by Erika Wilde
“And it’s not as though you have to sleep with her,” Noah added wryly.
Oh, but he wanted to, Cole thought, no longer shocked by his sinful thoughts where Melodie was concerned. Too easily, he could envision her sprawled on his king-sized bed, his own aroused body covering hers as his fingers sank deep into her silky hair and his mouth tasted her lips, her neck, her pert breasts and tight nipples. Oh, yeah, he wanted, and there was no sense in blatantly tempting himself with what he couldn’t have.
“Look, I refuse to put Melodie in that kind of position.” Or himself for that matter. “If, for some reason, something on the case goes wrong, I don’t want to risk losing a damn good secretary.”
Noah looked as though he was struggling not to burst out laughing at Cole’s ridiculous excuse, but managed to keep his expression composed. “Whatever you say.” Standing, he pocketed the information Cole had given him on Jerry Thornton. “I’ll get right on the surveillance and let you know what I find out.”
Cole nodded succinctly, grateful that he was no longer under his brother’s scrutiny. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”
Once Noah was gone, Cole deliberately buried himself in follow-up work on current cases to keep himself occupied and busy. Unfortunately, his secretary had more distracting matters in mind. Every time she walked into his office to deliver paperwork or discuss a case report with him, his gaze strayed unerringly to her swaying hips and shapely legs as she glided toward his desk in a slow, tantalizing stride. More times than he cared to admit, he caught himself staring at the soft roundness of her breasts beneath her blouse and had even witnessed a sensuous glow in her eyes when he dared to meet her gaze. Hell, even his ears perked up when she answered the phone, just so he could listen to her speak in that soft, husky tone of voice that matched her new, alluring packaging.
He was completely and totally aware of Melodie, in every way imaginable. Just as she’d intended, no doubt. And with every inviting smile she cast his way, coupled with a few accidental brushes of their bodies as they passed in the hallway, she added fuel to the fiery flame burning deep inside him.
By the end of the workday, he was tied up in knots, and so mentally and physically aroused he was ready to come out of his skin with a mere whisper of a touch.
The now familiar swishing sound that accompanied Mel’s approach down the hall to his office put his unruly hormones back on full alert. With effort, he tamped down his dick’s eager response, and by the time she’d entered the spacious room, he’d schooled his features to reflect casual interest.
It had been blessedly quiet for the past hour. At a quarter after six, the front-end phone was silent, and both Noah and Jo were gone for the evening—which left him all alone with Melodie. His muscles tensed at the realization. Normally, that wouldn’t be a cause for concern, considering more often than not she worked late with him, but that was before she’d turned herself into an impudent minx.
“Can I run something by you, Cole?” she asked, her tone as serious as her expression.
Ahh, business he could handle. A piece of paper in her hand legitimized her request and made his shoulders relax again. “Sure. What is it?”
“A letter.” Instead of taking one of the chairs in front of his desk, she came around to where he sat and settled herself on a cleared spot of polished mahogany to his left. “One I’d like to read to you, if that’s okay.”
She crossed one slender leg over the other—in the same prim and proper way she’d done a hundred times before while taking notes for him on a case. Except she’d never sat on his desk in such a brazen manner, and she’d never worn a skirt so short it ought to be deemed illegal for all the wicked, decadent thoughts it inspired.
He leaned back in his leather chair to put much-needed distance between them. “Is this for a case?”
She appeared momentarily nervous, which quickly ebbed into an adorable look of perseverance. “Yes, it is.”
Curiosity edged out the caution nagging at his conscience. “All right. Let’s hear it.”
Her chest rose and fell as she inhaled a deep breath, then her thick lashes lowered and her gaze dropped to read what she’d written on the piece of stationery in her hand. She cleared her throat before starting.
