Hypnotic Seduction (The Seduction Series) (21 page)

Gulping her drink, she turned back to Jordan and Bryce. The alcohol made her warm all over as the insistent voice in her head whispered,
Decide what you want and take the initiative.
No matter how much she might deny it, she wanted Jordan with every fiber of her being.

Bryce cocked an encouraging eyebrow at her, reminding her of the agenda she’d settled on earlier.
Make him crave what he’s determined to resist.

The soft music gradually faded and the band stepped up the beat with their rendition of the Pointer Sisters’
I’m so Excited
. Bryce grabbed her hand. “Come on, let’s boogie.”

Hannah dug her heels into the floor. “W-what are you doing?” she sputtered.

He set her glass on a table and dragged her into the throng of dancers. “Helping you
have
a good time without your boss.”

She glanced back at Jordan standing at the edge of the dance floor, chugging his bourbon. The look in his eyes said he wanted to flatten his friend.

The potent drink Hannah had just had, combined with the wine from dinner,
left
her feeling a bit giddy. Why not. Jordan thought she looked like a floozy. She might as well fulfill his expectations.

She hesitantly imitated Bryce’s moves and crisscrossed her arms over her head, seductively gyrating to the high-energy song.

“
O-
kaaay
. That’s more like it.” Bryce chuckled. “I just hope you’ll remember me in your prayers when Jordan stomps me into the floorboards.”

“
I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it
,” Hannah sang. She
shimmied
her hips and jiggled her shoulders, feeling a surge of feminine power at seeing the blatant jealousy on Jordan’s face. That last drink had gone straight to her head.

Laughing, she danced in a circle around Bryce and wiggled every part of her body. Watching the lust on the men’s faces around her was a heady rush. For the first time, she almost understood what drove her mother to act the way she did.

When a waiter handed her boss another drink, she murmured to Bryce, “You know, maybe I should cool it. Jordan looks as if he’s about to burst a blood vessel.”

“Remember the old saying,” Bryce reminded her. “All’s fair in love and war.”

Except the whole point was to make the man jealous, not kill him.

~*~

She was just doing this to torture him. And damn it, it was working.

Jordan clenched what was left of his teeth. He’d done so much grinding that evening his molars had to be worn down to nubs.

How could this sexy siren be the same woman who’d cowered behind his grandfather six weeks ago? Obviously, Hannah’s hypnotherapy had worked a little too well. And being tipsy had only made her less inhibited. He didn’t blame Bryce. His friend was just a pawn in her plot to drive Jordan crazy.

As Bryce and Hannah continued their Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey impersonations, more and more couples stopped dancing to watch their show. Soon they were the only ones left on the dance floor.

Jordan had to hand it to Bryce. The man could move. The song seemed to go on forever, and with every bump and grind of Hannah’s hips, Jordan’s fly grew tighter.

“It seems your new little assistant got tired of waiting for you to notice her and decided to let it all hang out.”

Jordan turned toward the feminine voice behind him. “Trudy. I didn’t realize you came tonight.”

“Why should you? The only way you’d notice me is if I bid on you. We both know what a waste of money that would be.”

In truth, it would be hard not to notice a woman like his VP of Accounting. At thirty-six, the curvy
brunette
still had the figure of a twenty-five-year-old.

“What more do you want from me? I asked my grandfather to hire you. I even promoted you to vice president last year.”

“I deserved that promotion.”

“No one said you didn’t. But so did a lot of other equally qualified people.” He’d given her extra consideration, hoping to atone for letting her think he might marry her one day. “It’s been more than a decade since grad school. I’ve apologized until I’m hoarse. When are you planning to let go of what happened between us?”

“How can I, after you ruined me for any other man?”

“Come on.” He gulped his drink. “You were no innocent.”

“That’s not what I meant. You were the only man who ever—”

“You know, I’m sick of being held accountable for other men’s inadequacies.” He fished his wallet out of his pocket and held it out to her. “Here, take however much you need to hire yourself a gigolo for a few hours.”

The fact she was still obsessing over how he’d satisfied her proved she was no different than every other woman who only wanted him for sex.

