Heart & Soul: The Meeting (Heartland Series) (4 page)

Whilst his nearness was playing havoc with her
equilibrium, she was grateful for his presence.
 
The last thing she wanted was to fall flat on her face.
 
It didn’t hurt that the close proximity gave
her another chance to inhale his scent.
 
Hints
of sandalwood permeated the air.
 
She
assumed it was a mix of body wash and a subtle cologne, giving him a unique
aroma all of his own.
 
It was one that
Sam wouldn’t forget anytime soon.
 
If the
wine hadn’t already gone to her head, the way he smelt certainly would have.

Taking a quick look at his profile, she took in
his well defined cheekbones, covered in a light smattering of stubble,
indicating he hadn’t yet shaved today. His aquiline nose was in perfect
proportion to the rest of his face.
 
Was
it any wonder that producers and directors were willing to pay millions to have
him in one of their movies? His eyelashes, that looked long from the front,
seemed to be an impossible length from the side. He was pure, unadulterated
maleness and just being close to him did things to her body that she hadn’t
felt in a very long time.

It wasn’t until they were at the elevators and the
leggy blond pushed the call button that he released her elbow and took a step
back.
 
He thrust one hand into his pocket
and the other he pushed back through his dark hair, something that her fingers
had been itching to do from the moment she’d met him.

“A pleasure to meet you both.
David.” He said then paused, looking her right in the eyes, a small smile on
his lips. “Samantha.”

Sam knew that she was probably reading more into
it, but the way he’d just said her name, her full given name, so soft and
sultry send her mind back to that couch, her and Alistair stretched across it,
his hands on her naked body, his lips doing tantalising things to her
nipples.
 
Sam felt a rush of liquid heat
begin to spread between her thighs.
 
As
the elevator doors slid shut, the last image she saw was of Alistair rising
over her and thrusting into her pussy as they began their descent back to the
real world.

oOo

The elevators doors seemed to take forever to
close.
 
Alistair forced his feet to
remain rooted to the spot, refusing to move to catch one last glimpse of the captivating
redhead who’d just left his home away from home.
 
When the doors finally closed and the digital
display told him the elevator was descending, he pushed both hands through his
hair and let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

He wasn’t sure what had just happened, but
whatever it was, it was something he had never experienced before and he was
damn certain he hadn’t expected it. He’d spent a little over thirty minutes
with David and Samantha and in that time all he’d been able to do was imagine
what it would feel like to have Samantha spread out underneath him, writhing
under his touch as he pushed inside her body and fucked her senseless until she
screamed his name over and over.

Shaking his head, Alistair turned and went back
into his suite.
 
Crossing the room with
long, easy strides, he reached the bedroom within moments, his fingers working
the buttons on his shirt as he went into the adjoining bathroom.
 
Stripping his shirt from his body, Alistair
reached into the shower and flipped it on.
 
Kicking of his shoes, he removed what was left of his clothes and
stepped under the cool stream of water.
 
Placing his hands on the tiled wall, he let his head drop forward as the
water beat down onto his back, cooling the skin that had become heated so
quickly only several moments ago.
 

As soon as he closed his eyes he knew it had been a
mistake.
 
All he could see was the length
of her glossy red hair, the deep green of her eyes, the high cheekbones and
full lips that just begged to be kissed.
 
He’d noticed that she wore very little make-up, something he
appreciated.
 
He sometimes spent weeks,
often months in the company of women who plastered their faces with layers of
cosmetics until they were almost unrecognisable.
 
There was nothing he found sexier than a
woman who liked to be natural and it seemed Sam might be one of those women.

As the water streamed down his back, he imagined
her skin to be as soft as silk, her curvy figure to be as luscious in the flesh
as it appeared through her clothes.
 
He
loved a woman with real curves, not these stick thin models that always seemed
to make a bee line for him wherever he went.
 
He always politely declined when they threw
themselves at him.
 
Fucking a skeleton
didn’t appealed to him.
 
He’d been there,
done that and experience had taught him a lot.

He’d never been egotistical, at least he didn’t
think so, but he was sure there were others out there that would disagree.
 
He’d had his share of women, both before and
after he’d been launched into the public eye almost three years ago.
 
He knew women found him attractive and he had
the good grace to admit he’d used that to his advantage on more than one
occasion, something that, looking back, he could honestly say he was ashamed
of.
 

He tended to go for brunettes.
 
Redheads had never been his thing, until
Samantha Westfield walked into his life.
 
He knew that this was one woman who, if he was lucky, could change his
mind about a number of things.