“You’ve been in my thoughts all day long, and now we’re finally together,” she began, her soft voice at first a bit unsteady. “I’ve caught you watching me when you think I’m not looking and it excites me to know that I’ve captured your attention, and that you might possibly want me as much as I’ve wanted you. Your gaze drifts over me, as soft as a caress and as warm as a sultry summer night, making me breathless with anticipation.”
Certain he wasn’t prepared to hear the rest of her letter that was taking on a very provocative slant, he offered up a protest to stop her. “Mel…”
“Shhh, let me finish,” she scolded gently, though there was no mistaking that reading her erotic letter out loud was taking a huge dose of courage on her part. She shifted on his desk and slowly recrossed her legs, the movement echoing the restlessness stringing his own nerves and body tight.
“You’ve become my sensual awakening, and now my body hungers for the intimacy of your touch.” Lifting her hand, she feathered her fingers along the pulse fluttering in her throat and gradually skimmed her hand downward to the vee in her blouse as she continued to mesmerize him with her words and actions. “I ache to feel your strong hands stroking my cheek, my breasts, and heating the soft skin along my stomach and thighs. My heartbeat quickens at the thought of experiencing such exquisite pleasure, and even now I’m trembling deep inside, waiting, hoping that you’ll be the one to ease the intense longing that grows with every passing second.”
She brushed loose tendrils of silky hair behind her ear, and her tongue darted out to dampen her bottom lip, making her mouth glisten like a ripe, juicy peach. “Show me all your passion and desire, and I’ll expose my every need. Tease me, please me, and make my fantasies come true.” She lifted her smoky gaze to his, her dark irises rimmed in brilliant gold. “I’m waiting for you. Make me yours.”
Cole was so caught up in her sensual monologue that, in his very vivid imagination, she was already his. And his aroused body echoed the sentiment. There was no doubt in his mind that she was attempting to shake up his composure and shamelessly seduce his mind, his thoughts. And her ploy was working, considering he could only think of one thing: fulfilling hot, illicit fantasies. Hers, and his own. Together.
The temptation to touch her was overwhelming, and it took monumental effort to resist the urge to reach out and place his hand on her silky leg and smooth his palm up her thigh, then beneath the hem of her skirt. To find out if she was just as aroused as she’d made him.
He clenched his hand into a tight fist on the armrest of his chair and asked as calmly as he could manage, “Where did you get that letter?” His voice sounded gravelly to his own ears.
She tipped her head, causing her softly layered hair to sway over her shoulder and along her cheek, beckoning him to test the luxurious texture of those strands with his fingers. “I wrote it today, during my lunch break. What do you think?”
“You definitely earn an A for creativity,” he replied without thinking.
A satisfied smile made an appearance on her glossy lips. “It was easier than I thought to write the letter, even kind of fun, but I was more concerned about reading it.” Her gaze held his, pulling him into the guileless pools of deep brown staring intently at him. “Did I do okay?”
Any better and he would have embarrassed himself with how turned on she’d made him. “You did fine, Mel.” Feeling too damned stimulated, he stood up and paced to the window on the other side of his office, pushed his hands into the pockets of his slacks to conceal his semi-erection, then turned to face her again. “Is there a point to why you felt compelled to read me such a personal letter?”
“Of course, there’s a point.” She slipped gracefully from the surface of his desk and glided toward him, a mi
xture of nerves and determination mingling in her gaze. Stopping a foot away, she placed her hand on his chest, right over his rapidly beating heart, then slid her palm upward until her trembling fingers toyed with the collar of his shirt. “I’m trying to prove I can be exactly what you need.”
Oh, he needed all right. With a vengeance. In a way that was quickly zapping his common sense and rigid control. “Care to explain that comment?” he asked, shoving his hands deeper into his pants’ pockets.
“I’m applying for the position of your date for the charity auction.” Her fingers grazed the opening of his shirt, scorching his flesh with her daring caress. “I know you could probably find someone sexier and more alluring,” she said, a bit of insecurity showing through her bravado. “But you already gave me an “A” for reading my erotic love letter. Considering that’s what you need a woman for on the Russell case, that skill has to count for something, doesn’t it?”
