A Will and a Way (16 page)

Oh, but they did fit. The rounded muscle of his tight little ass fit perfectly in her palms. Her breast felt right at home in his. She clung to his shoulder, hanging on for dear life as his tongue swept into her mouth. Plundering. Pillaging. Leaving nothing in its wake but the rubble of her best intentions.

“All morning long I’ve thought about you.” He was all raspy words and warm, strong hands.

She moaned as the clasp of her bra gave way beneath her blouse. A magician. That’s what he was. A wizard with sleight of hand. Every kiss stripped away more of her self-control. Each time he touched her, common sense
poofed
.

“I think we—” She stopped short when he started walking backwards and dragged her along with him. The second his legs bumped Greg’s leather executive’s chair, he relinquished his hold on her and began to unbuckle his belt. “What are you doing?”

“I’m about to give some dictation, Ms. Asher.” He shucked his pants and shorts with an impressive economy of movement, then dropped into the seat. “And you’re about to take it,” he finished, gesturing to his straining cock.

Betty stared at him. Her mind was blank but her body answered him with a roar of approval. “Dictation?”

“On your knees.”

Three words. A cocky demand should have set her off, but instead set her on fire. Her knees turned to jelly. They gave way altogether when he crooked a finger. Placing her hands on his thighs, she shifted until she found a spot where the unyielding hardwood wasn’t too painful on her knees. Betty wet her lips as she cast a hesitant glance at him. “Here? Now?”

“You bet your sweet ass.”

His growl made her lips curve up at the corners. Eyes locked with his, she leaned in and let her hair brush over the swollen tip. She wanted to nuzzle that taut velvet skin, taste the pearly drop of desire that gathered there, wrap her lips around him and draw him into her slow and deep, but she refrained. For the moment.

“You think my ass is sweet.”

Big, work-roughened hands slid into her hair with such gentle reverence she almost buried her face in his lap and wept for wanting him as bad as she did. She hadn’t bargained for this kind of craving. Never thought she’d experience the all-consuming hunger that gnawed at her. A hunger that was never quite satisfied, no matter how much she gave or took.

“I think every bit of you is sweet.”

The husky confession rocked her world. Falling back on her heels, she gripped his knees and shook her head. “No. Don’t say that.”

Will blinked, confusion creasing his brows. “Why not? I do. You are.”

She wagged her head even harder, but the implication was already winding around her heart. But he couldn’t know what those too easy words might cost her. It bound her to him whether he knew it or not. They’d be the words she took out on dark, lonely nights and played over and over again. He wouldn’t be the one dissecting every syllable for subtext and reading extra meaning into the syntax. He’d be onto his next conquest, and she’d be right back where she started—forgotten, humiliated, left. All the things she swore she would never be again.

Pressing her palms to his knees, she braced herself to push away, but just then the front door opened.

“Hello?” a deep voice rang out.

Her gaze flew to Will’s. Ever the gentleman, he grasped her elbows and helped her to her feet before rolling back a few inches and turning the chair away from the office door.

She called to their visitor, “Be with you in a minute!”

His zipper rasped and belt buckle clinked. “You okay?”

“Fine,” she assured him, though, in truth, she was wobbly as a newborn colt. “I’ll just go….” She waved an ineffectual hand at the outer office.

Will shoved the tail of his shirt into his waistband. “We’ll pick up where we left off later, Ms. Asher.”

Betty searched for a retort as she strode to the office door but came up empty. Flashes of the fantasies she’d toyed with their first time together played in her head. She hadn’t thought twice about Fed Ex or UPS since the first night she and Will made love. She’d entertained no notion of revenge, or even rebellion. For days on end there hadn’t been anything but Will’s body buried deep inside hers, his laughter ringing in her ears, his mouth covering hers, giving her his breath and stealing hers.

Since the moment their affair began, she’d only been in her apartment long enough to collect clothes. She hadn’t eaten a meal she hadn’t shared with him. Or slept on a pillow. They worked together. Slept together. In less than one week, her whole existence had boiled down to an existence that revolved around him. And there it was—the writing on the wall. She’d fallen right back into the same pattern she’d lived with Donald. Except this time, she was making a bigger mistake than falling for the big fish in a small pond. This time, she was falling for Will Tarrant, the man, the legend, the dark prince of Riverside.