When she’d almost toppled over on her heels, his
instincts had kicked in and he’d reached out to steady her.
 
As soon as his hand had come into contact
with her slender waist through the thin material of her blouse, he’d felt his
blood begin to heat as it left his brain and headed south. When she’d moved
away, he saw a look in her eyes that he hadn’t been able to fully decipher, but
he did know one thing though, it wasn’t a look of distaste.

As soon as he’d taken her elbow to escort her
across the room, he’d felt her body tense. Her back had been poker straight as
she’d strode forward to catch up with her boss.
 
He was at least a head taller than she so his long legs had enabled him
to keep up with her pretty easily.
 
When
they’d parted at the elevators, he’d felt the loss immediately.
 
Alistair knew that one meeting wasn’t
enough,
he had to see her again, somehow.

Straightening, he tilted his head into the spray
of water, cursing when he realised the chilly water was doing nothing to cool
the blood that ran through his veins, or the desire that flooded his body,
contributing to the raging erection that he was now sporting.
 
He thanked god that the pants he’d worn for
the meeting had been loose, considering he’d been hiding his reaction to her
for almost the entire meeting.
 
It had
been one of the most uncomfortable yet thrilling meetings he’d ever attended.

Turning the shower dial further to the right, he
winced as the now freezing water hit his skin like needles.
 
Taking himself in his hand, Alistair moved
his fist along his rock hard length as his mind came up with all the different
ways that he could take Samantha.
 
On his
couch, in his bed, against the wall, the
kitchen counter
.
 
Fuck, he wanted to take her on every surface
and against every wall in the place and then do it all over again just to make
sure they’d not missed anywhere.

Would she be an aggressive lover? Taking what she
wanted and giving back in equal measure?
 
If there was one thing he insisted on with his lovers, it was that they
were able to vocalise what they wanted.
 
He had never seen the point on being with someone if they couldn’t tell
you what gave them pleasure.
 
A woman who
just lay there didn’t do anything for him.
 
Was Samantha that kind of woman?
 
Was she a standard missionary girl or more adventurous?

All the images his mind was creating and his
thoughts about the mysterious redhead continued to swirl through his brain.
 
His already hard cock becoming almost painful
with the desire he was feeling for a woman he’d seen for thirty minutes and
knew nothing about.
 
He hissed out a
breath as his movements quickened, his grip getting tighter and he felt the
familiar but yearned for sensations building throughout his body. Release came
quickly as he cried out, coming in his hand, his body shaking violently as he
slumped forward. Alistair’s legs turned to jelly as he sat, breathing deeply as
his cock twitched with the final remnants of his orgasm.

It took several minutes for Alistair to regain his
composure.
 
It wasn’t until he was sure
his legs would carry his weight that he moved from the shower.
 
Wrapping a towel round his waist to cover his
still semi-erect cock, he pushed his sodden hair back off his face and headed
into the bedroom, snatching up his cell phone.
 
Finding the number he wanted, he dialled. The call was answered within
moments.

“Christopher? Alistair.
 
I need you to find out all you can about an
agency called Robinson, Morgan and Green.
 
I know the
basics,
I want you to go
deeper.
 
It’s personal.
 
If I wanted you to know I’d fucking tell
you.
 
My usual email address.
Thanks”

Ending the call, Alistair dropped the towel and
headed to his closet.
 
His craving had
lessened but his thoughts were still filled with images of Samantha. He had to
see her again, and soon.

~ 3 ~

Dropping her purse on the floor as she entered her
apartment, Sam collapsed onto the couch and let out a deep sigh.
 
Kicking off her shoes, she left them in the
middle of the floor as she swung her legs round and tucked them underneath her.

She’d planned on making an appearance at the gym
housed in the Heartland building after work, hoping that the physical exertion
would work off some of the frustration she felt in her body since leaving the
Royal York.
 
She’d finally decided that
no matter what she did, nothing would work, so she’d come straight home.
 
Alistair Lockwood had awakened something inside
her that she’d been happy to let sleep for a long time.
 

The last time she’d felt anything like she’d felt
in his presence, she’d been back in college.
 
She’d forgotten how good it felt to see a guy and there be an instant
attraction.
 
No other man had caused such
a strong physical reaction in her.
 
Alistair was the embodiment of everything she’d ever wanted in a man,
physically at least.
 
She’d never met
anyone who came even remotely close to looking like he did.
 

She knew that those chiselled features and inky
black hair were going to haunt both her waking and sleeping moments.
 