“So, that’s the reason for your metamorphosis and that letter you just read?” he asked more gruffly than he’d intended. “The Russell case?”
“Partly, yes.” Her chin lifted, adding a willful air to her demeanor and a new, intriguing dimension to her personality—a strength and tenacity he couldn’t help but admire. “I’ve been sensible and accommodating all my life, Cole. A quintessential good girl, a perfect daughter and a quiet, dependable secretary. I’m twenty-eight years old. I want to have some fun and be a little wild and adventurous. And I want to find out what it’s like working on a case outside of the office. I’m more than qualified, and you know I can help you on the Russell case if you’d just give me the chance.”
“No.” His response was automatic; it was also his last link to his own personal salvation when it came to her.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to prove I’m capable of handling this assignment. Anything at all.” Undaunted by his refusal, she stepped closer, tipped her lips up toward his, and whispered daringly, “Tease me, please me, and make my fantasies come true,” she recited from the erotic letter.
I’m waiting for you. Make me yours. The provocative words echoed through his head, and he nearly groaned as every muscle in his body responded to her audacious words and actions. Her flattened palms traveled along his shoulders and around his neck, and she swayed toward him, causing her soft, lush breasts to rasp across his chest and her thighs to press against his.
Unable to take another moment of her bewitching behavior, he grabbed both of her hands to regain control of the situation and backed her up against the wall behind her. He pinned her wrists beside her head with his splayed hands and glared down at her, doing his best to discourage her advances with his dark, fierce look.
“Dammit, Mel,” he growled, his low, rough tone threaded with frustration and desire. “You’re playing with fire.”
He’d expected his intimidation tactics to coerce her into backing off, but this new side to Melodie was proving to be more than he’d bargained for. Instead of retreating, she inhaled a deep breath and gazed up at him challengingly. “Maybe I want to get burned.”
Oh, fucking hell. When and how had the focus of the conversation shifted to them? The flush of excitement on her cheeks backed her claim, yet he instinctively knew she hadn’t considered the repercussions of what she was asking for, or the fact that he wasn’t a forever kind of guy. One step closer and she’d have ample proof that he was ready, willing, and able to indulge in hot sex and carnal pleasures with her. But work and personal ethics kept him from following through on the primal urges raging within him.
He bent his knees, lowering his face so he was looking directly into her eyes—putting him a breath away from kissing her. “You’re not ready for this kind of game,” he warned in a deep, gravely voice. “And if you’re not careful, you’re gonna end up getting hurt.”
“I’m a consenting adult, Cole,” she said, blatantly ignoring his advice and jumping right into the fire. “Why not let me be the judge of that?”
CHAPTER FIVE
Heat licked through Cole’s veins and spread throughout his entire body. Between listening to the erotic letter Melodie had just read to him and being on the receiving end of her daring remark to play with his brand of fire, Cole felt pushed beyond the edge of his restraint. Unable to resist the temptation he’d been fighting all day—hell, for the past two years—and determined to show her just how ruthless he could be when issued such a direct and wanton challenge, he lowered his head and took her mouth with his own—finally releasing all the pent-up desire clawing its way to the surface.
His lips slanted over hers, hot and hungry, demanding even. When she gasped in startled surprise at the immediate intensity of his kiss, he took advantage of her soft, parted lips and slid his tongue deep inside, tasting her incredible warmth and a honeyed sweetness that was uniquely hers.
With her wrists pinned beneath his hands and her head braced against the back of the wall from the pressure of his mouth on hers, he was in complete control and able to maneuver her to his will. Not that she was resisting any part of his sensual assault, though her response was far more reserved than he’d expected considering how forward she’d been with him moments ago. He was used to aggressive women who took charge in appeasing their own needs when it came to sexual encounters, yet he was feverishly turned on by Melodie’s gradual awakening—just as she’d indicated in the letter she’d written—and he was the one who felt mindlessly seduced.
