollably…with shameless excitement, and apprehension.
“What do you really want from me this time, Teddy?” he asked, his tone low and rough. “I gave you a cowboy. I gave you a lover. What fantasy do you expect me to be now?”
The frustrated undertone to his voice perplexed her, as did this issue he had with being a fantasy for her. “I don’t want you to be any fantasy. I want you to be…a friend. I could really use a friend right now.” Between the pressures of her family, and Louden’s strong-arm tactics, she desperately needed someone in her corner.
Something in his expression softened, then was quickly replaced with ruthless intent. “That poses a little problem, honey, because when I look at you, friendship isn’t what comes to mind.”
Yeah, Teddy, why would he want to be your friend after the way you treated him? To her consternation, her throat tightened and a suspicious moisture burned the backs of her eyes. “I know you probably hate me for how I ended things Saturday night—”
“Hate you?” Harsh, incredulous laughter erupted from him. “No, I don’t hate you, Teddy. I fucking want you.” He stared at her face, and slowly lifted his hand, tracing a finger along her jaw. “I haven’t slept the past few nights because every time I close my eyes I think of you and remember the heat and softness of your mouth…” He stroked his thumb along her full bottom lip, dipping just inside to dampen the pad of his finger. “The silky texture of your skin…” Those sensual fingers skimmed down her throat in a languid caress that made her breathing raspy, and caused her chest to rise and fall rapidly. “The warm taste of your breasts…” He brushed his knuckles over the slope of those swelling mounds, teasing her nipples into hard, achy points.
And just like that, her body hummed with arousal and an excruciating need.
He lifted his slumberous gaze from her breasts. One look into those striking green eyes filled with steely determination and she knew he wasn’t done tormenting her.
A wicked smile lifted his lips. “And if that isn’t enough to drive me crazy, I imagine what it would feel like to be inside you, as deep as I can get, and hear my name on your lips when you come…”
A surge of liquid warmth pooled in her belly, and lower. Her mind spun dizzily. “Austin…” she moaned raggedly.
“Yeah, just like that, Teddy.” His voice vibrated with husky gratification, and he moved back slightly. His eyes, however, had no qualms about seducing her. “I’m not even inside you, not even touching you as intimately as I’d like to, but just thinking about having your legs wrapped around my hips and fucking you makes me hard enough to go off like a horny teenager.”
She had a clear view of just how hard and impressive that part of his anatomy was beneath the faded denim of his shorts. Swallowing the thickness gathering in her throat, she pressed her knees together in a valiant attempt to ease the throbbing need he’d cleverly ignited. The attempt was useless.
Her gaze traveled upward, to his face. “So, you really don’t hate me?” For some reason, having him confirm that was important to her.
He shook his head, his gaze honest. “No, I don’t hate you, Teddy. I think you’re nervous about what you feel for me and how fast our attraction has grown…and where it might lead.”
She bit the inside of her cheek, unwilling to admit how accurate he was. She’d never planned for this, for him, and she feared she’d never be able to balance a career, and relationship—and that ultimately, she’d have to choose between the two.
“Then will you come with me to my parents’ on Christmas Eve?” This time, she wasn’t talking about a business arrangement. She wanted him to accompany her, and be a part of that special, magical evening before Christmas—and hopefully, his presence would banish the loneliness that always threatened to overwhelm her when she left her parents and realized that she was the only one in the family who didn’t have anyone to share the holidays with.
Pure Christmas melancholy, she knew, but the desolate feeling never failed to creep up on her and hang on through the first of the year. Maybe this year would be different.
“If I say yes, I don’t want any pretenses between us this time,” Austin said, clasping his hands loosely between his knees so that he was no longer touching her. “Just you, and me, and whatever happens from there. And if all this leads to just friendship, then I’ll accept that.”
She found his terms more than fair. “All right.”
A devastatingly charming grin transformed his features. “You brave enough to put your promise where your mouth is?”
She swallowed hard, knowing she was playing with fire…but she found Austin’s brand of v
irile heat impossible to resist. The dare in his eyes spurred the recklessness she tried to keep buried.