Those deep, blue eyes had caught her
attention straight away and she was sure they would be able to look deep into
her soul if she let them.
 
Yes, Alistair
Lockwood would not be leaving her thoughts anytime soon.

Sam knew that what she was feeling was completely
irrational; that she was behaving like a school girl with a crush, but there
was something about him that she just couldn’t resist.
 
Forget the fact that he was a world famous
movie star who could get any woman he wanted.
 
The person she’d seen was just a normal guy, he didn’t seem to have any
of the heirs and graces she’d imagined a man of his status would have.

The thought that she might not see him again made
her body ache with sadness.
 
Once Rachael
returned to work, she would resume her position as David’s PA.
 
Rachael would be the one attending any future
meetings David may have with Alistair.
 
 
Seeing him on the screen and the Internet just
wasn’t going to be enough anymore, not now that she’d met the man himself.
 
His physical presence was the only thing that
was going to ease the heat that began to spread through her body at the mere
thought of him.

Knowing that she was going to drive herself crazy
if she kept sitting here thinking like this, not to mention getting seriously
frustrated at wanting something she couldn’t have, she stood and grabbed her
purse. Reaching in, she pulled out her cell and sighed at the number of missed
calls, texts and voicemails that were staring at her.
 
It took but a few moments to delete the
offending messages before she scrolled through the phonebook for the number she
wanted.
 
Hitting the call button, she
waited for her only real friend in Toronto to answer.

“Hello. Studs ‘R’
Us
, how
can I help you?”

“If you answer all your calls like that it’s no
wonder women get the wrong idea about you.”

Sam smiled at the deep chuckle that she heard down
the phone as she fell back onto the couch.

Dominic was her brother’s best friend and, by
extension, he’d also become her best friend.
 
He had been the one responsible for her making the move from New York to
Toronto six months ago.
 
She had friends
back home that she missed terribly and she got on well with some of the girls
at work, but Dominic was the one friend that she doubted she could live
without.

He was a few inches above six feet with dirty
blond hair and deep brown eyes.
 
Women
fell over themselves to get near him wherever he went. On more than one
occasion she’d pretended to be his girlfriend to save him from over eager girls
vying for his attention.
 
Of course, it
didn’t hurt that he was filthy rich and the sole heir to his family’s vast
fortune.

“Sammie, how are you honey?”

“I’m good thanks.
 
You free tonight?”

“For you, I’m always free. What do you want to do?
Drinks?
A movie?”

Sam pondered his suggestions, trying to think what
would be the best way to work out some of the tension she still felt from her
earlier encounter with Alistair.

“I want to dance.”

“You sure baby girl? I hate to break it to you but
you kinda have two left feet.”

Frowning down the phone at her friend, Sam
couldn’t help but glance down at her feet as Dominic continued talking in her
ear.
 
Surely she wasn’t that bad a
dancer?

“One hour Dominic, I’ll meet you at Infinity. You
think that’s enough time to make yourself beautiful?” Sam said with a smile.

“Honey, beautiful is my middle name. See you in an
hour.”

Sam rolled her eyes as Dominic ended the call, but
not before blowing her a sloppy kiss down the line.
 
Grabbing her purse, she dropped the cell
inside as she picked up her shoes and headed towards the bedroom.
 
Entering, she dropped the items she carried
onto the floor and sat on the edge of the bed.

She’d managed to maintain the short conversation
with Dominic without raunchy thoughts of Alistair permeating her brain, but now
that she was in the quiet, all she had were her thoughts and they shifted back
to Alistair almost immediately.
 
He’d
obviously been at the front of the queue when the universe was dishing out looks.
 
They must have been feeling extremely
generous that day.
 
It should be illegal
for one man to be so handsome.
 

Pushing away from the bed, she approached her
dressing table and grabbed several hair clips, pinning her hair up as not to
get it wet in the shower. She really didn’t have time to blow dry the long mane
of hair if she was meeting Dominic in an hour.

Quickly stripping out of her clothes, Sam grabbed
her robe from the back of the door and slipped it on as she headed towards the
bathroom.
 
Starting up the shower, she
fiddled with the dial until it reached the right temperature.
 
Untying her robe, she was about to step under
the spray when she heard the shrill ringing of her cell phone.
 
Quickly debating whether or not to answer, her
curiosity won out and she retrieved the cell and answered quickly as she
hurried back to the steamy bathroom.

“Hello?”

