Billionaire's Pursuit (Billionaire Erotic Romance, Never Never Man Series) Book 1 (11 page)

MADDIE

“Okay,” I began. Talk about being caught off guard.

“To new partnerships,” Grey said, raising his glass.

I lifted mine in turn and with a gentle clink toasted to Grey’s unexpected offer. After taking a much larger than ordinary sip of my Pinot Noir, I placed my glass back on the table.

“So how do we get started?”

“When I return to Chicago, I’ll have my attorneys draft a formal agreement. For now though, I’m willing to accept a more casual arrangement. A consummation of sorts.”

I swallowed hard. The dryness left behind on my palate seemed to intensify with the conclusion of his statement. Right away it became clear to me I needed to define the exact terms or risk losing more than my business in the process.

“Grey, please don’t take this the wrong way, but…”

As I spoke, he raised his hand in the air with his palm facing me. My thought interrupted, I stopped.

“Let me guess,” he began, as he lowered his hand. “You aren’t going to sleep with me.”

Taken aback, but not completely surprised, I attempted to compose myself.

“Yes,” I replied with all the confidence I could gather. “And…”

He raised his hand once more. “And you think that if you refuse me, I won’t agree to help you.”

As Grey finished speaking, I felt a rash of redness flush my chest. I wanted to melt into to the seat and disappear into vapor, just fucking vanish. I didn’t realize how insulting I’d been. Here I wanted to offer a well-reasoned, polite comment. But until I heard the words come out of his mouth, I had no clue how self-centered, egotistical and ugh, just downright bitchy I must have seemed.

Wanting to avert any disastrous impact on the deal he offered, I jumped in.

“Grey, I’m sorry. Please, I didn’t mean for it to come across that way. No woman in her right mind would turn you down. I hope you aren't insulted.”

Grey shook his head. With little to no change in his demeanor, he casually waved off my comment. “If you were any other woman, I wouldn’t be interested, Maddie. But, I understand and respect your decision. Trust me when I tell you that what you’ve said doesn’t affect my business decisions. I think you have a good business idea. It’s an idea I want to invest in. Okay?”

Oh my God, could I feel like more of a complete ass right now?

As he spoke, my head drifted forward a bit in a gesture of shame. My hair slipped down in front of my eyes. Tugging it behind my ears, I looked back across the table at Grey. The soft ambient lighting in Chef Claude’s reflected in his normally dark brown eyes, lighting them with a cinnamon-like hue.

“Maddie?” he said, as I stared at him, wordless. “Are we okay? We understand each other?”

His words snapped me out of my trance and I nodded. “Yes. Thank you, Grey.”

He smiled and gestured for the waiter to bring the check. “Don’t mention it. It’s my pleasure. I need to get some rest. Come up to my suite with me and I'll give you some money for tonight, since I won’t be staying and paying you the full amount we agreed on.”

Feeling as if this might be as good a chance as any to show him some appreciation, I politely refused. “I couldn’t, Grey. Really. Not after what you’ve offered. I wouldn't feel right about it.”

As he signed the check, he shook his head. Without looking up at me, he replied, “Don’t be ridiculous Maddie. I insist and I won’t take ‘‘no’ for an answer.”

In desperate need of the cash, I decided to take Grey up on his offer and ten minutes later, I stood in the foyer of his suite while he disappeared into the bedroom to get his checkbook. As he walked away, the hard soles of his loafers
clopped
along the floor offering the only sound in an otherwise quiet moment.

I glanced around at the opulence and luxury of the suite as I waited for him to return. Rich, ivory marble flooring reflected the soft white lighting of the ornate brass sconces adorning the walls. Everywhere I looked, the finest in furnishings and fixtures captured my attention. Was this something you ever got used to?

Hell, even the
air
smelled expensive.

I turned my back on the hallway leading to the bedroom and realized what a far cry this was from my tiny accommodations at Katy’s place. And, unlike the pricey oxygen floating around my nostrils here, the dominant aroma at my room was the ever-present scent of hair spray and the remnants of an at-home sugar waxing experiment gone horribly wrong. Now, walking on my bathroom floor was like moving across a room full half-chewed bubble gum and to top it off, I
still
looked like Yeti when I was done.