Dampening her bottom lip with her tongue, she reached out, curled her fingers into the material of his shirt and pulled him down for a kiss the same time she sat up and met him halfway. Her lips crushed his, parted with immediate warmth, skipping all preliminary foreplay and going straight to the heart of the matter. The kiss was a hot, lusty, tongue-tangling mission to drive him as wild as he made her.
But something changed during the course of her provocative goal—an internal realization that overrode the pleasure of his generous mouth surrendering to her whims. She’d missed him. Two days apart, and she longed to see that wicked glint in his eyes, ached to experience the special way he made her feel, and especially craved the effortless way he made her body, her soul, come alive.
It was a frightening, overwhelming sensation.
With a low growl that rumbled in his chest, he grasped her hips in his hands, pulling her up and out of the chair and between his thighs. His large palms smoothed over her bottom, anchoring her intimately close. Her belly encountered the stiff ridge of his erection, and her heart slammed against her ribs. She moaned into his mouth as a very urgent, naughty thought crossed her mind, of pressing him down on his desk, hiking up her skirt and finishing what he’d started with his erotic monologue a few minutes ago.
It was Austin who ended the embrace, slowly pulling back and letting his lips slide from her mouth, to her jaw. “Oh, yeah, Ms. Spencer,” he growled into the curve of her neck, where he nuzzled and pressed damp, open-mouth kisses on her skin. “That’s a fantastic start to making good on your promise.”
A delicious shiver rippled down her spine and she stepped back, until he had no choice but to let her go. Meeting his fiery emerald gaze, and witnessing his cocksure grin, her heart gave a tiny flip-flop of realization. It was useless to deny that what had transpired between them was anything less than powerful, and nothing even remotely close to resembling friendship.
And that meant trouble for her. Big trouble.
Chapter Eight
He’d played dirty. Austin had acknowledged that fact minutes after Teddy left his house Monday evening, but three days later, he still didn’t regret his unabashed behavior in prodding her to admit there was something between them. Her admission hadn’t been verbal, but that mind-blowing kiss she’d initiated spoke volumes.
At first, he’d been annoyed that she’d had the nerve to ask him for yet another favor, but during the course of their conversation he’d seen glimpses of contradicting emotions, of her wanting him as much as he wanted her, and a latent fear that kept her from completely opening herself to him. It had been that honest vulnerability that had softened him. Though he’d accepted her invitation for Christmas Eve, he’d been the one to establish the rules. No pretenses. So far, she’d adhered to his personal request, accepting and openly responding to the intimate kiss he’d greeted her with when he’d arrived at her condo to pick her up.
The woman was an inherently sensual creature, and despite her reservations, she certainly indulged wholeheartedly in kissing him, and took pleasure in the way he touched her. The low-cut, clingy red knit dress she’d worn in celebration of Christmas had tempted his hands to skim those ultra-feminine curves of hers—from the sleek line of her spine, over her bottom, and up and around to her hips, her waist, to just below the gentle slope of her breasts where his thumbs brushed along those full, soft mounds.
She’d moaned in acquiescence and arched toward him for a deeper, more provocative contact, but he’d resisted the invitation. Satisfying the hunger he’d tasted in her kiss would take more than the few minutes they had before leaving for her parents’. The woman was in need of personal attention, emotionally and physically, and he planned to give her as much as she could handle, and then some, until she came to the realization that what was between them was worth pursuing.
Satisfied with his plan, Austin glanced over at Teddy sitting in the passenger seat of the Mustang as they drove to her parents’ house in Pacific Heights. She was rummaging through her purse for something, and he switched on the overhead reading light for her. She smiled her thanks and withdrew a tube of lipstick.
“So, how are things with Louden?” he asked, curious if his presence at the company Christmas party had made any difference in her boss’s attitude.
Flipping down the lighted mirror in front of her, she uncapped the tube and covered her kiss-swollen lips with a slash of cinnamon color. “Just fine,” she said too brightly.
He frowned as he made a left-hand turn onto the street Teddy had indicated. “Is he leaving you alone?”
She fluffed her hair that he’d unintentionally mussed during their kiss. She had the silkiest hair, and he loved running his fingers though the warm strands. She didn’t seem to mind his fascination with her hair, either.
“I’m beginning to realize that Louden has the morals of an alley cat,” she said, her tone tempered with disgust. “Which means he’ll continue to prey until a bigger cat comes along and knocks him down a peg or two.”
