Executive Perks (14 page)

The arrogant jerk. Virginia shook her head clearly and moved away from the window. She would get all of his shares back, she vowed, not just a measly one-thousand. She picked up the blue cordless phone and called a local car service to pick her up and take her to Manhattan. They said it would be about an hour, maybe more.

Just the proper time for a really good soak. She headed to the bathroom in her suite, stripping her exercise clothes off along the way. Pouring some bath salts and bubbles into the massive bathtub, she cranked the water up as hot as she could take it. Tying her hair into a loose bun, she stepped into the tub as it was filling, stretching her arms along the sides and laying her head back against the cushioned plastic backrest.

The sound of the water soothed her as she let the heat soak into her tired muscles and closed her eyes. This was precisely what she needed. After a few minutes, the water level finally so high that it felt as if it might spill over, she sat up and turned off the gushing of the tap.

She reached for the loofah.

“I can do that for you if you like.”

Startled, her heart near to coming out of her chest, she swung around to the sound of the voice, splashing water out of the sides of the tub as she did so.

Aaron Winston, still dressed in his dashing tennis whites, delicately sidestepped the puddles she’d created. “I don’t want to get your brother’s clothes wet,” he said, pulling a bath stool over to the side of the tub.

Outrage didn’t begin to cover it for Virginia. If her body temperature could seep out, the bath water would be boiling.

“What the hell are you doing in here?” she demanded, crossing her arms over her breasts and sinking down farther into the bubbles.

He smiled innocently. “I was looking for the bathroom. Such a big house, though. I must have gotten lost. I remembered your room from last night, though. So I thought I might use your bathroom. But I see it’s otherwise occupied. I can wait.”

“Get out of here. Right now.” When he didn’t leave, just smirked at her, she realized the predicament she found herself in here. She couldn’t exactly get out of the tub to kick him out and it didn’t look as if he was leaving of his own accord.

The gall of the man.

“Stay away from my sister.” It just came out. She hadn’t really meant to say it.

“Why? Are you making me a better offer?”

She ignored that. “All her stock is tied up in a voting trust until she’s twenty-one and I’m the trustee. You can’t touch it.”

“Maybe that’s not what I’m interested in touching. Your sister has a cute little body.” He leaned forward casually and ran one finger along the surface of the bath water, causing little ripples.

“Look, I don’t know what you’re after—”

“You don’t?” he guffawed. “Well, I haven’t exactly been secretive about it or anything. I’m after a
fuck
with you, baby.” He splashed her suddenly and she recoiled at the childish gesture while he sat back. “With my cock, like a real adult, not just fingering you in the car or getting a taste of your pussy, rolling around on the floor.”

A taste of… Oh Christ, she suddenly remembered that too. Amazing he hadn’t actually slept with her after all, she supposed.

She clamped down on any further memories. “If you’re trying to shock me, you can forget it. I had a little too much to drink last night and got a little frisky. You were there. It happens.”

“To you?”

“What?”

“Does it happen to you?” He asked it so casually, not getting up from the stool, as if they always had conversations in which she was naked and in a bathtub and he sat coolly by.

“Does what happen to me?”

“Do you often get stinking drunk like that?

She colored. “Ever the gentleman.”

“No, really. Did you really drink that much last night?”

“I suppose. I suppose I must have.”

“But did you? Think.”

“Why? What are you getting at? Are you suggesting I was faking or something?”

“No, of course not. You were completely out of it. That’s what I mean. How long were you even at the dinner before we left?”

“Not long.”

“And did you drink before you got there?”

“No.” She paused. “What exactly are you saying?”

“Have you ever seen the effects of ecstasy or GHB?”

“GH-what?”

“GHB. They call it liquid ecstasy. It’s a club drug. People take it to, uh, rid themselves of their inhibitions. Some people even think it’s an aphrodisiac. Unfortunately, it’s not unheard of for it to be slipped into a girl’s drink. ” He stopped her before she could say it. “And don’t make some snide remark about how I must be so familiar with that. I don’t use drugs to get laid any more than I cause accidents in my limousine to get a girl on my lap. But I have seen what the drug does to a girl. That’s sort of what you looked like last night.”

“Are you suggesting I gave myself that drug?”

“I’m suggesting someone slipped it to you. Is there anyone who might have done that?”

She eyed him warily.

“Besides me,” he scowled.

“No. I was there with family.”

“What about your sisters, the young ones? Are they jealous of you? Could they have done this as some kind of a trick to embarrass you? Maybe because they wanted to get you out of the way for that party they threw last night.”

She laughed, the suggestion was so absurd. The six Beckett siblings would die for each other. They all knew that. “There’s not a chance in hell. And you don’t know much about family if you could possibly suspect something like that.”

“No. I don’t. But I don’t know what else to think.” He dangled his fingers in the water again, causing her to be acutely conscious of how little separated her from him right now. “That’s the real reason I didn’t go through with it with you last night. Maybe I was imagining it, but I couldn’t shake the feeling. So I thought I should mention it. Bad things, unusual things, seem to be happening a lot when I’m with you.”

She looked at him uncertainly.

“Like, for instance, taking a gorgeous girl who’s falling all over me home with me and not getting laid.”

She scowled. “Poor you.”

“But anyway, you look like you’re back in regular form now. So how about it, do you want to fit a quickie in before I get back to my tennis game? We could take up where we left off before you fell off that bar stool at my place.”

She had forgotten about that too, she realized in a rush. Aaron had spread her legs out as she perched on the stool, licking her, kissing her in that wildly exciting way. Maybe she really had been drugged. It had felt so amazing.

And then of course she had fallen off her chair. Par for the course for her romantically, she supposed.

“Hand me a towel and then turn around.”