Which, ugh, I still had to clean all that up.

Shaking my head, I looked up at the ceiling. What was I doing here? I had to leave. This is… I just don’t belong here. Feeling panicked all of a sudden, I squeezed my clutch and began to step as lightly as possible towards the door of the suite. I'd made not more than six feet of progress, when Grey’s voice boomed from behind.

“Maddie,” he said in a tone that sounded like a command.

I froze in place and fought the urge to turn back to look at him. If I did, I wasn’t sure if I’d walk to the entrance, or run. Just then, I felt Grey’s presence behind me.

“What’s wrong?” he said, as he walked around in front of me, barefoot.

I drew my eyes up to meet his. In his hand, he held what looked to be my check. I swallowed hard at the sight of it.

“Grey, I can’t,” I stammered. “I just can’t.”

Without hesitating, Grey nodded and tore the check to shreds. He tossed the bits in the air and I cursed my stupidity as I watched a large number of dollars fall to the ground.

“Have it your way, Maddie,” he replied with a flat tone. “Feel free to show yourself out.”

He glared at me for a moment and then started to walk past me back towards his bedroom. My head turned towards him a bit and he stopped in my peripheral vision.

“I’m not sure what you want from me, Maddie. I offer you an opportunity that most people, man or woman, would jump at. Instead of giving it fair consideration, you accuse me of wanting to sleep with you. Then when I offer you the check in spite of that, you refuse it.”

I looked away but didn’t offer a response. The reason? I had none.

“I am a busy man, Maddie,” he continued with a growing tone of indifference. “I don’t have time to play these fucking games with you.”

I exhaled and spun back to face him. “I’m
not
playing games, Grey. I just don’t want to live in fear that if things didn’t work out between us I’d lose everything. Can’t you understand?”

“Frankly, no, I can’t,” he stepped close to me, like the day we’d first met, leaving less than a foot between us as he continued. “There is no ‘us’, Maddie. I’m offering to invest in your business. Nothing more.”

I held his gaze for a moment or two but as his intensity and focus increased, I broke away and looked down at the ground. I wasn’t even sure where to look.

Just…
away.

Grey continued, “Do I want to throw you down on that dining room table right now and take you?
Hell yes.
Am I willing to do that and risk throwing away a business deal with you and an investment in something I believe has real promise? No Maddie, I'm not.”

I swallowed at his unlikely confession. His words stoked my carnal urgings once again. Shit, no matter when I was around him, they were always there, tormenting me. I fought every instinct I had to just fall into him and let him do with me what he would. Yet somehow, I resisted, as Grey continued to speak.

“Despite what you may have heard or have to come to believe about me, I don’t say things I don’t mean. I’ve made my interest in you, as well as your business, clear.
I
can keep the two separate. But if you cannot, then that’s understandable. You might think that I’ve got the world by the tail, that there’s never a downside risk for me in anything I do. But, in fact, all I have in life are downsides, Maddie. If you can imagine waking up every day wondering who is going to lie to you to get ahead, then you’ll have some idea of that it’s like to be me.”

I turned my head back towards him and locked my eyes on his. “I am not lying to you, Grey.”

“Nor I to you.”

I felt sick to my stomach. I hung my head and tried to think of anything I could say to tell him how sorry I was, that I didn’t mean it and no, I didn’t understand what it meant to be him. I wanted to say all that and more, but I couldn't because all those words weren’t necessary when only the next three would suffice.

“Grey, I’m sorry.”

“I am too, Maddie. I am too. But it’s time for you to go now.”

I nodded and turned my back to walk towards the front door of the room. As I moved, Grey trailed behind me until at last I reached the entrance. I stopped and turned back to face him for what I supposed was the final time, but before I walked out on him forever, I had to know if it was true.

Tugging my hair behind my ear, I made a quick motion with my tongue and moistened my lips.

“Did you mean what you said? About, you know…”

As he listened to me, I looked into Grey’s eyes. His eyelids moved with slow, rhythmic blinks as if they kept time to a metronome in his head. I felt my torso fall back a couple of inches until the cool sensation of the huge oak door pressed against my backside.