There was a rustle of movement in the outer room. Their visitor’s voice came from a spot just outside the office door. “Hello? Mom?”

Will shot to his feet, his eyes wide and his mouth agape. “Mom?” he mouthed, his glare fierce and accusing. “Mom?”

A strangled sob choked her. Betty pressed a hand to her throat as she whirled toward the outer office, her eyes wide and starting to water. “Donnie?”

A hundred unanswered messages, texts, and e-mails, and her son had come looking for her now. Now? She had to hand it to her one and only child. He had just as much flair for entrances as he had for the dramatic exit. “Oh, my God, Donnie!”

She ran her hands over her hair then her dress. The slide of fabric over freshly-bared flesh made the heat rise in her cheeks. “Uh, I’m….”
I’m what? Coming?
God, how many times had Will made her come on that desk out there where her boy was standing that very minute? “Be right there!”

Turning back to Will, she searched that fallen angel’s face for the answer she needed but found only dark confusion. “Your kid is here?”

“Apparently.” The words came out clipped and sharp, but she couldn’t be bothered softening them. Not when the prodigal son had returned. Checking the tie on her dress one more time for good measure, she shot Will a sidelong glance and got an accusatory glare in return “It’s not like I was expecting him.”

“God, I hope not. That would have been on hell of a show.”

She blew out a breath, her eyes fixed on the spot where she’d knelt minutes ago. Fumbling behind her back, she rehooked her bra. “What the hell was I thinking? What was I doing? I don’t do this!”

Grim-faced, he slipped the tab of his belt through the loop. “I beg to differ. I’d even go so far as to say it’s one of your greatest talents.”

The snarky comeback flew all over her. “You and me. I can’t do this…whatever this is, anymore.”

He jerked as if she’d slapped him clean across the cheek. “What? Why?”

“Didn’t you hear that?” She tugged at neckline of her dress, making sure she was nowhere near as exposed as she felt. “That’s my kid out there.”

“I look forward to meeting him.”

“No,” she said, her voice an inkling stronger than it had been a moment before. “No, you can’t.”

“I can’t? You can’t just—”

“We said no strings,” she reminded Will in a tremulous whisper. “We agreed this could go on as long as both of us wanted. Either of us can call it quits as soon as it stops working for us. Well, this isn’t working for me.”

“Bullshit.” He shot from the chair but halted when she took an involuntary step back. “You want me as much as I want you. Christ, it’s written all over your face, Betty.”

“That doesn’t matter. You can fire me if you want, but this…affair is done.”

“But—”

She gave her head a shake then whirled. The tender skin inside her thighs tingled and chafed as she spun away from him. She winced but squared her shoulders, willing to accept the lingering sting of a worthless wax as her punishment for her behavior. It beat the crap out of a broken heart.

Leaving Will sputtering, she charged into the reception area and threw herself into the arms of the man who’d abandoned her three years earlier. She knew just what to expect from her son. And she knew she could survive having her heart broken by him. She wasn’t so sure she would survive the demise of her fling with Will.

“Donnie!”

* * * *

Will collected himself before following Betty. He’d been in a state of near-arousal almost from the second he’d stepped foot in the office and spent the better part of the previous hour fantasizing about all the ways he wanted to violate the former first lady of Percy, Mississippi. Getting his dick to stand down was going to take more than a breath-taking revelation and a resounding rejection. After all, there wasn’t a man alive who didn’t believe a good banging had the power to solve any problem.

Like a fly drawn to sweet, southern honey, he made his way toward the low-pitched voices in his anteroom. Donnie. The mystery son. Spawn of Donald, Mr. Mayor of Percy Mississippi.

Will wasn’t exactly sure what the situation was between mother and son, but he’d be damned if it would have adverse impact on what was happening between him and Betty.

Moving to the door, he stole a quick peek then made his presence known. The kid was tall. More than a full head taller than his mother, but given her petite stature, it wasn’t a surprise. What was surprising was the carrot-colored hair and the starbursts of freckles scattered over milk-white skin. The kid was a bonfire compared to his mother’s subtle glow.

