Down With Cupid Shorts Bundle (8 page)

“Ok. Ok. I give.” She laughed. “You sold stuff. Now what happened?”

It pleased him more than it should have that she wanted to know. He shrugged at the weight of the feeling. “I had a job mainly for a beer budget and so I could date.”

“Let me guess, full scholarship for being a geek.”

“Wow. How did you ever guess?”

She waved her hand. “The girl. Get to the girl.”

“Former cheerleader. Got turned on by philosophy and left popularity behind. We had the same class. We had an assignment and then one night, during a study session, one thing led to another. We were together for two years.”

The path curved, and again just to have an excuse to touch her, he put the tips of his fingers on her back and led her in the direction he wanted. She’d moved closer to him. With every stride some part of them touched. He wanted more of them to touch. Skin to skin. Hot and achy. He sighed when they reached a break in the trees where nothing but grass and the open sky filled the park.

Sebastian glared at the moist ground for messing up his plan. “I should have brought my jacket so you could sit down.”

“I’m not scared of a little wet grass.” She placed a hand on his shoulder and kicked off her heels.

The heat of her hand stole through him. He almost reached up to keep it there or enclose his fingers around her palm.

“Come on then,” he said. “I’m sure you want to hear the rest.”

He slowed his pace when she stepped tentatively through the grass. Only lights from the walkway lit the park, leaving them mostly in the dark. It felt right to tell the rest without having her intense gaze on his face. The retelling wouldn’t twist his gut any less, but he could let her know why he’d win, why she was screwed from the gate with him.

He sat down. Nicole settled next to him on the grass, raised her hands up to her hair and started to pull out pins. He wanted to watch. Fuck, he wanted to help just to feel the soft strands between his fingers again.

Sebastian forced himself to look straight ahead. “The big twist to the story is that she wanted a family. In order to start one, I needed a better paying job, something with a bigger take at the end of the day. My sales commission was nothing to sneeze at, but I loved her so I talked myself into an internship for a sport’s agent. They make bank, right? I started to earn big money, but they needed me to travel. A lot.”

“Oh, hell.”

He nodded in the dark. “Nothing makes the college girlfriend’s heart grow less fonder than a long distance relationship.”

“Wait. You didn’t finish college?”

“Geek, remember? Took college courses starting my junior year in high school. Finished with a year and a half to spare. Now, hush. You’re ruining the buildup.”

“I know how this ends. Plenty of my friends back then got themselves tangled up in a long-distance thing.”

“You don’t know the second and unexpected twist.” He lost the battle and let his gaze take in its fill of her. Loose waves of sable strands framed her face, fell a bit over her shoulders. If he couldn’t kill his own urge to want more with her, Sebastian could do his best to kill hers. It wouldn’t be that hard. She already believed him to be heartless and the weekend some sort of fluke. All he had to do was put the final nail in that coffin.

“The main office sent me back home to scout a player at my alma mater,” he said. “They’d tried before, but he wanted to finish college first then think about going pro. If anyone could talk him into considering signing to an agency, it was me. I also wanted to surprise my girlfriend.”

He paused, and she held his gaze. She saw the truth on his face even in the dark. “Who was she screwing?”

“The football player I was sent to sign,” he said. “My girl hadn’t quite been telling the truth all those times we talked about deep stuff. She still wanted to be a cheerleader. In high school she was the best. In college, she couldn’t cut it. She told him the same shtick about wanting a family. He signed with the agency to give her that dream.”

Her brows knit in confusion. “But a publicist?”

“Since I hated his ever loving guts, I couldn’t represent him. A publicity firm had heard about me and I let them woo me away. Within the first six months the football player decided to sign with a major team. One of our clients wanted the spot. I made sure he got it.”

And because she knew the business, Nicole would know what he’d done. Sebastian had dug up every single piece of dirt he could find to make sure no one would touch the man. Too much bad press. The owners had become skittish to sign someone who looked like too much of a risk.

She gasped, scandalized. “You didn’t?”

“I did.”