Grey only looked at me, but didn’t speak, as he closed the gap between us. Once he’d moved to less than a few inches away, he lifted his hands up towards my face and with a single smo
oth motion, cradled my chin in them. I felt a terrible lump form in my throat and then press against his fingertips as I swallowed it down. My heart raced with erratic pulses and thumps as he held me, for the first time touching his flesh to mine. “There’
s no turning back,” he whispered. “If I get so much as a taste of you, I won’t be able to stop. Not until I’ve taken what I want. You must understand this about me. This is your one and only warning.”

His pupils bore into me as he spoke. I hesitated for a moment before my mouth drifted open and with a silent nod, I invited Grey’s lips to mine. Without hesitation, Grey crashed his mouth on mine and as he did, my lips spread open in eagerness. He continued to cradle my head in his hands as our tongues flicked and licked at one another, at last able to taste each other for the first time.

My hands pressed against Grey’s midsection and I squeezed the fabric of his shirt, tugging him closer to me. Beneath it, just beyond my reach, I could feel the hard ridges of his defined midsection. His musk permeated my senses as he leaned into me. I moaned when I felt the evidence of his arousal press against the softness of my curves. My hands continued to travel down his midsection until I reached his belt. Once there, my fingers moved with precision as I scrambled to free him from the restraint of his clothing.

While I worked to loosen his belt, Grey’s hands dropped away from my face and snaked their way down to my waist. As he dragged his fingertips along my torso, goosebumps erupted on my arms. After I’d released his belt, I reached down to his pants and started to unfasten them. As I did, I felt his hands travel up and down the center of my back as he searched for the zipper to my jumpsuit.

Gasping between kisses, I said, “It’s on the side.”

“Mmm, hmm,” he grunted.

In the less than a second, his hand swiveled back around to my left as he tugged at the zipper of my jumpsuit and pulled it. Afterward, he hooked my sleeve and pulled it off my shoulder. I wiggled from the other one and within a few more seconds, I stepped out of my outfit, leaving precious little fabric between us.

Grey licked his lips as I removed my bra, while he tossed my jumpsuit aside.

“My turn,” I said, as I stepped close to him.

Grey reached up and slipped his tie off with a flourish. Afterward, he grabbed his shirt and began to unbutton it, but I snatched his hand and pressed it against his shirt, pinning it there. Grey wrinkled his eyebrows, daring me to continue.

He reached down towards my hips and wrapped his large, warm fingers around me, pulling me close as I began to unfasten his shirt. My tongue flicked inside of my mouth as I looked down at his chest. One by one, I eased each button out and as I did, I leaned in towards his tan skin and kissed it, peppering him with my wet lips as I went.

His tanned flesh wrapped hard across the musculature of his midsection and twitched as I kissed and licked it. After undoing the final button, I released the fabric of his shirt from my fingertips. It fell open, exposing the chiseled center of his perfect v-taper to me. My eyes were drawn further down, and as lust raged inside me, I grabbed hold of his pants once again and unfastened them with haste, finishing what I’d started a few minutes before.

Releasing his grasp from my waist, Grey rocked his shoulders from side-to-side as he peeled his shirt away. It sailed to the ground and disappeared from my peripheral vision. Just then, I yanked with everything I had, pulling his pants and his boxer briefs down in one fell swoop. My eyes widened as his cock pulsed straight, long and hard before me.

Grey’s face darkened as he lurched towards me and lifted me up, sweeping me into his arms. He held me with his right arm, while with his left he swiped at the china and glassware on the table nearest the entrance to the room. Dishes flew like Frisbees, glasses crashed against the wall and sent shards in every direction, creating a terrific crash.

Unfettered by obstacles, he lowered me on the table and after hooking my panties with his fingers he slid them down and off my legs. Desperately wet, I arched my back up towards him as he stood at the edge of the table. He reached up, grabbed my thighs and slid me close to him. My breath hitched in my chest as he yanked my backside along the tabletop. No sooner had I pressed against his thighs, than the inevitable moment happened, stealing my breath from me entirely as it did.

“Unnhhh…” he grunted, as he slid within me.

My eyes fluttered closed as Grey plunged himself inside me, at last freeing my carnal urges and giving them the release they needed.

“Oh, fuck. Fuck.
Fuck,
” I moaned as Grey began to thrust inside me.