Trudy ignored his wallet and jerked her head toward the dance floor. “Maybe I should save your assistant a lot of heartache and hire one for her, too.”

“There’s nothing going on between us.” At least, not yet. He returned his wallet to his pocket, spun his back on Trudy, and continued watching Hannah and Bryce move together.

Finally, the music ended abruptly and switched to a lazy, seductive beat. The lead guitarist pressed his mouth to the microphone. “Since you all seemed to like that so much, here’s another Pointer Sisters favorite to heat things up a notch.”

The opening bars of
Slow Hand
drifted through the dimly lit ballroom, and Jordan groaned. He tossed back the remainder of his second double bourbon, stormed across the dance floor, and yanked Bryce away from Hannah. “The performance is over, pal.”

Dots of twinkling light flashed across Hannah’s face from the disco ball spinning overhead. Without missing a step, she danced into Jordan’s arms, pouting seductively at him while she sang with the music, “
But I want a man with a slow hand
....”

“I’ll give you a slow hand.” He jerked her against his hard body. “Are you just about through tormenting me?”

“Not even close,” she whispered and wound her arms around his neck, pressing her breasts to his chest. “I’m just getting started.”

“If that’s the case,” he murmured into her berry-scented hair, “I suppose I’d better take you home before I do something in public I’ll be sorry for later.”

“Mmmm....” she purred and ground her body against him.
“
That sounds interesting. What’d you have in mind?”

“Turning you over my knee and spanking you.”

~*~

“
Ooooh
, a spanking,” Hannah squealed and clapped her hands, enjoying the look of desperation in Jordan’s eyes. “Please, don’t tease me.”

“That’s it. We’re leaving.” He grabbed her wrist and tugged her toward the exit.

“Okay, but do you mind if I stop in the ladies room first?”

Horror flashed in his gaze, reminding her of his prior humiliation after one of his other dates had visited a restroom at a social function.

“Jordan, I admit I might’ve given you a hard time tonight to get back at you for your less than flattering remarks about my makeover. But you have to know I would never do anything to intentionally hurt you.”

“And how do I know that?”

“Because I’m telling you I wouldn’t. I’ve had my fun. We’re even. I promise, I’d never reveal any personal information about you to anyone.”

He smiled and jerked his head toward the lobby. “Okay. I’ll wait at the entrance for you.”

A few minutes later, after quickly using the facilities, Hannah washed her hands and gasped, seeing Renee behind her in the gilt mirror over the sink.

“You thought you were hot stuff, shaking your plastic
titties
, didn’t you?” the redhead sneered. “You can’t possibly think you can make Jordan jealous of his best friend.”

“Who says I’m not interested in Bryce?”

“Well, then you’re in for a serious disappointment. I hear the reason he never dates anyone more than a few times is because he bats for the other team.”

No way. Bryce was not gay. Hannah had seen the way he looked at beautiful women when he thought no one was watching.

“You might also be interested to know, Jordan is against the use of breast implants for anything but reconstructive purposes.” Renee thrust out her perky B-cup boobs. “He likes his women all natural.”

“Well, that’s good to hear. Because I happen to be one hundred percent flesh and blood.”

Renee glared at Hannah’s over-developed breasts. “Oh, really?” Her lip curled. “In that case, Elsie, you should apply to become the poster girl for the Dairy Association. Just out of curiosity, how many gallons does each udder produce a day?”

Hannah’s throat closed up from being the target of the same crude comments she’d had flung at her as an adolescent. Unable to speak, she simply turned her back on Renee and, in as dignified fashion as possible, strolled toward the exit.

“Just because old man Calder made sure you won the date with Jordan,” Renee called after her, “don’t think this is over.”

The venom in the woman’s threat made Hannah shudder. She was not going to let Renee’s taunts bother her. She closed her eyes and mentally repeated some of the affirmations from her hypnosis tape.
I have no reason to be ashamed of my voluptuous figure. Any man would be thrilled to make love to my lush body
.

“What’s the matter?” Jordan asked when Hannah met him at the hotel entrance. “You look upset.”

“It’s nothing.” She smiled. She refused to allow Renee’s cattiness to ruin the rest of her evening. “I’m fine.”

“Do you have a wrap?”

