Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (188 page)

“So what do you want to eat?” he asked,
crossing the room to the huge mahogany desk in the corner and picking up the
phone.
  
“We can order whatever
you want.”

“Order?” Kenley asked.
 
She was standing in the middle of the
room looking around, and it was obvious she was trying not to show how
impressed she was.
 
Not that Chad could
blame her.
 
The room
was
impressive, even to him, and he’d
stayed in some of the best hotels in the world.
 

The penthouse took up the whole top story, with
floor to ceiling windows encasing the suite, and a balcony that spanned one
whole side of the room.
 
There were
gleaming dark hardwood floors, a huge circular bed on top of a cream-colored
shag rug, and shiny crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.
  
There was a bar in the corner with
black leather stools, and crystal wine glasses hanging from a rack hooked to
the wall behind it.

“Yeah,” Chad said.
 
“We can call down to room service.”

“I thought you said you already ordered
hamburgers.”

“Did I say that?”’
 
He put a fake-confused looked on his
face.

“Yes.”
 
She whirled around and looked at him.
 
“You said we were going to eat
hamburgers on the balcony like two old friends.”

“I never would have said something as corny as
‘like two old friends,” he said. “But is that what you want?
 
A hamburger?”

“I don’t know.
 
I haven’t seen the menu.”
 
She crossed the room and sat down at the
bar.
 
She set her purse down and
crossed her legs primly in front of her.

“We don’t need a menu,” Chad said.

He saw the look pass over her face as she
realized what he meant– that he was in the penthouse, and so he could
order whatever he wanted, whether it was on the menu or not, and they would
make it for him, no questions asked.

“Cheeseburger and fries,” Kenley said, “with
bacon.
 
And some barbeque sauce on
the side.”

Chad nodded his approval, then picked up the
phone to order.
 
Kenley walked
behind the bar and started glancing through the bottles of wine.

After Chad got off the phone with room service,
he walked over and joined her.
 
She
was struggling with the wine opener, trying to get it into the cork of a bottle
of red.
 
He took it out of her hand,
and their fingers brushed.
  
“Opus One,” he said, popping the cork and pouring it into two glasses.
 
“Expensive tastes.”

“Did I pick the Opus One?” she asked
innocently.
 
“I didn’t notice.”

He shrugged, like it didn’t matter.
 
Obviously this was all part of her
plan.
 
First she was pretending that
she didn’t know who he was.
 
And now
she was taking it even further, opening expensive bottles of wine and acting
like she hadn’t noticed.
 
He took a
sip and wondered if he should just put an end to the charade right now --- if
he should tell her that he knew that she worked at Expera and that it was time
to drop the big game.
 
But that
would be giving up.
 
And Chad hated
to give up.

“So what do you do that you have this big room
to yourself?”
 
Kenley asked.

“What do I do?”
 
He almost spit out his drink.
 
It was one thing to pretend she didn’t
know who he was, but to come right out and ask him what he did for a living?
 
His first impression had been right
– she really was bold.
 
Well,
whatever.
 
She wasn’t going to break
him.
 
In fact, it would be fun to
knock her down a peg or two.

“Yeah, are you here for business or
something?”
 
She cocked her head and
looked at him.
 
She had big blue
eyes, and blonde curls that tumbled over her shoulders in loose waves.
 
He had the sudden urge to reach over and
push one of her curls off her forehead.
 
Her skin looked smooth and tan, the kind of skin you could spend hours
exploring.
 
He wondered if the rest
of her body was just as tan and soft.

“Yes, I’m here for business,” he said.

“You don’t look like you’re in finance or
anything,” she said.
 
“You’re too
relaxed.”

“Who said I was in finance?”

She blushed.
 
“Sorry,” she said,
 
“I just assumed since you’re staying in
the penthouse…”

“That I must have tons of money?”

He moved closer to her now, hoping that he
would be able to get her to admit what was really going on here.
 
His leg pushed up against hers.
 
He felt himself get hard and suddenly,
he wanted to plunge his hands into her curls and pull her close, kissing her
over and over again.

“No,” she said, shaking her head.
 
“I just figured you must be in an
industry that allowed you to live this kind of lifestyle.”

He moved even closer to her, telling himself he
was doing it so that he could break her down, get her to admit that she knew
who he was, and that he was scheduled to have a meeting with her tomorrow.
 
But deep down he knew it was more that
that -- for some reason, he needed to be next to her, needed to get closer to
her.

“I am in an industry like that.”
 

She turned her head, and cocked it to the side,
giving him that same adorable look she’d given him a few minutes earlier.
 
“Really?” she asked.
 
“What industry?”

“I don’t really like to broadcast it,” he said,
not wanting to be the one to blink first.

“Drugs?” she whispered, her eyes widening in
mock surprise.

There was a witty comeback on the tip of his
tongue, but he bit it back.
 
Fuck it,
he thought.
 
If she was determined to pretend she
didn’t know him, if that’s how this was going to go, then so be it.
 
He would have his way with her in the
bedroom, and that would be the way he won.