“I didn’t take you for methodical and cold.” She made a noncommittal noise.

“I do what needs to be done for the client.”

“That wasn’t the client. It was revenge for the girl who kebabbed your heart. Different scenario.”

She wasn’t reacting as he hoped. No look of horror, only understanding. This was not good. This was Sebastian’s ace in the hole to get her to stop looking at him as though he should ignore all the rules he put in place when it came to sleeping with women. A little more time and she’d be out of his system. They could banter and quip until the sun came up, but what would be left between them would be remembered chemistry. Not something that hadn’t burnt itself out.

“And?”

“What?” he said.

“The story doesn’t end there. What happened to them?”

He didn’t want to tell her that part. “End of story as far as how I got into this business.”

She pursed her lips and then nodded slowly. “I won’t lie. Your story’s fascinating and puts the younger you in a different light than I imagined, but what happened to the kebabber and the football player?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Now I know it does.”

“Moral of the story is I can be ruthless.”

“So can I.” She tilted her head back, let out a soft laugh. “I see. This was really a boogey-man story. I’m shaking in my boots. Maybe if you ask nicely I’ll tell you about the time I pretty much debased myself—showed way too much cleavage to get one of my client’s into an exclusive night club for a sentence in a popular magazine.”

Stunned, Sebastian could only stare at her for a moment, and then he could only laugh. The smirk curved her lips, lush and kissable. The spark in her eyes defied the low light. She couldn’t be conned. There was no bridge he could sell her.

It felt like that first night when she shot down the charm and asked him to join her anyway for giving it a good old college try. He fucking loved it. He was so goddamned screwed. From beginning to end.

Sebastian stopped fighting the urge and reached out to clasp his fingers around the front of her shirt. Her breasts were soft and heavy against his knuckles. He waited to see if she’d protest, anything other than to sigh softly. Nothing but that damn sigh. He dragged her close, and then, finally, he slanted his mouth over hers.

*****

Nicole knew she should have been more worried he’d maul her in the park. He had a look since the elevator doors closed. A kind of a look a man had for a woman he wanted. For the past week his restraint had held in place, and that’s why hers had too. She refused to be the one to give, but now…

His mouth slanted across hers, sending all sorts of naughty memories rushing back. Her body went on autopilot. It knew this mouth, hands and groan. Her nipples hardened, and she moaned. The sensations of his lips against hers shut down all thought. It had never felt this good to be mauled.

One arm gripped her waist, held her close to the heat of him, the hard length of him. The other hand was buried in her hair. Suddenly, he rolled, pinning her beneath him on the grass. Sebastian didn’t miss a beat. His mouth kept up the assault until she let out a breathless sigh. A sound of surrender.

His tongue slid in, out, and around the curve of her mouth. Her skirt refused to budge and he groaned, laid down beside her, never letting his mouth lose the contact. His hand closed over her left thigh, pushed it aside as wide as the tight material of her skirt would allow.

He hadn’t really touched her, and already she was wet, because her body knew what came next. His hand slid up, beneath the skirt and rested at the edge of her core. She buried her fingers in his hair, pulled him closer to deepen the kiss. Silently, she gave him permission to do what they should have been doing since he scowled at her over Jeremiah’s head. They should have told the client to wait in the lounge and gotten this out of the way so Sebastian could bend her over the desk and release some of the tension they’d bottled up for two months.

He brushed aside the soaked material and ran a thick finger over the tight bud. Her hips rose up as if to force him to continue the delicious caress.

He dipped two fingers into her sex and hissed. “You’re so fucking wet already.”

She’d been wet the moment his hand slid down her back to help her cross the street.
That
was sad and depressing and pathetic. One simple gesture without guile could make her want to come. She brushed her lips against his to get him to shut up and do more things with his tongue. She shouldn’t have. They were in a park, a public place but she needed him to keep on touching her.

He chuckled. “Don’t you worry. I’m going to make you come like you want to. Just let me—fuck. You’re so tight and wet for me.”