“Sam, thank god! I’m so sorry
baby,
I never meant to hurt you. She came on to me, I just couldn’t refuse her. I’m
weak, I admit it. I’ll never do anything like that again. Please forgive me.”

Sam sighed deeply as she leant against the
bathroom door and slid down to the floor, cursing herself for not reading the
display before answering.
 
She knew that
she had to speak to him eventually; deal with the fucked up mess he’d created, she’d
just hoped she could put it off for a little while longer.

“Mike, you’re wasting your breath. I don’t want to
hear it.”

“Sam, please. I love you baby.”

Not bothering to hide the laugh that spilled over
her lips, she shook her head.
 
How long
had she waited to hear him say that? This time last week she’d have given
anything to hear him say those words to him, but now, the words meant
nothing.
 

She’d followed her three rules with Mike.
 
When he’d been happy to wait until she was
ready to move their relationship to a sexual one, she’d thought that he was
worth her love.
 
She knew now that what
she felt for him wasn’t love. If it had been, she was sure she’d be feeling a
lot different to what she did now.
 
He
was just telling her what he thought she wanted to hear.
 
At this point, she knew he would tell her
anything to try and get her back.

“No Mike.
 
You had your chance. I told you at the beginning what would happen if
you ever cheated. It’s over, we’re through.”

“I made a mistake for fuck’s sake! I’m guilty, I
admit it. You’re not exactly innocent Sam.”

His words caused her to pause momentarily. Fuck. Did
he know? No, there was no way he could.
 
Even so, just the thought of anyone else knowing what she’d done in her
past gave her chills.
 
She’d managed to
push it to the back of her mind since she’d moved to Toronto and rarely thought
about it now.
 
It was a side of her
personality that she refused to acknowledge and it was working for her just
fine.
 
Dominic was the only one who knew.
 
She’d told him about it one night over a
bottle of wine and a cheap Chinese takeout.
 
He’d been shocked at first, but eventually he’d used the words she was
about to use now.

“No one is completely innocent Mike. The
difference is you got caught.
 
You fucked
my neighbour, in my own bed! I walked in on you eating her pussy.
 
A few minutes later and you’d have been
nailing her.
 
What did you expect me to
do? Throw a god damn party? ” Sam took a few breaths to try and reign in the
anger rising in her stomach, her free hand moving to massage her temple as she
felt a headache brewing.
 
“Get a life
Mike, and stay out of mine!”

With those words, Sam ended the call, put her
phone on silent and tossed it through the bedroom door onto her bed.
 
The anger she felt was still simmering under
the surface and she was pissed that she’d let him get to her.
 
She’d been looking forward to an evening out,
now all she could think about was Mike, the blond and what she’d walked in
on.
 
She knew that it was one memory that
wouldn’t easily be erased as she stepped out of her robe and into the shower.

oOo

Forty-five minutes later, Sam was walking off the
street and through the doors of Infinity.
 
The upmarket venue was a restaurant by day,
it’s
door closing at 6pm only to reopen at 7pm as one of the hottest nightclubs in
town.
 
It was extremely rare that she
went out on a work night, but with the day she’d had, she figured one night
couldn’t do her any harm.

Smiling at the doormen as she passed, Sam hid her
grin as she considered how they looked.
 
Both men were well in excess of six feet tall.
 
Their perfectly fitting suits did nothing to
hide the bulging muscles and the broad chests.
 
Both men sported shaved heads and she could see one of them liked tattoos
as the head of a snake peeked out from his shirt collar.
 
Glancing at their waists and then their
chests, she couldn’t help but wonder if they were packing.
 
They both looked like they’d just walked off
the set of a gangster movie.

Handing her ID to the girl standing by the main entrance,
she paid the cover and smiled when she was told to have a nice evening. Sliding
her ID back into her purse, Sam walked through into the bar.
 

She’d always thought this place screamed understated
elegance and her opinion of it hadn’t changed, especially since the recent
refurbishment that had resulted in its closure for the last two weeks.
 
It was all black and red furniture with
chrome accessories.
 
One large circular
bar was situated in the middle of the huge room, accented with bright white LED
lights.

During the day the floor was covered in dining tables
and chairs with bright lighting giving the place a family friendly
atmosphere.
 
In the evening, the lights
were dimmed and the dining tables were replaced with high tables surrounded by
chrome bar stools with black leather cushions for the comfort factor.
 
Towards the back of the room, the lighting
was darker still and she could just about make out several half moon booths,
obviously for people who wanted a little more privacy.
 
She had no doubt that if the walls in that
section of the room could speak, they’d have some interesting stories to tell.