He put his hand on the back of her neck, pulled
her toward him, and kissed her.

***

The kiss surprised Kenley, even though she’d
been wanting him, almost begging him, in her mind to kiss her.
 
He was getting so close to her while
they were sitting there, and she could see the stubble on his chin, the small
scar he had right over his lip, the way his tongue darted out and licked his
lip when he looked at her.
 

Even so, she’d thought he’d been playing with
her, teasing her, wanting her to want him.
 
It was working, but when he finally went in and kissed her, she was
surprised that he would be so forceful.
 
So surprised that she tried to pull away, but his hand was in her hair,
on the back of her neck, and he pulled her toward him, refusing to let go,
pressing his lips into hers.

Finally, she surrendered to the kiss, letting
his tongue into her mouth.
 
Heat
coursed through her body and settled, pulsing, between her legs.
 
Chad’s tongue was on hers, and the next
moment he was pulling back, teasing her, sucking on her bottom lip before
returning and claiming her mouth again.

She’d never been kissed like this – it
was taking over her whole body, and she prayed he would pick her up, take her
over to the bed and continue what he started.

He stood up and swung her bar stool around
until she was facing him, then pushed himself in between her legs, his mouth
never leaving hers.
 
She could feel
his hardness against her.
 
He pulled
her even closer, and now his hands were in her hair, on the back of her neck,
on her shoulders.
 
His mouth moved
down, tracing kisses over her collarbone, soft and quick, a contradiction to
the hard, deep kisses he’d just been giving her, and she shivered.
 

He pulled back and looked at her.
 
She could see the want in his dark eyes,
and she could tell he was enjoying how much she wanted him.

“Hi,” he said softly, and rubbed his finger
over her cheek.

“Hi,” she said, struggling to keep her voice
even, to not let him see the affect he was having on her.

He just stayed there, looking into her eyes for
a few more seconds, like he was deciding what to do with her next.
 
She shivered again.

“Cold?” he asked, and ran his hands up her bare
shoulders.

She shook her head, not trusting herself to
speak.

“Me neither,” he said.
 
He leaned back down toward her, and she
tilted her chin up, praying he would kiss her like he was kissing her
before.
 
But just as his lips grazed
hers, there was a knock on the door.

“Room service,” Chad said.
 
He kissed her again, softly on the lips,
then took a step back.
 
“I’ll be
right back.”
 

Kenley bit back the groan that was in her
throat, and tried to calm her beating heart.
  
She couldn’t believe how easily
Chad just moved away from her, walking confidently toward the door like he
could take her or leave her.
 

“Hey, man,” she heard him tell the
bellboy.
 
“No need to bring the cart
in, I got it.”
 

She watched as he pushed the food into the
room.
 
Her heart was still beating,
and she took a couple of more deep breaths.

“So,” Chad said, stopping a few feet in front
of her. “You hungry?”

She swallowed.
 
She
was
hungry.
 
But not for what he was
talking about.Chad picked up the dome from one of the room service plates and
popped a fry into his mouth.

“I’m sorry,” Kenley said, standing up.
 
“I’m sorry, I just… I have to go.”
  
She readjusted her clothes.
 
Her heart was starting to return to its
normal rate now and she was starting to feel a little panicked.
 
What had she just been about to do?
 

“What?” Chad looked confused.
 
“But we –”

“I’m sorry,” she said again, and rushed out of
the room.

Chapter
Four

Chad watched Kenley leave the room, every inch
of him telling him to go after her.
 
She seemed nervous or worried, like she was afraid something had been
about to happen between them.

Which was understandable.
 
Something
had
been about to happen between them.
 
That kiss!
 
It had taken every ounce of his
self-control to pull away from her.
 
He still wasn’t sure how he’d done it.
 
He’d never wanted someone so badly in
his life.

Just let
her go,
he told himself.
  
If she wanted to be here, she
would have stayed.
 
And if she
didn’t, then he didn’t want to be responsible for making her do something she
was going to regret.
 
She seemed
like a nice girl, a nice person, despite the fact that she was obviously
messing with him about the whole Expera thing.
  
He didn’t want to be responsible
for causing her any kind of heartache, for sleeping with her just to prove to
himself that he could, to mess with her just because she was messing with
him.
 
But still.
 
That kiss.
 

He looked at the hamburgers and fries on the
tray in front of him, and realized he
 
didn’t want to eat
 
without
Kenley.
 
And before he could stop
himself, he was out of the room, and rushing down the hall, determined to get
her and bring her back.

She hadn’t gotten far – in fact, she
wasn’t even at the elevator yet.

“Kenley!” he called, and she turned
around.
 
Her blonde hair was messed
up from the kissing, and her cheeks were flushed.
 
God, she was beautiful.
 
He wanted to take her in his arms, to
scoop her up and pull her close.
 
They could lie in bed all night, they didn’t even have to do anything --
he would just hold her if that’s what she wanted.
 
He crossed the hall in a few long
strides.
 
“Hey,” he said when he got
to her.
 
“You okay?”