Donnie met Will’s gaze with a directness that landed like a punch to the soft parts. They burned blue as the heart of a flame, but he’d stared into Betty’s eyes enough to know golden flecks turned the irises almost green in certain light. Seeing those too-familiar eyes set in another man’s face him made his stomach twist. The grim expression that thinned the kid’s lips told Will that young Donnie was catching on fast enough.

For the first time in his life, Will tasted defeat without even realizing he’d been in the game. The kid wasn’t a complication to sidestep, or a dragon to slay. Hell, he wasn’t even a kid. He was a grown man. One Will could never best in a battle for this particular maiden’s heart. Still, everything had been perfect until her son walked in. Maybe they could be again once young Donnie went back to wherever he’d come from. Betty just panicked, that was all.

“Hello.” The young man’s voice was cool but unfailingly polite.

The scowl on Betty’s face as her son extended his hand in greeting was about as far from well-mannered as a pretty woman could possibly get. Taking the proffered hand, Will held Betty’s gaze for a second fraught with challenge before giving Donnie’s hand a firm shake.

“Will Tarrant. Nice to meet you.”

“This is my son, Donnie.”

“Don,” the young man corrected. The second Will released his hand, Donnie turned his attention back to his mother. “I had to call Marjorie Watson to find out where you went.”

“You had to call….” Betty’s soft voice sharpened as disbelief turned to outrage. “I called. I sent text messages.”

“Dad cut off my cell.” Donnie’s tone might have matched hers if it weren’t for the hint of whine in his explanation.

“I sent e-mail after e-mail. You never answered.” Defensiveness took some of the bite out of her words, but the hurt rang through loud and clear.

“No internet access.”

The urge to call bullshit was nearly overwhelming, but it wasn’t Will’s place. The need to protect and defend this woman made his blood practically simmer in his veins. Will curled his fingers into loose fists and entertained fantasies of knocking this scruffy man-child’s block clean off his shoulders.

But Betty didn’t need him to fight her battle. She simply fixed young Donald Asher with another one of those killer mom glares. The kind he never imagined she had in her arsenal. The thought of this sensual, deliciously hedonistic woman as anyone’s mother still made his head spin. But oddly enough, he was starting to see it. He could definitely hear the edge of maternal steel when she spoke.

“I find it difficult to believe you couldn’t have managed a collect call. After all, our home phone number didn’t change until last month.” Her voice was so cool and controlled Will almost shivered.

“I didn’t want to talk to Dad.”

“Your father has been dead for over a year.”

“Well, I wouldn’t have known that, would I? I’ve been out of the country.”

“You just disappeared.” Betty threw her hands up in frustration. “Three weeks before graduation. We didn’t know if you were alive or dead until we got a call from your roommate saying you didn’t pay your half of the rent before you disappeared.” She planted those hands on her hips and tilted her chin up. “What happened to the rent money we gave you at the start of the semester?”

The little shit had the balls to shrug her off. “I got a chance to travel with this group to El Salvador.”

Her gorgeous eyes widened in horror. “El Salvador? In Central America? What hell were you doing in El Salvador?”

“There was this girl. She was studying anthropology. They put together a group to go on this research trip.”

“You were gone for almost three years!”

Donnie shrugged again, as if that should have been all the answer anyone needed to pack up and take off without so much as a word to his parents. “A bunch of stuff happened.”

Betty flushed a pink so bright Will would have found it delightful under any other circumstances, but the rigid line of her back and tense set of her jaw were getting him every bit as keyed up as she was. Needing to let her know there was someone who saw her side, he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

She rejected his offer of comfort with a violent shake then rounded on him. “Do you mind? This is a private conversation.”

Taken aback by her vehemence, Will bit down on the urge to remind her that they were holding their private conversation in the middle of his business offices. Instead, he lifted his hand from her shoulder and held them both aloft. “Pardon me.” Inhaling deep through his nose, he pivoted on his heel and stalked toward the kitchen and his office beyond. “Why don’t you go ahead and take the rest of the afternoon, Ms. Asher? It’s obvious you have some personal business to sort out.”