“No.” Edward had blown enough of Jordan’s money on her.

He shrugged off his tuxedo jacket and draped it around her bare shoulders, pointing to the corner of the card she’d tucked into her bodice. “You have a tag sticking out.”

“Actually, it’s a business card.” She chuckled. “Mr. Preston was impressed with my negotiating skills tonight. He thinks I should become an entrepreneur.”

“Judging from your amused expression, you think he’s nuts.”

“Don’t you? Can you imagine
me
as a CEO?”

“Why not? You’re a lot more capable than you give yourself credit for. If you hadn’t demonstrated you could handle a lot of my job, I wouldn’t have given you such a huge raise.” He led her out of the hotel to the curb where Robert had parked the silver stretch limo.

Jordan’s man Friday jumped out of the driver’s seat and rushed around the vehicle to open the rear door for them. “Did you have a pleasant evening?”

“Let’s just say it was different,” Jordan muttered.

“I had a wonderful time, thank you, Robert.” She
sighed,
stopping to smooth her tousled hair in the reflection from the limo’s mirrored privacy windows before settling into the back seat.

“Miss Oliver’s apartment,” Jordan told Robert, ducking into the vehicle. “And take your time. I’m in no hurry to get home. Gramps is entertaining tonight.”

Hannah gasped. “Isn’t Edward taking my grandma home?” She folded Jordan’s tux jacket and laid it on the other seat.

“Well, the answer to that depends on whose home you’re referring to.” He pressed the button to raise the privacy partition between them and the front seat.

“He’s planning to seduce her?”

“I can’t say for sure what his intentions are other than he told me he’s taking Ruth out for the day tomorrow. He may simply offer her the guest room. But either way, Hannah, your grandmother is a mature adult. If she ends up in Edward’s bed, it’ll be with her consent.”

It would probably be the best thing that could happen to her. Even after two years, Ruth still mourned Hannah’s grandfather. “You know, there’s a difference between consent and surrender.”

He settled back and stretched out his long legs. “That’s a fairly minor distinction.”

“Not to me.”

“What’s the difference?”

Hannah licked her lips. “Well, for example, consent would be if I tried to convince you to sleep with me, and you agreed.”

He stared at her mouth and leaned closer. “And exactly how would you do that?”

It was either now or never. This might be her only opportunity to make love with a man whose mere touch set her on fire. And after her run-in with Renee, Hannah could use the boost to her ego. She held her breath while his gaze seared a slow trail over her bare shoulders, ending at her cleavage. “
Ummm
, I’d list all the reasons why it would be beneficial.”

“Such as,” he murmured, rubbing his face in her hair.

“Like, uh, remember earlier when you joked that I’ve never had sex with the right man?”

“
Mmm
?” His warm breath tickled her ear.

“You sort of insinuated you could make me....” She heaved a frustrated sigh. “I asked Callie about the gossip and—”

“And she told you my talent in the bedroom is reputed to surpass my brilliance in the boardroom.”

Hannah nodded. “Now I can’t help wondering if you could be the so-called
right
man.”

“I thought you didn’t listen to gossip.”

What could she say? She was curious. Especially after seeing
him
fully aroused in his knit gym shorts.

“You can stop wondering. That cartoon was—”

“A pack of lies?”

“I was going to say it was mostly exaggeration. But don’t get me wrong,” he whispered, “If I made love to you, I guarantee you’d be satisfied.”

“There you go.” She waved toward him. “You have no idea how frustrating it is for a woman, who’s never—uhh—climaxed, to know her boss is a master at pleasing his lovers. If I don’t spend at least one night with you, I could live the rest of my life without ever having an orgasm that doesn’t come in a glass.”

~*~

Jordan closed his eyes and sucked in a shuddering breath.

Why the hell did she have to tell him that? He needed to have his head examined for getting involved with her. Especially after the refresher course he’d gotten that day on working without his cheery, efficient secretary. A man would be crazy to risk losing an assistant like Hannah over a little lust.

Okay, a
lot
of lust. He’d never craved a woman’s touch the way he did hers. Why had he let Edward talk him into inviting her to the damn auction? It had just blurred the lines of their relationship and made everything harder. Especially him.