“Why would I do that?” He leaned closer toward her and then his thumb moved to caress the underside of her chin. Abruptly, he closed the distance between them and kissed her. He did it so fast she hadn’t time to avoid it.

Really.

Despite herself, she felt one aching surge of excitement, his tongue deep and sexual in her mouth. Gathering her senses about her and acting against every impulse that was crying out in her body, she pulled her lips free of his kiss, panting, but he began to kiss her neck. She moaned involuntarily, but then said quickly, “You have some nerve coming in here.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “And you have some nerve teasing me all the time when you know how good we could be together.” He put his arms around her wet body, not caring about Brendan’s clothes anymore apparently, and yanked her toward him as he leaned over the tub until he was half off the stool and her naked, wet breasts were pressed against his shirt.

“Virginia,” he murmured, “do you really want me to let you go?”

He led one of her hands down to the crotch of his pants, putting his hand over hers to make her cup the huge, jutting penis that jumped when she touched it, even through the fabric. She didn’t need much encouragement to caress him, almost mesmerized by the sharp intake of breath he took as she did, his excitement some kind of bizarre aphrodisiac to her.

“God, Virginia. Feel how hard I am. My balls are aching. I’m dying.”

She pursed her lips at his dramatic pronouncement and saw a corner of his mouth go up as he forced her to cup him harder. “Really, I’m going to embarrass myself if you don’t take pity on me.”

“That’d only be fair considering how embarrassed I am about last night,” she muttered.

“Nothing to be embarrassed about. But now, you can make it up to me.”

He scooped up a handful of the silky bubbles and rubbed them against one of her breasts.

Her hand fell away from where she’d been fondling him as she registered a stab of desire so powerful that she felt drunk again. He slid his hand around to her wet bottom under the water, and squeezed. He mumbled, “Oh, I am going to fuck you so hard. I swear to God I am.” He was kissing her throat now, his lips near her ear, his voice low and breathy as his hands traced a wild, wet path over her body.

“And these beautiful tits.” His wet mouth closed over one nipple, licking and kissing the now rigid nub. “You didn’t let me near these tits…”

She arched up into him. Her breasts were very sensitive. No wonder even in her drunkenness he had apparently not gotten far there. She must have known at some level that it would all be over then.

But hell, face it, hadn’t she wanted it to be over?

He nipped her bare nipple and it was as if there was a direct connection to her vagina, which she could feel was wet in a much different way than the rest of her. Didn’t she want it to be over now? Didn’t she want him to bury that heavy hard penis in between her legs and put them both out of their misery?

Why?
some little voice in her head still asked. So they could both get back to fighting over her company?

He was a powerful drugging force in itself and she wanted nothing more than to give in to his magic. But as incredibly pleasurable as it would be to let him take her where he assumed they were heading (and she had to admit now, if just to herself, that it would be to die for), it wasn’t a good idea for them. Period. End of story. She knew that. They were adversaries and she needed for them to stay that. Whatever had gotten into her to destroy all her inhibitions last night, it was gone now and she was able to get a hold of herself. Just barely, but still able.

A little sorry for him, and very sorry for herself, she pushed at his shoulders. “No, don’t, Aaron. I’m sorry. We’ve got to stop.”

He didn’t seem to hear her at first and she winced at the continued pleasure he was giving her, his long fingers now pinching one of her nipples as he sucked the other one.

Oh God. He was awfully good. “Aaron, I want you to stop,” she said distinctly enough for him to hear, trying to insert some of her usual cool demeanor back into her voice, and he pulled away from her a fraction.

“Obviously, there’s an attraction between us. But that’s beside the point given the situation we find ourselves in.”

“What fucking situation?” he muttered. “My cock so hard I could pound nails with it and you so wet between your thighs,” he reached down to demonstrate and she jumped at the intimate touch along her slit, “that it’s seeping out into the bath water?”

Again, beside the point. He let her push him away and she sank back into the bath water, covering her chest with her arms again.

“Honestly, Aaron, I’m asking you to get out of here and stop pursuing this…this
whatever
between us. I’m grateful you didn’t take advantage of me last night. I am. And grateful you told me your suspicions, even though I can’t believe there could be any truth in them. Maybe what happened to me had something to do with the knock on my head in the car accident. I don’t know. But whatever, I’m thinking clearly now and I know this isn’t a good idea for us. There’s too much baggage between us. My company—”

“Fuck your company.”

“I’m not going to sleep with you.”

At her calm, final tone, he stood up, all his humor apparently vanishing.

“Is this how you get turned on or some kind of power trip? Is frustrating me some kind of master plan with you? You pull me to you and then push me away? Kiss me back and open your legs so I can feel how wet you are and moan that sweet little moan and then you just switch it off and tell me to stop?”

“You’re the one who pushed your way into my bathroom.” Modesty be damned. She was going to get her robe. She stood up quickly, arms still crossed over her chest, the sound of the water dripping off her audible, and stepped out of the tub, intending to get to the hook on the back of the bathroom door fast and then show him the door as expeditiously as possible.

She never made it. He hauled her up against him, his hands wrapping around her slippery waist, and though her palms came up to his shoulders, it was mostly to keep her balance. Push him away? God, it was becoming a herculean effort not to attack him again.

And she wasn’t even drunk this time.

Virginia had a powerful respect for chemistry—although she hadn’t experienced much of it in her life personally. Her parents had had it. Allie and Pat had it. But they were in love. This was different.

Clearly, the key was not to let him within ten feet of her.

And she kept failing abysmally at that effort.

When he kissed her this time, her hands came up around his neck, sifting her fingers through the silky hair against his nape. He insinuated his erection in some subtle way against her bare thighs so that she almost felt as if he was inside her, shoving his leg between hers and rubbing his thigh along her wet slit.