Tentatively, she touched her tongue to his and moaned deep in her throat at the silky contact. The sexy, guileless sound vibrated through him like a physical caress, while the heat and aroused scent of her beckoned to his baser, more primitive side. Instinctively, he closed the scant distance between them, gradually pressing his hard body against hers and fitting his erection snugly right at the crux of her thighs. He gyrated his hips slowly, rhythmically against hers and felt her shiver with the same need swelling within him.
Forgetting that he’d meant to shock her into retreating, he released her wrists to frame her face between his palms and angled her head for better access. His lips gentled, and he slid his tongue inside her mouth again, this time slow and deep—the same way his body ached to take hers. Threading his fingers through her thick, luxurious hair, he feasted on her lips and teased her with damp, open-mouthed kisses that coaxed her to do the same, and if the soft, mewling noises she was making in the back of her throat were any indication, he was pleasing her just fine, too.
Cole’s mind spun with an overwhelming pleasure unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. Everything about her was addictive—the feminine smell of her skin, the feel of her lush curves scorching the length of his body, and her uninhibited response as he smoothed a hand down her neck, over the wild pulse beating at the base of her throat, and lower still until he cupped her generous breast in his hand and squeezed the soft swell of flesh. She arched shamelessly into his touch and moaned when he dragged his thumb over the tight nipple straining through the flimsy material of her bra and blouse.
Her cool fingers delved through his hair, tugging him intimately closer as her mouth opened wider beneath his in a giving, trusting gesture. It was that startling thought that finally jolted him out of the fog of lust clouding his brain and ruling his hormones. This was Melodie, and her father trusted him to look after her, yet here he was, nearly betraying the man who’d done so much for him by fucking his daughter.
He jerked back, breaking their embrace. Breathing hard, he stared down at her flushed face, unable to believe he’d been so caught up in the erotic fantasy she’d woven with that damnable letter that he’d forget his duties and responsibilities. Unable to believe, too, just how badly he wanted to be the man she’d created on paper for her.
Her lashes fluttered open. Meeting his gaze, she touched the tips of her fingers to her kiss-swollen lips. “Cole.” His name escaped on a breathless whisper of sound that belonged in a moonlit bedroom. His bedroom.
She looked so incredibly sexy, so beautifully a
roused, and it took every ounce of effort he possessed to contain the driving impulse to shove her skirt up around her waist, crush her body with his own, and take her right here, right now, up against the wall.
He took two huge steps back before he did just that, putting her far out of his reach. In a voice still holding gravelly nuances of desire, he said, “I strongly suggest that you leave for the night before we do something we’ll both regret later.”
She shook her head, opposing his statement, causing her mussed hair to tumble around her shoulders. “I don’t think regret is possible, for me anyway,” she replied softly.
A long moment of silence passed between them, making it abundantly clear that he had nothing left to add to the conversation. With a soulful sigh, she headed toward the door, but halted before stepping through the threshold. He didn’t turn around to look at her, but that didn’t stop her from addressing him one last time.
“Just in case there’s any doubt in your mind, Cole, I wanted that kiss,” she said in that new and brazen way of hers. Then she was gone.
Cole exhaled hard, but the release did nothing to ease the conflicting emotions of need and guilt raging inside of him. He never should have touched Mel, not even to prove a point or discourage her advances. But once his lips had glided across the silky texture of hers, there was no denying he’d wanted that tongue-tangling kiss just as much. Hell, truth be told, he ached for a helluva lot more than just her eager mouth beneath his, and she’d felt every inch of that ache pressing between her thighs.
Dropping into the chair behind his desk, he let out a snort of disgust. The biggest joke of all was on him, because she hadn’t been one bit intimidated by his dominance or sexual aggression. Hadn’t been at all dissuaded from her single-minded purpose to beguile him. If anything, she’d reveled in her newfound sensuality and had used it to shatter every one of his good intentions.