She rocked her hips, and he closed his mouth back over hers, the way it should be. He tasted the same—wicked, absolutely wicked. Her memory hadn’t done him justice. It had tried to slap a label on his texture and flavor. No. Simply wicked. That was all she could think as he pushed his fingers deeper, curled to find the spot to drive her wild.

“I remember exactly what made you beg. This right here,” he said.

His slow, deep strokes made her whimper and he groaned in kind. And she would come if the flush of heat continued to build and spread through her. Sebastian savored each quickening of her sex. He stopped long enough that he had to build the orgasm back up, right on the edge. Again and again, until there was nothing left to do but go over the brink in one long, hard shudder, soaking the fingers buried inside her. Because he was a master at this, he rolled his thumb over her clit, forcing her to come again. Harder, wetter and then he added a third finger.

His voice was gruff and filled with the taste of him—wicked, absolutely wicked. “You’re tight but you want to take more.”

“Then give it to me,” she said and then moaned when he teased her clit to build her back up for another orgasm.

“Oh,” he said slowly, softly. “I will, but first, you’ve got to tell me you lied.”

She tugged on the hair at the nape of his neck. Sebastian grunted and the glint in his blue eyes said he liked it. “Never, and you’re a bastard for asking me right now.”

He leaned down, nipped at her earlobe and brought her to the point of climax again. He whispered, “I know.”

He sucked the soft flesh into his mouth and bit her a little harder. He had her right there.
Right there.
So close.

“Until you confess this is all I’m going to give you,” he promised.

He wanted her vulnerable and exposed. She couldn’t do it. Not even if it meant the ache, deeper and unquenchable, could be sated.

“Just remember,” she said. “I know all the ways to make you come too.”

“You do, but I’m the only one who can say I had you trembling, moaning and practically begging. In a park. I win this round, my
Darling Nikki.
”

She heard Sebastian’s chuckle—the sadist—right before he made her come again.

Chapter Five

“How are things between you and your co-publicity manager?”

She flushed and thanked the heavens her boss couldn’t see her face. Nicole pushed the earbud in deeper and shifted into a more comfortable position behind her desk. The chair creaked and the noise brought Sebastian’s gaze her way. He’d made her blush frequently for the past two weeks. This time was no different. The flush heated, and he smirked before concentrating on his phone call, one he took in his area of
her
office. The early morning sun warmed the room and so did he.

“He’s working out fine,” Nicole said. “Don’t know why he still has to shadow me. He knows his stuff.”

The absolute truth, the kind she’d only utter at gun point? Her co-publicity manager had become quite insufferable, and she only had herself to blame. She’d thought sooner or later he’d break. A moment filled with heat and need would hit them and boom they’d start going at it. Except
at it
meant everything he could possibly do to her, all but the one thing she really,
really
wanted.

It was like the weekend they shared except for the insanity of him being the biggest tease ever to be spawned. For two weeks. They took lunches together. They talked, not chatted. He conned her into taking breaks every four hours, including an hour lunch. A smile formed. He’d rewarded her for that one. Hemmed her up against a wall and licked her clit into mindless oblivion.

The bastard.

More than a few times Nicole thought she had him. Finally they could have sex, he was going to give and let go of the lie. Let them have exactly what they’d been craving. Nope. The man had more restraint than a nun.

She tore her gaze from the cocky swagger, because every time she let herself look too long, the longing for more would start. That would be disastrous. She had no delusions about their relationship. He had ambition. If Sebastian had the chance, he’d take her job without losing a wink of sleep and would still lick her into mindless oblivion.

You didn’t let a man like that in your heart. You damn sure didn’t admit thinking about him when it had been clear the affair would end the moment the lock on the hotel door clicked back in place. You didn’t dare utter things about changes and fatigue about the life you’d been living.

Nope.

“Nicole!”

“Hmm?”

“You have been distracted these past few weeks. What is he doing? Tell me the truth.”

“At the moment, he’s convincing John Paul to let Chelsea explain what happened on his show. Well, what we told her to say.”