A flare of possessiveness gripped him, and his hands tightened on the steering wheel. “How about I pay Louden a personal visit and let him know just how close he is to being neutered?”
She laughed, but the sound was strained. “Austin, I can handle Louden. By the end of the next week, one way or another, this will all be over with. I’ll either get the promotion, or I won’t.”
She didn’t sound very positive, and that bothered him. “And if you don’t?”
“Then I update my résumé and start over,” she said in quiet resignation, putting the lighted mirror back in its place. “And I can’t begin to tell you how much I dread doing that. It means proving myself all over again.”
He heard the frustration in her voice, and knew she was referring to more than just establishing herself with another employer, but with her family, too. Strangely enough, he understood her resentment, and respected her determination to overcome it.
Reaching across the console, he gently laid his hand on her knee, offering silent support. “Getting that promotion is really important to you, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is, for so many reasons,” she admitted, then drew a deep breath as if to dismiss the entire subject. “Turn right here, then make another right on Vallejo. My parents’ house is on the left-hand side.”
He followed Teddy’s directions, impressed with the ritzy area of San Francisco and multimillion-dollar homes overlooking the Bay, even though he’d expected as much. Trying not to allow old insecurities to assail him, he made the final turn onto Vallejo Street, determined to make the best impression on Teddy’s family that he could, and hoped they accepted him for who he was. Nothing more. Nothing less.
“Which house?” he asked, glancing at Teddy. He frowned when he saw her struggling with the ruby and diamond band she wore on her ring finger.
“Stop the car for a minute,” she said, her tone exasperated.
He slowed the Mustang to a halt as close to the side of the narrow road as he could, put the vehicle in park, and turned to face her. “What are you doing?”
She tugged and twisted on the band, her face contorted with frustration. “I’m trying to take off my ring.”
“Why?”
She exhaled loudly and continued her determined attempt to remove the ring, which refused to slip over her first knuckle. “Because my parents gave me this band when I graduated from high school, and they’ve never seen it on my left hand.”
He couldn’t help the grin spreading across his face. “Ah, so the illusion of being ‘taken’ is for everyone else’s benefit, but not your family’s.”
“Yeah, something like that,” she muttered vaguely.
He continued to watch her struggle, amused with her thinking. “Don’t you think you’re making the issue more complicated than it needs to be?”
“No.” Her succinct answer segued into a wince of pain, then a very
unladylike curse when the gold cut into her flesh. “I must be retaining water,” she said hopelessly.
Taking pity on her, he reached for her left hand. “Here, let me help.”
“What?” she asked incredulously as he examined her finger. “You’ve got a pair of clippers in your glove box to cut the ring off my finger?”
He chuckled at her sarcasm. “Nope. Don’t need any.”
She snorted in disbelief. “Well, that ring isn’t going to come off any other way…”
Her sassy comment rolled into a surprised gasp as he lifted her palm and used his tongue to dampen the skin where the ring encircled the digit, then closed his mouth over her finger to moisten the entire length. He suckled gently, swirling his tongue up and down her finger, thoroughly wetting her sensitized skin. Her eyes widened, her hand went limp in his, and an arousing groan slipped past her parted lips.
Once he was confident that her skin was slick enough, he dragged her finger from his mouth and gave the ring a twist and a gentle tug. The band slipped to her knuckle, and tightened around the bone. She let out a discouraged sigh, but he wasn’t about to admit defeat, and slipped her finger into his mouth again, using his teeth and tongue to work the ring over her knuckle.
This time, he succeeded. Removing the band from his mouth, he turned her hand over and dropped the ring onto her palm.
“Thank you,” she said breathlessly.
“Anytime.” He grinned wickedly. “Do you need help putting it on your other finger?”
She quickly shook her head, but not before he saw the spark of desire that colored her brown eyes. “I think I can manage on my own.” She did the deed herself, without any problems.
Putting the car into drive, he eased back into the street. “If you insist on wearing a ring on your left-hand finger, you need to think about getting yourself one that fits.” He extended the comment mildly, but a fleeting, possessive thought crossed his mind as he turned into the Spencers’ driveway. He wanted to be the one to put a ring there.
